Heathrow to Dover on a Saturday. Train, shuttle or car service?

[cruisinqt]

Our daughters (22 & 25) have decided to join us on our cruise. We are arriving in London several days prior to the cruise and doing some sightseeing. Our daughters are arriving one day prior to the cruise. We want to meet up with them and head over to our hotel in Dover the day they arrive (one day prior to the cruise). Hopefully we can drop our luggage off at the hotel (Best Western Plus in Dover) then head into Canterbury to see Dover castle. Our problem is where to meet up with them and what transportation to use to get to Dover. They will be arriving at Heathrow Airport at 6:25 am on Saturday 8/19/23. Since it’s a Saturday and there won’t be rush hour traffic and it’s the day before the cruise and fairly early in the day we were thinking a car service might be best. We are looking for something quick, easy, and not too overly expensive. We could meet up with the girls at the airport and then use Uber, a shuttle, or a car service to go to Dover. Is this the simplest quickest route? Or should we meet up with them at a train station and take the train? Or is there something else that’s better that you could suggest? We are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge and thought about having the girls meet us there then heading out but my husband wants to go to the airport. He’s worried they will be lost and confused at the airport since this is their first trip overseas. I’m not as worried, they’re extremely smart and graduated at the top of their class in both high school and college. Any suggestions on how to navigate from Heathrow to Dover?

[gumshoe958]

It’s around 100 miles from Heathrow to Dover and takes just under 2 hours to drive if the traffic’s good, more if it’s not (and any journey that involves the M25 London orbital motorway is unpredictable!).

 

An Uber will set you back between US$200-250. A local Dover cab company may do it a bit cheaper if you research online and pre-book.
 

There are regular trains, but not direct so you’d have to change trains in London and use the tube to get to St Pancras, where the trains to Dover leave from. Journey time would be roughly the same. So for four of you I’d get a cab, it would be much simpler and probably roughly the same price.

 

By the way Dover Castle (a must see) is in Dover, not Canterbury! So you can walk there from your hotel - it’s just under a mile although it’s a steepish climb up to the castle. Otherwise the hotel will find you a cab.

 

If you want to visit Canterbury there’s an hourly train from Dover which takes just under half an hour.

[cruisinqt]

2 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

It’s around 100 miles from Heathrow to Dover and takes just under 2 hours to drive if the traffic’s good, more if it’s not (and any journey that involves the M25 London orbital motorway is unpredictable!).

 

An Uber will set you back between US$200-250. A local Dover cab company may do it a bit cheaper if you research online and pre-book.
 

There are regular trains, but not direct so you’d have to change trains in London and use the tube to get to St Pancras, where the trains to Dover leave from. Journey time would be roughly the same. So for four of you I’d get a cab, it would be much simpler and probably roughly the same price.

 

By the way Dover Castle (a must see) is in Dover, not Canterbury! So you can walk there from your hotel - it’s just under a mile although it’s a steepish climb up to the castle. Otherwise the hotel will find you a cab.

 

If you want to visit Canterbury there’s an hourly train from Dover which takes just under half an hour.

Okay so it sounds like we should either meet up at St Pancras station and take the train to Dover from there or meet up at the airport and take a cab or car hire service from there straight to Dover. So those would be my two best choices, right?

 

Sorry about the Dover castle comment. I got Dover castle in Dover and the Abbey and cathedral in Canterbury confused. I meant we were going to Canterbury to see the cathedral and abbey then later we will look at the castle in Dover. 

[gumshoe958]

Spot on.

 

There is an hourly train from St Pancras to Dover which takes just over an hour. No need to book in advance, just buy tickets at the station. It’s £37 per person one way but if the four of you travel together ask for a ticket called Groupsave which gives you about a third off.

 

From Heathrow to central London your daughters can either:

 

- use the tube (cheapest but slowest, and runs direct to St Pancras)

- use the Heathrow Express (fast but expensive, need to change on to the tube at Paddington)

- use the new Elizabeth line (somewhere in the middle, need to change on to the tube at Farringdon)
- take a cab/Uber

For any of the rail options from Heathrow into London, your daughters don’t need to buy an actual ticket. It’s cheaper to use a credit or debit card to “touch in” and “touch out” at the ticket gates. The system will automatically charge them the correct fare. Buying a paper ticket is much more expensive.

