TUI to leave Sanford

[PPM]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

Fly direct to MCO with Virgin/BA/Norwegian/AA and get the Magic Express to Walt Disney World

Or pay more to land at the coast and travel on a coach for 80 miles upon landing

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We were so much cheaper flying direct from Glasgow with a TUI than we would have been with VA.
In my opinion, better plane, better seats and better helpful cabin crew.
Sanford is fine, sad to see it go, but and extra hour or so driving won’t put me off MLB , I’d probably spend that time in an immigration queue in MCO

But that’s my personal take on it. I can see why it wouldn’t suit others. Esp if you had to take a transfer as mentioned.

[BevS97]

If I could fly direct from news for a reasonable price then I’d be happy with Melbourne. But i very much doubt it will drop to a price I’d be happy to pay.

[sprocket]

Anyone wanting to save and fly to Melbourne might as well also consider indirect flights. Effectively Melbourne is indirect with such a huge transfer distance.
Going via any other US airport or Dubin allows you to clear immigration and then land at MCO local.
TUI are going to ensure they pack as many people as possible onto the transfer buses. So there will be no point rushing off the plane to the bus as they will be waiting for the last person booked onto it, who will always be some family that take there time and are in no rush, arrive to the bus completely unprepared. The bus departure time will be calculated on the worst case scenario of a family taking ages to get out of the airport. Then a good 2 hour bus drive and the time between first drop off to last drop off can easily be 1.5 hours
So if your the last drop off, it could be easily be 5 hours after landing.
On return, this means that first collection will be about 6-7 hours prior to departure.

To me, indirect to MCO seems a far better option. Time from UK to your resort will be similar with either option, but the thought of potentially being on a bus for 3-4 hours would put me off (worst than any plane). You would arrive at your resort so hungry and tired, at least with indirect you get to stretch your legs and eat something half descent during the stop over.

Melbourne will not have several immigration staff or huge halls and with only one international arrival, I would be expecting just 2 immigration staff, so will still take a short while to clear if your the last off the flight. All this time adds up for the first family sitting on that coach.

[sunseeker]

Originally Posted by Moorlandman

It’s a 20 minute drive from Manchester Airport to the city centre. It could take 2 hours on a busy evening to get from Melborne to the villa communities. Certainly will by coach transfer😀

Hopefully, TUI will offer some decent discounts

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Would rather that than stand in immigration for 2 hours at MCO.

Dave

[PPM]

Originally Posted by sprocket

Anyone wanting to save and fly to Melbourne might as well also consider indirect flights. Effectively Melbourne is indirect with such a huge transfer distance.
Going via any other US airport or Dubin allows you to clear immigration and then land at MCO local.
TUI are going to ensure they pack as many people as possible onto the transfer buses. So there will be no point rushing off the plane to the bus as they will be waiting for the last person booked onto it, who will always be some family that take there time and are in no rush, arrive to the bus completely unprepared. The bus departure time will be calculated on the worst case scenario of a family taking ages to get out of the airport. Then a good 2 hour bus drive and the time between first drop off to last drop off can easily be 1.5 hours
So if your the last drop off, it could be easily be 5 hours after landing.
On return, this means that first collection will be about 6-7 hours prior to departure.

To me, indirect to MCO seems a far better option. Time from UK to your resort will be similar with either option, but the thought of potentially being on a bus for 3-4 hours would put me off (worst than any plane). You would arrive at your resort so hungry and tired, at least with indirect you get to stretch your legs and eat something half descent during the stop over.

Melbourne will not have several immigration staff or huge halls and with only one international arrival, I would be expecting just 2 immigration staff, so will still take a short while to clear if your the last off the flight. All this time adds up for the first family sitting on that coach.

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4 hours on a bus ? It would only be another 40 mins drive further than SFB.
Immigration staff... now where do you get two from? Your source?
This May we were the only international arrival on the day at SFB and there were around 8 to 10 staff there. I asked the officer if it was better working there rather than the busy hall at MCO. He said that four of them were heading back to MCO after finished at SFB.
They may, or may not choose the same model ar MLB. Nobody knows the staffing model they will use.

