Flying into Sanford?

[cruisedreamin-gang]

We will be flying into Sanford for our Monarch cruise in Sept. We will be renting a car probably from Budget. How much of a pain is it to get the car? How is the drive to port?

[Eng23]

We will be flying into Sanford for our Monarch cruise in Sept. We will be renting a car probably from Budget. How much of a pain is it to get the car? How is the drive to port?

I have never flown into that airport but the drive is not bad. I have driven from the Auto Train station in Sanford to Port Canaveral and had to drive by the airport. The drive is about an hour. Are you doing a one way rental? If so you can drop the car off in Cocoa Beach and take Budget's shuttle to the ship.

[lidodeckbound]

Easy peasy! I love Sanford!

[reney313]

Love flying into Sanford, but you do have to wait in line for the car rental....and the Budget/Avis counter can be LONG. I am Avis First and waited about 25 minutes before they called any "First" members to the front. I honestly felt guilty, but it looked like it would be another 15-20 minutes before I would get to the front, so I took advantage.

 

I tell that story because we waited for our luggage before going over the counter. The counter is next to the luggage carousels. I would HIGHLY recommend one of you go immediately to the counter before the rush of people. And the other go to retrieve the luggage. Maybe the time I flew in happened to have other planes landing at the same time, I'm not sure..it was around 3:00pm and it was much busier than when I've flown in later in the day.

 

Aside from that, the cars are in a parking garage a few steps away. To get to Cocoa Beach, you are able to bypass all of Orlando which makes it nice traffic wise. Very easy to get to there! Enjoy your trip!

[Jetdriver787]

Sanford (SFB) is used by many of the European charter carriers as a low cost alternative to Orlando (MCO) international. Icelandair also run scheduled international flights from Keflavik two or three times a week. A few US low cost carriers also use it as an Orlando alternative airport.

 

The advantage is that is has a good infrastructure and facilities (including Car rental) straight across from the terminal building (there are two, one domestic and one international.) Unlike MCO which is busy most of the time, SFB tends to have busy peaks during the afternoon period particularly on Thursdays and Saturdays when the European carriers arrive (between April and October.)

 

As a domestic arrival, this is when you might find lines for car rental etc. Unless you have a bypass programme. The rest of the time it is likely to be an easy and quick transition from plane to car.

 

Toll roads 417 (North South) joins Toll road 528 (East West) for the spacecoast and Port Canaveral. Probably around 70 minutes driving time if no holdups.

[cruisedreamin-gang]

I have never flown into that airport but the drive is not bad. I have driven from the Auto Train station in Sanford to Port Canaveral and had to drive by the airport. The drive is about an hour. Are you doing a one way rental? If so you can drop the car off in Cocoa Beach and take Budget's shuttle to the ship.

Yes a one way rental. It seems to be a the cheapest option.

[cruisedreamin-gang]

Thanks for the replies. We will be flying in on a Saturday morning so the suggestion to send one of us straight to the car rental counter is good. I want to get out of there as quick as possible.

[Eng23]

Yes a one way rental. It seems to be a the cheapest option.

Very good. This is a popular thing to do. You should have no problem making the drive. Have a good cruise.

[reney313]

Sanford (SFB) is used by many of the European charter carriers as a low cost alternative to Orlando (MCO) international. Icelandair also run scheduled international flights from Keflavik two or three times a week. A few US low cost carriers also use it as an Orlando alternative airport.

 

The advantage is that is has a good infrastructure and facilities (including Car rental) straight across from the terminal building (there are two, one domestic and one international.) Unlike MCO which is busy most of the time, SFB tends to have busy peaks during the afternoon period particularly on Thursdays and Saturdays when the European carriers arrive (between April and October.)

 

As a domestic arrival, this is when you might find lines for car rental etc. Unless you have a bypass programme. The rest of the time it is likely to be an easy and quick transition from plane to car.

 

Toll roads 417 (North South) joins Toll road 528 (East West) for the spacecoast and Port Canaveral. Probably around 70 minutes driving time if no holdups.

 

That explains why we had to wait so long our last trip. It was mid afternoon on a Thursday.