When you think Orlando, what’s the very first picture that comes to your mind? None other than Mickey, the lovable rodent that most people the world over grew up on. With it’s theme park attractions and glitzy nightlife, Orlando conjures up visions of an upbeat party town. Needless to say, the essence of this town is all too evident the second you land at MCO(Orlando International Airport).
Orlando’s airport is located about 20 miles from the downtown area. It is conveniently close to many of the attractions that have made it one of the world’s most sought after tourist destinations. It is by no means on the same scale as some of the bigger airports(if you have flown through O’Hare in Chicago or JFK in New York you will know what I am talking about) but I would certainly say it is one of the most elegantly laid out airports I have ever flown through.
MCO (which is the acronym I am going to use here on out) is what I would consider a medium sized airport (by US standards - considering most airports here are like mini cities). There are 2 terminals A and B with multi level parking garages for each terminal. The airport itself is divided into 3 levels. The lowest level is the arrivals area, the second level is the baggage claim area and the one above that is the departure area. The parking garage is well designed and well lit (so you wont go around in circles in the dark) and there are signs everywhere telling you where to go.
The airport itself is quite a welcoming sight. As soon as you get into the departure terminal, you will be greeted with the familiar ticketing counters that run about a mile in length serving various airlines. Past the ticketing counters is a central atrium - with a skylight where passengers from both terminals converge. This is also where Hyatt has a hotel (within the airport premises itself), that looks elegant and pretty expensive too. (I’ve never tried staying there). All around you, you will see Disney related memorabilia and murals. The ambience is so tropical - the second you step in, you’ll feel you’re on holiday. Terminals A and B have their own concourses - from where you will need to be transported to where the gates for your terminal are. An automatically operated monorail will take you from your concourse to this area. As soon as you step off the monorail, there is a food court (a couple of restaurants and bars) and a couple of duty free gift shops that you can browse through. Both terminals A and B have almost identical formats at the gate, it is pretty surprising. Each gate has it’s own waiting area that is fairly delineated from the neighboring gates. The nice part about this area is it is well lit and very pleasant, unlike the waiting areas I have seen at some airports.
Well that’s a gist of the gee-whiz stuff. As far as service is concerned, Orlando is a well served airport. There are not too many international flights in and out of this airport, except for a few (like Virgin Atlantic) - the majority of the flights that fly in and out of here are domestic - but there are flights to almost every major destination within the continental US. I have never had to pass through immigration and customs checks in this airport so I don’t really know what is involved here. But as far as everything else goes, I have never encountered any unpleasant situations here. The airport staff are friendly and willing to help. There are information centers strategically located at different points in the airport if you are a first time visitor to Orlando. There are several ways for you to tour Orlando from here if you’re visiting. If you want to go it on your own, there are a host of car rental centers that you can choose from (Avis, Dollar, National, Budget, Enterprise.etc), and then you have the Disney buses that will take you straight to Disneyworld if that was the express purpose of your visit, or the Transport Authority buses that will take you wherever you need to go. If you don’t feel too frugal (which you should not if you want to enjoy Orlando completely) take a cab. And inside the airport itself you can purchase several discounted packages for your visits to all the theme parks (Disneyworld, Universal Studios, Sea World.. etc)
They say first impressions are always the best. Keeping this in mind, MCO reflects the spirit of Orlando and all of Florida as one of the foremost tourist spots in the US. Unlike LaGuardia (in New York) and Logan (in Boston) it’s not oversized or in a state of perennial renovation (I was especially disappointed with these two airports). If you haven’t visited Orlando yet, you’ll get a really good flavor of it’s about the minute you’ve experienced the Orlando International Airport.