What time to depart MCO

[Philharmagicfamily]

My family is on a Fantasy cruise from Port Canaveral. We are lucky to live in an area with very frequent direct flights home. If you could choose your ideal flight time on departure day, what would it be? We have Precheck and are fairly efficient/regular travelers who don't mind cutting things a little close.

 

[Pinkgurlshubby]

I would guess around 10:30 would be a good time. You are off the ship between 7:30 and 8 and if you have Disney bus transfer you can be at the airport in about 40 minutes or so. That would give you enough time to get through security, get your tram to the terminal and grab a coffee and relax by the gates

 

[GatorMomInNC]

I'm not sure, but I don't think Disney Transport allows you to have a flight earlier than 11:30. If you are planning to use Disney Transport you should check with them.

I like to take my time getting off and not stress about the flight, so I prefer something around noon or later if I am heading straight to the airport. MCO has lots of fun shops and things so hanging out there for a couple hours is not a hardship. But what I really prefer is to rent a car and eat brunch at a Disney restaurant and take a later flight.

 

[DCLDVC1]

DCL recommends an 11:25am or later departure from MCO unless you're on the 6/27/2020 cruise, then it's 12:30.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/ground-transportation/

 

[tvguy]

Disney has over the years recommended Noon and 1130 am. Based on my trips through MCO, in the future 1 pm would be the earliest I would be comfortable with. Security can be a bottleneck at MCO.

 

[lklgoodman]

Disney has over the years recommended Noon and 1130 am. Based on my trips through MCO, in the future 1 pm would be the earliest I would be comfortable with. Security can be a bottleneck at MCO.

Same. We also are able to get a direct flight home on Southwest. In past the only direct flight after the recommended 11:30 time was 3:30. This coming Jan. they had a 1:30 direct flight and we're booked for it.

 

[deliela999]

Disney has over the years recommended Noon and 1130 am. Based on my trips through MCO, in the future 1 pm would be the earliest I would be comfortable with. Security can be a bottleneck at MCO.

And in case anyone doesn't know...we learned the hard way... MCO has 2 separate secure areas and if you go through the wrong one you are rewarded with a second trip through security for the right one. I've never been in another airport where there wasn't some way to get from one to the other after security. We were told they SHOULD have caught it when they checked our boarding passes but didn't and everyone involved just shrugged their shoulders.

 

[tvguy]

Same. We also are able to get a direct flight home on Southwest. In past the only direct flight after the recommended 11:30 time was 3:30. This coming Jan. they had a 1:30 direct flight and we're booked for it.

Last trip we had a 5 pm flight. We got 5 hours in the parks before leaving for the airport. Being a west coaster with the time change, we were on the ground by 9 pm our time, and in bed by 10 pm.

 

[hrhdhd]

And in case anyone doesn't know...we learned the hard way... MCO has 2 separate secure areas and if you go through the wrong one you are rewarded with a second trip through security for the right one. I've never been in another airport where there wasn't some way to get from one to the other after security. We were told they SHOULD have caught it when they checked our boarding passes but didn't and everyone involved just shrugged their shoulders.

Your gate number should be on your boarding pass, and the gate numbers served by each security checkpoint are prominently displayed above the checkpoint.

MCO has a hub and spoke design, and you can't travel between the spokes without returning to the hub.

 

[Dug720]

And in case anyone doesn't know...we learned the hard way... MCO has 2 separate secure areas and if you go through the wrong one you are rewarded with a second trip through security for the right one. I've never been in another airport where there wasn't some way to get from one to the other after security. We were told they SHOULD have caught it when they checked our boarding passes but didn't and everyone involved just shrugged their shoulders.

We must have encountered the same genius checking boarding passes. I had one let me through the wrong side a couple of trips ago. I figured it out after I marveled at how quick it was. Yeah...because the decent airlines were all on the other side. My side was a madhouse as per usual - even with PreCheck.

 

[deliela999]

We must have encountered the same genius checking boarding passes. I had one let me through the wrong side a couple of trips ago. I figured it out after I marveled at how quick it was. Yeah...because the decent airlines were all on the other side. My side was a madhouse as per usual - even with PreCheck.

They were both equally busy for our adventure. And of course DH was patted down on one side and his bag searched on the other. He was in a fabulous mood after that. I had no idea there were 2, more importantly they aren't connected, or I would have looked. We were tired and distracted so we just saw security and headed into the line. That was a painful lesson to learn. We're in Indy, there's 2 security places but if you end up in the wrong one there's a hallway between them.

 

[allison0523]

I would recommend no earlier than 11am. We made a 1030 flight before with time to spare but I was a little stressed out about it. However, that was before we had precheck. IMO the biggest issue with travel from Port Canaveral to MCO is that there is only 1 major highway that goes to the airport- 528. If there's an accident or something that slows or stops traffic, it's a big problem. The Fantasy is a large ship and depending on what time you debark, it could be really busy in the terminal getting luggage and going through customs.

 

[lklgoodman]

I would recommend no earlier than 11am. We made a 1030 flight before with time to spare but I was a little stressed out about it. However, that was before we had precheck. IMO the biggest issue with travel from Port Canaveral to MCO is that there is only 1 major highway that goes to the airport- 528. If there's an accident or something that slows or stops traffic, it's a big problem. The Fantasy is a large ship and depending on what time you debark, it could be really busy in the terminal getting luggage and going through customs.

Good points. And if you are trying to get off during a govt. shutdown you may find yourself standing in line on the ship for an hour just trying to get off of it. We were glad we had later flights.

 

[Minnie_Momma]

I'd also recommend 12:30/1:00 PM. We recently cruised on the Dream. We had 8 AM breakfast and got in line to disembark at 8:45 AM. It took 1.5 hours to get through customs followed by 1 hour to get to MCO, so we arrived at MCO after 11 AM. I'm not sure if our customs and transit times were atypical but I would have been very stressed out on that day if I had a flight before noon.

 

[DisneyAndrew]

And in case anyone doesn't know...we learned the hard way... MCO has 2 separate secure areas and if you go through the wrong one you are rewarded with a second trip through security for the right one. I've never been in another airport where there wasn't some way to get from one to the other after security. We were told they SHOULD have caught it when they checked our boarding passes but didn't and everyone involved just shrugged their shoulders.

Yes, this happened to me as well! I was traveling home from a work training and went through a very long TSA line only to find out I was on the wrong side. I understand that it was my fault, but you think they would notice that I didn't belong on that side. Or, you think you could get a TSA escort from one gate to the other if you made that mistake. Oh well