But looking at how anti MLB you seemto be it surely won’t affect you as you won’t be going there.

[BevS97]

For me it’s about the return flight. Even an indirect option leaves us needing a short flight or long drive after the overnight flight. I’d rather drive in the afternoon before we leave and land in Newcastle.

Than land in heathrow and then wait for 6 hours for a connection (last summer )
We could fly via Amsterdam but there is still that final flight home. Manchester and it’s a long drive back.

We will do those things as I won’t pay over £500. But plenty of people won’t.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by sprocket

Anyone wanting to save and fly to Melbourne might as well also consider indirect flights. Effectively Melbourne is indirect with such a huge transfer distance.
Going via any other US airport or Dubin allows you to clear immigration and then land at MCO local.
TUI are going to ensure they pack as many people as possible onto the transfer buses. So there will be no point rushing off the plane to the bus as they will be waiting for the last person booked onto it, who will always be some family that take there time and are in no rush, arrive to the bus completely unprepared. The bus departure time will be calculated on the worst case scenario of a family taking ages to get out of the airport. Then a good 2 hour bus drive and the time between first drop off to last drop off can easily be 1.5 hours
So if your the last drop off, it could be easily be 5 hours after landing.
On return, this means that first collection will be about 6-7 hours prior to departure.

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That does seem to be a bit of an exaggeration.

It's basically just 30 to 40 minutes extra time on the transfer bus than the current situation, that's all. Melbourne airport to, say, CBR takes 1 hour 30 minutes according to Google. From Sanford it takes 1 hour. They'll probably have the same number of buses and go through the same process as they currently do from Sanford. Times between first and last drop off will be the same as before, time to wait for the bus to fill will be the same as before, etc.

Instead of it taking about an average of 1.5 hours from picking up your luggage to getting to your hotel as it used it, it'll now take just over 2 hours (maybe 2.5 hours) instead.

[braby]

Originally Posted by SimonV

That's a good, spot, Nimbus. I'd forgotten all about that. It's been rumbling in the background since 2015. With the precedent already set for Manchester-Boston Regional Airport just 55 miles from Boston Logan International Airport (it's 65 miles from MLB to MCO), that might be a hard one to fight, legally. Although they at least they have the decency to put the 'Manchester' first and not Boston-Manchester. It is definitely a stretch to put 'Orlando' ahead of Melbourne. It's going to be an interesting one to watch, from that point of view. It's also interesting to note that TUI's flights-only arm lists flights to 'Orlando' but only lists 'Orlando Sanford' as the airport in the small print, while TUI's packages say it is 'Orlando Sanford' airport right up front. But I'm pretty sure some people still don't see past 'Orlando' when they're booking.

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No worse than what some airports in the UK have been doing for years, London Oxford Airport, London Luton, London Manson and London Southend.

[sprocket]

And how many international flights land at Sanford and how many land at Melbourne? Melbourne wont have many immigration staff for one flight.
4 hours (worst case) on a bus was based on (as per my post) being the first onto the bus and the last drop off.

Originally Posted by PPM

4 hours on a bus ? It would only be another 40 mins drive further than SFB.
Immigration staff... now where do you get two from? Your source?
This May we were the only international arrival on the day at SFB and there were around 8 to 10 staff there.

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[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by sprocket

4 hours (worst case) on a bus was based on (as per my post) being the first onto the bus and the last drop off.

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But other than the 30-40 minutes extra time on the road, the first on the bus to the last drop off won't be any different to the current situation. There will still be roughly the same number of people travelling with TUI and I assume they'll use the same number of buses.

And just in case you weren't aware, they don't just have one bus going to all the hotels in Orlando. They have many buses, each going to nearby clusters of hotels. We once had a mini bus for ourselves and another family who were going to the same hotel, whilst the other people on the flight went on half a dozen or more other coaches.

It didn't take anything close to 3 hours to get from the airport to the last hotel from Sanford. It won't take 4 hours to do the same thing from Melbourne.