What time to leave for airport (MCO)

[harrowgirl]

If we have a 10:10am flight from MCO, and we have a rental car (staying in windsor hills)....what time should we leave for the airport to return the rental car and make our flight? (Domestic flight). We have a 3 and 5 year old

 

[SEA333]

If we have a 10:10am flight from MCO, and we have a rental car (staying in windsor hills)....what time should we leave for the airport to return the rental car and make our flight? (Domestic flight). We have a 3 and 5 year old

We have three kids - 13, 9, and 8...Our flight was later in the day on a Monday (6:30pm flight) but we also had to return a rental car. We left POR at about 2:30pm, stopped at the gas station and DTD, and left WDW property at about 4:15pm or so. We were a little worried about rush hour traffic (we are from the Chicago suburbs where rush hour starts at 3pm LOL), but there was NO traffic at all. We arrived at the airport, returned the car, and got to security at about 5pm.

The surprise to us was security. It was awful. Coming from Chicago O'Hare, we didn't realize (and took for granted apparently!) that even though O'Hare is so busy and huge, their security flows like clockwork. Orlando, on the other hand, moved like molasses! I was actually worried about missing our flight for a minute. It took over 45 minutes to get through security. We got to our gate at about 5:45pm and had about 20 minutes before they started boarding.

I would leave your resort no later than maybe 7:15-7:30am. Even if security moved faster than ours did, the worst that can happen is that you spend an extra hour in the airport. That's better than stressing because you are cutting it close!

 

[mm1971]

We always try to be there 90 minutes prior to the flight to allow time to get through security. That would mean leaving around 8:15 or so. Sometimes we breeze through security, others we have been 30-40 minutes so better to be safe than sorry.

The only other caution is to check and see when the highest traffic times are and plan around that as well.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

According to Google Maps, the drive would be about 30 minutes.

Add 15 - 30 minutes for returning the car.

Add another hour for security.

Add a buffer of time for extra traffic and extra snafus...

7AM.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

Our flight was 5:15 p.m. from MCO. We got there about 2p.m. Had a rental car thru National which was quick and easy. We've never flown out of MCO at that hour before and found the lines at US Airways very short. The problem was security. Very, very long.

 

[MandiC]

I agree with 7am, enough time to drive (and at that time in the morning you could very well hit decent traffic), return the rental car, and get through security.