June 5, 2016 - Magic Goes to England, Ireland, Scotland and France

[Mickey&JoshNut]

Me and my mom are on this cruise! But I need to get through the Norway/Iceland cruise this June first! The port adventure that is up is for Kirkwall, which we are visiting on the Iceland cruise. So we will be able to bring back reports on that port! I am very excited for the British Isles. I don't have a bucket list of places... but if I did this would be on it.

Debbie

Hi Debbie & Jeanette!!!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

My Mom (Margaret) and I are booked on this cruise as well...I am super excited to be able to take my Mom to Scotland as her parents (my grandparents) were born in Buckie and Portknockie....

Welcome Elaine and Elaine's mom

 

[nzdisneymom]

Because I haven't yet memorized it, I needed a list of our itinerary. If you're like me, it helps for planning to know where I'll be which day (and day of the week) so when I'm looking at possible activities for each port, I won't try to plan something on a day things are closed.

Sunday June 5, 2016: Dover, England – All aboard: 4:00 p.m.

Monday June 6, 2016 At Sea

Tuesday June 7, 2016 Newcastle, England 8:15 a.m. 4:30 p.m.

Wednesday June 8, 2016 Invergordon (Loch Ness), Scotland 8:15 a.m. 4:45 p.m.

Thursday June 9, 2016 Kirkwall, Scotland 8:15 a.m. 4:45 p.m.

Friday June 10, 2016 At Sea

Saturday June 11, 2016 Greenock (Glasgow & Edinburgh), Scotland 8:15 a.m. 4:45 p.m.

Sunday June 12, 2016 Liverpool, England 8:15 a.m. 4:45 p.m.

Monday June 13, 2016 Dublin, Ireland 8:15 a.m. 5:15 p.m.

Tuesday June 14, 2016 At Sea

Wednesday June 15, 2016 Le Havre (Paris), France 7:15 a.m. 10:45 p.m.

Thursday June 16, 2016 St. Peter Port, Guernsey* 8:15 a.m. 4:30 p.m.

Friday June 17 Dover, England – Disembark 7:00 a.m

 

[Alohagirl73]

Only 62 weeks until we set sail!!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

There are reports of Disney Stores in both Dublin and Liverpool! Of course there is also at least one in London!

 

[DisneyDDS]

We're going!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

We're going!!

Welcome!

 

[MPS516]

Cam,

On roll call can you change DD to Jessi with an i, my fault, spell changed to e and i did not catch it.

Thanks,

 

[DL1957]

Hi this is will be our 15th DCL cruise not as many as some. DH and I are going with DH, DSIS and DBIL. We are taking two cruises in 2015 Western Caribean with SIS DNiece, her husband and two boys; and the Copenhagen to Dover route. We wanted to see Stonehenge this year but it did not work and we made the comment next time in London little did we expect it to be the next year! Sue

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi this is will be our 15th DCL cruise not as many as some. DH and I are going with DH, DSIS and DBIL. We are taking two cruises in 2015 Western Caribean with SIS DNiece, her husband and two boys; and the Copenhagen to Dover route. We wanted to see Stonehenge this year but it did not work and we made the comment next time in London little did we expect it to be the next year! Sue

Sue - welcome! How exciting to have the Copenhagen to Dover route this year - next year you'll literally "pick up where you left off"
In 2010 we had booked a post-cruise DCL excursion for a castle tour for our extra day in London but it fell through. We talked to the concierge at our hotel and he hooked us up with a tour to Stonehenge - it was our favorite unexpected day! Definitely worth getting out there to see it!

We are renewing passports today.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Some planning information you all might find useful for Dover:

1. Link to The White Cliffs Dover Hotel & Guest House Group which has various accommodations for Dover: http://www.stayindover.co.uk/accommodation.php - many won't start taking reservations until the fall, so mark your calendars if you want to try to stay in Dover.

2. Port of Dover and Cruise Terminal: http://www.doverport.co.uk/ - they don't go out to June 2016 yet, but there's good information about the terminal itself and links to area attractions. When we sail out of Port Canaveral, it's just a launching point, but when we do cruises from other places, we don't want to skip the embarkation port as a port of call. We missed Dover as a port of call in 2010 because we spent our time in London, but this time we're going to see Dover!

