Booking a flight for after arrival back in Tilbury

We've booked the 26 Night Arctic Explorer cruise on the Black Watch that departs Tilbury on July 17 next year. It is scheduled to arrive back in Tilbury at 8.00am on Friday 12 August. We plan to fly to Zurich that afternoon and can book a flight from either London City or Heathrow.

I see that London City is closer and the flights with British Airways depart LCY at 12:55, 15:50 and 18:30. We'll be using BA as part of our Frequent Flyer award ticket and plan to book as soon as that date is available later next month, just under 12 months out.

I'm thinking that we should book the 15:50 flight to be safe in case there are delays disembarking after the cruise although the 12:55 would be better if we were confident we would have a good chance of getting to the airport in time.

Do you have to clear customs in the UK after a cruise that has visited other European ports (in this case Norway, Iceland and Greenland)? How are Fred. Olsen cruises generally for speed of disembarking at the end of a cruise? Do you think it would be too risky to book the 12:55 flight from LCY with the ship scheduled to arrive at 8.00am and considering traffic on a Friday morning?

Any advice will be much appreciated.

Customs clearance is usually just a matter of walking out of the building, no queues or delays.

Personally I wouldn't book the 12:55 flight, you'd probably make it OK, but all it takes is a late arrival and a delay disembarking and you would miss it, so why add stress to the end of your trip.

The delays on getting off the ship usually have more to do with the dock side of things than Fred, so if you don't actually arrive until 8:00, you will have to wait around a bit while the bags are unloaded and paperwork completed.

Thanks Mark_T. That was my original thinking and we'll stick to the 15:50 flight just to be safe. We always like to get to airports early so as to not stress about missing a flight so even if we're there 4 hours early at least we'll know that we won't miss the flight. If we do happen to get there early enough for the 12:55 flight we can always ask if there are any spare seats on the earlier flight and if it's possible for them to put us on that flight - unlikely I know but there's no harm in asking.

For the transfer from Tilbury port to the airport I see that there are various car services and still have to check if it's practical to get to London City airport by train. Does Fred offer airport transfers from the ship like larger cruise lines like Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Princess do?

Hi Koz1, I'm also on the same cruise next year and was wondering some of the same things.

One thing I did pick up from the Fred Olsen website was that the Black Watch on Aug. 12th disembarks us at Tilbury at 8:00-8:30 am (earlier than the usual 9:00-9:30 am), because the ship then needs to reposition to Harwich to embark its next passengers that same afternoon. Although I suppose things could still go awry.

The only transport mentioned on the website for Tilbury is the car service Ports Direct which seems quite expensive. The only bus service is from Southampton or Dover. The train runs from Tilbury to Fenchurch station in London, but one needs to get a taxi from the cruise terminal to the train station and once in London find transport onward.

I will probably be flying from Heathrow so I will either book a later afternoon or early evening flight or just plan to stayover in Hounslow that night.

Koz1, I live fairly close to Tilbury and the transfer to London City should be straightforward by train. There's a bus that runs from Tilbury Riverside to Tilbury Town railway station but a taxi might be easier, especially if you have a lot of luggage.

You would need to catch the c2c train from Tilbury Town to West Ham, and then switch to the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) which runs direct to London City Airport.

Koz1, I live fairly close to Tilbury and the transfer to London City should be straightforward by train. There's a bus that runs from Tilbury Riverside to Tilbury Town railway station but a taxi might be easier, especially if you have a lot of luggage.

 

You would need to catch the c2c train from Tilbury Town to West Ham, and then switch to the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) which runs direct to London City Airport.

Thanks for the train suggestion Maianthemum. I've just been looking at the nationalrail.co.uk website for timetables and see that it shows as changing at Limehouse for a service that departs Tilbury Town at 09:11 and at Westham for the later trains. For the Westham transfers it says "From West Ham Station take the DLR to Canning Town. Change and take the DLR to London City Airport Station".

There is 5 minutes between the arrival at Westham on the c2c and the departure on the DLR to London City. Are the platforms close together? Also, are the platforms close together for the change at Canning Town on the DLR?

At £6.10 each it's a lot cheaper than a car transfer.

Thanks for the train suggestion Maianthemum. I've just been looking at the nationalrail.co.uk website for timetables and see that it shows as changing at Limehouse for a service that departs Tilbury Town at 09:11 and at Westham for the later trains. For the Westham transfers it says "From West Ham Station take the DLR to Canning Town. Change and take the DLR to London City Airport Station".

 

There is 5 minutes between the arrival at Westham on the c2c and the departure on the DLR to London City. Are the platforms close together? Also, are the platforms close together for the change at Canning Town on the DLR?

 

At £6.10 each it's a lot cheaper than a car transfer.

Five minutes might be tight for the changeover at West Ham but I think there's a train every 10 minutes. You need to go down (stairs or lift) from the c2c platform and cross a small concourse, then up (escalator) and along a corridor to the DLR. At Limehouse they are adjacent platforms.

Canning Town is a law unto itself and I'm never sure whether I will need to change or not. I've not been through for a while, but I think the platforms are stacked one above the other with escalators for the changeover.

There is a good map of the DLR here: https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track/dlr which shows how the different tracks run. And an excellent journey planner tool here: https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Personal choice as ever, and I can certainly appreciated wanting to save money, but for us at least, at the end of a cruise we would take a taxi every time.

Hauling our luggage up and down escalators and along platforms, changing trains etc. just takes the edge off the 'holiday' part of the equation :)