6:50AM departure flight

Have you thought about staying at the airport Hyatt that night instead of your original hotel?
 
So you've got experience at the airport and you've looked up data, you've discounted everyone who says "show up earlier", so why did you ask the question?

I asked for people who have traveled at this time of day for their experiences.
 
Have you thought about staying at the airport Hyatt that night instead of your original hotel?

We only have 1.5 days at Disney before this trip and have plans well into the night at the parks on a Friday. Our APs expire during the Easter block out days so we want to use every last minute we can.
 
You are correct- we fly SW and they do not fly into Miami.

OP if that is the case- the baggage claim on the weekend at FLL is not fun. Weekends equal 1000s of cruisers. We have waited upwards of 30 minutes for bags (most recent a Saturday morning flight in November).

Traffic can be fast to POM or you can have heavy waits- yes even on days when it is not normal rush hour.

In November POM had tunnel closed and for a bit day we left. Traffic just getting into port took forever as only one way in then, road construction and many ships arriving and leaving.

There is an Uber driver we used on these boards- can’t name him but maybe he’ll see and chime in. He knows Miami and had hardest time detouring into port.

OP sounds like you have mind made up. Hope everything works perfect as you plan but .... people have given advice.

Again - still trying to decide if we drive or fly, but I’m not worried about arriving at FLL at 8am and being able to make it to the ship ‘on time’ with that early arrival - but thanks for the perspective about travel Times after we land. We have The Key purchased for our cruise so we will be able to board around 10:30, but we don’t need to (and wouldn’t be if we were driving).
 


We only have 1.5 days at Disney before this trip and have plans well into the night at the parks on a Friday. Our APs expire during the Easter block out days so we want to use every last minute we can.

You could stay in the parks until 11pm(assuming a park was even open that late) and still save time by dropping of your rental and already being at the airport by midnight. It sounds like you are trying to make the near impossible happen so extremes may be necessary : )
 
You could stay in the parks until 11pm(assuming a park was even open that late) and still save time by dropping of your rental and already being at the airport by midnight. It sounds like you are trying to make the near impossible happen so extremes may be necessary : )

Well - I could just drive in the morning to MIA instead - no need to make the ‘impossible’ happen.

Still - would love to hear from anyone that had a 6:50AM flight out of MCO on a Saturday about their personnel experience!
 


Well - I could just drive in the morning to MIA instead - no need to make the impossible happen.

Still - would love to hear from anyone that had a 6:50AM flight out of MCO on a Saturday about their personnel experience!

I've flown out of MCO on most days at most times of the day. It will probably be less crowded as it's not a business traveler day, but like many said there are SO many variables that could cause you to miss your flight. If all went well could you get a 6:50am flight pulling out of AoA at 5. Definitely. But a wreck on the highway causing gridlock, slow rental return, or long security checkpoint could easily derail your plans. it's a dice roll!

AoA to MCO - 25 mins.
Rental Car return - 10 mins
Walk to terminal - 5 mins
Do you have to check your bags?
Security - 20 mins (if lucky)
Tram to gate - 10 mins

Thats 70 mins right there assuming perfection and no checked bags.
 
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But people gave you their experiences and you discounted them. Thats my point. It seems you only wanted experiences that validated your plan.

But not a single reply in this thread has any info about ACTUAL experiences on early Saturday mornings.

There is NO WAY that Monday Mornings, Wednesday Nights, and Saturday Early Mornings have the same risks and patterns. The conditions are very different.
 
If checking bags per SW website they have to be checked 60 minutes prior to flight on domestic flights. That is 5:50AM. That gives 50 minutes to get to MCO, return car, walk to SW counter and check bags (yes they do have the self serve kiosk). Still think it’s enough time?
 
I asked for people who have traveled at this time of day for their experiences.

My early morning experiences at MCO have not been great. Security lines were long and slow moving.

I also noticed this past October that the roads in Orlando were very busy, even on the weekends. Which is when we flew back home. I would not plan on there being less traffic AT ALL.
 
But not a single reply in this thread has any info about ACTUAL experiences on early Saturday mornings.

There is NO WAY that Monday Mornings, Wednesday Nights, and Saturday Early Mornings have the same risks and patterns. The conditions are very different.
They may not have said "Saturday", but there have been posts giving their experience that could have included Saturday...

I’ve done the early morning flights out of MCO a few times. The regular security line ranges from 45 minutes (line to the doors) to 20 minutes. Pre check lines were 5 to 10 minutes. Sometimes the whole TSA staff isn’t there that early, so the lines are slower.

As a fairly frequent flyer in/out of MCO, I agree about security wait times there, unless you have PreCheck.

I've flown out of MCO on most days at most times of the day. It will probably be less crowded as it's not a business traveler day, but like many said there are SO many variables that could cause you to miss your flight. If all went well could you get a 6:50am flight pulling out of AoA at 5. Definitely. But a wreck on the highway causing gridlock, slow rental return, or long security checkpoint could easily derail your plans. it's a dice roll!

AoA to MCO - 25 mins.
Rental Car return - 10 mins
Walk to terminal - 5 mins
Do you have to check your bags?
Security - 20 mins (if lucky)
Tram to gate - 10 mins

Thats 70 mins right there assuming perfection and no checked bags.
My early morning experiences at MCO have not been great. Security lines were long and slow moving.

I also noticed this past October that the roads in Orlando were very busy, even on the weekends. Which is when we flew back home. I would not plan on there being less traffic AT ALL.
If someone comes in and says "We got there at 5A, and barely made our 6:45 flight", would that change your mind or would you write it off as a "one off" and not "normal"?
 
