Cruising from Dover

We have recently booked the 9 night Mystery Cruise leaving Dover on 5th May. We hesitated at first, knowing that Dover is not an easy port to get to or use, but decided to book it anyway. We are now wondering just how much effect there will be regards the migrant situation and operation stack if we drive down.

Last time we sailed from there we stayed in a hotel (I think the Ramada) and found their taxis extremely unreliable - the taxi from the hotel was one hour late and we waited about 50 minutes at the cruise terminal on return after ringing for the taxi. There were not even any seats at the terminal when waiting for the taxi.

Does anyone know the area well and could advise about the best way forward. We are thinking we may be best getting a train down and staying at a hotel near the terminal, but would need to negotiate the London tube system with luggage. Our nearest main railway station is Liverpool, so our mainline trains arrive at Euston, which is fine as there are escalators right down to the platform, but some tube stations are not so user friendly. Coach travel is a definate no as I do not travel well on coaches. We would be looking for a hotel in or near Dover no matter how we travel down.

Any help greatly appreciated,

Barbara

Hi Tring, we travel from Darlington to kings X walk across to St Pancras and get a direct train to Dover. If you get to St Pancras from Euston it is so easy to get to Dover. Carolyn

Thanks, St Pancras is easy enough. We could get a taxi for the short hop from Euston if we are bogged down with luggage. We are not good at travelling light, but perhaps we should start!

We are looking at hotels in Dover - have you used any? Premier Inn seem to have a couple of possibilities, but lots of lorries rolling through the town, so are thinking we may need to look a bit further out.

We went from Dover on Braemar and caught a train to Euston and find it easier just to walk to St Pancras for the Dover train rather than play with the underground. At Dover there were taxis outside the station and we shared with a lady also going on the cruise. £8 total taxi fare.

Our problem is trying to find out if there are lifts at underground stations. I had to pull 2 cases as Ray was on 2 sticks, and trying to jump onto a fast moving escalator with 2 cases terrified me as I need to get a hand on the rail getting on it myself.

A chap with a buggy gave us a lift last time when he saw us struggling and we found we can book assistance, so did for journey back from Dover, and the buggy took us to our train before the hoards knew the platform number, they took cases on board and showed us to our seats. We have booked this service for our next one now.

Hope all goes well with you on future rail trips gillhalfpint. Nice to know you were looked after. We can manage at present if we do not encounter stairs, but who knows what the future will bring.

Well, thanks for the replies. Just to answer my own question we have looked into the situation further and it seems operation stack has not been in effect since August, but we have decided to go down by train to be on the safe side. We have also booked a sea view room in The Best Western Hotel, Dover. It does not sound perfect and is not cheap, but it appears to be within half a mile of both the train station and the Cruise terminal so at a push we can walk for both of those journeys if necessary and the sea view should minimise noise in the hotel room.

Cheers,

Barbara

Operation Stack has not been an issue for traffic heading into Dover since August, when a traffic management scheme was implemented. There are alternative routes into Dover via the A2 or B2011. Train travel by the HS1 from St Pancras is highly reliable and you should not have any problems with taxis outside Dover Priory Station. The journey to the Best Western hotel is 5 minutes (or less!) by road and is relatively straightforward on foot - 10 minutes flat walk. I would recommend that you book a taxi from the hotel to the cruise terminal (which you can see from the hotel), as although it only looks a short distance, the route is not an easy one to walk. For your stay in Dover, there are some decent eateries within walking distance of your hotel.

Enjoy your cruise, and enjoy your brief stay in Dover - home of my family for over five hundred years!

Hi Barbara, looks like you are sorted. Dover Castle may be worth a visit. Enjoy your cruise. Carolyn

Have you thought of the Eavesway coach service from Liverpool to Dover?

Operation Stack has not been an issue for traffic heading into Dover since August, when a traffic management scheme was implemented. There are alternative routes into Dover via the A2 or B2011. Train travel by the HS1 from St Pancras is highly reliable and you should not have any problems with taxis outside Dover Priory Station. The journey to the Best Western hotel is 5 minutes (or less!) by road and is relatively straightforward on foot - 10 minutes flat walk. I would recommend that you book a taxi from the hotel to the cruise terminal (which you can see from the hotel), as although it only looks a short distance, the route is not an easy one to walk. For your stay in Dover, there are some decent eateries within walking distance of your hotel.

Enjoy your cruise, and enjoy your brief stay in Dover - home of my family for over five hundred years!

Thank you for that local information - very useful. As Fred do not check in until about 2pm we will hopefully be able to get the hotel to keep our cases so we can see a bit of Dover beofre we board and we will go out to eat the night we arrive as well, which should be good and a relaxing start to the holiday.

Carolyn - I have heard good things about Dover Castle previously, so we may go if time is available - or keep it for another time and have a couple of days there.

Berkshire Lass - I mentioned on my original post that I do not do coaches. Getting up in the middle of the night to make the journey into Liverpool and then the intense travelling in cramped conditions, immediately before boarding the ship, is not our style, but I know some people like to start a holiday that way and suspect it would be a much cheaper option. So it does complete this thread in terms of options if someone searches in future - I tried searching and nothing useful was coming up a few days ago

Cheers all and thanks again,

Barbara

Hi Barbara. Just a point about rail travel, you can put an email alert for rail tickets on Trainline, who will email you when cheap tickets are available, usually about 8 weeks before travel. You can put email alert on now. We are travelling Darlington to Southampton and return for £100 for both of us with our senior railcards. You save a third on every journey plus if you book in advance you will get a good deal. Carolyn

We do have the email alerts set up when required, but have found that the alerts do not come as soon as the cheap tickets have been released, so the very cheapest tickets are sold by then. It is still worth keeping an eye on the relevant sites for ticket release if you have the time to do so.

We have had some extremely cheap tickets in the past if prepared to travel at the cheapest time of day and commit to a specific train, which tend to be decent daytime departure times. When at work, my husband used to refuse to get the 6am train if he needed to go to London, as a hotel and meals for the night cost his employer less than the difference in train ticket prices. They paid for his senior railcard as well, so benefits were made all round. Has to pay for his own railcard now though!

Coming back from Dover is more of a quandry for us though, as we hope to travel back the day we disembark, so tickets for a specific train will be a bit of a gamble, but we will probably take the chance as we could still get off peak tickets on the day in the unlikely event we need to do so. We will probably book a later train and hope to whole up in the Best Western for a coffee (and perhaps snack) if we are disembarked very early - another advantage of staying there before we cruise as we will know the place better.

We like get over to Liverpool early if going for a specific train to somewhere and have a habit of popping in to one of the city centre hotels beforehand - beats station cafes hands down and the bars tend to be fairly empty mid morning so they are happy to have the business.

Happy travels,

Barbara