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by gumshoe958

[Cotswold Eagle]

14 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

use the Heathrow Express (fast but expensive

Not necessarily expensive. The date mentioned is 19 August. There are Fixed Day tickets (their equivalent of Advance tickets) on the Heathrow Express available for £5-50 on that day. 

 

There may be valid reasons for not recommending the HEX, but cost should seldom be one for anyone planning well in advance.

[John Bull]

As per Gumshoe's post, Heathrow to Dover by public transport is slow & convoluted because there are no direct bus or train options - they all involve travelling into central London from LHR & out again to Dover..

 

The train option suggested by Gumshoe involves a change of stations in central London.

A thru train ticket from LHR to Dover isn't good value - £74 includes the tube from Paddington to St Pancras, but the tube is no fun with luggage & probably simplest to take a taxi from the rank at Paddington. 

So if you choose that route buy separate tickets for LHR to Paddington (book early for best fares) & St Pancras to Dover.

Total journey time I'll guess at somewhere over 2 hrs.

 

By bus from LHR to Dover is via a change of bus at central London's Victoria coach station and isn't practical because there's no suitably timed bus from Victoria to Dover.

 

But a tolerably easy - tho not the quickest - way by public transport from LHR to Dover is a combination of bus and train....................

Frequent National Express  buses from LHR to Victoria coach station (£5 and takes about an hour), then a straightforward & level 10-minute walk from Victoria coach station to Victoria train station for the hourly direct service to Dover. That train takes a hour longer than the 70 minutes for the fast train from St Pancras, so a total travel time of about 4 hrs LHR to Dover.

Victoria is only a couple of miles from your hotel, you could easily meet the girls off their bus from LHR at the coach station, walk to Victoria train station and travel to Dover together  by train.

 

I'm seeing walk-up train fares of around £50 from both St Pancras & Victoria   

(Advance fares  - book from about 8 weeks out & only valid for the train time that you book - are around £25 from St Pancras & £11 from Victoria, but the requirement  to take a set train time makes that incredibly risky when preceded by a long-haul flight, airport formalities, and travel to either of the Dover-bound stations).

 

A simple direct private transfer from LHR to Dover is from around £170, tho there are plenty of operators - mainly Heathrow-based or agencies rather than operators - who'll charge £100 more than that 😟

On a saturday a private transfer knocks a lot off the total journey time (90 minutes vs 2+ hrs via St Pancras or 4 hrs via Victoria.)

Try  http://www.folkestonetaxi.com(add about £30 for Folkestone to Dover),  or https://richardsdovertaxi.co.uk/ 

or https://whitfield-cars-dover.business.site/ 

or https://www.horizonprivatehire.co.uk/airport-transfers-london-transfers 

or https://www.dovertaxis.com/ 

or https://www.edstaxidover.com/ 

All are based at the Dover end, Cruise Critic members have happily used Folkestone taxis, I have no experience of any of them.

https://www.blackberrycars.com/dover-airport/taxi-dover-heathrow-airport/ is probably the best, most up-front & most reliable operator at the LHR end, and often recommended by Cruise Critic members - their rate is £228

 

So I see three choices -

Heathrow Express then tube or taxi to St Pancras then train to Dover,.

Or Nat Express bus to Victoria coach station then short walk to Victoria train station then train to Dover,.

Or private transfer direct from LHR to Dover.

 

https://www.heathrowexpress.com 

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

 

Best to pour a stiff drink before figuring the pros & cons 😀

 

JB 🙂

 

 

[phabric]

International Friends www.Internationalfriends.co.uk also goes from certain London hotels, and selected Heathrow hotels.

 

Maybe John Bull can help where to meet for them?

 

In early 2014, I took National Express Coach from LHR-London Victoria- Dover (ferry terminal).

[cruisinqt]

7 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

Spot on.

 

There is an hourly train from St Pancras to Dover which takes just over an hour. No need to book in advance, just buy tickets at the station. It’s £37 per person one way but if the four of you travel together ask for a ticket called Groupsave which gives you about a third off.

 

From Heathrow to central London your daughters can either:

 

- use the tube (cheapest but slowest, and runs direct to St Pancras)

- use the Heathrow Express (fast but expensive, need to change on to the tube at Paddington)

- use the new Elizabeth line (somewhere in the middle, need to change on to the tube at Farringdon)
- take a cab/Uber

For any of the rail options from Heathrow into London, your daughters don’t need to buy an actual ticket. It’s cheaper to use a credit or debit card to “touch in” and “touch out” at the ticket gates. The system will automatically charge them the correct fare. Buying a paper ticket is much more expensive.

