Orlando International Airport is my least favorite airport. We’ve flown through most of the world’s busiest airports, too–Atlanta, Dallas, Paris, London-Heathrow, Denver, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, etc. None of them are as bad as MCO. Not even O’Hare or LAX!
Actually, I fly through LAX often–usually at least once per month. It’s not my favorite airport in the world and I’d never recommend it to first-timers (there’s a reason it makes our list of things to NOT do at Disneyland), but once you learn the ins and outs, it’s like taming a beast. There’s a method to the madness, and the chaos of LAX becomes comfortable. Probably in part because Angelenos who opt to fly LAX are no-nonsense and move with purpose.
That is not the case at Orlando International Airport. Despite significantly lower volume than Los Angeles or Atlanta, it feels busier than both. Of all airports we’ve flown, MCO is consistently the worst for the departing guest experience. This is a confluence of several factors: TSA at the airport is understaffed, uneven daily flight distribution, and the fact that this is only the second flight many families have ever flown (the first being the one to Walt Disney World). There’s a lot I like about MCO and the “personality” of the airport, but the actual guest experience is like the antithesis of Disney.
All of the above was true over 5 years ago. We’ve been “warning” readers about Orlando International Airport for the better part of the last decade. Those are air quotes around warning because there’s no reasonable alternative. It’s not like Disneyland, where you are much better off paying a bit extra to fly through John Wayne (SNA) or Long Beach (LGB). Sure, there’s Sanford, but that adds extra time to the commute…although maybe that could be offset by shorter waits at the airport? (After these awful experiences, I’m open to trying alternatives!)
In reality, our warnings have more been about adjusting expectations and helping readers prepare accordingly. Most importantly, arriving sufficiently early. There are plenty of seasoned travelers who might arrive an hour before their flights elsewhere (on average, my curb-to-gate time at SNA or LGB is 5-10 minutes), but that’s a recipe for disaster at MCO in certain circumstances. That’s the purpose of this post–to share our experience and serve as a cautionary tale so you don’t miss your flight.
Since it’s been a while since we’ve done a Walt Disney World transportation report, we figured now might be a good time, following our recent flights (and awful experiences), and as MCO braces for a record-setting holiday season. Let’s start with that traffic report from the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority…
The 2024 holiday travel period begins on Friday, December 20th and runs through January 5, 2025. During the 17-day period, MCO is expecting 2.9 million passengers, a slight increase of 1 percent over 2023’s record numbers. The busiest travel day is expected to be Saturday, December 28th, with more than 192,000 total arrivals and departures.
This should be unsurprising to Walt Disney World fans, as the next two weeks rank as the “top” 2 on our lists of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2025 & 2026. In addition to the busy theme parks, Orlando will host multiple college football bowl games, and the City Beautiful has been rated as one of the Top 10 global travel destinations this holiday season by multiple publications.
Here’s a rundown of the daily passenger projections, per the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority:
Due to the overall volume of passengers, MCO is encouraging travelers who need to check luggage to be at the airline ticket counter 2 hours in advance of departures. To ensure travelers can secure a parking space, navigate through the terminals, check baggage, go through the security screening process, and arrive at your gate with adequate time, a 3-hour window is recommended.
Record crowds may cause lines or delays at various points throughout your travel journey. Along with that, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority is providing actionable advice to make your experience easier–and so you don’t miss your flight:
- Download the MCO app and visit our website @FlyMCO.com for flight status and updates.
- Pack as lightly as possible and wear easily removable shoes.
- Do NOT bring guns or weapons through security. Check your bags for prohibited items before coming to the airport.
- If we have reached parking capacity, please consider using a rideshare provider or a taxi.
- Remember enhanced screening rules mean electronics larger than a cell phone must be removed from your bag and placed in a bin at the checkpoint unless you are in the TSA PreCheck program.
- Do not leave bags unattended or accept items from strangers for transport.
- Place identification tags on the outside and inside of checked and carry-on luggage.
- If traveling with a pet or comfort animal, bring a leash. The pet will need to be on a leash while the animal carrier is properly screened by TSA.
It’s worth noting that MCO has set new records, and then broken its own records, repeatedly over the last two years. It’s been a bit since they’ve published a list, but I wouldn’t be surprised if every single one of MCO’s top 20 all-time busiest days happened this year or last. Suffice to say, peak dates this holiday season will be insanely busy.
Part of this is undoubtedly the new terminal increasing the overall capacity of the airport. (I’ve yet to fly out of the new terminal, but based on what I’ve seen, it’s far less busy than the legacy ones–so maybe that’s the best advice of all: fly out of Terminal C.) But that’s not all of it. The other terminals are also much busier than they used to be. There’s more and more seating in what used to be empty walkways, and the line/wait time for TSA gets longer/higher. It doesn’t matter what day you fly, or what time. So don’t think you’re going to avoid that by going at off-hours or one of the “less busy” days.