I've flown out of MCO on most days at most times of the day. It will probably be less crowded as it's not a business traveler day, but like many said there are SO many variables that could cause you to miss your flight. If all went well could you get a 6:50am flight pulling out of AoA at 5. Definitely. But a wreck on the highway causing gridlock, slow rental return, or long security checkpoint could easily derail your plans. it's a dice roll!

AoA to MCO - 25 mins.
Rental Car return - 10 mins
Walk to terminal - 5 mins
Do you have to check your bags?
Security - 20 mins (if lucky)
Tram to gate - 10 mins

Thats 70 mins right there assuming perfection and no checked bags.

Thanks. Why do you say ‘if Lucky’ for TSA? Is there examples of backups significantly beyond the predicted waits (baring a national shutdown, etc).

If checking bags per SW website they have to be checked 60 minutes prior to flight on domestic flights. That is 5:50AM. That gives 50 minutes to get to MCO, return car, walk to SW counter and check bags (yes they do have the self serve kiosk). Still think it’s enough time?


Thanks! Good data point!

I do think it gives enough time for those things if we are walking with purpose (which we usually do - we are Disney commandos after all!) - but if we do take the flight instead of drive I will be mindful of the 60 minutes bag check timeline. I think that’s what I am going to base my timing on - checking bags by 5:45. I would check for construction and such ahead of time and will look at traffic at 4:30am Incase we need to leave a few minutes earlier.

From there - 30 minutes to get thru security and the tram to the gate should be sufficient unless there is some sort of TSA shut down (which we would know about ahead of time and plan for)

Hmmm - I’m thinking that the worst thing that could happen is that our bag can’t be checked in time - in which case - I would end up just renting a car and drive to MIA...I could make myself a backup car rental reservation as a fall back plan.
 
Thanks. Why do you say ‘if Lucky’ for TSA? Is there examples of backups significantly beyond the predicted waits (baring a national shutdown, etc).
I truly think that the TSA at the Orlando airport just does not give a crap. Numerous times we have been in line and they wanted to spread out the line and started roping people around to new areas causing those that got there first to now be behind those that just got there. Once we were in being snaked around in the line for 45 minutes. All this time I kept watching people who had just got there go through before us. I truly hate them. We do not have this issue at my home airport, the line is the line. First come, first served.
 
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They may not have said "Saturday", but there have been posts giving their experience that could have included Saturday...

If someone comes in and says "We got there at 5A, and barely made our 6:45 flight", would that change your mind or would you write it off as a "one off" and not "normal"?

I would absolutely consider this information/experience! That’s why I am asking for it!!

I’m an engineer and completely data driven in most things - so I am trying to gather data points to make an informed decision. I’ve checked google and Waze and Apple traffic for their predictions on traffic, and the TSA timing data...but humans have invariably got their own experiences that should be considered as well.

So - again - experiences are more than welcomed here! Happy to even open it up to weekend travel which is when the cruise ships invade (although I don’t believe the Port Canavarel ship traffic will be an impact until later in the morning)
 
Hmmm - I’m thinking that the worst thing that could happen is that our bag can’t be checked in time - in which case - I would end up just renting a car and drive to MIA...I could make myself a backup car rental reservation as a fall back plan.

All of this planning and contingencies and what ifs just because you do not want to leave a 1/2 hour earlier. It sounds really silly. How is getting to the airport a bit earlier more of a hassle then maybe missing your flight, or ending up renting a car?
 
As someone who is not a morning person (to say the least) that all sounds awful to me. Personally I would drive or fly to Miami the night before and stay in a hotel there (keeping the AoA room for that same night so that we could leave as late we liked).
 
All of this planning and contingencies and what ifs just because you do not want to leave a 1/2 hour earlier. It sounds really silly. How is getting to the airport a bit earlier more of a hassle then maybe missing your flight, or ending up renting a car?

I’m glad leaving earlier works for you - but I really don’t want to leave 30 min earlier - getting up at 4 instead of 4:30 is probably more than I think I can ask of daughter who is not a morning person and even me who IS a morning person for this particular trip. I would much rather have a decent sleep before boarding the ship which may mean drive the 4 hours to MIA leaving at 6:30 as we had previously planned (based on the original cruise critic recommendations before the suggestion of a flight as an option).
 
I truly think that the TSA at the Orlando airport just does not give a crap. Numerous times we have been in line and they wanted to spread out the line and started roping people around to new areas causing those that got there first to now be behind those that just got there. Once we were in being snaked around in the line for 45 minutes. All this time I kept watching people who had just got there go through before us. I truly hate them. We do not have this issue at my home airport, the line is the line. First come, first served.

Despite all of our back and forth in this thread - this post made me laugh - in a good way - I appreciate your hatred and totally believe that they really are so dense that they would do this. TSA Shenanigans....
 
I've done the early morning flights out of MCO several times. Sometimes we've breezed through security and other times it's been really backed up and taken us 20-30 minutes to get through. Weekdays have actually had some of the shorter wait times than the weekends.

In your case, I would drive. It's not a bad drive and it's pretty easy to drop the car off at the Miami airport and then catch a taxi to the port. You won't save any time by flying and a missed flight/flight delay/flight cancellation could result in your missing your cruise. Personally, I wouldn't take the chance. If you leave at 6:00 am you'll be in Miami by 9-9:30 am, giving you plenty of time if you have a flat tire, etc.
 

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