My question is of course, why didn't you take a nonstop MCO-PHL flight? That would have avoided CLT.

Secondly, nothing in the OP sounds like a meltdown, sounds like business as usual for CLT, or nearly any other hub, on a weekend night. I've had long taxi times at CLT quite often; more often than not. Every hub has long lines for customer service nearly every night. I've seen lines at DFW that stretched so long that they looked to be 250 or more.

Now that AUS has more nonstop flights, I try to use them and avoid going through a hub.