MCO is a zoo/TSA pre check

[binkee12]

I left Disney last Saturday and the airport was an absolute Zoo people were everywhere and most of them seem to just be sitting around. I attribute this to the fact that Disney makes people arrive at the airport way too early which just triples and quadruples number of people at the airport at any given time. I always have TSA PreCheck because I pay for global entry and the security line for TSA PreCheck was only about 10 minutes long I don't know why I have to be at the airport 3 hours early so I can go through a 10-minute security line it really irritates me. I think Disney should let me decide when I arrive at the airport and obviously they would be held harmless if I miss my flight. people with TSA pre-check should be able to arrive at the airport much later. I understand I have the option of not taking Disney Magical Express but it's a free service and I actually think it's a nice service the only problem I have with it is arriving way too early and then having to deal with hordes of people who are also they're way too early.

 

[SteveH]

Ultimately you have a choice. You can opt to take another transportation method according to your schedule. When something is free you don't have as much control. While you may have the PreCheck many (most) do not, Disney is serving the masses.

 

[Shanti]

I left Disney last Saturday and the airport was an absolute Zoo people were everywhere and most of them seem to just be sitting around. I attribute this to the fact that Disney makes people arrive at the airport way too early which just triples and quadruples number of people at the airport at any given time. I always have TSA PreCheck because I pay for global entry and the security line for TSA PreCheck was only about 10 minutes long I don't know why I have to be at the airport 3 hours early so I can go through a 10-minute security line it really irritates me. I think Disney should let me decide when I arrive at the airport and obviously they would be held harmless if I miss my flight. people with TSA pre-check should be able to arrive at the airport much later. I understand I have the option of not taking Disney Magical Express but it's a free service and I actually think it's a nice service the only problem I have with it is arriving way too early and then having to deal with hordes of people who are also they're way too early.

You can give WDW the info for a later flight than you're actually taking, so it won't schedule your return so early.

 

[bumbershoot]

Second to last trip I was the second of four dme pickup hotels. At each hotel the driver sat and sat and waited. Then he was just about the slowest driver I’ve ever ridden with. By the time we got to the airport the people who had been picked up before me were getting close to missing their flights. I was getting nervous for myself. It was not pretty.

You never ever know what sort of ride you’ll have.

If it bothers you, take another mode of transportation. If you’re not going to do that, find ways of amusing yourself.

On my last trip I had pre (I got the awesome and cheapest option NEXUS) and a 7am flight. I was ready early and headed out to the pickup spot. Ended up being invited on the even earlier bus. I was at the airport ages early. I found ways to amuse myself. Took some time drinking my bottle and a half of water. Checked my bag. Meandered upstairs. Sat and rearranged my carryon, texted a friend who barely sleeps. Drank more water. Watched the lines. Looked at the hotel above. People watched. Got in line. Got through. Helped a confused fellow figure out where he was going. Rode the tramorail thing. Sat and changed shoes. Got more water and a latte. Etc.

Gotta have your ways of making airport stays ok.

 

[mousehockey37]

1st world problems.

 

[goofy4tink]

I have TSA precheck. I have no issue with the DME p/u times. I've been the first p/u and been on that bus for 45 mins prior to actually leaving Disney property!!! But, I also have no problem with sitting at my gate for an hour...I figure better safe than sorry. I have seldom had to wait more than 45 mins at the gate. Most of the time, it's right around 30 mins or so prior to boarding.
Yes, DME is a free service. But, it isn't one size fits all. Each guest has to judge what works best for them. Can you give them info for a later flight? I suppose. But why? To gain 30 mins? If my flight is at 3:30, my p/u time will be about 12:30ish. If I board the bus at 12:35, and my stop is the second stop of four (and it happens), I might not be on the highway until close to 1:15. If the driver is a stickler for posted speed limits, we could get to MCO around 2ish. Walk to security, it's now almost 2:15. If you have precheck, you could get through in 5 mins or it could be 15. So, it's now almost 2:30. Get to gate around 2:45. The flight starts boarding at 3:10. So, I get to sit for about 20 mins. Barely enough time to use the bathroom and buy a snack.

 

[Disneylovingmomof2]

MCO is a crap airport.

 

[alliecat523]

Security at MCO is always a zoo no matter what time you arrive. It has nothing to do with DME. The hoards of people traveling to and through MCO is very high.

While pre-check is generally quick, there have been times at MCO where my traveling party made it through regular security before I made it through pre-check. While not the norm, it can happen. At that airport I don’t take anything for granted.

