Fauntlej

One thing to remember is that everyone tries to get on the ship as soon as possible. If you are staying over night in town, think about not heading over to port until 1:00. Once the crush is over with, the taxis will likely free up. Leave your luggage at your hotel/inn/B&B and walk around town; check out the local Dover museum, pickup some water or wine, etc. I personally prefer getting to the port after the main rush at 11:00. And If you get there at 1:00, you usually can take your luggage straight to your room.

You can walk into port, we saw people doing that. But don't have a lot of luggage. And for people who don't walk much it is a bit of haul. Once we saw where the ship was located we were glad to have a taxi. I found it easy to get a taxi without pre-booking. There are usually taxis outside the train station when the train arrives. And you can call a local taxi and they will send someone. You might have to wait a bit if all taxis are out delivering. Getting into and out of the port was super quick because its not that far away. It took literally 10 minutes for me and my DH to get the the cruise terminal. Remember, this is a small port; there is only one road into it. Here are some local taxi numbers (as of June 2023). We used A2B. Royal Taxis 01304 210000 A2B 01304 225588 Dover Taxis 01304 201915 Star Taxis 01304 228822 County Taxis 01304 208208

You just walk out the door of the terminal and up to the bus, pay the money and get one. There are signs so you can't miss it. It's 10 dollars/euros/or pounds as long as its in cash. No there is no shuttle from the train station to the boat, but there are usually taxies waiting outside when a train arrives.

One my recent cruise we went from Heathrow to Dover. The easiest way is to take the Underground to King's Cross and then walk to St. Pancreas station for the Train. No stairs, just escalators. There is a train that runs on Saturday that takes an hour with no changes, the others take about 2 hours and need to change trains along the way (but that is pretty easy). Expect about 1 hr to get to King's Cross and 10 minutes to walk to St. Pancreas. At King's Cross just follow the ALL trains signs until you see a St. Pancreas sign. The Dover trains are all the way at the end. Order tickets ahead of time to get cheaper rates.

I agree with previous posters that picking up your luggage takes a long time. We waited an hour for luggage after we went through passport control in 5 minutes. Be sure to factor that into what you do next.

Just posted a description of what did for London to Dover at: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2949196-london-to-dover-and-back/ I think it has some of the info you requested about getting there, staying there and returning. Julie

Forgot to mention that the cost of the shuttle to the train is 10 euro/$10/10 lbs. Cash only, so if you have at least one of those you are good to go. Julie

Given the difficulty I had finding good information about getting to Dover and embarking and debarking on the ship I decided to post an update on what happened on my cruise. My DH and I flew into London Heathrow. Customs was so quick now that they do facial recognition off your passport. Too bad baggage claim took so long. We had decided to spend a day or two in Dover before getting on the ship. So we took the Underground to Kings Cross and caught a train at St. Pancreas Station. This was very simple. We picked up an Oyster card at the airport so we could use the Underground and it was waiting sitting on the track when we got to the station. Side note, if you decide you want to use the Elizabeth Line you can take that (nicer trip) but you will have to get off and change to the Underground to get to Kings Cross. Or you can get off at Euston Station and walk about 3 blocks to St. Pancreas Station. Elizabeth Line is about 11 lbs and Tube is about 7 lbs. We booked tickets ahead of time on the Southeastern Train Line to Dover. We booked early and cost us about 50 lbs for two of us in one direction, over 100 lbs roundtrip. This is a commuter train so if you miss the train you can catch the next one with the same ticket. Some trains are fast and take an hour, others are slow and take 2 hrs and you must change trains. You can stand if there are no seats. You should realize that there are steps with the Underground if you chose the Elizabeth. So be prepared to carry your own luggage. Once at Dover we caught a taxi to our hotel. Note: It would have been easier to catch the Carnival Bus from the airport if we arrived the same day as embarkation, but significantly more expensive. And we wanted to spend time in Dover. We stayed at the Best Western, but there are several hotels and some small B&Bs that you can spend the night. One the day of embarkation we were scheduled for the 1:30 slot. We prefer to go later so we can go straight to our room and drop our stuff off before lunch. Our hotel stored our luggage until we left and we went to the town museum before we left. Quite nice and very interesting. We called a taxi when it was time to go and cheaper than the taxi from the train station at 8.5 lbs. Coming back was pretty easy. We wanted to spend a day in London, so we took the train back. I would advise taking the Carnival bus to the airport if you are flying out the same day because training it can take more than 3 hours (train and tube). We had roundtrip train tickets and just got on the first train to London. Be aware not all trains stop at St. Pancreas coming back to London, though all go to one or more of the London terminals. If you don't go to St. Pancreas, realize you will need to take the Underground to Kings Cross to get to Heathrow. You may be able to catch the Elizabeth Line at one of those terminals but we didn't plan on doing that. They start embarking as soon as the ship clears customs, which was 5:15AM on our cruise. They really want you off the ship as quickly as possible. There are busses already out there for the airport and the train station. Cost to train station is 10 lbs. As soon as a bus fills, they leave and a new one pulls up. Breakfast begins at 5:00 (Continental) and 5:30 (buffet) and you have to be out of the room by 8:00. They have express debarkation or you can check your luggage same as any other port. We took our luggage off and hopped on a shuttle to the train and off we went. Hopefully this info will help if you are planning a Dover embarkation. Yours, Julie

I have been slowly getting everything in place for this trip and am really looking forward to it. But I have some transportations questions regarding getting to and from the ship. My husband and I are planning on being in Dover for 2 days before we cruise, staying at the Best Western. What's the best way to get to the cruise terminal? Anyone know if there is a shuttle at that hotel? The website says so, but with everything returning to normal from the pandemic I am not sure it is still running. Is it easy to order a taxi from the hotel to the terminal? On embarkation, we need to get to the Dover train station from the cruise terminal. We plan to spend a few days in London after the cruise. Everyone says to order a taxi before we get there, however it only looks like you order them from the cruise terminal to the airport. Do you have to order a taxi if you are just going to the train station? Do they queue for local taxis vs ones going longer distances? Lastly, how soon does everyone have to be off the ship. It looks like that through you out of the room early so I assume that you must be off by a certain time. We plan to self embark so we have a lot of flexibility. Thanks for any info.