Airport food strategy

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Premium Member
If your flight to MCO lands at a meal time do you grab a bite at the airport or try to hold out until you get to your hotel?

Inquiring minds (and tummies) want to know. 🤔

To avoid a case of the hangries I am planning on grabbing at least a little something before heading to the MDE area but was curious about other’s strategies/thoughts.
 
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MagicKatMe

Member
Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
If your flight to MCO lands at a meal time do you grab a bite at the airport or try to hold out until you get to your hotel?

Inquiring minds (and tummies) want to know. 🤔

To avoid a case of the hangries I am planning on grabbing at least a little something before heading to the MDE area but was curious about other’s strategies/thoughts.
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Kids or no kids? How long a flight? How are you leaving the airport?

I tend to snack on the plane so I don't have to eat immediately on landing, but that could be different depending on the above.
 
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Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders!

Premium Member
Original Poster
Just me. Flight is just a couple hours. Heading to Disney via MDE.

Will have breakfast in route to airport and probably a light snack before the flight. Not an inflight snacker due to some immune system issues 😷
 
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MagicKatMe

Member
Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
Just me. Flight is just a couple hours. Heading to Disney via MDE.

Will have breakfast in route to airport and probably a light snack before the flight. Not an inflight snacker due to some immune system issues 😷
Click to expand...

Ah! Gotcha. For me, I'd just wait. But I'm also not a fan of being hungry, so it's more likely I'd PLAN to wait and then scarf down a sandwich at the airport. :)
 
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dreamfinder

dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Remember that it can still take another 45-90 (90 is really worst case, should be less) minutes from MDE check in to actually getting to your resort. Depending on how many buses you need to wait until you can get on one, if you are the last stop on your bus, plus the time it takes to actually get from MCO to WDW. So a 2-3 hr flight can then become almost 5 hours without food.
 
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nickys

nickys

Premium Member
We usually get something at the airport, as it could be another 90 minutes or so before getting to your resort.

As we fly in from the U.K. we almost always need something. A panini, burger, whatever we feel like when we get to the food court of the main terminal on our way down to DME.
 
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Weather_Lady

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
Just an alternative suggestion to keep you from "landing hungry" and save you a little time and money: we usually pack a meal to eat right on the plane, so that nobody's got the hangries for awhile after we land. (Even if our 3-hour flight to MCO lands a little before lunchtime, we've usually gotten up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport, so everybody's hungry early, anyway.)

Things like cold sandwiches, grapes or whole fresh fruit, salad veggies, chips, etc. , or even a charcuterie-cheese-and-cracker DIY "Lunchable" travel well. Out of consideration for other passengers, we try to bring things that don't have a strong odor - so no onions, garlic, tuna fish, egg salad, etc., and I try to avoid the need to pack any liquid condiments or peanut butter, which would need to go into a 3-1-1 bag. I usually pack it all in a collapsible, insulated cooler bag, in plastic Ziploc baggies and/or see-through Gladware, in case security wants to check it out, but so far they never have.
 
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JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
When we flew, we usually had a snack of some kind on the plane. When we landed, we never ate in the airport no matter how hungry we were. We were so excited to be that close to Disney that we always waited it out and had the first snack & meal at MK which was the first park we did upon arriving. Theres nothing like having a Disney food item to start the trip off right.
 
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nickys

nickys

Premium Member
Weather_Lady said:
Just an alternative suggestion to keep you from "landing hungry" and save you a little time and money: we usually pack a meal to eat right on the plane, so that nobody's got the hangries for awhile after we land. (Even if our 3-hour flight to MCO lands a little before lunchtime, we've usually gotten up at the crack of dawn to get to the airport, so everybody's hungry early, anyway.)

