Catherine Perez
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2018
- Messages
- 7
Hi, my family and I want to know- how late can we stay on the ship on disembarkment day? Will the pool be open? Restaurant? Gift shop? Thanks 1st time cruiser
At 7:30 am, they allow you to leave,
at 8:00 am, they invite you to leave, The door is opened
at 8:30 am, they ask you to leave, The host turns off the music
at 9:00 am, they tell you to leave, and The host walks you to the door
at 9:30 am, they force you to leave. the host tosses you out
Ahead of our first cruise this October, I was actually researching just this and came across the following article which confirms much of what's been discussed here. YMMV of course:
http://www.disneycruisemomblog.com/guide-to-disembarking-in-port-canaveral/
Our flight home is at 3pm; understanding the airport will likely be a zoo by that time, I'm hoping do early breakfast in main dining or Cabanas when we open, get off the ship ASAP, then rent a car and make our way slowly to MCO, eat a slightly early lunch somewhere outside the airport at our own pace, and report to the airport by around 1pm (assuming that's enough time) for long trip home. Anyone ever done this?
Mark
At best TSA at MCO is a bear. It can be super swift, or take hours. Usually closer to the latter.Honestly? Unless you have Pre-Check (and even that is not super fast at MCO), for MCO I would be there 2.5-3 hours early. TSA can legit be that bad.
Isn't MCO always a zoo?Our flight home is at 3pm; understanding the airport will likely be a zoo by that time
I think I'd still take my chances. I've got NEXUS, might as well use it, right?At best TSA at MCO is a bear. It can be super swift, or take hours. Usually closer to the latter.
I've done a one way rental before. My flight was the next day so we got off the boat probably somewhere in the middle of everyone. Rental agency (Budget) was a bit crowded by then. We had Fastbreak so got some level of priority. Think we ended up leaving around 10-10:30, so in the Orlando area well before 11:30. Since we had basically the day, we went up to North Orlando for some pho.I'm hoping do early breakfast in main dining or Cabanas when we open, get off the ship ASAP, then rent a car and make our way slowly to MCO, eat a slightly early lunch somewhere outside the airport at our own pace, and report to the airport by around 1pm (assuming that's enough time) for long trip home. Anyone ever done this?
Isn't MCO always a zoo?
I think I'd still take my chances. I've got NEXUS, might as well use it, right?
I've done a one way rental before. My flight was the next day so we got off the boat probably somewhere in the middle of everyone. Rental agency (Budget) was a bit crowded by then. We had Fastbreak so got some level of priority. Think we ended up leaving around 10-10:30, so in the Orlando area well before 11:30. Since we had basically the day, we went up to North Orlando for some pho.
Long story short - yeah, get off as early as you can without doing self-disembark. Then you can somewhat relax before heading to MCO.
A lot would depend on if you have kids and how patient they are waiting. With that small a window, I'd just head for the airport, with a book in hand. Take the last bus from MCO, that would get you to the airport around 10:30-11:00, have lunch, wander the shops, head through TSA and have a seat and read your book.This is starting to make me re-think the debarkation strategy... I do wonder now if it just makes more sense to jump on one of the shuttles instead, if we have a good chance on needing to be there by lunchtime anyway. I mean, if I have a rental by 10:00-10:30 and need to be at the airport by noon for a 3pm flight, where could one go that would be worth it?
Mark
We returned thru MCO earlier this month. I didn’t notice any passengers being a mess but the agents were awful. And rude. They split our line into two at one point then opened a new station behind us and our line just merged back into one again. No reason. As I was putting my stuff in bins and removing my shoes, I had two agents yelling at me to do opposite things. MCO TSA is a hot messMe and the kids went through pre and waited. And waited. It wasn't actually too bad, but holy cow is MCO security like amateur hour gone wild. The people in front of my spouse pretty much were like they'd never been through airport security in their lives. Hot mess o-rama.
Shops are never open when ship is in a port. Pools do not open at all on disembark morning. Cove Cafe is open for a bit to sell you one last $ coffee, but that is about it. Even the bars are shut off.
There is really no set up for leisure on disembark day. You are expected to get off, and get your hiney through customs.