 

My husband has already researched which credit cards have the least fees while being used in London so I’m good there. I had no idea how bad some of these credit cards are when being used out of the country. So we will definitely do the touch in touch out with our credit cards. Thanks for your help. 

[cruisinqt]

4 hours ago, John Bull said:

As per Gumshoe's post, Heathrow to Dover by public transport is slow & convoluted because there are no direct bus or train options - they all involve travelling into central London from LHR & out again to Dover..

 

The train option suggested by Gumshoe involves a change of stations in central London.

A thru train ticket from LHR to Dover isn't good value - £74 includes the tube from Paddington to St Pancras, but the tube is no fun with luggage & probably simplest to take a taxi from the rank at Paddington. 

So if you choose that route buy separate tickets for LHR to Paddington (book early for best fares) & St Pancras to Dover.

Total journey time I'll guess at somewhere over 2 hrs.

 

By bus from LHR to Dover is via a change of bus at central London's Victoria coach station and isn't practical because there's no suitably timed bus from Victoria to Dover.

 

But a tolerably easy - tho not the quickest - way by public transport from LHR to Dover is a combination of bus and train....................

Frequent National Express  buses from LHR to Victoria coach station (£5 and takes about an hour), then a straightforward & level 10-minute walk from Victoria coach station to Victoria train station for the hourly direct service to Dover. That train takes a hour longer than the 70 minutes for the fast train from St Pancras, so a total travel time of about 4 hrs LHR to Dover.

Victoria is only a couple of miles from your hotel, you could easily meet the girls off their bus from LHR at the coach station, walk to Victoria train station and travel to Dover together  by train.

 

I'm seeing walk-up train fares of around £50 from both St Pancras & Victoria   

(Advance fares  - book from about 8 weeks out & only valid for the train time that you book - are around £25 from St Pancras & £11 from Victoria, but the requirement  to take a set train time makes that incredibly risky when preceded by a long-haul flight, airport formalities, and travel to either of the Dover-bound stations).

 

A simple direct private transfer from LHR to Dover is from around £170, tho there are plenty of operators - mainly Heathrow-based or agencies rather than operators - who'll charge £100 more than that 😟

On a saturday a private transfer knocks a lot off the total journey time (90 minutes vs 2+ hrs via St Pancras or 4 hrs via Victoria.)

Try  http://www.folkestonetaxi.com(add about £30 for Folkestone to Dover),  or https://richardsdovertaxi.co.uk/ 

or https://whitfield-cars-dover.business.site/ 

or https://www.horizonprivatehire.co.uk/airport-transfers-london-transfers 

or https://www.dovertaxis.com/ 

or https://www.edstaxidover.com/ 

All are based at the Dover end, Cruise Critic members have happily used Folkestone taxis, I have no experience of any of them.

https://www.blackberrycars.com/dover-airport/taxi-dover-heathrow-airport/ is probably the best, most up-front & most reliable operator at the LHR end, and often recommended by Cruise Critic members - their rate is £228

 

So I see three choices -

Heathrow Express then tube or taxi to St Pancras then train to Dover,.

Or Nat Express bus to Victoria coach station then short walk to Victoria train station then train to Dover,.

Or private transfer direct from LHR to Dover.

 

https://www.heathrowexpress.com 

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

 

Best to pour a stiff drink before figuring the pros & cons 😀

 

JB 🙂

 

 

So if I’m understanding this correctly then if my girls take the train from Heathrow to London it doesn’t go directly to St Pancras and they’ll need to take a bus, Uber, or taxi over to St Pancras. 
 

As far as buses go, there’s no direct route from Heathrow to Dover with them either. And it sounds like there’s timing issues too. 
And I’m not crazy about the bus train combo with Victoria station because it wastes so much time traveling. 
 

Im leaning towards doing a private transfer from Heathrow straight to Dover. Their flight arrives at 6:45 am (on a Saturday) so we could get on the road fairly early (hopefully avoiding the heavier traffic) and arrive in Dover early enough to do a lot of sightseeing. 