 

[NH-to-FL]

DW and I flew out of MCO midday on Wednesday the 11th and were surprised to find that it was not too crowded. We basically "walked through" TSA Pre-Check but noted that the line at the regular entry was not too bad. They were displaying a 15-20 minute wait time. There were no lines before the ID check stations. We also noted the area around gate 125 was not overly busy.

I am thankful that we have the flexibility to fly mid day/mid week.

 

[tobikaye]

Others have given you details on how to get to MCO either through DME or via other modes. I have only done two trips through MCO since having pre-check. The first trip, I used Lyft to get to the airport instead of DME. This meant that we did not have to leave before 7 am for a mid-morning flight. For my most recent trip, we needed to go to the ticket counter at MCO for my sister so we went with DME since we needed some extra time. Both times, it worked out for me well.

I will say that although many of the people waiting around had been at WDW, I doubt more than 30% of them were there early just because of DME. People have a fear of missing flights and long TSA lines, which causes many people to head to airports earlier than needed. I tend to fly to MCO out of CMH. On CMH's website they indicate that you do not need to be at the airport until about 1 hour before your flight, even without pre-check. I do not know how many people I have seen show up 2+ hours before their flight, just in case.

 

[bumbershoot]

On CMH's website they indicate that you do not need to be at the airport until about 1 hour before your flight, even without pre-check.

Kind of.

But then you’re running into the issue of when the bags need to be checked. I’ve been in line at San Diego (which is busy but fairly small) when people around me ran out of time to check their bags. They had cut it too short. Plenty of time for security and to go up the stairs or escalator to the gate, but not time to be sure toget the bag to the plane.

There is no problem caused by being early for a flight. Casual people with plenty of time are relaxed at security. That’s the kind of people I want around me.

And concern about missing a flight is valid and ok. Sometimes there simply aren’t further flights in a day. Sometimes there are terrific reasons that they need that flight. Many people have anxiety; I had less than two hours to get through Heathrow; arriving from Vancouver and getting to an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin. It was around 2am for our bodies. Just me and my son. And he could not calm down about missing the next flight though I had explained over and over that there were flights every hour. There are plenty of adults like that.

Getting to an airport early doesn’t cause problems.

 

[Firebird060]

Others have given you details on how to get to MCO either through DME or via other modes. I have only done two trips through MCO since having pre-check. The first trip, I used Lyft to get to the airport instead of DME. This meant that we did not have to leave before 7 am for a mid-morning flight. For my most recent trip, we needed to go to the ticket counter at MCO for my sister so we went with DME since we needed some extra time. Both times, it worked out for me well.

I will say that although many of the people waiting around had been at WDW, I doubt more than 30% of them were there early just because of DME. People have a fear of missing flights and long TSA lines, which causes many people to head to airports earlier than needed. I tend to fly to MCO out of CMH. On CMH's website they indicate that you do not need to be at the airport until about 1 hour before your flight, even without pre-check. I do not know how many people I have seen show up 2+ hours before their flight, just in case.

CMH can be a hassel as well, i fly out of CBus regularly and I always seem to hit a snag even with Precheck. But hey at least there is 1 non stop carrier to MCO even if it is crappy Spirit

 

[tobikaye]

View attachment 317852
Kind of.

Either I looked somewhere else and saw the 60 minutes, or it changed. Granted I have not checked at all this year since I had to add extra time for other issues this year. Anyway about it, there are many reasons why MCO has so many people there waiting early than just because DME has a 3 hour pickup.

CMH can be a hassel as well, i fly out of CBus regularly and I always seem to hit a snag even with Precheck. But hey at least there is 1 non stop carrier to MCO even if it is crappy Spirit

I have only taken Southwest from CMH to MCO direct and it has been simple. There are only 7 gates in the Southwest Concourse with a TSA screening just that Concourse so I rarely have seen the non-TSA lines be more than 20 minutes. I will say that parking at CMH and getting to the terminal can be a pain, especially from the long-term garage and with someone in a wheelchair.

 

[sam_gordon]

I left Disney last Saturday and the airport was an absolute Zoo people were everywhere and most of them seem to just be sitting around. I attribute this to the fact that Disney makes people arrive at the airport way too early which just triples and quadruples number of people at the airport at any given time. I always have TSA PreCheck because I pay for global entry and the security line for TSA PreCheck was only about 10 minutes long I don't know why I have to be at the airport 3 hours early so I can go through a 10-minute security line it really irritates me. I think Disney should let me decide when I arrive at the airport and obviously they would be held harmless if I miss my flight. people with TSA pre-check should be able to arrive at the airport much later. I understand I have the option of not taking Disney Magical Express but it's a free service and I actually think it's a nice service the only problem I have with it is arriving way too early and then having to deal with hordes of people who are also they're way too early.