A lot of frequent travelers think arriving 2 hours before a flight is overkill. Not at MCO. Even with TSA Precheck, that’s (at least) how early I aim to arrive. Without it, I’d recommend showing up 3 hours before your flight. I like Orlando International Airport and think they’re doing the best they can under the high-demand and high-friction circumstances. Again, it’s a variety of factors–insufficient staffing, overwhelmed infrastructure, and an “unfavorable guest mix” (to borrow a term from Disney).
As for our recent experience, arriving into MCO was perfectly fine. It was busy, sure, and the terminals and concourses were packed with people (in large part because seating areas have been expanded into walkways), but that’s par for the course. You don’t have to go through security or wait in any lines when you arrive (unless something goes terribly wrong, I suppose), so there are no issues with the airport itself when landing. Thankfully, as that means not starting your Walt Disney World trip out on the wrong foot.
The only negative to our arrival experience was with Mears Connect. As previously mentioned, I’ve used Mears Connect Driven by Sunshine countless times since it debuted–including every time going from MCO in 2024. It wouldn’t surprise me if I’m the all-time leading user of Mears Connect–not that that’s something to brag about. I just suspect that other “business” travelers are using Uber/Lyft or renting cars.
I’ve already covered the good and bad of this in the recent Mears Connect Driven by Sunshine Review: Is Walt Disney World’s Airport Shuttle Still Good? In a nutshell, my personal experiences with Mears Connect have been…fine. But I also know what to expect and don’t mind a “leisurely” drive to my final destination.
To the contrary, I prefer Mears Connect to Uber or Lyft a lot of the time–and certainly prefer the price as a solo traveler. The buses are never full, so I can grab a seat in the back and work on my laptop for an hour or two before getting to the resort.
The equation is different when we’re traveling as a family with a toddler. Megatron does not have a laptop and does not need to get any work done; her strong preference is not to be sitting in the same spot for 1-2 hours. When traveling with her and Sarah, I also want to get to the resort faster so we can unpack, eat dinner–start having family fun! I would hazard a guess that your circumstances are similar to this, as opposed to mine as a solo traveler.
The problem with Mears Connect is that demand has dropped. On my trips in the last ~18 months, I’ve noticed an increasing number of stops, which means every trip takes longer unless you’re one of the first couple of stops. The hotels are also not always near one another. You might be stopping at an off-site Marriott, Gaylord Palms, etc., on your way to Walt Disney World.
This, I suspect, has created a vicious cycle. Demand is down so stops have been added, leading to a drop in future demand as Walt Disney World regulars realize the shuttle service is too slow and no longer worth it, leading to more stops in the future. Frankly, I don’t see how Mears Connect reverses this trend, except maybe during peak season dates when volume is higher.
The problem when volume is higher is the number of buses. Or perhaps more accurately, the allocation of them. On multiple occasions this year, I’ve arrived at the Mears Connect departure point to see zero buses idling. This was a rare sight back in the Disney’s Magical Express days. This has happened without much regard for demand–I’ve used the service on busy dates and off-season ones, and it’s happened both times.
This is precisely what happened to us. It took a while before any buses appeared, at which point there were several long lines for the various resort areas. We actually got pretty lucky–our line was picked first! And because our line was the longest, we didn’t sit around waiting for more passengers to arrive. Adding to our good luck, Fort Wilderness was the first stop (of 5 or 6, if I recall correctly). This actually ended up being one of the fastest (probably the fastest–I don’t time them, though) experience I’ve had with Mears Connect once our line was pulled.
With that said, I can’t help but wonder how dramatically different the experience would’ve been for guests in the later stops in the other lines. There were people who had arrived before us who were still waiting in lines inside the airport when our Mears Connect bus departed MCO. If they happened to be stop 5 or 6, their total time could’ve approached 2 hours. I mention this to underscore the evergreen point that Mears Connect is going to be hit or miss: some okay-to-good experiences, and some horror stories.
Fast-forward to the end of our trip (transportation within Walt Disney World was fantastic–I have zero complaints or anything that warrants mentioning), when it’s Mears Connect pick-up time. Above I mentioned that I always use Mears Connect when arriving at MCO and heading to Walt Disney World. Well, that’s seldom the case when departing and heading to the airport.
My experience has been that Mears Connect pick-up times are way too inconsistent and usually much earlier than I need as a solo traveler with TSA PreCheck who does not check bags. It’s also impossible for Mears Connect to strand you at MCO, where their operations are located, whereas it is a thing that happens from time-to-time at the resorts. (It’s not something you should worry about, as Walt Disney World will step in to assist…but I’d still prefer to not stand there and then hassle with a taxi voucher or whatever.)