If we decide to meet up with our daughters at Heathrow what would be our best option for traveling there from our hotel? We are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. Is there a train or bus near our hotel or would we be better off using Uber or a taxi? We will have suitcases but nothing crazy, we aren’t over packers. Probably one large suitcase and a carry on for each of us. 

 

 

 

[phabric]

14 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

 

If we decide to meet up with our daughters at Heathrow what would be our best option for traveling there from our hotel? We are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. Is there a train or bus near our hotel or would we be better off using Uber or a taxi? We will have suitcases but nothing crazy, we aren’t over packers. Probably one large suitcase and a carry on for each of us. 

 

 

 

I have stayed at that hotel and another hotel in the area and took a car service 

www.justairports.com from hotel to LHR for £30-40 at that time 

[gumshoe958]

56 minutes ago, cruisinqt said:

So if I’m understanding this correctly then if my girls take the train from Heathrow to London it doesn’t go directly to St Pancras and they’ll need to take a bus, Uber, or taxi over to St Pancras. 

The Piccadilly line tube runs direct from Heathrow to St Pancras in just over an hour. Trains run every 5-10 minutes.
 

The faster trains (the Heathrow Express and the Elizabeth line) do not run direct to St Pancras so on arrival in central London your girls would have to transfer to the tube, a bus or a cab to get there.

 

As far as buses go, there’s no direct route from Heathrow to Dover with them either. And it sounds like there’s timing issues too. 
And I’m not crazy about the bus train combo with Victoria station because it wastes so much time traveling. 

 

There’s no direct bus, no. And I’d agree. It’s a very slow option, albeit the cheapest one.
 

Im leaning towards doing a private transfer from Heathrow straight to Dover. Their flight arrives at 6:45 am (on a Saturday) so we could get on the road fairly early (hopefully avoiding the heavier traffic) and arrive in Dover early enough to do a lot of sightseeing. 

That would be the simplest and quickest option, yes. I’d endorse JB’s suggestion of pre-booking with a local Dover cab firm. Probably cheaper than an Uber.

If we decide to meet up with our daughters at Heathrow what would be our best option for traveling there from our hotel? We are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. Is there a train or bus near our hotel or would we be better off using Uber or a taxi? We will have suitcases but nothing crazy, we aren’t over packers. Probably one large suitcase and a carry on for each of us. 

 

At that time in the morning I’d just use an Uber or pre-book a private transfer.
 

None of the trains to Heathrow stop especially close to your hotel so you’d need to use the tube/bus to get to the nearest station and given the early hour you’ll probably just want to get there quickly. It should be about a 45 minute drive.

 

Make sure you know which terminal at Heathrow your daughters are arriving at. If they’re flying British Airways it’ll probably be Terminal 5 which is some distance from Terminal 2 (United) and Terminal 3 (American, Virgin, Delta).
 

 

 

See my answers in red above.

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by gumshoe958

[John Bull]

5 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

See my answers in red above.

 

 

 

Yes, my bad - with all the hurrah over the new Elizabeth Line, I forgot the Piccadilly line from Heathrow which continues past the West End to St Pancras & beyond. 🙄

 Heathrow is the terminal for the Piccadilly Line, tube trains from T4 & T5  every 4 to 5 minutes call at T2/3 (thus every 2 to 3 minutes from there). Since they'll be boarding at the start of the line, no worries about getting seats or grouping luggage around them. Will get busier as it gets toward central London but being a saturday morning won't be packed. I don't know the exits at St Pancras, but they're usually luggage-friendly at mainline stations - elevators & escalators.

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf

Piccadilly line is the navy blue one, Heathrow at the left-hand end.

So have a re-think about Gumshoe's suggestion.

 

The tube from Park Plaza Westminster to Heathrow or St Pancras can start at Waterloo tube station or across Westminster Bridge at Westminster tube station, but any route requires a change of train. Perhaps a Londoner can advise.

 

Phabric's £30 to £40 for a pre-booked car to Heathrow (16 miles) will be a little out-of-date, now more like £50.

To St Pancras is just 3 miles, so less than half the price even in a metered London black cab hailed in the street. And easier on your time as well as your pocket.

 

JB 🙂

 

[gumshoe958]

The easiest tube/train options to Heathrow from the Park Plaza would be:

 

- walk across Westminster Bridge to Westminster station. Westbound District line tube to Barons Court, then easy cross-platform transfer to Piccadilly line to the airport.

