MCO is a mess!

[barry206]

Originally Posted by Pottermus

Always an awful arrival experience. My worst memory is, after passing through the painful security bit, waiting over an hour in a packed baggage haul as the conveyor belt was broken. My two exhausted nippers decided to sit on the floor and a jobsworth security guard came over and ordered them to stand up - very odd. Although, as everyone knows you can't mess/talk back with those people!

Although departing isn't too bad... I normally have a bite to eat at the Outback. Anyone tried that onion ring thing?

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Blooming onion !

[Kraken]

All I can say is arriving into Airside 4 used to be a LOT worse going back about 8-10yrs or so. You used to have to clear immigration & customs (as you do now) downstairs. You were then forced to do the 2nd baggage drop of checked luggage onto the belts and then go up stairs (no escalators) for a full security screening of your hand luggage & person so you could walk to the station for the train to the main terminal. (The TSA don't trust other countries to screen passengers to their standards).

In the latter years they did drop the second security screening and let you walk through a tensa-barrier corridor to the train station, guarded by TSA staff so you could not come into contact with departing passengers. The second bag-drop of checked luggage was still compulsory though.

Then finally they built the escalator direct into the train station from the exit of the customs area. When international flights are arriving, the train to the main terminal is run in manual mode by the TSA so they have complete control to ensure arriving & departing passengers cannot mix. Outside of international arrivals time, it runs in auto-mode.

And remember the second bag-drop was always hit and miss, your bags could be through to the second reclaim very fast, or you could wait ages (especially if there was a storm).

So whilst the current MCO experience may not be ideal, it's a lot better than it used to be 8-10yrs ago.

[bighal]

Originally Posted by ianc

As Kraken says, the construction of the new completely separate South terminal, which will have 16 gates and due to open in Fall 2020, has got nothing to do with the work at Airside 4 in the current North terminal. The work is described on the MCO web site. The Airside 4 work is to increase the capacity to handle immigration/customs/baggage for international flights by 25%, and also on the baggage handling system, and due for completion in summer 2018. They haven't announced which flights will transfer to the new terminal - but given the work on Airside 4, my guess is that the UK flights might stay there.

I recorded my own experience of arriving on Sunday 15 April on VS15 in another thread about 10 days ago. We were held on the plane, not because the hall was full, but because all the gates were occupied by other aircraft and we had to wait for one to leave. I got off the aircraft at 17.30 and reached the transit at 18.00 - 30 minutes for kiosks/officers/carousel. That is no worse than queues at the theme parks. I am not sure you can really expect anything better at a busy airport.

The kiosk queue still had passengers from the previous flight (about 4 rows of the zigzag), but it moved relatively quickly and there were only 2 people ahead of me for the officers. I think there more people in the X's queue over to the left. The bags were starting to come out when I reached the carousel.

The baggage carousel area is rather chaotic, with people milling around and generally faffing about, as that is where the construction work is currently (last year it was behind the scenes). The two carousels I remember from prev≈ious visits are numbered 3 and 4. Where 2 should be was walled off, and 1 is off to the right, hidden from sight by the walls around 2, so it looked like a separate small room, and has an unfinished floor. It is not helped by the fact there are currently no signs telling you which one to go to (or that 1 even exits!). Our bags came on 1. It is obviously a work in progress, but will change soon when they finish.

As others have said, the serious delays occur when planes arrive bunched together, instead of spread out through the afternoon.

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I do believe it will be all international arrivals that haven't done pre-clearance as the new terminal is supposed to be a replacement for the current ones not an additional one.

[Kraken]

Originally Posted by bighal

I do believe it will be all international arrivals that haven't done pre-clearance as the new terminal is supposed to be a replacement for the current ones not an additional one.

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No-one knows yet who the airline tenants of the new South terminal will be. What we do know is the MCO website says "Site work is underway on the South Terminal, Phase 1, which will add 16 gates capable of accommodating up to 21 aircraft depending on the combination of narrow body, jumbo and super-jumbo aircraft."

The only airlines operating jumbo & super-jumbo aircraft will 99% be long haul airlines, so the terminal will have FIS (Immigration & Customs) facilities.

My personal money is that Emirates will almost certainly move to the new South terminal if possible (as they like the "newest and the best"). Virgin will probably stay in Airside 4 in the North terminal due to their joint venture with Delta, who are based in Airside 4. Can see BA moving to South too as they have no affinity with Virgin / Delta (quite the opposite!)

