Best time of day to arrive at MCO

[Plato]

What are the busiest times of day for international direct flight arrivals at MCO to try an avoid the dreaded massive immigration queue based on summer flights?

Whilst I appreciate doing the Dublin pre-clearance or indirect may get around this, really interested in direct flights in.

[Dr.JumbaJookiba]

Busiest times I would say are 15:30 to 18:00. Depend what day of the week it is though. Some days the VS75 is first in about 2:30 to an almost empty hall, other days a Thomas Cook beats it and depending on the season a VS from Glasgow can throw a spanner in too. It's a bit potluck but I always try to book the '75 to have a fighting chance of a quick exit.

[chmurf]

There is absolutely no rule regarding your question

you can't predict how late or early international flights will get.
you can't predict how full the planes will be
you can't predict how many Immigration stations will be open

there are so many variables that you may make rocket science calculations to choose your flight, and realise that ... pot luck is against you ... and you spent 2 hours in the line while the next dibber, who arrived 2 hrs before on the flight you desperately tried to avoid being on, just breezed through Immigration in under 10 minutes.

long story short, no matter what you do, you have no control over Immigration wait times in orlando

your only options if you dread MCO Immigration is a flight with preclearance (DUB) or an indirect with a stopover in either canada (requires additional travel authorisation for canada) or in the US with around 2h30mins connection time. For those stops, you know what to expect, and you know roughly when you'll be out of MCO

But if you want to fly direct, no matter what flight you choose, there are so many variables that you really don't have control over wait times.
pick the flight that suits you best.
As far as i'm concerned, given the option, I'd rather fly on a plane that gets me to MCO 2hrs before, even though I may spend 1 hour more at Immigration. It still means that I get to my hotel/villa 1 hour before.

[sha9]

We had a terrible time last year because the TC flight that was supposed to leave a couple of hours before our flight was delayed and left just before. Coupled with a Manchester flight arriving around the same time and immigration took us hours.

[mick]

As chmurf so comprehensively and correctly says this is the ultimate "piece of string question" and no amount of planning or checking daily planned schedules or historic arrival records will help.

Three international 747 arrivals 20-30 minutes before yours that should have arrived after you will throw around 1,200+ passengers into the Immigration hall in front of you. Conversely turn the arrivals upside down and you can be through and collecting your luggage inside 10 minutes.

Mick

[Plato]

Originally Posted by chmurf

There is absolutely no rule regarding your question

you can't predict how late or early international flights will get.
you can't predict how full the planes will be
you can't predict how many Immigration stations will be open

there are so many variables that you may make rocket science calculations to choose your flight, and realise that ... pot luck is against you ... and you spent 2 hours in the line while the next dibber, who arrived 2 hrs before on the flight you desperately tried to avoid being on, just breezed through Immigration in under 10 minutes.

long story short, no matter what you do, you have no control over Immigration wait times in orlando

your only options if you dread MCO Immigration is a flight with preclearance (DUB) or an indirect with a stopover in either canada (requires additional travel authorisation for canada) or in the US with around 2h30mins connection time. For those stops, you know what to expect, and you know roughly when you'll be out of MCO

But if you want to fly direct, no matter what flight you choose, there are so many variables that you really don't have control over wait times.
pick the flight that suits you best.
As far as i'm concerned, given the option, I'd rather fly on a plane that gets me to MCO 2hrs before, even though I may spend 1 hour more at Immigration. It still means that I get to my hotel/villa 1 hour before.

See more...

I understand there is no guarantee, but purely based on past history, there will absolutely be a time where probability would suggest you have a better chance of arriving at generally quieter time.

I do not dread it, but if you can choose a plane where on average it arrives at a quieter time, then I would prefer to choose that plane.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

If flying with Virgin we always take the VS15 which leaves LGW at 1300hrs.
That tends to be the last VA flight of the day from the UK and as a rule of thumb leads to a quick Immigration process.

But! Any delays to their other flights, or the BA flights etc and everything goes out the window.

[Suffolk dad]

Originally Posted by Plato

I understand there is no guarantee, but purely based on past history, there will absolutely be a time where probability would suggest you have a better chance of arriving at generally quieter time.

I do not dread it, but if you can choose a plane where on average it arrives at a quieter time, then I would prefer to choose that plane.

See more...

It’s a bit like asking how much rain will there be during there your trip, or how long the queue will be for Toy Story.

An average is not an exact number taken from a data set over a period of time, not a direct steer in terms of your experience on a given day. Whatever that average is, your experience on your given day will be affected by a plethora of variables that you cannot predict.

Immigration will be what it will be, you can’t affect it, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

[PPM]

Originally Posted by Plato

I understand there is no guarantee, but purely based on past history, there will absolutely be a time where probability would suggest you have a better chance of arriving at generally quieter time.

I do not dread it, but if you can choose a plane where on average it arrives at a quieter time, then I would prefer to choose that plane.

See more...

I’m afraid there’s absolutely no way you can predict what you want.
For example we would take the TC flight from Glasgow for three years, and it was always first or second flight to arrive at MCO from UK . First two years, thro immigration and into hire car within an hour.
Third trip, a short delay due to thunderstorm, then some building work at MCO. Result...landed 15:10, waited on standby stance till 16:00, attached to Airbridge at that time, offloaded from plane at 18:30, thro immigration and collected hire car 20:00, so just under five hours after landing.
So same flights, totally different outcomes.

[Plato]

Oh well I had better go back to my maths books and read up on statistics and probability.

I UNDERSTAND there is no way to guarantee anything due to the unexpected and delays etc...but if, for example, you have two ways to drive to work and one of the routes on a good day takes you 20 minutes, but can take up to 50 minutes on average a couple of days a week, but there is not way of knowing which day or how often... but there is another way which takes you 30 minutes but once a week on average takes 35 minutes, which would you choose?

I am talking about averages and probability not certainty.

I obviously cannot express myself well enough. I'll get my coat (as on average it tends to rain in February and there is an 70% probability of rain today according to the forecast.)

Thank you to the people who tend to say that they have had better luck on the earlier and later flights in the day.