Will we make the flight?

[chez]

We are looking into making our flight arrangements for our upcoming Vineyards and Vista crusie on Regatta in May. Getting to Barcelona is no problem, but we are concerned with making it to Heathrow from Dover with enough time to make a noon flight back to Newark. Regatta arrives in Dover at 6:00 AM (according to the itinerary). Allowing 2 hours to get off the ship and another 2 hours to travel to Heathrow, we COULD get there around 10:00 AM (on a Wednesday). I asked our TA to call Oceania, and the response from them was to plan on a flight no earlier than 3:00 PM. Does this sound right? If so, we will need to book a 4:00 PM flight and will have lots of time to kill at Heathrow. Your thoughts?

[FlyerTalker]

Just because it shows a docking time of 6am doesn't mean that you can depart the ship at that time. You have no idea when they plan to have you leave the ship. You may very well have immigration and customs issues upon landing as well.

 

Here's the crucial question....if the cruiseline gives you a recommendation, do you have any information that would supersede what they tell you.

[orchestrapal]

If you're not flying business or first class Heathrow requires check-in 3 hours

before flight time. The lines can be unbelievable if you're not in a priority line.

I think you'll enjoy yout cruise more if you don't have to worry about a noon flight.:)

[chez]

We will be flying Business Class; however, taking the later flight will certainly eliminate the stress of "making the flight". Now there will be boredom of waiting all day for the 4:00 PM flight! Sounds like there is no perfect solution.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Depending on the airline you're flying, there will probably be a business class lounge at least for you to assuage your boredom. I would never book a noon flight at Heathrow coming in from Dover, so I agree with the advice of others.

[chez]

Thank you all for the advice. We will book the 4:00 PM flight. We are looking forward to this cruise - our 7th with Oceania.

[Ms Understood]

LHR is not a bad place to hang around. Lots of interesting shopping, branch of Harrod's for instance. And the Biz Class lounges are very nice. I would definitely opt for the later flight and no stress.

----------------

Helen

[LHT28]

We are looking into making our flight arrangements for our upcoming Vineyards and Vista crusie on Regatta in May. Getting to Barcelona is no problem, but we are concerned with making it to Heathrow from Dover with enough time to make a noon flight back to Newark. Regatta arrives in Dover at 6:00 AM (according to the itinerary).

 

When we did a British Isles cruise we were off the cruise & on the bus at 6:15 am at LHR at 8:30 (our driver got lost ) I suspect we would have been there earlier. Our flight was also noon.

Since you are coming from BCN you may be a bit longer getting cleared but I would not think 2 hrs.

 

Do not forget there is less than 700 passenger to clear not thousands;)

[Marebear]

If you hire a private car to take you to the airport, you can make a stop en route to LHR in Canterbury for a brief visit and/or lunch, or any other place for that matter. Private cars are not much more expensive in Dover than the ship's transfers.

[chez]

We will be 3 couples travelling together so the private car/van is probably a good idea.

[Cheesi]

chez - we're on the same cruise you are. We're actually thinking of leaving the ship in Rouen and flying back from Paris instead of doing the Dover to LHR jaunt. I know a lot of people think CDG is just as bad as LHR, but we thought it was actually easier. Haven't completely made up our mind yet, but thought I'd mention it to you as another option.

[orchestrapal]

Just one person's opinion but as far as I'm concerned Paris CD is the worst airport in all of Europe.

Heathrow has never been a problem for us in over 20 arrivals and departures from there.:)

[Fetchpeople]

I have recently returned from an O cruise that ended in Dover. A number of passengers, including friends of mine, had flights leaving from Heathrow as early as 10:30 AM. No one missed their flight. They all arranged for private transfers, which were wating when the ship cleared, before 6 AM.

 

The scheduled docking was 5:00 AM, so the 6 AM pickup allowed time for bags to be off loaded.

 

If you are pinched for time, you can keep your bags with you and take them off the ship yourself.

 

The wildcard: the docking was on a Saturday when traffic is much lighter.

 

Personally, I used the ship's transfers which called for a 7:30 AM bus. It left on time, arrived at the airport in less than 2 hours, delayed only by the driver mistakenly entering an airport construction area. With my flight not scheduled to leave until 1:30 PM, needlesss to say there was more than enough time, too much in fact, at Heathrow.

[digby]

LHR is the worst airport I've ever been to on any continent! My last time there it took TWO hours to go from my Iberia arrival gate to my UAL departure gate without leaving security. I avoid LHR unless there is no other way.

[spindrift]

Charles deGaulle was the worst EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

Just had to say this.

[Sbecker604]

My DW and I were on the recent London to London cruise that ended in Dover. Without any guidance from the cruise line prior to reserving our flights, I booked a 9:00 AM flight out of Gatwick. It was very tight, but we hired a private car and flew off the ship as soon as it was cleared by the port authorities. However, this was on a Saturday. If I had to do it again, I probably would not book anything before 12:00.

[bbwex]

We were just on the Baltic cruise, and though the ship was due into Dover at 4 AM, we arrived around 1 AM or so. We had someone who had a 1:00 flight, and we had arranged a private car for 8:00. Those of us sharing the ride told the ship (in the departure sheet) that we wanted to get off at 7:30. There was no problem at all. That being said, we got back on a Saturday and there were no traffic problems. We were at Heathrow at 9:30, checked in at 10!

 

Heathrow is very efficient, particularly if you have your boarding passes already (we did them onboard).

 

I will note that even though we used a private van, some of the ship's buses were there before we were -- first departures were around 6:30 or so.

 

You do have to clear UK Immigration which is done in the Regatta lounge. For our cruise, that was started at 6 and ran until 7. Everyone had to appear individually for a "face-to-face" clearance. That took all of five minutes, so we were cleared at 6:05 and then went back to have breakfast (which started at 5 on departure day).