getting off the ship the last day

[Sam&Alex&Josh'sMOM]

we are cruising in September I am trying to book flights. With 3 kids under 8 we want non stop. What is the earliest people start getting off the cruise ship? And can get transportation back to the airport? The only nonstop flights that day are at 9:35 am or 4:50pm. What is my better bet?

[Ed]

Don't even think about the 9:35 flight.

The airport is a zoo on cruise days, plus you have to factor in getting off the ship - usually the ship is not cleared by Customs until 7:30 or so - getting your luggage and waiting to get through Customs, getting to your transportation, a 40 minute or so drive to the airport, checking in your bags and getting boarding passes, getting through security.... See where I'm going with this?

Take the later flight. There's plenty to do in the airport while you pass a few hours.

[DizneyRox]

If those are your only two choices, 4:50 is your only real choice.

[BrerGnat]

I believe the cruise line doesn't recommend flights any earlier than 11:30am on departure day.

I would book the 4:50pm. Really, that's not that bad.

This is what we did (we had our car parked at the port, FYI). The night before, you will get a "breakfast time" assigned to you. It will correlate to your dinner seating. If you have early dinner, your breakfast seating will be INSANELY early, like 6am. You will be told you have to report to the Enchanted Garden dining room at that time for breakfast. You don't. Instead, ignore that, and say goodbye to your dinner servers the night before (and give them the gratuity envelope then). The next morning, wake up around 7:30 or 8am. Get dressed and go up to Cabanas for buffet breakfast. Eat at your own pace. When you are done, get off the ship. There is this opinion that the last day, the crew is ready to push you off the ship in a frantic manner, but we didn't find that to be the case at all! Of course, you can't just linger forever, but there was no sense of "hurry up, get off the ship now!" that I had heard about prior to our cruise. Take your time. Make sure all the kids have eaten, used the bathroom, etc.

Are you renting a car? Or, will you be using DCL transportation? If you will have a car, just drive over to Downtown Disney or City Walk or something to kill some time, have lunch, etc. before you have to go to the airport. If not, just plant to have lunch at the airport and visit some of the attractions in the airport (there is a museum, a huge arcade, lots of shops, sit down restaurants, etc.) You can easily kill a few hours at MCO.

[wdwnutz]

We are arriving the day before and staying the night of the last day of our cruise at Pop Century. We figured this way there was no rushing aound and we could relax the day before and day after the cruise. We are taking the magical express to and from the Orlando airport to Pop Century, and the cruise line ground transportation to and from the resort. This is our first cruise and wanted to try to keep the chaos to a minimum. Also airfare was less expensive, so the cost kind of evened itself out.

[DizneyRox]

If you are affecting your own air transportation, I would always suggest getting in the day before your cruise. If you don't make the boat for whatever reason, it will leave without you.

As far as getting home, same applies, but it's a safe bet they will get you off the ship before 11am. They need to start boarding others, so they will do everything possible to make that happen.

But, you still need to allow for getting to the airport. There could be traffic, fires, tornados, etc.. Give yourself plenty of time...