Cruise ship transfer to the port

[FSU Girl]

I know Disney offers transfer to the port, which I think I declined for my European cruise. I was wondering can I change my mind later on and add this transfer? Or does it need to be booked when the cruise is booked? I've never done one of these before, do they normally start at the airport and then go to the port? We will be arriving in London a few days before, but it would probably be easier to get to Dover with the cruise than figuring it out ourselves. Would we just head back to the airport to catch this transfer bus?

 

[Ralph&Pam]

I know Disney offers transfer to the port, which I think I declined for my European cruise. I was wondering can I change my mind later on and add this transfer? Or does it need to be booked when the cruise is booked? I've never done one of these before, do they normally start at the airport and then go to the port? We will be arriving in London a few days before, but it would probably be easier to get to Dover with the cruise than figuring it out ourselves. Would we just head back to the airport to catch this transfer bus?

You can add transfers later, so you can still do this. You could certainly connect at the airport. It may also be possible to connect at whatever London hotel DCL uses, although this might be restricted to hotel guests who have booked through DCL. Call DCL and ask.

 

[FSU Girl]

You can add transfers later, so you can still do this. You could certainly connect at the airport. It may also be possible to connect at whatever London hotel DCL uses, although this might be restricted to hotel guests who have booked through DCL. Call DCL and ask.

Thanks! The hotels to book through Disney, how do I find out what those are? I'm guessing nothing is released yet since it's over a year away still.

 

[Ralph&Pam]

Thanks! The hotels to book through Disney, how do I find out what those are? I'm guessing nothing is released yet since it's over a year away still.

Simplest to just call DCL to get this information. I would not be surprised to find that they have the hotel(s) already identified, since many guests book their cruises so far in advance and at least some like to get pricing on the entire package settled. For this year’s British Isles cruise, the London pick-up point for guests not staying at a DCL hotel is the Doubletree Victoria Hotel.

 

[scgustafson]

On our 12-night Med cruise from Barcelona to Venice in 2014, I was supposed to meet my wife and daughter in London at Heathrow and fly with them to Barcelona the day before our cruise. (Since I had to work, they went over to London and Paris before the cruise and were flying from Paris to Barcelona via Heathrow on British Airways, and I was on the British Airways Phoenix non-stop to Heathrow (LHR) and would join them on the same flight to Barcelona. The BA PHX-LHR flight the day before mine was cancelled due to maintenance issues, so when the LHR-PHX flight arrived that was supposed to be mine, BA used that plane for the day-before-flight passengers and had our flight wait for their plane to be repaired [not sure why BA decided to make two 747s of passengers upset instead of just making the original planeload a little madder that they were delayed longer] which was supposed to be a two-hour delay for us. Needless to say, we did not get out until 6 hours later, so by the time I got to Heathrow, all of the flights that day to Barcelona had left [including the one with my wife and daughter], so BA put me up for the night and on the first flight of the morning to Barcelona, which was maintenance delayed.) Since I was supposed to meet them and it did not work out that way, they had all of the Euros and I had none. At baggage claim in Barcelona, I went over to the DCL reps for the ground transfer and asked if I could get on it, which they did, and even better, they let me charge the transfer to my cabin.

So the point of my long story, is that you can get on a DCL transfer in Europe without a reservation on the day of embarkation; however, I would get a reservation ahead of time if that is the way you know you want to go.

For our inaugural 12-night British Isles cruise in 2016, we arrived the day before, stayed at the Heathrow Terminal 5 Sofitel, and had reservations for a DCL transfer to Dover. We met the DCL reps in the Terminal 5 arrival area just outside of the Customs area (outside of security area) for our almost 2-hour trip (including a mid-trip rest area stop) to the Port of Dover.