3. How to get to Dover Cruise Terminal by Train, Taxi, Air: http://www.doverport.co.uk/cruise/how-to-get-here/

The Pre-Cruise Arrival Guide that is available when you pull up your reservation on DCL also has information about how to get from Gatwick and Heathrow and Central London.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Thinking about where to fly from and where to fly into. We prefer non-stop and all of our trips to Europe have been on Delta from Atlanta. When we went in 2010, we had DCL do the airfare for us and they flew us into Gatwick but home from Heathrow. I was checking flights and Delta nonstop from ATL appears to only go into Heathrow. But Gatwick is closer to Dover. I noticed that they had a connecting flight that went through Orlando. Orlando is actually about 45 minutes closer to us than Atlanta is, so I checked the nonstop flights from MCO to Gatwick and they run a few hundred dollars per ticket less than from ATL AND the flight time is a little bit shorter.

We always go to our departure city the night before, sometimes just do a one-way car rental rather than parking our car at the airport, and spend the night at a hotel. So I'm thinking we have DVC points so maybe we should get a DVC room for the night before our flight and the night we return before making the drive home! Since we didn't use our DVC points to book the cruise, this might be a great way to use them to help offset some of the expense we incur for our convenience.

 

[MandJHuff]

Complete idiot here. Did not even think about using my DVC points for a room in London. Wonder if availability will be a big issue, or else the Royal Garden Hotel looks very nice, and since we are not using the points for the cruise, we should have access to plenty.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Complete idiot here. Did not even think about using my DVC points for a room in London. Wonder if availability will be a big issue, or else the Royal Garden Hotel looks very nice, and since we are not using the points for the cruise, we should have access to plenty.

Definitely worth checking into - let us know what you figure out. Of course if you have the $95 booking fee (would that apply for Concierge Collection) or RCI exchange, well, that's still better than paying full cash for the accommodations!

We have decided to stay in Dover and made tentative arrangements at one of the local B/B's. DH is excited about seeing the Dover area, particularly the castle.

 

[MandJHuff]

Of course if you have the $95 booking fee (would that apply for Concierge Collection) or RCI exchange.

I did take into consideration of the $95 booking fee, and figure that is well worth it if I can get two nights. I checked for this summers (same dates, so trying to get an educated guess) and the cheapest room was 221 GBP, so well over $500. I know there will be cheaper options, but for the $95, I think it might be a good way to go. Wife wants to spends a couple days in London as it will be her first trip overseas.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I did take into consideration of the $95 booking fee, and figure that is well worth it if I can get two nights. I checked for this summers (same dates, so trying to get an educated guess) and the cheapest room was 221 GBP, so well over $500. I know there will be cheaper options, but for the $95, I think it might be a good way to go. Wife wants to spends a couple days in London as it will be her first trip overseas.

Mike, then I would definitely try to get in with DVC points! $95 for the two nights is a steal since you have the points to use! We own at Saratoga Springs so will book the nights we need at eleven months out.

 

[nzdisneymom]

-- deleted -- found my answer --

 

[nzdisneymom]

We have made a provisional booking for our two nights in Dover at the Churchill Guest House. While they don't start taking reservations until September, they have penciled us in. It's not too early to start making contact with possible lodging places - I wanted to go ahead and find a place that would meet our room needs so I have time to follow their reviews. We're also looking at transportation options from Gatwick to Dover and will be looking for reviews of private transportation options. If we find other DISers will be on the same flight as us and also going into Dover, we are absolutely open to sharing transportation to lower the per person cost. I know it's a long way out, but air fare is usually available to start booking at 11 months from return date (depending on the airline), so we'll be able to start looking at actual flights (rather than similar) before too long.

 

[Kim3]

Hello!

Reporting in for roll call! I'm still in shock that we pulled the trigger on this trip, as we just had 7 days on the Magic in January and figured it would be another 2 years until we cruised with Disney again. This itinerary was just too good to pass up!

It'll be me, my DH, and two DS, aged 8 and 10 at the time we'll cruise.

I'm betting against the winter weather here in Chicago, as the last two years have been so bad, school went a week longer to accommodate snow days. If we have more than one snow day in 2015/16, then my kids are missing the last day(s) of school!

Kim

 

[MandJHuff]

Janet here.. in the beginning phase of planning this trip and I am already feeling SOOOOO overwhelmed! Gosh so much to consider! Did anyone see that there are two nights that have pirate parties on the schedule? Maybe the final night hasn't been picked yet? I can't imagine they would do 2?