Orlando Airport

✅ Verified Review | Arrived at about 5.30pm, Fri 5th May on BA 2039. We had then to wait initially an extended 30 mins on the tarmac as the gate was occupied, then at the gate we were told it would be another hour which again was extended before Immigration would let us off the plane. After we were allowed off the queues were horrendous and even after using the APC machines had to queue to see and be questioned by an immigration official also dealing with non machine authorized people. The best welcome from the immigration officer was to tell me that I wasnt allowed to hold my cell phone in my hand, even after telling him it was turned off, and he said I had to put it in my pocket. He even grilled me as to why I was travelling alone but looked sheepish when I told him my wife died tragically 18 months ago, but he didnt manage to say "Oh I am sorry to hear that" as most people do, especially after a 9 hr flight and 3 hour unnecessary delay. Then there was a horrendous queue at Customs making it difficult to get bags off and then to get to the exit. Overall I was delayed 3 and half hours from landing, the only consolation was that talking to Virgin and Lufthansa passenger arriving at roughly the same same said they were delayed 4 hours! Can you imagine the pain for about 2000 people arriving and being delayed by an average of 3 hours. What an awful airport, will never fly to MCO directly again, they just cant cope and don't seem to want to welcome people or to help to reduce the delays. Just get audio messages on the hub trains saying what a modern hi tech and progressive city Orlando is, maybe the authors ought to experience what visitors really experience.

✅ Verified Review | Orlando airport is generally fine. Decent food options, easy access from city, good signage and easy to navigate. Unfortunately, both the TSA security setup and the TSA staff is just plain horrendous compared to TSA at all other airports I have ever been to. I'm a frequent traveler. 2-4 flights a month is normal, and sometimes it's a lot more than that. I have been to over 30 airports in the country and I've never seen a TSA setup like this. Lines coming from 2 different, opposite terminal entrances running into each other and then being allowed in one at a time. It's quite bizarre especially given the elegant alternative of just splitting the available security lanes into two - one for each terminal. This creates a lot of blockages and inefficiency as each side is temporarily halted while the other side goes on. The TSA staff only adds to this confusion. Not only are the staff incompetent at this airport, as is evident from their mismanagement of the lines, they are also rude, almost all angry, and very loud and unempathetic. I saw people getting yelled at unnecessarily, being made to wait, being given conflicting instructions and just generally having a bad experience over the course of 2 different departures in the same week from this airport. This is not including my own personal experience where it took 3 agents to resolve the security threat of me having a personal flask of water with...water inside. Instead of being allowed to drain it or drink it, I was sent back outside and forced to go through the entire security process again. My only other option was throwing the flask which was a biryhday gift and which I didn't want to forfeit. Overall, this airportms TSA general manager needs to look into the situation. They are turning what could otherwise be quite a decent airport into a terrible one.

✅ Verified Review | I have used Orlando Airport in the past and had forgot what arriving here is like. The past couple of times in Florida I have been to SFB and what a pleasure that small airport is in comparison. On to MCO, we arrived on time from London and taxied to our gate, everyone was getting things sorted to disemabark when we're were told the airport could not handle anymore people. We were kept on the plane for 20 minutes before being allowed to leave and that was just the start of the waiting. Queued for the self service machines to scan passports answer questions etc, you then have to queue to do exactly the same thing with a real person so I don't understand the self service machines use? Having finally cleared security we got our bags only to have to put them on another belt to collect in terminal B belt 29 according to screens. Anyway 3 out of 4 bags arrived on belt 28 despite screens saying 29. By the time I got 4th bag from belt 28 and got up to Avis and collected the car it had been over 3 hours since landing. When I used SFB time from leaving aircraft to driving car away was an hour, that's the reason I stopped using MCO as it is so painfully slow.