 

[FSU Girl]

On our 12-night Med cruise from Barcelona to Venice in 2014, I was supposed to meet my wife and daughter in London at Heathrow and fly with them to Barcelona the day before our cruise. (Since I had to work, they went over to London and Paris before the cruise and were flying from Paris to Barcelona via Heathrow on British Airways, and I was on the British Airways Phoenix non-stop to Heathrow (LHR) and would join them on the same flight to Barcelona. The BA PHX-LHR flight the day before mine was cancelled due to maintenance issues, so when the LHR-PHX flight arrived that was supposed to be mine, BA used that plane for the day-before-flight passengers and had our flight wait for their plane to be repaired [not sure why BA decided to make two 747s of passengers upset instead of just making the original planeload a little madder that they were delayed longer] which was supposed to be a two-hour delay for us. Needless to say, we did not get out until 6 hours later, so by the time I got to Heathrow, all of the flights that day to Barcelona had left [including the one with my wife and daughter], so BA put me up for the night and on the first flight of the morning to Barcelona, which was maintenance delayed.) Since I was supposed to meet them and it did not work out that way, they had all of the Euros and I had none. At baggage claim in Barcelona, I went over to the DCL reps for the ground transfer and asked if I could get on it, which they did, and even better, they let me charge the transfer to my cabin.

So the point of my long story, is that you can get on a DCL transfer in Europe without a reservation on the day of embarkation; however, I would get a reservation ahead of time if that is the way you know you want to go.

For our inaugural 12-night British Isles cruise in 2016, we arrived the day before, stayed at the Heathrow Terminal 5 Sofitel, and had reservations for a DCL transfer to Dover. We met the DCL reps in the Terminal 5 arrival area just outside of the Customs area (outside of security area) for our almost 2-hour trip (including a mid-trip rest area stop) to the Port of Dover.

Wow that is quite the adventure you had! We're arriving in Europe a week before the cruise so hopefully won't have any travel issues. That's good to know you can get on without a reservation, but it does make sense to book ahead since I know I'll be doing it. I tried clicking on the add ground transportation and it just brought me back to the main cruise page, so I'm thinking it's too early to book? Or the website is being glitchy. I normally don't do ground transfers, but the port is so far from London it makes sense in this case.

 

[scgustafson]

Wow that is quite the adventure you had! We're arriving in Europe a week before the cruise so hopefully won't have any travel issues. That's good to know you can get on without a reservation, but it does make sense to book ahead since I know I'll be doing it. I tried clicking on the add ground transportation and it just brought me back to the main cruise page, so I'm thinking it's too early to book? Or the website is being glitchy. I normally don't do ground transfers, but the port is so far from London it makes sense in this case.

You will need to call DCL (or your TA if you used one) to add your ground transfers now because of how far out you are.

 

[Shanti]

I know Disney offers transfer to the port, which I think I declined for my European cruise. I was wondering can I change my mind later on and add this transfer? Or does it need to be booked when the cruise is booked? I've never done one of these before, do they normally start at the airport and then go to the port? We will be arriving in London a few days before, but it would probably be easier to get to Dover with the cruise than figuring it out ourselves. Would we just head back to the airport to catch this transfer bus?

Yes, you can change your mind and add them up to 3 days before the cruise.

 

[CM Dad]

Thanks! The hotels to book through Disney, how do I find out what those are? I'm guessing nothing is released yet since it's over a year away still.

You can go the the DCL site and look at departure ports. https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ports/overview/departure-ports/ Look for the Pre and Post-Cruise Hotel Stay section for your departure port.

 

[Marc D]

Unlike in PC, European DCL transfers can sell out. They charter busses based on the number of reservations and do not have extra busses waiting around for last-minutes bookings. Also, the bus from the hotels does the route only once instead of running the loop multiple times like in PC. You need to be at the meeting point in the hotel at the designated time or you will be left behind. There are multiple departures for guests arriving by plane on the day of the cruise.

For the last few years, the hotels in London have been the same, but they could change for the next season. Someone already posted the link with the current info. You do not need to go back to Heathrow to catch the shuttle. There is a DCL table set up in the hotels’ lobbies for a few days before the cruise to check-in guests when they arrive and give out information as to when to catch the bus.

If I had a Dover cruise lined up with a few days in London before it, I would seriously consider booking an AirBnB and my own transfer. London has a lot of wonderful apartments to rent that are close to sights and museums and much less expensive. If you are unfamiliar or worried about renting an AirBnB, look for rentals by Superhosts.

Also, the bus ride departs late and takes a long time, since they usually stop at a rest stop for 30-45 minutes to allow for a restroom stop and lunch. In 2017, we arrived around 2PM at port. The cost for a private transfer is about the same as the shuttle but, if you depart after breakfast, you could easily grab lunch onboard.