Travel days are HARD. We’ve been there so many times ourselves, but we have to be honest: sometimes MCO Orlando Airport gives us some pretty intense issues.

Between all of our team members, we’re flying somewhere at least once a month (often times way more), and many of us fly in and out of MCO Airport. Which means we know the airport like the back of our hand, so trust us when we say that if you’re flying in or out, these are the two situations we recommend avoiding at all costs.

Getting Stuck on the Tarmac

If you’ve ever been stuck on the tarmac for any reason, you know it’s not a fun time. The plane door is closed, so there’s no getting off — you’re expected to stay in your seat strapped in, but instead of being up in the air, you’re just…sitting there.

An issue that plagues Orlando often is storms, especially in the summer, because of the high temperatures. Planes often have trouble taking off in heavy storms, as it’s not safe, so if you’re flying out, you’ll sit on the tarmac waiting until it’s safe. As it turns out, when it storms in Florida, “there is only one path out,” so all the planes line up to take off one right after the other…which takes FOREVER when there’s a delay.

We’ve had this happen to us on multiple different occasions with TWO different airlines, so it’s not an issue specifically just with one. The longest one of our team members has waited was 70 minutes, which is a LONG time to be doing nothing on the tarmac. To avoid this, we recommend flying out in the morning if you can, when severe storms are less likely to hit.

Lack of Dining Options

Terminal C is currently most travelers’ favorite terminal at the airport for many reasons, namely because it’s the newest and has the most updated look and feel. That includes the dining options that are there too, so eating any meal of the day, we find to be easier in this terminal.

However, the opposite goes for Terminals A & B. We’ve found that the dining options here are few and far between, especially for breakfast. That’s hard, because lots of people fly in or out of Orlando earlier in the day to make the most of their vacation or get home at a decent time, so not having many options for breakfast isn’t great.

We’ve had multiple situations where there are only 1-2 breakfast spots in Terminal B, especially, and the ones that are there are PACKED. If you get to the airport early, you won’t run into much trouble and will have time to wait in that line, but if security takes longer than expected and you’re concerned about making it to your flight on time, waiting 20 minutes in a breakfast line isn’t going to make your day any better. With that being said, if you know you’re flying out of Terminals A or B, allow for a little extra time if you know you want to grab something to eat ahead of time.

We’ll be on the lookout for more travel tips you need to know about. In the meantime, make sure you stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for the latest news.