The area in Orlando Airport where the APC machines are kept was blocked off by a single person for unknown reasons so passengers had to instead walk to the main hall for processing. It took a long time with Disney style weaving up and down lines for a few rows. As with previous visits there were insufficient staff numbers to process the sheer volume of people arriving (only around 10 desks were being manned). The immigration officer who processed my family was quite unpleasant and brusque in manner. He certainly needed further customer service training. Afterwards we collected our bags from the carousel and made our way over towards customs and the transfer carousel. A tannoy announcement instructed passengers to either put their bags on the transfer carousel (not recommended as it takes an age for bags to arrive) or to take luggage onto the train. We elected to put our cases onto the train with us and then further walked to Ground Transportation. Two weeks later we returned via this airport and ate at the food court before entering the security lines. We were given a Preferred Lane but upon rounding a corner simply merged into all the other lanes. One TSA officer shouted that the bags will not move by themselves and that shoes should not be placed in the plastic bins. Why not have a sign indicating that instruction then? Do note your gate number carefully as these can be quite spread out. The terminals airside do have some shopping and restaurants but more is to be found landside prior to going through security.

An appalling experience at Orlando Airport. The buggy didn't arrive at the aircraft door. By the time we got to immigration there was a huge queue which we had to wait in with a toddler and baby with no buggy. It took an immense amount of time. Then collect the luggage and then unbelievably a second huge queue to get out after some sort of 'second check' - absolutely no idea what that was for. Then no elevator after immigration. They took the big luggage from us again with no real explanation other than to collect it at terminal b. Where of course it didn't arrive. There was no staff available to assist. The luggage eventually arrived in terminal b on a carousel after around half an hour whilst our driver was waiting for us. A third rate airport.

Once again a fiasco at arrivals security at a US airport. Took 2 hours to clear security with a ridiculous 'secondary inspection' which accomplished absolutely nothing that that the first one didn't do. Remains the one thing that makes me seriously consider visiting the US.

✅ Verified Review | I moved to Orlando almost a year ago. I travel extensively. This airport has easily the worst baggage delivery times of any airport in the world. I routinely wait up to an hour and have had to wait over that once. I have no idea why every other airport can figure this out and they cannot. Do not check baggage unless you absolutely have to.

✅ Verified Review | We were extremely fortunate our plane was the only one landing at this time - and the delay getting through immigration was only one and a half hours. Delays in Miami of up to two and a half hours are not uncommon and I suspect this would have been worse had 2 planes landed at the same time as almost all the immigration booths were manned. The system is even more ridiculously convoluted here than in Miami. You join the ESTA queue for the automatic machines, then join an endless immigration queue where you are quizzed on reason for visit, then you queue for a third time to hand over your automatic ESTA slip at customs. Why this could not be done in queue two is a mystery. As I said, we were lucky. Had more than one plane landed, it would have been chaos. These issues with immigration will soon have a serious effect on America, after a ten hour flight these delays will soon cause people to stop visiting.

✅ Verified Review | We flew back to London Gatwick on 20th February 2017 from Orlando International Airport and were not impressed at all. The staff at the security gates were loud and rude. At least two members were shouting out to the hoards of passengers ordering everyone to 'push your own bags through X-ray, they won't move themselves' and 'this is what happens when you don't put your stuff in the box properly' referring to a mobile phone that had fallen on the floor. Going through X-ray was quite frightening. The guard yelled 'forward!' 'Stop!' 'Legs!' 'Arms up!' at me. It honestly felt like I was at an army boot camp! To cap it all, my 71 year old mum was body searched then asked 'have you got anything to declare, are you carrying drugs?' This left her severely shaken. We will not be returning any time soon! Disgraceful.

✅ Verified Review | Absolutely awful experience! We arrived after a long 9.5 hour journey only to join a lengthy queue to get to automated passport control machines which took our photos and fingerprints. We then had to pass through immigration where, yet again, they took photos and fingerprints. Finally, we had to go through the Department of Agriculture section where our passports were checked again. Whole experience from tarmac to transportation took 3 hours. An absolute joke!