Orlando Airport with kids! Any suggestions?

[jj2045]

I'm planning a family trip and need help keeping the last hours of it from falling flat.
We,re an extended family traveling with 5 kids ages 2 thru 9.
On departing the ship we,ll be using Disney transfers to the airport. Our flight time is about 4PM. I have two questions,

1. Without rushing off the ship, about what time can we figure on getting to the airport?

2. While we're waiting for our flight is there anything to do with the kids at the airport that will keep the "Magic"?

 

[erikthewise]

1. Oh, but you WILL "rush" off the ship! If you have the 6:00 dinner seating (as is likely with kids), your scheduled breakfast on debarkation day will likely be 6:30-7:45, as ours was. The second seating is at 8:00, so you can't hang around the restaurant, and you can't go back to your room (they have to turn them around by 12:00). We had a rental car and were on the road by 8:00. I'm not sure how it works with buses, but don't plan on lounging around all morning.

2. If you weren't using Disney transfers, I'd suggest heading to Downtown Disney for some shopping and lunch and a visit to the Lego store before heading to the airport. As it is, your options are limited.

I'd suggest a nice sit-down lunch somewhere at the airport. There's a Friday's which should be good for both kids and adults. There is a Disney store outlet in the main terminal, but it's not terribly large. If nothing else you can pick up some character cookies for the kids there. There are a number of other stores also. There's a Hilton hotel in the terminal complex which you could explore. You can ride the monorails back and forth without getting off! But basically I suspect you're going to be sitting around for several hours. It's a nice airport, but it's not the Mall of America!

You can always try to fly standby on an earlier flight. Not likely that a party of your size will get on, but it could happen. It's worth asking.

 

[tkd lisa]

Even if you have early seating (therefore early breakfast the last day), you can skip the sit down breakfast and do room service or the Topsiders (I think that's the name) buffet. Regardless, the previous thread on this topic implied that you had to be off the boat by about 9 or 9:30 leaving you with a pretty fair amount of time to kill.

I'd definitely do the buffet/room service thing to hold on to a little more of the magic, then take one of the last buses to the airport. I'd imagine they'd be a little less chaotic as well.

 

[castawayfan]

We ended up at the orlando airport with a 10 year old until 3 PM after our last cruise. We actually got off the boat fairly early and were at the airport by 9AM. There are some nice shopping areas, but they are all outside of security, as are most of the restaurants. I would suggest not going to your gate until as late as possible. My best suggestion would be not going to the airport at all, but rather going to downtown disney or somewhere else. It really makes for a long, long day sitting around the airport.

 

[cotomom]

I'm in the same boat. And probably don't want to go to Downtown Disney... Is there a movie theater closeby or any other suggestions???

Also, if you're taking the DCL transfer back to the airport upon completion of the cruise, what is the procedure... Are there several buses and will we be able to stall out a while until the last one or are you given a 'ticket'?

Many thanks!

 

[NCRedding]

We noticed when we were there in January that there was kiosk which rented DVD players and movies--not sure of the price because it wasn't open at 8 pm on a Saturday. DD loved the idea of renting a movie to watch while we waited.