Hello, all! Our next flight to MCO will be on JetBlue, which uses the new Terminal C. I've been staring at the "wayfinding" diagram and am having trouble making heads or tails of it. I swear, I'm not a totally inexperienced traveler, but for some reason I'm just not "getting" what I am seeing. If anyone can educate me, I'd appreciate it. I've been hoping somebody would do an arrival walkthrough video (there are dozens of them online for the older A and B terminals), but nothing so far. All the videos seem fixated on the Palm Court on Level 2 (which makes sense: they're generally local bloggers who are heading somewhere, and not people arriving from elsewhere).
First, arrivals are on Level 6 and departures are on Level 2. Logistically, how does that even work? I feel like every airport I've ever been to has had arrivals and departures on the same floor, using the same gates: if they were on different floors, that fact went [wait for it] over my head. Is this just a matter of each plane letting people off on Level 6, and then cranking down the jetway a whopping 4 floors to let the next group on?
Second, Terminal C will mostly be international passengers, with Level 6 occupied by Customs and Baggage Claim, which according to the diagram both span the entire level. We'll be arriving on a domestic flight with no checked baggage, and will want to head directly to the elevators or escalators so we can either get to Level 4 (for the Terminal Link) or Level 1 (Grand Transportation), depending on our ground transportation plans. It looks like the only ways down are on the other side of Customs. Will we be able to bypass Customs in some way, since we're domestic travelers, or should I be building in extra time to stop and prove our citizenship?
Thanks in advance!
First, arrivals are on Level 6 and departures are on Level 2. Logistically, how does that even work? I feel like every airport I've ever been to has had arrivals and departures on the same floor, using the same gates: if they were on different floors, that fact went [wait for it] over my head. Is this just a matter of each plane letting people off on Level 6, and then cranking down the jetway a whopping 4 floors to let the next group on?
Second, Terminal C will mostly be international passengers, with Level 6 occupied by Customs and Baggage Claim, which according to the diagram both span the entire level. We'll be arriving on a domestic flight with no checked baggage, and will want to head directly to the elevators or escalators so we can either get to Level 4 (for the Terminal Link) or Level 1 (Grand Transportation), depending on our ground transportation plans. It looks like the only ways down are on the other side of Customs. Will we be able to bypass Customs in some way, since we're domestic travelers, or should I be building in extra time to stop and prove our citizenship?
Thanks in advance!