Tampa airport info for first timer

[petunia]

We always fly into to MCO, and am considering Tampa, anything I should know? I know its about an hour from WDW, but if the savings is worth it then Im fine with that. Are there ample rental car places onsite?

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

The drive is 1hr 20 minute on a good day. All the major rental car companies are onsite at the airport. TPA is a much calmer airport. Once you do it you will not want to go back to MCO. It is an easy drive

 

[mco65]

Done it more than once.. if your saving $, totally worth it, IMO!
Be weary of rush hour traffic.. i would avoid a 3-5 arrival time... but if you can get something early in the AM.. totally worth it!

 

[JimMIA]

As Shelly said above -- easy drive. I've done it several times, usually in about 90 minutes without hurrying. It's expressway almost the entire way.

Some might look at that and say, "Wow, 90 minutes!" But keep in mind that it's 30 minutes from MCO to WDW, so it's really not that big a deal.

 

[Eeyore daily]

IMO it's not worth it, there's so much traffic plus construction that I'd much rather have a 30 minute drive than an hour and a half

 

[jdisnut]

Personally, I can't imagine how much cheaper flights to TPA would have to be for me to choose it over MCO because of the distance involved, but since that wasn't your question: I travel a lot, and I consider TPA to be the nicest an easiest airport of its size in the country. It's a breeze in every respect, even after a renovation that requires passengers to now use a tram system to the car rental facility. (The garage used to be a short walk across the street.)

Anyway, if all that appeals to you, you won't regret choosing TPA.

 

[MarcIsMe]

Used it as an option for our last Disney trip in May. Nice, uncrowded airport. Just missed rush hour, so not a bad drive. (We were staying offsite on the western end of I-Drive, so no Magical Express.)

 

[Timothy02359]

TPA is a great airport. The ride isn`t bad at all either.

 

[Day-Day]

$$ per passenger x # of passengers can often end up being significant savings for an additional hour or two of travel; obviously goes up for larger groups and families. Sometimes its worth flying into one airport and flying out of another. Arrival and departure times may fit better and actually provide more time at Disney or just be more convenient. Rental car cost may not be a factor; especially if planning to rent anyway. If connecting flights, the layover may be shorter for flying into TPA and make a difference on total travel time.

There are a lot of factors but definitely can be worth it.

 

[Darcy03231]

Personally, I can't imagine how much cheaper flights to TPA would have to be for me to choose it over MCO because of the distance involved, but since that wasn't your question: I travel a lot, and I consider TPA to be the nicest an easiest airport of its size in the country. It's a breeze in every respect, even after a renovation that requires passengers to now use a tram system to the car rental facility. (The garage used to be a short walk across the street.)

Anyway, if all that appeals to you, you won't regret choosing TPA.

We booked on JetBlue from Boston to Tampa for $69/pp each way ($140.00 round trip). We're cruising out of Tampa, so no need to go to anywhere. However, if you have 4 people and it's $300/pp to fly to MCO vs $140 to fly to Tampa that's a significant savings, even with having to arrange for ground transportation.

 

[sam_gordon]

Just know to get to Tampa's rental cars, once you collect your bags, you'll go up a long escalator (follow signs) and board a train that will shuttle you to the rental car area. So while the rental cars are "on site", you're not walking there from baggage claim.

When you return, there is an area where you can check your bags in the rental car building (at least for certain airlines) and not have to schlep them back on the train.

I like the Tampa airport and as @Darcy03231 said, a lower price can definitely make the extra 2 hours of driving (RT) well worth it.

 

[petunia]

What about PIE (St Petes/Clearwater)? Any info I should know/would be helpful as I also see much cheaper flights out of there?

 

[Eeyore daily]

That's even further west than TPA probably about 10 miles or so but again traffic.

 

[JimMIA]

What about PIE (St Petes/Clearwater)? Any info I should know/would be helpful as I also see much cheaper flights out of there?

According to Google Maps, the drive time is almost the same. The reason is that PIE is very close to I-275, which is the expressway that takes you through Tampa and on to I-4 east of Tampa. It is 10 miles further, but not much difference in time because there is almost no surface road driving. You come out of the airport, east on Ulmerton Rd a few blocks, and right onto I-275.

 

[Dis703]

It's been a while, but we've flown into Tampa before and its an easy airport to get around and travel to and from. We decided to use TPA for our October Disney trip because we managed to get tickets for the exact dates we wanted (including a Saturday flight) at $60RT each. With the airport only being 50 minutes further we didn't hesitate for the savings. Ironically, car rentals are more expensive from TPA for some reason, but we are getting picked up this time so it wasn't a worry for us.

 

[petunia]

According to Google Maps, the drive time is almost the same. The reason is that PIE is very close to I-275, which is the expressway that takes you through Tampa and on to I-4 east of Tampa. It is 10 miles further, but not much difference in time because there is almost no surface road driving. You come out of the airport, east on Ulmerton Rd a few blocks, and right onto I-275.

Thanks for the info! I wasnt sure which route to take as Googlemaps showed a few!

 

[JimMIA]

Thanks for the info! I wasnt sure which route to take as Googlemaps showed a few!

I would use Maps as you drive because it will show you current driving conditions and suggest alternate routes if there is some traffic issue. If you haven't used it to drive by, try it at home before you go on your trip.

I also keep the audio turn-by-turn directions OFF because I often find them confusing and misleading. But that's also an acquired skill that you should practice before you actually use it.

 

[infoseeker72964a]

I'm interested in flying into Tampa due to the high cost of flights into MCO for February. What sort of options are available for transportation to Disney other than renting a car?

 

[sethschroeder]

I'm interested in flying into Tampa due to the high cost of flights into MCO for February. What sort of options are available for transportation to Disney other than renting a car?

Lyft/Uber, Towncar, Shuttle Bus, Amtrak (Lyft/Uber to Downtown Tampa train to Downtown Kissimmee then Lyft/Uber)

I would not trust Lyft/Uber for that length of a trip and Amtrak is going to have very limited time options.

 

[Afabena]

I am flying into Tampa for my Nov trip. Flights into MCO were more than 3x the cost to fly into TPA. My husband has miles with United that we wanted to use and they wanted 30,000 miles per person to go into MCO as opposed to 12,500 to go into TPA. Flights home were even crazier - $800 from MCO to EWR vs $199 TPA to EWR. I tried all variations of flying times and changing the way we used the miles and even with renting a car, it is still significantly cheaper.

I have noticed though the flights to TPA starting to creep up for my Nov trip so if you see a good deal definitely book it. I booked my flight out using 12,500 miles per person and now for the same flight they are asking 19,000 miles per person.