11:30 Flight from MCO after Carnival Cruise?

[CPoneCruiser]

Hi!  My wife and I have cruised quite a bit.  Did 8 day cruise in July 2021.  But we’ve never cruised out of Port Canaveral.  We’re cruising there next month and have a return date after the cruise that’s on a Monday.  We were looking at a flight leaving MCO at 11:30am.  The cruise line obviously recommends later, but could that time work?  We don’t have pre-check, but would get an Uber and self-assist off the ship.

[LizzyDragon]

It would be tight. If you’re off the ship by 8, it should be doable. I would pre-book the Uber or another shuttle service to avoid snags with getting a ride over, especially as that is a long trip for an Uber. 

[JohninDC]

For an 11:30 flight you need to be at the airport by about 10:00, and 9:30 is better with the typical TSA chaos. With the ride from PC to MCO taking about an hour that translates into off the ship with bags and clear of customs and immigration by about 8:00-8:30 with transportation pre-booked.  Carry your bags off and you should be okay.

 

Have a great cruise! 😎

[CPoneCruiser]

Thanks everyone!  With your advice, we chose to book a later flight, get a rental car and make a day of it.  Thanks again!

[JohninDC]

Smart move! 😎

[EngIceDave]

Smart

 

It's doable, but close

[Marie51]

On 8/18/2021 at 7:17 PM, JohninDC said:

For an 11:30 flight you need to be at the airport by about 10:00, and 9:30 is better with the typical TSA chaos. With the ride from PC to MCO taking about an hour that translates into off the ship with bags and clear of customs and immigration by about 8:00-8:30 with transportation pre-booked.  Carry your bags off and you should be okay.

 

Have a great cruise! 😎

I am just off the Mariner. There was no customs and immigration getting off the ship.  The only thing that happens is the facial recognition device that takes about three seconds. Then you’re free. From the time we walked off the ship it was only 10 minutes until we were outside waiting for our shuttle. 

[Ashland]

58 minutes ago, Marie51 said:

I am just off the Mariner. There was no customs and immigration getting off the ship.  The only thing that happens is the facial recognition device that takes about three seconds. Then you’re free. From the time we walked off the ship it was only 10 minutes until we were outside waiting for our shuttle. 

Thanks...good to hear. We'll be cruising into PC on May 1st 2022 and have booked Cruise Control (8am private pick up time) for our extended family to get us to MCO for a 12:15pm flight.

[Marie51]

25 minutes ago, Ashland said:

Thanks...good to hear. We'll be cruising into PC on May 1st 2022 and have booked Cruise Control (8am private pick up time) for our extended family to get us to MCO for a 12:15pm flight.

Forgot to say there was never any explanation about why we did not have customs and immigration. Nobody said a word. We had booked a shuttle with Cortrans and they picked us up at 8:45 AM and we were at the Orlando airport by 9:45 AM in plenty of time to catch our 12:10 PM flight. 

[arpie05]

I wonder if no immigration was because of ports you visited. I don't think you said. If you only went to private island, then that might be why.

 

[sn2792]

We just got off Allure on Sunday. We walked off with our luggage at 7 Am. Our Coco Beach shuttle picked us up at port around 7:45. We were at airport in plenty of time for a 11:45 flight.

[frostedthreads]

I would have said sure until we sat in Galveston for over 3 hours.  We were walk off with our luggage.  There was an issue inspecting luggage, etc.  It didn’t help that we were on a cruise that visited Belize.  

 

Another thing to consider is the TSA line at MCO.  My daughter and I are frequent fliers from that airport.  We try to push our Disney time as much as possible.  We have encountered check in and TSA lines that are as long as the shopping area. We made a few flights with time to spare.  We know have TSA precheck. 

 

If there is another flight, relax going to the airport.  Don’t end the vacation on a stressful note.  

[CPoneCruiser]

**UPDATE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE**
So my wife snd I took our Carnival cruise and returned yesterday.  We booked the 5:00PM flight instead of the 11:30am because of the recommendations here.  We made a day of it and visited the Kennedy Space Center so it worked out.  That said, we let the ship take our luggage the night before, casually got up and just made our way downstairs to the 3rd 4th level around 8:05am and as soon as they called the first muster station to exit, we went out with 0 problem.  We were picked up about 15 minutes later by the Avis rental car van and had our car and left their property by 8:35am.  We could’ve easily gotten off the ship at 7:00 or 7:30 because Guest Services offered that to us, but we didn’t want to wake that early.  The time we did get off, would’ve been more than enough time to make it to MCO and still take the 11:30am flight as it’s about 40 minutes and pretty straight and smooth.  That said, we made a day of it so it was fine.  All in all, I would easily tell someone they can book as early as an 11:15 flight and I wouldn’t think they would have any problem whatsoever.  You could probably even do 10:45-11:00am flight if you had your separate transportation lined up and ready to go.  CONSIDER THIS: How stressed does that sound to you?  I’m ok with running a tight schedule the last morning and taking a little risk.  If that’s not you, you might want to take a later flight.  Honestly, it wasn’t really that stressful for us to get off early and quickly…. It was simple and easy, but there’s always the possibility that the stars aligned for our trip snd might not for yours.  11:30 or later to me, is easy though if you’re with Carnival, renting a one way return rental from Avis at Port Canaveral and not afraid to ask people where to ho when you get to the airport.  Thanks!!

Edited September 28, 2021 by CPoneCruiser

[CPoneCruiser]

On 9/5/2021 at 9:32 PM, Ashland said:

Thanks...good to hear. We'll be cruising into PC on May 1st 2022 and have booked Cruise Control (8am private pick up time) for our extended family to get us to MCO for a 12:15pm flight.

That will be no problem at all…. The way things went for us yesterday, we would’ve been able to make and 11:00am flight with no issue…. Good luck!

[JohninDC]

3 hours ago, CPoneCruiser said:

**UPDATE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE**
So my wife snd I took our Carnival cruise and returned yesterday.  We booked the 5:00PM flight instead of the 11:30am because of the recommendations here.  We made a day of it and visited the Kennedy Space Center so it worked out.  That said, we let the ship take our luggage the night before, casually got up and just made our way downstairs to the 3rd 4th level around 8:05am and as soon as they called the first muster station to exit, we went out with 0 problem.  We were picked up about 15 minutes later by the Avis rental car van and had our car and left their property by 8:35am.  We could’ve easily gotten off the ship at 7:00 or 7:30 because Guest Services offered that to us, but we didn’t want to wake that early.  The time we did get off, would’ve been more than enough time to make it to MCO and still take the 11:30am flight as it’s about 40 minutes and pretty straight and smooth.  That said, we made a day of it so it was fine.  All in all, I would easily tell someone they can book as early as an 11:15 flight and I wouldn’t think they would have any problem whatsoever.  You could probably even do 10:45-11:00am flight if you had your separate transportation lined up and ready to go.  CONSIDER THIS: How stressed does that sound to you?  I’m ok with running a tight schedule the last morning and taking a little risk.  If that’s not you, you might want to take a later flight.  Honestly, it wasn’t really that stressful for us to get off early and quickly…. It was simple and easy, but there’s always the possibility that the stars aligned for our trip snd might not for yours.  11:30 or later to me, is easy though if you’re with Carnival, renting a one way return rental from Avis at Port Canaveral and not afraid to ask people where to ho when you get to the airport.  Thanks!!

Thanks for the detailed feedback!