10am too early for return flight? Need your opinions :)

[MaxandEmme]

Hello! We booked our Wonder of the Seas cruise Dec 2024, do you think a 10am return flight would be too early? Please note that we plan on keeping our suitcases with us to disembark early and will be hiring a private car to pick us up for transport to MCO. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance! 

[soremekun]

Doable, but very risky and not recommended.   You'll have to be among the first to disembark.  Having passports will make the process a bit faster.  Your driver will need to be there waiting for you.  Pre-check at the airport will also save some time.

Edited April 30 by soremekun

[drb116]

If you get lucky, you will make it, but best case scenario, it will still be stressful.

 

We live 30 minutes from the port and can usually just get our kids to school on time at 8 am (in our own car). The airport is another 15 minutes farther, so best case would only get to MCO at 8:15. That is plenty of time if you are not checking baggage and have Clear + TSA Precheck. Without those, you need to hope for some short lines.

 

If you are willing to be stressed out and have an option to cancel your flight at the last minute without penalty, then it could be an option.

 

Just remember, the ships can get delayed for many reasons.

[Smitty815]

Definitely wouldn’t recommend 

I had an 1115am flight after my cruise last week and I wouldn’t do that again to be honest. I made it okay but it was a stressor that I just didn’t need. It’s not fun ending a vacation that hectically. 

[home-mom]

I wouldn’t do it. Ship delay, traffic, weather, airport security. Our daughter flew out yesterday and had an hour delay at security because the bag scanner machine broke. Good thing she was there 2 hours early. 

[time4u2go]

Would you be checking luggage at the airport? Do you have TSA precheck? What day of the week would this be? What time is the ship scheduled to dock? 

 

Edited April 30 by time4u2go

[LINDAE3213]

Any options to book the later flight...then if you get to airport earlier try to see if they will let you on the 10 am?  We used to do it with United....if they had open seats and we only had carry on..sometimes free change  other times $75 fee depended on our ticket class.  

[Sunshine3601]

You mention cruise in December.   Is this a holiday week?  If yes, then traffic getting to airport and amount of people at the airport could be concerning.

 

We try to not book any flights before 11 am.   After a nice relaxing cruise we dont want to stress to get off and head home.

[Tlbecker1]

Transportation to the Orlando airport can be tricky.  We recently got off of the Wonder on a Sunday and all of our Uber/Lyft reservations kept getting cancelled.  We took the ships transfer, but there was a lot of waiting around.  
 

I wouldn’t advise doing a 10AM flight, so many obstacles and you can’t rely on the ship being on time at the port or customs clearing the ship for debarking.

[baldilocks]

NO!!! Anything booked before noon is very risky. This is holiday time, too. Things can get backed up.

[zebra36]

My advice: BOOK A LATER FLIGHT!

[Ocean Boy]

I would probably do it at Port Everglades to FLL but not so sure I'd risk it at Port Canaveral to MCO.

[SuzD123]

1 hour ago, Ocean Boy said:

I would probably do it at Port Everglades to FLL but not so sure I'd risk it at Port Canaveral to MCO.

Completely agree...if the stars align and you are the first ones off the ship and your car is sitting there ready and waiting for you it could be doable, but risky.  At best, you are still 30-45 min from the airport with no traffic.  There are lots of unexpected variables (delay disembarking passengers? issue with the car service?  traffic accident? etc.) that could negatively impact your arrival at the airport and that is not a risk/stressor we would be willing to take after a fabulous vacation.

 

Best rule of thumb for this port and airport is book nothing prior to 12noon.

 

As @Ocean Boy says...if you were sailing out of Port Everglades and flying FLL...THAT would be an entirely different story since they are practically next door to one another (okay...maybe not next door, but you can practically see the ship from the airport).

Edited April 30 by SuzD123

[Cruise a holic]

11 hours ago, MaxandEmme said:

Hello! We booked our Wonder of the Seas cruise Dec 2024, do you think a 10am return flight would be too early? Please note that we plan on keeping our suitcases with us to disembark early and will be hiring a private car to pick us up for transport to MCO. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance! 

Too early.  Sometimes you might have issues and I would not book a flight before 11:30.  Traffic, airport issues- unknown delays.  Once the highway closed for an hour due to a traffic accident

Edited April 30 by Cruise a holic

[Cruise a holic]

Following

[TheInnocentAge]

Not worth taking the chance. On more than one occasion our cruise has been delayed by thick fog along the Florida coast on the last overnight/morning, and the ships in the area had to wait for it to clear before coming into port. Yes, odds are against that sort of thing, but it does happen.

[island lady]

No way.  Though if you decide to chance it (and there is a reason the airlines discount those earlier flights) do be prepared to use a back up plan if/when you miss your flight.  The odds are against you.  

[Mum2Mercury]

11 hours ago, soremekun said:

Doable, but very risky and not recommended.   You'll have to be among the first to disembark.  Having passports will make the process a bit faster.  Your driver will need to be there waiting for you.  Pre-check at the airport will also save some time.

A good answer.  

Yes, you can do these things to grease the wheels and move faster, but any one thing that goes wrong could ruin your chances:  the ship arrives late, they have an ill person to disembark first, your driver doesn't arrive on time (or at all), a wreck delays your trip, TSA is slow ... 10:00 is a risky choice.  

[RNCindy]

You'll not only be competing with other cruisers at the airport, there will be tons of people coming and going to Disney World. The holidays at the parks are packed! (I've been there!)  And, the security lines at MCO can be forever long, up to an hour.  Any other time of the year MAY be doable but NOT the Christmas/New Years holidays, or any holiday for that matter!! 😉

[soremekun]

 

[Airbear232]

At this point, unless we’re staying extra days in port, we book our flights through Royal as well for earliest departure.  It just makes life easier after the cruise. 

[ReneeFLL]

4 hours ago, Cruise a holic said:

Following

At the top where the title of this thread is there is a little blue box on the right that allows you to follow the thread.

[Cruise a holic]

5 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

At the top where the title of this thread is there is a little blue box on the right that allows you to follow the thread.

Txs

[erby2283]

I am cruising with friends on Saturday.  We're flying to MIA. They are coming from CT and I am flying from CLT.  On the way home since they didn't have a direct flight, they choose one with a layover in Charlotte so we could all fly home together.  American Airlines has changed their flight 3x since we booked in Oct - original flight home was at 1:40....and now is at 10:03.  Since my friends booked a "basic fare" when they called they said they were not allowed to change their flights even though American Airlines is the one who has now changed the flight times 3x!  So, we're stuck with 10:03 not only because they have a Basic Fare, but bc the next flight to CLT isn't until 1-something and they would miss their connection home which is at 2:49. I could switch since I am in main cabin but we'll just stay together. 🤗

 

The good news is that someone posted on another site that they were off Icon at 6:05am and at their gate by 7:15 for their 11-something flight with no issues.  So hopefully when we self-disembark, we'll be fine too!

 

That said, if you CAN take a later flight, I would.  Like others have said, not worth the stress of rushing to the airport. 

[The Fun Researcher]

Short answer, NO.  Getting off the ship the morning of your last day sucks enough, no reason to make it even suckier.  🙂

 

Too much risk and stress on top of a bummer of a morning