As to what happens with the others - Lufthansa, Thomas Cook, LATAM, Aer Lingus & IcelandAir - I guess a lot will depend on the passenger handling charges levied for the new terminal.

[gavvy]

I remember the old security and forced double baggage claim... at the monent I think this is worse all be it temporary. Mco is a very bad welcome image for first time usa visitors at the moment. Tge TSA lines looked as bad as they always are as well as we passed by.
I hope they get their act together soon. My experience was lucky at 70 min due to global entry but i really feel for those stuck at the back of that long long line

[tarik]

Ugh MCO I really hate the places. It’s just sooo stressful. We were on the 10.05 flight from Man a couple of weeks ago and got to MCO about 230 and it wasn’t as bad as it has been. Still took us about 1.5 hours from landing to car but it was a steady flow of movement constantly even if we must have walked 300 yards plus through to the automated computers and then back.

Trying to leave on Saturday though was a different story. Took us about an hour and a half to get though security. It’s awful. The worst part is, you shuffle forward a little and then wait 10-15 minutes before shuffling forward a little again as they keep holding the lines so that they can get people through the body scanners.

[DisneyF1rstT1me]

Originally Posted by minnie29

This might be a silly question but here goes. Do you think this would make any of our UK airlines delay flights going out there ?

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No idea I'm afraid but just saw your countdown! How exciting, not even 12 hours to go. I'm excited for you! Have a great holiday and i hope MCO isn't too bad for you.

[Kraken]

No UK airline would delay flights to MCO due to immigration delays unless they were made mandatory by the US Government / Customs & Border Protection.

All airlines, flying anywhere worldwide work to a tight schedule, as no aircraft makes any money while it's on the ground. Just look at Ryanair 25min turnarounds to disembark 189 passengers & their bags and then embark the same for the return trip.

If you pick up delays in the schedule, you're playing catch-up for the rest of the day (or the next day also) in the case of long-haul. The cleaners are only onboard a Virgin 747 for under 15mins during a turnaround - admittedly there are a few of them, but this is to clean a 456 seater plane.

[Orlandoguy]

We arrived at mco bout 4hrs ago, after reading this thread was prepared for a long wait, however we were first off the plane, the Lufthansa flight was already in and we just bet the Manchester flight, there is a lot of building work going on, we had to q in a separate room for the machines, the queue moved quickly and we were at a machine within 20minutes the room had about 20 machines , thou some were just for US citizens and people on global entry, once done we followed signs to see the immagration ppl, there was no queue her with lots of officers on duty, thru in few minutes where I had the friendliest officer ive ever encountered, big difference from last yr where I had a very stern serious one who interrogated me lol, lots work going on in the carousels , was confusing over which belt to go to so asked and was told where to go, case was waiting for me, so was on the monorail within 30 minutes so was very happy with that

[ianc]

Originally Posted by bighal

I do believe it will be all international arrivals that haven't done pre-clearance as the new terminal is supposed to be a replacement for the current ones not an additional one.

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Where did you get the information that it is 'supposed to be a replacement'? I only use official sources. The MCO web site says it is 'additional'. Their press releases continually brag about the significant year-on-year increase in traffic, and they need extra capacity to meet it. Other press releases say it is a second terminal. The names North and South indicate it will be a 2 terminal airport.

It obviously makes sense for the new facility to be able to handle the full range of aircraft sizes, and they have also built-in the flexibility to handle 21 aircraft from 16 gates, rather than just 16, so it won't necessarily be used by super-jumbos - it depends what the airlines want to operate in future. Boeing have cancelled their super-jumbo, so there is just the A380. VA cancelled their order for A380, and the US airlines don't seem to be interested. So how many A380 will be flying to MCO - possibly not many. Given that they are spending quite a bit of money on updating Airside 4's ability to handle International flights, I really can't see them closing it to International flights in just 2 years time, when south opens. As Kraken says, VA and Delta (and Air France/KLM) would want to stay together, or move together. We shall find out in due course, as we are just guessing.

The current 'chaos' in the baggage hall this month is due to the building work there at the moment, so that particular issue will be temporary. There should be less chaos when the facility is fully open later in the summer. Despite that chaos, I got through from plane to transit in 30 minutes. However, the long delays on other occasions occur because aircraft arrive together instead of spread out, as they are scheduled to do. Delays for that reason are inevitable. That is pot luck.