A few hours before our bus pick-up time, I received an email and text message that our pick-up time had been moved up by 30 minutes. Not a big deal for us–we just left the park a bit earlier. (As a side note, departure day park visits are one reason I like resorts with non-bus transportation that’s more predictable. Even though our bus experiences were flawless this trip, we did build ourselves more of a buffer on that last day for the bus. It ended up being overkill, but it’s “necessary” from my perspective because you never know what you might get with WDW buses.)
After waiting and waiting, and our original departure time passing, a Mears Connect bus finally arrived. Phew. The driver came out and emphatically apologized, which felt like overkill at first. Sure, the bus was 35 minutes late for the new pick-up time, but I assumed everyone’s flights were based on the old pick-up time. Then he said that he was only there for guests with a departure time that was almost an hour ago, and suddenly it made sense.
As we were not part of that hour-late pick-up time, the driver didn’t want to take us. “Your bus will be here shortly,” he politely explained. I (also politely) questioned this, pointing out that this bus was an hour late, our bus was also already late, and I had yet to receive any tracking info for our bus. It seemed highly improbable Mears would dispatch back-to-back buses. I understood his position, given that there were more stops and he probably didn’t want to run out of seats…but I’ve yet to be on a Mears Connect bus this year that’s been even half-full. He finally, thankfully, relented and let us board.
Several stops later, the bus was one-quarter full and airport bound. After lining up for bag drop at the Delta counter, I received a text that our Mears Connect bus was on-site at Port Orleans French Quarter. Had we waited for that bus, I’m pretty confident that we would’ve missed our flight. The bus still would’ve gotten us to the airport ~90 minutes before our flight, but now we had a new problem, independent of Mears.
The line at the Delta counter for bag drop was ridiculously long. So long that it was blocking the path to security and gates, causing airport staff to intervene and set up switchbacks to corral the line. In talking to them and overhearing their frustrations, this was not an atypical thing.
The line itself wouldn’t have been a problem if the Delta counter were properly staffed. It was not. At some point, the realization of this fact set in, and passengers with quickly-approaching flights started becoming restless, causing a Delta staffer to go through the line and pull anyone with a flight that was “really soon” for the agent assist line. Delta then allocated all but one of their staffers to service that line.
Whatever the cutoff was for this fast lane, we were too early for it. Delta’s approach made sense from a resource allocation perspective and ensuring to the greatest extent possible that no one missed their flights, so I get the decision. It didn’t make it any less painful standing in that line, though. The main line moved glacially slow because there was only one agent checking bags, which was further exacerbated by about half the guests in front of us having so many bags that I’m assuming they were flying someplace far away to start new lives.
It also didn’t help that seemingly no one listened to the steady refrains of “please have your IDs ready when you get to the counter!” I have never seen people be so leisurely about being on the precipice of missing their flights. But in my experience, that’s the MCO passenger way–almost no one has any sense of urgency. You’d think it were the loud library, rather than one of the world’s busiest airports.
To be abundantly clear, I do not blame the Delta staffers for this. They had been dealt a bad hand and were clearly understaffed. That’s not the fault of the front-liners. Between disgruntled guests getting heated with them and oblivious guests not following their instructions, it’s pretty easy to see why Delta has a staffing problem at MCO. It’s just a bad and frustrating situation all around.
I didn’t time it since I didn’t expect to be in the line so long, but I was there for just over an hour. To drop one bag off. Ironically, I was feeling really thankful at this point that we took Mears Connect and they set the pick-up time so early! If I were flying solo (and for some reason had a checked bag, which I wouldn’t) and took an Uber to the airport, I would’ve missed my flight. Well, perhaps not since I would’ve been pulled for the fast lane…but you get the idea.
We had long ago made the call that Sarah and Megatron should go through security by themselves so they could spend some time eating and stretching their legs in the Delta lounge. This meant I was going through security by myself. The normal line had a 25 to 35 minute wait, which actually isn’t too bad by MCO standards. In eyeballing it, I’d actually guess that it was at the lower end of that range–it all depends on how many scanners were open.
TSA PreCheck had a pretty short line, much shorter than I’ve encountered in the past. But, in the spirit of this post being filled with complaints, I made the newbie error of choosing the PreCheck line closest to Clear. You never choose the line closest to Clear, even if it’s shortest. That’s because Clear skips the line that skips the line, meaning there’s a steady stream of passengers being pulled to cut TSA PreCheck.
Obviously, I shouldn’t be annoyed by this (that’s peak entitlement or first world problems!) but I was stressed out after that Delta line. In any case, it couldn’t have added more than 5 minutes to my wait, and I was at the Delta lounge for a very quick bite not long after. And I’ll tell you what–few things are better natural stress relievers than seeing your daughter walk around laughing. All your previous worries and cares just melt away. The caffeine in the coffee also probably helped.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Any MCO or Mears Connect horror stories of your own? Or have your experiences with the airport and shuttle been mostly positive? Thoughts on surviving the holiday crowds at MCO, using Mears Connect, or anything else? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
