How is Tampa to fly into? Is a smaller airport than Orlando? Easier?
It is smaller. Not sure about easier. All airports are pretty easy to navigate, imo. And you’ll need a rental car (no DME from Tampa). It’s about an hour and 15 min drive depending on traffic.
Tampa is a much more user friendly Airport in my opinion.
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I have flown in and out of Tampa a lot to visit my parents and I use southwest. The lines for security can be 10 mins to and hour, and the check in line for bags and boarding passes can easily take you 30 mins
I personally would not fly to Tampa for Disney.
I am one of those who likes to arrive very early for flights, never knowing what may happen on the way to the gate. One time I was in a car service on my way to Tampa airport and traffic was very backed up. It turns out a car had flipped over near the terminal and had stopped all traffic for emergency vehicles. It took us 45 mins to travel what should have taken 5 mins. Security took a while too. Thankfully I had time to spare and I still got to my gate with time to read, but others were not so lucky. So if I had to drive from Orlando to Tampa, I would be giving myself an extra hour or two just for traveling on top of my usual airport cushion of time.
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I flew into & out of Tampa last month with no issues. I prefer MCO just because it’s quicker & easier to get to but would go back to Tampa again if the price was significantly less.
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I have flown into and out of Tampa many times. I’ve always found it to be very convenient, since it is right next to the Veteran’s Expressway and I-275. It is a tad bit smaller than Orlando, but just as modern. If you are considering alternatives Orlando/Sanford Airport in Sanford is small, but also very modern and is much closer. Since they do not have as much volume, it is much cheaper to fly to here. It is about 30-45 minutes by car to the LBV area from Sanford, about $100 by cab I would estimate.
If you need ground transportation, DOTS (Daytona, Orlando, Tampa Shuttle) and Mears both run shuttle buses from there, and are fairly cheap.I would estimate a cab from TPA to WDW would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $175-$200 depending on traffic.
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I will point out the Tampa airport is undergoing majot construction. The eventual plan as I have been told by a super shittle driver is to remove all of the car rental agencies from the airport. So all remtals will have to be shuttles soon.