Flying into Sanford - any recommendations?

[novocastrian]

personally as always its down to cost for us, if virgin into MCO is cheapest then go for it

another 30 mins drive can be offset by the smaller/quicker airport exit etc

also if you are hiring a car leaving Sanford is less hectic so you can settle onto the roads easier...

[northpetherton]

For us flying to Sanford is better. Even though it's 30mins extra transfer in Orlando it's 45 mins to Bristol airport no hotel the night before or 3+ hours to Gatwick / Manchester with an overnight hotel stay. I found Thomsons flights very competitive on release day.

[k100dmk]

I wouldn't take the journey time to and from the airport into account as this is usually cancelled out by the airport being smaller and immigration being quicker.

I think most choose based on price, the airport isn't that modern and doesn't have a lot their but it's not a hotel, you're passing through. For me I'd fly into either of the price was right but I have NEVER seen a virgin holiday (especially onsite) cheaper than thomson and being from the north east we fly fly Manchester so have virgin or thomson really to choose from. I'd never fly economy on a virgin 747 because the leg room is awful, flying on the 787 has been the most comfortable flight I've had long haul and definitely felt a lot better than flying on the old planes.

[universal24]

Flew into Sanford from Birmingham in 2015 with family, as other have said immigration is quicker, still took us an hour to get through and the drive is a bit longer than MCO. but then last year i flew from Manchester to MCO and imigration was quicker (it was Sept both times we flew) and MCO had a lot more to offer on departure because of this i would fly from MCO over SFB but if flying to SFB was cheaper wouldn't hesitate to fly there again.

[fl-veteran]

For the same money I would choose Sanford every time.

It's slightly further away but I find that's made up for by how quickly you are able to get through immigration, collect your luggage and pick up your car.

However, if there was a significant cost difference I would choose whichever is cheapest.

[TillySmith]

We only fly Virgin PE 'just flight' from Manchester and find that the flight price we get each September is cheaper than Thomson Premium flight only. We also travel out each March as well and Thomson do not fly year round (we checked them for next March before booking Virgin and they only start flying in late March) so it is Virgin for us every time.
As Mick said 'years ago' we also used TCD 'Sunshine First' into Sanford it was worth using Sanford only for these flights which sadly are no longer available. Would not use Sanford again unless they spent some money on it. As we are in PE seats 19A & 19C we are one of the first 6 off the Virgin plane and usually through immigration, bag collection and skip the counter picking our own Alamo Car within the hour.

[MissFortune]

Have done both.

MCO is certainly better in terms of shops & restaurants and obviously it's closer to WDW etc. However it's much smaller so the waits at immigration & security leaving can help to offset that.

With Thomson you fly on the Dreamliner (if you're into that kind of thing lol)

It would come down to price for me but you can't beat flying home and being right on your doorstep though! EMA is 10 miles from my house, if we were flying into MCO, Manchester is 85 miles.

[zece87]

We've flown into SFB twice as we flew from Birmingham and it was great as it's a nice, quiet airport.. nothing special.

Next year we are flying into MCO for the first time as we are going from Manchester with Virgin.

If you really wanted to fly from Birmingham, Thomas Cook now from from Birmingham direct into MCO if you didn't already know (Found it out when we went to Spain a few weeks ago and it was on the departure board!)

[skindogg]

I see it as a means to an end and only 30 mins more drive so if the flight works for SFB then do it...

[wanye]

Originally Posted by fl-veteran

For the same money I would choose Sanford every time.

It's slightly further away but I find that's made up for by how quickly you are able to get through immigration, collect your luggage and pick up your car.

However, if there was a significant cost difference I would choose whichever is cheapest.

See more...

this ^^^^^

used SFB 8 times in the last 10 years and prefer it completely.

if youre somewhere near the front of the plane, and youre not landing on a friday behind two other planes, you can be through immigration, collected your bag, and in your hire car driving to your accommodation in under half an hour.

people mention the dire selection of shops, but i'm not there to buy stuff (apart from some duty free cigs and booze, and maybe a bottle of water for the flight), so SFB serves my requirements. its very similar in style/size to EMA (where we fly from usually) before they had the refurb/expansion. you can walk from the check in desk through security and to the gate where the plane leaves in a couple of minutes (barring there being no queue at security)

this trip (oct this year), thomson/sfb isnt an option, and i'm actually considering TPA or even further afield rather than MCO