Things like cold sandwiches, grapes or whole fresh fruit, salad veggies, chips, etc. , or even a charcuterie-cheese-and-cracker DIY "Lunchable" travel well. Out of consideration for other passengers, we try to bring things that don't have a strong odor - so no onions, garlic, tuna fish, egg salad, etc., and I try to avoid the need to pack any liquid condiments or peanut butter, which would need to go into a 3-1-1 bag. I usually pack it all in a collapsible, insulated cooler bag, in plastic Ziploc baggies and/or see-through Gladware, in case security wants to check it out, but so far they never have.
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Do not try this is flying in from outside the US. And if you do, leave everything that is open (as in not shop sealed) on the plane. Otherwise customs will not only confiscate it, but may want to search luggage and people ...

I pack some snacks for a 9 hour flight, including fruit. Anything not eaten gets binned on the flight, even open packets of biscuits, just in case it contravenes regulations.
 
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Weather_Lady

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
nickys said:
Do not try this is flying in from outside the US. And if you do, leave everything that is open (as in not shop sealed) on the plane. Otherwise customers will not only confiscate it, but may want to search luggage and people ...

I pack some snacks for a 9 hour flight, including fruit. Anything not eaten gets binned on the flight, even open packets of biscuits, just in case it contravenes regulations.
Click to expand...

Thank you - I wasn't thinking about international flights - mine would be bad advice for international travelers!
 
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JohnD

JohnD

Well-Known Member
Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
If your flight to MCO lands at a meal time do you grab a bite at the airport or try to hold out until you get to your hotel?

Inquiring minds (and tummies) want to know. 🤔

To avoid a case of the hangries I am planning on grabbing at least a little something before heading to the MDE area but was curious about other’s strategies/thoughts.
Click to expand...

Agreeing with what was said before, if there is a quick serve counter in the concourse with fruit / crackers / bottled drinks. I would stop there, grab something quick to hold you over and keep moving.
 
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midwestcold

New Member
Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
Just me. Flight is just a couple hours. Heading to Disney via MDE.

Will have breakfast in route to airport and probably a light snack before the flight. Not an inflight snacker due to some immune system issues 😷
Click to expand...
depending how long your flight is... there's isnt much near MCO... but Disney isnt far. Can you make it 30-45 min without dying if hunger provided you eat breakfast before your flight? On the way from MCO to Disney, there's PLENTY of food available
 
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nickys

nickys

Premium Member
midwestcold said:
the customs officers are generally decent people. dont bring fruit, but an unopened cracker/cookie? totally fine.
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Unopened, sure. But an opened pack of biscuits? Not according to the flight attendants. They were the ones advising people to bin anything opened. Shop-sealed is fine.

I guess it depends on interpretation of the list of banned food stuffs. Like dairy, for instance. Milk, yoghurt are obvious, but what about things containing dairy? I wouldn’t want to be in the position of either trying to grovel an apology or defending my interpretation of the rules against theirs.
 
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HoneyBee1991

HoneyBee1991

Active Member
We usually fly into mco as well and then rent a car. Most of the "good" restaurants at the airport are inside the boarding area. Since we have to grab our bags ourselves we don't wait around and go right to baggage claim then down to the rental counter.

There are some fast food places closer to the airport than Orlando. But the better food options are obviously in Orlando which is about what? 20 or 25 minutes away?

This trip we are just going to suck it up and eat the meal included on the flight and hold off to eat lunch at Sanaa when we get all checked in.
 
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RustySpork

RustySpork

Oscar Mayer Memer
Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
If your flight to MCO lands at a meal time do you grab a bite at the airport or try to hold out until you get to your hotel?

Inquiring minds (and tummies) want to know. 🤔

To avoid a case of the hangries I am planning on grabbing at least a little something before heading to the MDE area but was curious about other’s strategies/thoughts.
Click to expand...

Depends on the time, food at MCO isn't terrible so I don't mind eating there before I fly out or before I leave from arriving if it's around a meal time.

Some decent eats just outside of the airport would be Miller's Ale House, Rock n Brews, Spice Thai, or Bon Chon. There are a ton of good places to eat right as you exit Jeff Fuqua blvd onto 436.
 
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