 

- or, also from Westminster station, westbound Circle line tube to Paddington, then Elizabeth line or Heathrow Express train to the airport.

[cruisinqt]

4 hours ago, phabric said:

I have stayed at that hotel and another hotel in the area and took a car service 

www.justairports.com from hotel to LHR for £30-40 at that time 

Thanks I’ll look them up 

[cruisinqt]

4 hours ago, gumshoe958 said:

See my answers in red above.

 

We are all flying American Airlines so now I know to go to terminal 3, thanks. 

[Murt]

On 1/31/2023 at 6:25 AM, John Bull said:

As per Gumshoe's post, Heathrow to Dover by public transport is slow & convoluted because there are no direct bus or train options - they all involve travelling into central London from LHR & out again to Dover..

 

The train option suggested by Gumshoe involves a change of stations in central London.

A thru train ticket from LHR to Dover isn't good value - £74 includes the tube from Paddington to St Pancras, but the tube is no fun with luggage & probably simplest to take a taxi from the rank at Paddington. 

So if you choose that route buy separate tickets for LHR to Paddington (book early for best fares) & St Pancras to Dover.

Total journey time I'll guess at somewhere over 2 hrs.

 

By bus from LHR to Dover is via a change of bus at central London's Victoria coach station and isn't practical because there's no suitably timed bus from Victoria to Dover.

 

But a tolerably easy - tho not the quickest - way by public transport from LHR to Dover is a combination of bus and train....................

Frequent National Express  buses from LHR to Victoria coach station (£5 and takes about an hour), then a straightforward & level 10-minute walk from Victoria coach station to Victoria train station for the hourly direct service to Dover. That train takes a hour longer than the 70 minutes for the fast train from St Pancras, so a total travel time of about 4 hrs LHR to Dover.

Victoria is only a couple of miles from your hotel, you could easily meet the girls off their bus from LHR at the coach station, walk to Victoria train station and travel to Dover together  by train.

 

I'm seeing walk-up train fares of around £50 from both St Pancras & Victoria   

(Advance fares  - book from about 8 weeks out & only valid for the train time that you book - are around £25 from St Pancras & £11 from Victoria, but the requirement  to take a set train time makes that incredibly risky when preceded by a long-haul flight, airport formalities, and travel to either of the Dover-bound stations).

 

A simple direct private transfer from LHR to Dover is from around £170, tho there are plenty of operators - mainly Heathrow-based or agencies rather than operators - who'll charge £100 more than that 😟

On a saturday a private transfer knocks a lot off the total journey time (90 minutes vs 2+ hrs via St Pancras or 4 hrs via Victoria.)

Try  http://www.folkestonetaxi.com(add about £30 for Folkestone to Dover),  or https://richardsdovertaxi.co.uk/ 

or https://whitfield-cars-dover.business.site/ 

or https://www.horizonprivatehire.co.uk/airport-transfers-london-transfers 

or https://www.dovertaxis.com/ 

or https://www.edstaxidover.com/ 

All are based at the Dover end, Cruise Critic members have happily used Folkestone taxis, I have no experience of any of them.

https://www.blackberrycars.com/dover-airport/taxi-dover-heathrow-airport/ is probably the best, most up-front & most reliable operator at the LHR end, and often recommended by Cruise Critic members - their rate is £228

 

So I see three choices -

Heathrow Express then tube or taxi to St Pancras then train to Dover,.

Or Nat Express bus to Victoria coach station then short walk to Victoria train station then train to Dover,.

Or private transfer direct from LHR to Dover.

 

https://www.heathrowexpress.com 

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

https://www.nationalexpress.com/en

 

Best to pour a stiff drink before figuring the pros & cons 😀

 

JB 🙂

 

 

This is some very good information. Think we are going to use Blackberry car for our transfer from Heathrow to Dover. Seems to be the least mind damaging way to get to Dover 😊😜👍

[John Bull]

1 minute ago, Murt said:

This is some very good information. Think we are going to use Blackberry car for our transfer from Heathrow to Dover. Seems to be the least mind damaging way to get to Dover 😊😜👍

 

I made no mention of ship's cruise transfer bus, because the OP isn't travelling on their cruise departure day.

 

But if you're flying in and cruising same-day this is one of the rare routes where I advise ship's transfer bus as  the best choice, certainly for singletons and couples (a private transfer is likely to be cheaper for larger groups.

