MCO is in shambles!

Hi.. First post.

Me & my family went on a dream holiday to Disneyworld over the Christmas period. Flew out on the 15/12 for 15 nights. No complaints with Virgin... a bit disappointed that we flew on the old A330-300, yes the plane looks tired but no big deal. Flew economy. The flight was rammed.

The only bad part of the trip with getting through MCO airport... getting through customs took FOREVER,a very long snake of a queue had formed and was extremely slow moving!!! comfortably over an 1.5 hour wait to get through customs. looked to me that the officials were surprised with the demand so were under resourced.

It got worse when we got through Customs and collected our luggage... there was mixed messages on where to go and a huge bottle neck started to form for the escalators that took you up a level to the monorail. U.S residents started to panic as they needed to catch connecting flights and it all got a bit heated! The officials at this point looked clueless and one lady looked to be close to tears.....

So overall a nightmare experience arriving at MCO airport..has anyone else experienced this???

Congratulations on your first post

Customs at MCO can be a nightmare, we have been many times and it can vary between 15 mins to getting luggage to 1.5 hours, it all depends on flight arrivals , I remember 2x Virgin 747s arriving together that completely backed up arrivals.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to get any better and departure isn’t any better☹️

Common in peak periods unfortunately!! Sometimes it gets so bad they don’t allow you off the aircraft until the queues go down.

As such I prefer to go through another entrance point and do the domestic connection, grab the bags get the car and go. Yes that will take longer than an hour and half but I’m one of those people who need to feel like I’m moving somewhere!!

[mitchja]

All too common with many US airports unfortunately. JFK can be as bad as well.

Common in peak periods unfortunately!! Sometimes it gets so bad they don’t allow you off the aircraft until the queues go down.

As such I prefer to go through another entrance point and do the domestic connection, grab the bags get the car and go. Yes that will take longer than an hour and half but I’m one of those people who need to feel like I’m moving somewhere!!

I think this may have been the case on our flight.... it seemed like we were held for quite a while before we could leave the plane... the queue was already quite bad when we first got to customs

It's annoying given the BA experience at term C is so much better, given only really BA and JetBlue I think it is fly internationally from C, so theres far less planes competing for the immigration officers.

Last 3 trips have been with BA not VS, both on the price and the Terminal C improvements we have personally seen.

And as of recently you don't even need to travel via A/B for the visitortollpass either. (https://www.visitortollpass.com) -> when C first opened for first year ish (2 trips for us) we had to go via terminal A/B for two trips to get the rental car.

It's annoying given the BA experience at term C is so much better, given only really BA and JetBlue I think it is fly internationally from C, so theres far less planes competing for the immigration officers.

Well given that Aer Lingus, Azul, British Airways, Caribbean, Emirates, Gol, Icelandair, JetBlue, Lufthansa and Norse all operate out of Terminal C, I would say that's a pretty good lime up for Immigration.

Must say, flew out of T.C with JetBlue to JFK. C feels so much cleaner, and spacious.
Security went fast, albeit partner had to go back to check in desk as I entered my birth date on his ticket!

I normally fly Delta (to build the VS points and tier points) domestically, but JetBlue was so much cheaper even when I added the even more space seats.

I have vowed that any flight out of MCO will be JetBlue, even if it’s not direct. Terminal C was a great experience

I stopped flying to MCO years ago for this very reason. I would recommend flying to TPA on VS if you want Florida. Or if you don't mind going via a hub ATL. ATL is very organised and I have gone thought there in 10 minutes.

TPA is also good as they have spent quite a lot of money on the terminal and technology. it's like Orlando but very well organised

[mitchja]

Another vote for TPA over MCO as well here; certainly for arriving. The only minor downside to TPA is that utterly dreadful lounge VS insist on using for departures.

Well given that Aer Lingus, Azul, British Airways, Caribbean, Emirates, Gol, Icelandair, JetBlue, Lufthansa and Norse all operate out of Terminal C, I would say that's a pretty good lime up for Immigration.

Yet, we've never exxperienced a queue once for immigration, yet when we take VS theres a queue in the cramped terminal every single time. Remember like A few others on this forum we travel on average twice a year to our property in Orlando, so it's not like we are irregular visitors.

