Return flight from port canaveral to MCO

[gypsyrose]

What is the earliest flight possible? I know it is about an hour or so away from the airport, but what is the earliest you have ever arrived at the airport? I know that you shouldn't take chances, and I don't plan on booking anything before 11 am but wondering if that is doable if we get off early. The later the return flight the higher the price goes. Is it better to book a shuttle or taxi? Thanks for any help. Not going till Oct so still watching flights. Unfortunately, they jumped almost $50 since yesterday!

[JohninDC]

I would not book anything before 11:30 and would feel better if it was after noon, but I'm not the gambler some cruisers are when it comes to flights. :o Good luck! :)

[gpnfish]

Just a heads-up if you plan to use the "luggage express" or luggage Valet services - I don;t think you can participate if you have a flight before 12:00pm or 12:15pm. Luggage valet is where you leave your bags out the night before and they (the cruise lines and the onshore services) make sure they get transferred to the flight. You don't see them again until you get to home destimation and have to claim them.

[Eng23]

Don't book anything before 11am. Yes there are many people that will tell you that you can make a 9am flight if you do early disembark, etc., etc. there are multiple shuttle services that you can make arrangements with for transport between MCO and the port. Many people also do one way car rentals as they are many times cheaper than a shuttle. The reason it is risky to book a early morning return flight is the ship could be late or there could be problems with customs and many other things.

 

Save yourself the rushing and enjoy being relaxed on your return trip home. Many people that try early return flights spend their last day on the ship worrying about all the things that can go wrong and then wind up being rushed trying to get off the ship and get to the airport, then endure long lines at airport security. To me that makes it not worth it to me to have that 9am flight. :)

[peachpeeps]

When we were on the Freedom we self disembarked at 7:00 a.m

and had a private towncar waiting [Executive vip limo] and were

at MCO before 8:00 a.m. for our 10:30 flight.

[VillaHappy]

Not going till Oct so still watching flights. Unfortunately, they jumped almost $50 since yesterday!

 

These airline prices are making me crazy! Not many good deals at all :(

[Eng23]

When we were on the Freedom we self disembarked at 7:00 a.m

and had a private towncar waiting [Executive vip limo] and were

at MCO before 8:00 a.m. for our 10:30 flight.

That is great. It is good that this worked for you and that you had no situations beyond your control that can cause missed flights. This type of experience cannot always be expected, there have been many times that fog or heavy weather has delayed the arrival of ships. There were a few occasions last year that fog delayed the Freedom's arrival by 2-3 hours. There have been occasions that customs took longer than usual to clear the ship. You could do this same exact thing 10 times, but it is that one time things do not go as planned that people will be infuriated that they missed their flight because they took the risk of booking that early flight.

[jamona2311]

These airline prices are making me crazy! Not many good deals at all :(

 

We cruise in September and gave up and booked today before it goes up again.:eek:

[HUNKY]

Just a thought...rent a car and head to Disney or Universal for the day/night. Hotel rates in Orlando are very low and the parks are not crowded.