 

JB 🙂

[Murt]

1 hour ago, John Bull said:

 

I made no mention of ship's cruise transfer bus, because the OP isn't travelling on their cruise departure day.

 

But if you're flying in and cruising same-day this is one of the rare routes where I advise ship's transfer bus as  the best choice, certainly for singletons and couples (a private transfer is likely to be cheaper for larger groups.

 

JB 🙂

We are arriving the day prior. 🙂   We have a non-stop flight from Denver, Colorado to Heathrow, wanted to try and eliminate as many chances of a flight delay or lost luggage.  Thank you for your advise.

[scottbee]

Another option is

Elizabeth Line -> Tottenham Court Road

Northern LIne -> Charing Cross Station (just two stops, or even walk it)

Charing Cross -> Dover Priory

 

The first two are a single ticket on TFL (Transport for London); the latter a ticket on

What you run into is the problem with a lot of London Rail.  The country is divided (historically) by the railway operators into different slices, and each direction in/out of London tends to use a different London terminus. While some European cities have a 'central' station, London has about a dozen (Waterloo, , Charing Cross, Victoria, Paddington, Marylebone, Euston, St Pancras, Kings Cross, Liverpool St, Fenchurch St, London Bridge....); each serving a different wedge of the country

 

[Fauntlej]

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. 

[phabric]

International Friends go on embarkment and disembarkment days to/from certain London hotels, LHR hotels, Dover and Southampton.  They have stops along the way.

 

A great way to see another part of Britain to/from London, Southampton and Dover.

 

I have taken them from Dover and Southampton then being dropped off at the door of my London hotel.

 

www.internationafriends.co.uk

Edited July 8, 2023 by phabric

[Cotswold Eagle]

15 hours ago, Fauntlej said:

St. Pancreas station

I am sure you’re the victim of autocorrect, but to avoid confusion the station is called St Pancras 😀

[John Bull]

On 7/9/2023 at 8:17 AM, Cotswold Eagle said:

I am sure you’re the victim of autocorrect, but to avoid confusion the station is called St Pancras 😀

 

How very diplomatically put 😏

 

JB 🙂

Fauntlej - on Cruise Critic, St Pancreas instead of St Pancras comes third-only to Southhampton instead of Southampton and Le Harve instead of Le Havre.

[Hatch54]

I thought I would just add on to this thread instead of making a new one since my question is basically the same as the OP (hope you had a great cruise by the way) just in reverse.  We are planning for July of 2024 and would really like to fly back home the same day the cruise disembarks.  However flights late that evening are much more expensive as of now. The best flight coming up for us leaves Heathrow at 12:50. Is it even feasible to disembark in Dover in the morning and make that flight? I'm assuming a private transfer would be the way to go and it is a Sunday if that makes a difference in traffic. The ship is listed as arriving in dover at 5:00 that morning. If there are transfer buses running as early as 6:00 or so I guess that would make it much easier, just don't know if they do. Any suggestions are appreciated.

[gumshoe958]

21 minutes ago, Hatch54 said:

I thought I would just add on to this thread instead of making a new one since my question is basically the same as the OP (hope you had a great cruise by the way) just in reverse.  We are planning for July of 2024 and would really like to fly back home the same day the cruise disembarks.  However flights late that evening are much more expensive as of now. The best flight coming up for us leaves Heathrow at 12:50. Is it even feasible to disembark in Dover in the morning and make that flight? I'm assuming a private transfer would be the way to go and it is a Sunday if that makes a difference in traffic. The ship is listed as arriving in dover at 5:00 that morning. If there are transfer buses running as early as 6:00 or so I guess that would make it much easier, just don't know if they do. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Traffic should be quiet on a Sunday morning, although the M25 London orbital motorway is notorious for delays even at off-peak times.

A private transfer would be safest - I wouldn’t rely on cruise line shuttle buses getting you there in time unless they specifically tell you otherwise. I doubt they’d run buses any earlier than 7, potentially even 8. A bus leaving at 7 would be fine, 8 would make me nervous.

 

All being well it’s about a 2 hour drive so as long as you’re on the road not long after 7.30 you should be fine. You may want to carry your own luggage off the ship to speed things up. 
 

Edited September 12, 2023 by gumshoe958