Need help picking return flight from MCO.

[JP350Z]

Hello all,

I'm stumped on finding a return flight from Orlando to Cleveland after our 7 night western Fantasy Cruise Returning June 18th 2016 (I know it's too far out to book air). I understand DCL will only recommend flights at 11:30 or later. The only direct flights back are Spirit at 11:01, United 11:01 and Southwest 10:50. Otherwise I will need to add hours to our travel time with 2 small kids with a layover and it will actually cost me another $120 per person for the trouble. Yuck. Has anyone made an 11 am flight provided I pick an airline that participates with the DCL on board check in ( I think United does)? Otherwise my hand may be forced into a stop at the parks and a hotel stay.

 

[MUN]

I didn't think Southwest's window was open that far out. How do you know there is a 10:50 flight on SW?

MUN

 

[RHSTigerMom]

Honestly, I wouldn't even be looking at flights this far out. Airlines update the schedules all the time and if you chose the 11:00 on United, for instance, they could change that time forward or backward (or cancel altogether) between now and then. I would wait until after the first of the year to start a serious search.

 

[poohs4me]

If your flight is too early, DCL will not allow use to use the onboard check-in. I was not allowed for my 10:55AM flight. I made the flight BUT it was just me and I booked a town car service. I skipped breakfast on the ship. I would book it again however, I know I run the risk of doing so.

 

[perditax]

I was through security and at my Delta gate a little after 9am two weeks ago. But I was concierge, got up very early, and had private transport to MCO.

You won't even be able to set it up with Disney transfers. I used Mears, FWIW.

 

[JP350Z]

Thank you good info all.

I saw the Southwest flight listed during a kayak or Orbitz search. I didn't have a price listed yet so that's not official. I did look up the current SW flight schedule from cle to mco and it is 10:50 all the way until April 2016 which is the farthest I can go. I would bet good money that stays very similar in time. Looks like private transfer or fingers crossed for flight time changes by January or so.

 

[Huskiesrule]

I did express walk off last Oct. on the Dream and took DCL shuttle to the airport for an 11:20 am United flight and I had hours to wait at the airport. I was off the boat and through port security and on a bus by 7:30, but that may not be typical for all cruises. I think as long as you keep the flight time around 11 am you will be fine.

 

[MeLaNie9]

Isn't flying in and out of Cleveland so bad these days???
We are taking a 7 day Eastern Caribbean Disney cruise over spring break and have been searching and searching for workable flight that wasn't going to be so expensive that we would question the whole trip. We were sweating it because the usual carriers (all that have 1 or 2 stops when going out of Cleveland to MCO and back) just went up and up every time we looked
We just booked today on Frontier because they just opened their flights at least thru April and got a really good fare, even with paying for one checked bag and the seat assignments (they were $12 each one way) it was cheaper than the cheapest SW flight that we were considering which is out of Pittsburgh. The returning flight to CLE is 12:00pm so we think we can make it work. We will use private transfers.
If you can do it, you may want to check CAK and Pittsburgh with SW (the ones we looked at had very doable return times) - we have even flown out of Columbus for a really cheap fare and better times. This Frontier flight will be our first in a long time flying out of CLE to MCO. We have done Pittsburgh, CAK, and Columbus. CAK has pretty cheap long term parking compared to CLE and for the Columbus flights, which were very early in the am, we spent the night at a hotel near the airport that had free breakfast and they let us keep our car their and had a shuttle. In fact, we are going in and out of CAK in Nov for trip to WDW and Universal.

 

[annacali]

We were on the June 13th Fantasy cruise this year. We had early breakfast but we ate and didn't rush, picked up pictures from Shutters and got a coffee to go before leaving. The boat wasn't cleared for exit until nearly 7:30 and we were off by 7:45 or so. We did not have onboard luggage check in so we collected our luggage and took DCL transfer to MCO. We were still there by 9 and were so early for our 1:50 flight that we couldn't even check our luggage yet. I would definitely choose an 11am flight in the future.