Dover-London advice

[rimau]

We will be debarking in Dover on Thursday, August 25. We will be spending three nights in London. I need advice about what is a reasonable time to book either the train or bus to the Victoria Station area, taking into consideration baggage retrieval, customs and transportation to the station. Any assistance is appreciated.

[phabric]

I cann't give you timing as we used Princess' transfer to Heathrow. There was no customs to go through at Dover or Southampton. Dover is a small dock. It use to be a train station. If you take the National Express coach to London, you would need to take a taxi to the Ferry Terminal to board the coach as the coach does not stop at the cruise terminal.

[2irisheyes]

If you wish to self-disembark you should be able to get off as early as 7.30, take a taxi to the coach or train station (between £5 and £10) and take a coach or train about 8.30 depending on timetable. We have done this as we were able to handle our own bags and there was no queue (line) for taxis at that time. If you do not want to do it this way then just check the disembarkation time you are given and if it is too late for you you can ask for it to be changed. If doing it this way you could take a coach/train about 10 or 10.30 am allowing about an hour to get off the ship, find luggage and take taxi to either station. National Express coaches (buses) take longer than train to Waterloo Station but with bags it is sometimes easier as the driver loads and offloads the bags. On the train you will have to do this yourself. Have a look at the National Express website. There are reduced fares for over sixties - select "routesixty". Good luck.

[Giantfan13]

It really depends on how much of a rush you are to get off the ship and to London. We also did a post cruise stay in London, but we were in no great hurry to disembark the ship. We like to eat breakfast on the ship, and relax a bit before we had to leave. I believe we booked the 9:30 or 10:00 bus to London. Once off the ship, you need to grab a taxi (there are plenty there) to get you to either the bus or train station, maybe a 10 minute ride. As long as you are off by 9:00 you should have no problem with the bus anytime after that. Usually by that time, most of the luggage is off the ship and ready to be picked up.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[CanWeGoYet?]

We took the train from Dover to the Victoria Station in London, it was a breeze.

We did stay overnight in Dover to tour 2 local castles, I think it was noon or early afternoon on a saturday when we boarded the train.

If you are headed to London with all your cruise luggage, it should not be hard if it's a weekend. The train was nearly empty until we got close to London - even then it was not crowded. It would be hard though on a week day I hear, because the train is full of commuters.

We got a super discount rate because of the weekend, there were no stairs to haul the luggage on to, to board the train. The platform was level, which really helped. We had a lot of luggage & I had fears of us hauling bags up the stairs, & one of us getting left behind if the doors shut too quickly! No worries, the conductor keeps an eye out & we had plenty of room for us & luggage.

I hear there is a weight limit on bags for the bus, and can't remember the details but know that it is more strict than for the airlines. The train was so modern & clean, & we got to watch the countryside on the way to london. There was a cart coming round with snacks & beverages, for a fee. We got a direct route to Victoria station, if you ask for one you won't have to do any transfers.

[Giantfan13]

There is a weight limit for bags on the National Express Bus, but it is no where near the way airlines do things. The bags are usually just taken and stowed under the bus and unless you have some tremendous heavy bags there just take them and stow them. There is no where to weight a bag the way the sir-lines might do, it is all judgement by the driver and usually most bags are just taken the way they are.

 

Cheers

Len

[Nebr.cruiser]

You will most likely go through customs on the ship the day before disembarkation--at least we have for the two cruise where we got off in the UK., so no wait to go through customs at the dock.

 

When we got off in Dover we were out of the building about 9, even counting an extra hour or so waiting to get pounds because the exchange in the terminal building ran out of money. (In retrospect I wouldn't wait again, just ask our driver to get us to an ATM, but at that time I'd never used an ATM!)

 

We toured Dover and stayed overnight in Canterbury and took the National Express bus to London the next day. The bus was not crowded and there were no issues with luggage--we each had one bag weighing around 50 pounds plus a carry-on. It was nice that the driver handled the bags for us.