Noon flight home from MCO during the summer

[emilymad]

We are debating a noon flight home out of MCO. We would be taking the DCL shuttle. We don't plan to do breakfast in the dining rooms but we aren't going to do express walk off. We are on the 10 night Southern Caribbean so I am guessing we won't be packing light. We have TSA precheck. Ignoring any risk from late customs clearings, traffic accidents, etc is a noon flight makable? I know it meets the DCL cutoff. This would be a Sunday in August so I am not sure what impact summer crowds could have.

 

[OKW Lover]

You shouldn't have any difficulty making a noon flight then. Summer crowds won't really affect you getting to the airport from Port Canaveral.

 

[Girl of the South]

In early December two years ago, I ran into serious trouble checking bags with Southwest. There were frantic people dumping all their liquids (shampoo, sunscreen) just to be able to Carry On and not check a bag. I had Pre Check, too. It was close!

 

[auntlynne]

Four nights or 10 nights, I end up doing laundry . And it’s hot, so light clothes. Many days spent in swim wear. You could consider this a challenge. Or maybe it’s the shoes?

But really, people miss later flights than that and some are at the gate by 10:30.

I’d book a noon flight if I could get one for the same price as a 3 pm.

I fly Delta and check bags if that makes a difference. No priority in baggage drop-off, but yes to Pre-

The biggest unknown will be hurricanes.

In Alabama, the kids are already back in school then. I noticed prices drop in August; maybe similar school calendars elsewhere.

And your guest count on the ship may be less than some itineraries due to the ten days of cruising.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

Anything can happen at MCO... But it is within the guidelines, TSA Pre, and it is a Sunday morning. I would book that flight. I would however not wait too long to get off the ship if you are not going to breakfast etc.

 

[RedHead0186]

In early December two years ago, I ran into serious trouble checking bags with Southwest. There were frantic people dumping all their liquids (shampoo, sunscreen) just to be able to Carry On and not check a bag. I had Pre Check, too. It was close!

Yeah, the bag check lines for SW at MCO can be horrendous. I try to do carry-on only when going through MCO, thought that's not always practical. If I do have to check a bag and the lines are long, I'll go back outside and use the skycap lines. Those can be long too, but seem to be less long and move more quickly.

 

[Hubie]

I'd never fly home the day the ship gets in or the day the ship is scheduled to embark for that matter. MCO is nuts enough on other days. We always stay at least a couple of days at WDW after the cruise to avoid the masses getting off of the ships at MCO on Saturdays. A Sunday, however, might be a little better crowd wise.

 

[emilymad]

Four nights or 10 nights, I end up doing laundry . And it’s hot, so light clothes. Many days spent in swim wear. You could consider this a challenge. Or maybe it’s the shoes?

But really, people miss later flights than that and some are at the gate by 10:30.

I’d book a noon flight if I could get one for the same price as a 3 pm.

I fly Delta and check bags if that makes a difference. No priority in baggage drop-off, but yes to Pre-

The biggest unknown will be hurricanes.

In Alabama, the kids are already back in school then. I noticed prices drop in August; maybe similar school calendars elsewhere.

And your guest count on the ship may be less than some itineraries due to the ten days of cruising.

We definitely plan on laundry but the luggage still adds up despite our best efforts. Excellent point about the guest count. I hadn't thought about that.

 

[Girl of the South]

Here is the Ship Schedule for Port Canaveral. You can see how many ships will be dumping passengers on the day you fly out. Which would correlate to crowds at MCO.

Port Canaveral Schedule

 

[Husker Mike]

I'd never fly home the day the ship gets in or the day the ship is scheduled to embark for that matter. MCO is nuts enough on other days. We always stay at least a couple of days at WDW after the cruise to avoid the masses getting off of the ships at MCO on Saturdays. A Sunday, however, might be a little better crowd wise.

I'd suspect that Sunday would be the busiest day to depart from Orlando's airport, as people end their vacations to return home and work/school. Cruise ship passengers are a fraction of the crowds that Disney and Universal's amusement parks attract.

 

[Girl of the South]

But cruise ship departing passengers all arrive around the same time and flood the airport between 9 and 11. Even if their flights aren’t until later. Four ships arriving might dump 6000+ people?

 

[Husker Mike]

So are the thousands of people checking out of Disney World and Universal to return home. Disney alone has 30,000 hotel roooms, and then you've got Universal and off-property hotels as well.

I haven't found much data on days of the week, other than this: https://www.roadtopic.com/what-are-the-busiest-times-at-mco/

The busiest times of the year are also during the months of April through October. During these months, the busiest times at MCO are usually on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

 

[Husker Mike]

So are the thousands of people checking out of Disney World and Universal to return home. Disney alone has 30,000 hotel roooms, and then you've got Universal and off-property hotels as well.

I haven't found much data on days of the week, other than this: https://www.roadtopic.com/what-are-the-busiest-times-at-mco/

Also, if you look at that schedule for Port Canaveral, ships also arrive on Sundays...and this weekend, more ships arrive today (Sunday) than arrived yesterday (Saturday).

 

[DCLMP]

We are debating a noon flight home out of MCO. We would be taking the DCL shuttle. We don't plan to do breakfast in the dining rooms but we aren't going to do express walk off. We are on the 10 night Southern Caribbean so I am guessing we won't be packing light. We have TSA precheck. Ignoring any risk from late customs clearings, traffic accidents, etc is a noon flight makable? I know it meets the DCL cutoff. This would be a Sunday in August so I am not sure what impact summer crowds could have.

August is pretty quiet in Florida. Winter and early spring are peak. I wouldn’t hesitate to take a noon flight. Just do express walk off.