Late Departure Flight! What do I do?

[mad4themouse]

I just got off the phone with my airline and my flight leaving Orlando is not until after 8pm! I know that we will begin disembarking the ship around 8 am but how late can you stay on the ship?

Right now, we have Disney transportation lined up to and from the airport. Are we going to end up sitting around the airport with all our luggage for hours before our flight?

I'm sure there are others who have been in a similar situation. Can you give me any idea of what to expect?

 

[prymsu]

that much time at hand you could either do one of the parks, or do Kennedy Space Center...but you would want your own rental car. Can you get a rental car at the port, and cancel the DCL transportation for the return? This really does put you in a little predicament...

 

[TxJasmine]

I would recommend renting a car. There is so much to do in Orlando. We had a similar situation a few weeks ago, and it was really nice not having to rush off the ship to catch a flight. We have 2 young children, so we drove to WDW and went miniature golfing at Winter/Summerland. It's one of the best miniature golf courses we've ever been to. Afterwards, we went to two different Disney outlet stores and bought several shirts and toys at very good discounts. The day flew by, and it was a great way to end the trip. Other things you could do are to see the manatees near the Port, or you can go to Downtown Disney. There are so many things to do, you'll wish you had even more time!

 

[lUVTOGO]

We are in the same situation, but our flight leaves at 6:30. I think we are going to have to rent a car(what else to do with luggage)and we are probably going to go to Downtown Disney. Have lunch,shop, spend some more money(lol), and walk around till about 3 and then leave for airport? I think this is our best option, since we do not want to sit in airport for 8 hrs. I was trying to avoid renting a car, since their are 2 families, but i see no other way around that.

 

[mad4themouse]

Well, after DH got home last night, I hit him with the news that our flight would be later than we would like. I figured that he would not be too happy, but...

...his response was that it just extends our vacation for one day more. So...

...using a MouseSavers code, I got a premium car for the day we leave for $50 at Avis. We've got a one-way rental to MCO. I got a premium b/c there is no way that a smaller car is going to hold all the luggage.

So, now we are free to move about Central Fla. and I need some suggestions as to what to do. We were just in Orlando for 5 days in July. We visited WDW for two days and did DQ and IOA on the two others. The kids loved Blizzard Beach a couple of years ago so I'm thinking water park, but only if we can get changed back into dry clothing there. I'd hate to have to fly back home wearing a wet bathingsuit the entire time.

We did the Space Center a year ago and while DH and I were in awe of it all, the kids were not too thrilled. I think that growing up in the 60's, it is living history for us but ancient history for the kiddies. Needless to say, they don't want to go back.

I'm still open to suggestions. I'm sure there is still so much more to see and do.

 

[jrabbit]

In January we had a 6:30 flight out of MCO after the cruise. We had DCL transfers back to MCO. We tried to get onto an earlier flight, but there was no room for us. The airline would not even take our checked luggage – you can only check baggage within 4 hours of your flight. It’s 10am and we are wondering what to do. We checked out the vans to Disney but for the 3 of us it would have been over $100. We ended up renting a mini van from Avis for the day and after all of the taxes, surcharges, etc it was under $50. and we had a place to keep our luggage too. We drove out to Downtown Disney and spent the day wandering around there. Had lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s express, looked around the shops, spent quite a bit of time in the Lego store (ds is a LegoManiac). The day did go by quickly then it was back to MCO and the horrible lines to get through the metal detectors. I think they have about a third of the needed security equipment that they need. We have only been through security at a few airports since 9/11 and the lines here are by far the worse. Even worse than when we flied over the Christmas / New Years holidays.


If you don't want to go to a theme park or KSC you could rent a room for the day around the port and spend the day playing on the beach.

 

[DisneyDarwin]

I agree with some of the prior suggestions. Downtown Disney, miniature golf (or even real golf if you are w/o kids), and I'll add DisneyQuest. You can defnitely kill several hours in there.

 

[mareka]

Downtown Disney gets my vote.