As above, remember a lot of the airlines above also don't pass immigration at the same time as BA/VS (Air Lingus as an example is pre-cleared). Only Norse and BA I've ever seen arrive at a similar timeframe, and even then it coped better than the old terminal when VS and Norse arrived.

Honestly I'd pick an airline flying out of C now as a preference, and Delta and VS are really compromised from sticking to the old gates. The security lines are also miles quicker on every time we've passed C.

Out of interest, did GOAA (operators of MCO) choose which airlines to move to Terminal C or did airlines choose/apply to move?

I can only assume VS are still using Airside 4 because DL are there. It's been over 8 years since I last passed through MCO, so no idea what it's like now, however in the days of the 747s if you were inbound on the first flight from MAN and ahead of the other flights, you would be one of the first off and front of the queue if you sat in the bubble or towards the back of the PE cabin.

Yes it can take ages and luggage can take even l9nger if a rain storm comes through as the baggage handlers don't work with chance of lightning around.
Many, like us, have Global Entry, as that significantly reduces entry
There is also the Mobile Passport Control which seems to reduce tgetime too
https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/ ... rt-control
On the way back, security can take an age, even with TSA pre check

Long waits, crowded customs, and bottlenecks – it’s a mess. I get why people prefer TPA or ATL. They need to do better with staffing and flow.

Have just flown back from MCO myself and wow what a mess.. on the way there, it took quite a while to get through passport control even with Global Entry, as they had a badly designed holding area for GE, where passengers that have already used the machines then block access to them while waiting to be processed by an agent. Then after customs there is non-existent signposting for the exit with people wandering around confused, and some taped off doors for the Terminal Link train.

On my return yesterday, it took over 45 minutes getting through security even with Precheck.. chaotic queuing, and constant line-jumping by those using CLEAR. My advice is don't use the lanes on the left side of the Precheck queues, as they were moving much slower due to the proximity to the CLEAR terminals. Back to the train, and all but one set of doors were taped off, meaning everyone had to cram in the front section of the train - no obvious reason why.

Unrelated: Revivals was absolutely packed this morning, our flight arrived early which might have contributed - there were no places to sit, and a queue outside the door.

Out of interest, did GOAA (operators of MCO) choose which airlines to move to Terminal C or did airlines choose/apply to move?

I can only assume VS are still using Airside 4 because DL are there.

I think it's down to Lounge avaialbility at moment (and not airline choice). C only has one (oversubscribed) Lounge from my experience. It's so oversubscribed even a Priority pass is no good, you have to have an Amex Platinum or Black card to stand a chance of a lounge access without airline status. There is no space in the single lounge today just with the BA/Jetblue flights/Cariibean today. So it's basically going to limit full service airlines going there until more lounges open. Given DL has it's own VS/DL Lounge in A/B terminals it's obvious why they not moved.

I can say I was there on the actual BA launch date, and it was a total shambles, but they have improved. The first year was horrid as even the rental cars couldn't be got from C (requiring a shuttle into the main terminals to transfer) for quite a while. Eventually the rental car operators fixed C, and as said, even the visitorpass people now work in C (they only worked in A/B in 2022 to mid 23).

We have not really booked VS for this and other reasons on the MCO route. They must be losing custom over the terminal choice already from those in the know. Worth noting arrival experience is the main improvement, as you always collect your bag BEFORE seeing the border agents at C terminal, which results in far smaller queues, unlike A/B where you collect your bag after the border. (there is a GE line too, but given we always travel with baggage, and the lines are super short it makes little difference).

Apart fom the issues on the literal first working day of the terminal when we flew home, we've had a overall superior experience than from A/B terminals. (and yes, we have flown domestically from A/B and it's still a absolute nightmare with hour plus security lines if you don't have preclearence -> which I don't, but the wife does).

Our view is we will at present always book TPA, Air Lingus (preclearance in DUB) or BA at moment purely down to the terminal C experience. (Air Lingus arrives domestically so the luggage goes to different belts alongside the Jetblue). Great example is last time we arrived at MCO on BA we were literally landing around 3pm, and arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge in the rental car at 4. It also allows a considerbaly more relaxed last day as you don't need to arrive quite as early on your return to pass security.