Sanford Orlando Airport

[JudeeK]

We are thinking of flying Southeast Airline out of Allentown in July. I was wondering if anyone had any experiences using Sanford Orlando Airport.

 

[dunnthat]

Sanford Airport is fine....cheap for some flights. But Dollar has a rental desk there and GMF40 works at that pickup location also. Clean but small...don't expect some giant like the Orlando Intl. I guess the biggest negative is the time it'll take you to get to the hotels and Disney area, especially if you're drivin around rush hour. Don't take I-4.....take the 417 toll road, it'll save you a TON of time.

 

[MulanMom]

Flew SE to Sanford in December and will be doing it again in March. I actually like Sanford better than MCO, mainly due to SFB's small size. It's clean, neat, and easy to rent a car. The only drawback is that it's much farther than MCO to WDW. The way I look at it is I'd rather drive from Sanford to WDW with a direct, nonstop flight from Allentown than drive the hour to/from Philly for a direct, nonstop flight between there and MCO.

In December, I took 417 to WDW and the I-4 route back to Sanford. The 417 route is easy to drive but the tolls were around $5 one way. I-4 can get really backed up around Orlando (I'm talking parking lot!). I drove I-4 east/north to Sanford between 4-5pm on a Sunday night and traffic was light to moderate. Last spring we drove to downtown Orlando on I-4 between 5-6pm on a weekday, and it was a rush hour/parking lot kinda thing. For us, I'll spend the extra money to avoid any potential headaches.

HTH!

 

[Ted and Holly]

My first impression of Sanford was when we had to WALK from the plane on the runway to the terminal, and back to the plane on the way home. That was in April 2000.

THings are different now, there have been MAJOR renovations. Sanford is small (I like small) and not too far (50 minutes) from WDW. It is an easy drive, and Dollar and Alamo are there for renting... WARNING, they close early, so you may have trouble if you have late evening flights.

We won't even fly into Sanford again, because we'd have to take Pan Am. You couldnt PAY me to fly Pan Am again, but the airport is fantastic.

Side note.... don't use Coach USA to get to WDW from SFB!

Holly

 

[MiJo]

Allentown to Sanford on the 24th. This will be our first trip to WDW through Sanford rather than MCO and we have heard a lot of nice things about it. We're hoping it's about the same size as Allentown. We have reserved a towncar service to get us back and forth. I'll try to remember to give you our opinions when we get back.

 

[Disneyhappy]

I noticed Southeast also flys into St. Petersburg. Is that about the same distance from MCO to WDW?

 

[Ted and Holly]

No. St. Petersburg is much further away from WDW than Sanford is. Sanford is less than an hour's drive.... 45-50 minutes. St. Petes is probably close to 2 hours with the traffic in Tampa.

Holly

 

[dunnthat]

Yeah...St. Pete AT LEAST 2 hours away. Sanford is technically a suburb of Orlando.

Dunnthat