1) There is no way (ok, EXTREMELY rare) you are at the airport 3 hours early if you use DME (assuming a domestic flight).
2) If you don't want to utilize DME, don't. It seems strange to complain about a "free" (yes, I know the cost is included with the hotel) service.

I think Disney assigns the times because they don't want to have guests upset with them if the guest picks the wrong time for departure, and yes, people will blame Disney. So Disney assigns the times. Disney has no idea what security (TSA pre or otherwise) will be like at any given time, so they need to assume a "worst case" scenario. Therefore, they're going to target arriving at the airport ~2 hours before a flight (because you have to allow for folks to check their luggage).

I just spent ~9 hours at the Vegas airport (had to check out of the room, red eye flight, didn't want to sit at the hotel & gamble, etc). So I had my ipad, went for walks, got a massage, shopped a little, etc. It really wasn't that bad.

 

[KPeterso]

My last trip in March I was picked up about 3.5 hours prior to my flight. When I got to MCO, I had to actually go check my bag (non-par airline), and then made a stop in the bathroom. From there, it was straight to security where I was in line well over an hour, probably closer to 1.5 hours. They had a number of scanners closed and opened them to the line well behind me and would not let my friend and I move to the other line. We made it through security barely 15 minutes prior to boarding for our flight. We were able to hit the bathroom and grab food at McDonalds. We had planned to have a little time to get dinner and sit prior to our flight, but that was not an option at that point. McDonalds was quick, so that is what we did.

I had another trip a few years ago where we were picked up at WL first and then stopped at one of the Port Orleans, then OKW, and then SSR. The whole route did not make sense, so it took well over an hour before we ever made it off Disney property.

MCO and LAX are the reasons I have decided to get PreCheck. My appointment is in about a week and a half. I just do not like dealing with the madness at MCO and LAX.

 

[Lilsia]

But then you’re running into the issue of when the bags need to be checked.

This! I fly out of Omaha(very small airport) and use SWA. The hour before the flight rule is not right. The gate agents will tell you that the cut off time to check your bags is an hour before the flight leaves, otherwise they do not guarantee that your bags will be on your flight. So if someone shows up an hour before their flight is supposed to leave, stands in line to check bag(which might be too late to get on your flight), go through security, get to your gate. By then they are probably already boarding, if you have not missed it. That is too stressful. We are more then happy to sit at the airport for a couple of hours. The last thing I want to do is either deal with the hassle of your bags not making the flight or a chance of a missed flight. A normal person should be able to entertain themselves for a couple of hours.

 

[Dayzy]

I was beginning to panic on our last trip. DME picked up at POR and there was a handful of people on already. Well, we all handed in our papers and got on and there were 7 people without seats. The driver looked through all the papers again and we were all supposed to be there, but someone messed up and overbooked the bus. Now the driver had to go into the lobby, get cab vouchers for these 2 families, unload their luggage and get them cabs. It all took about 40 minutes. We then got to MCO and the place was a madhouse. Even pre-check lines were long. We made it to our gate with just minutes to spare

 

[JB097]

I left Disney last Saturday and the airport was an absolute Zoo people were everywhere and most of them seem to just be sitting around. I attribute this to the fact that Disney makes people arrive at the airport way too early which just triples and quadruples number of people at the airport at any given time. I always have TSA PreCheck because I pay for global entry and the security line for TSA PreCheck was only about 10 minutes long I don't know why I have to be at the airport 3 hours early so I can go through a 10-minute security line it really irritates me. I think Disney should let me decide when I arrive at the airport and obviously they would be held harmless if I miss my flight. people with TSA pre-check should be able to arrive at the airport much later. I understand I have the option of not taking Disney Magical Express but it's a free service and I actually think it's a nice service the only problem I have with it is arriving way too early and then having to deal with hordes of people who are also they're way too early.

Agreed, that airport is a zoo!!! We got stuck in security for an additional hour due to their new screening requirements on food. (We went to mickeys not so scary Halloween and made the mistake of putting all our candy in our carry on!)

 

[dancin Disney style]

I'm one that actually calls DME for a slightly earlier time. I have had way too many DME rides that I was on the bus for an hour or so before even leaving the property. Then add in a little traffic and by the time you get off the bus you have about 60 min until boarding starts for your flight. That's just too close for comfort for me. I much prefer having an extra hour to kill than to be worried about missing my flight.

 

[Shanti]

1st world problems.

Unlike all of the other issues that are under discussion on these boards...

Are you trying to say that this topic isn't worthy of a thread? As opposed to, say, the relative merits of the Grand Floridian vs. the Poly?