Disembarking in Dover - any recent experiences?

[Conorama]

I've searched, and apologies if I missed any posts that answered this already- but has anyone recently (last 2 years or so) disembarked at Dover, and if so can they describe how it works/how long it takes to get through everything? (Both if you carry your own luggage off, or if you put it out the night before).

We are booking our own transfer to Gatwick after our August 16-26 cruise, so we're just looking to have a bit more information about what to expect. We've done Port Canavral many times, and Vancouver too, so we have a general idea as to how it works, but, well, I'm a details person, so I'm craving more.

Thanks for any information!

 

[Marc D]

We disembarked there last July after the 12-nights BI cruise. It works like any other terminal. Since we were on cruise mainly sailing in the UK, we didn’t need to go through customs, so it took about 10 minutes to go from the ship’s door to the DCL bus, getting our luggage along the way. Easy as can be.

The highway from Dover to the London area gets crowded so allow plenty of time to get to Gatwick.

 

[msmama]

I did it last year after Norway/Iceland (it was to ama from Dover last year).

It would’ve taken no time at all to get out bags and leave but I accidentally packed the wave phone and had to dig that out before we could leave the terminal. I don’t remember going through customs. But once we left the terminal I got a cab with zero wait.

We had the cab stop at the currency conversion place in town to store luggage and then to Dover castle. We were there at least an hour before it opened to give you a timeline.

We got an uber to a train station where we could get a train to Paris. The locals seemed surprised that I could get an uber bit it seems like they are available on port days.

I will say it seemed a little confusing for the people waiting on private transport. A lot of people and a lot of cars trying to find on another. But I wasn’t involved in that.

 

[Mil leech]

We were also on the Norway/Iceland cruise last year. The terminal is small so it got clogged with bags and people very easily. We had at least a 15 minute wait in line to get out of the terminal after we tracked down our bags. Very easy after that. We grabbed a cab to the train station that was sitting outside. Only thing to ask is if they take credit. Some cabs did not and we did not have pounds on us to pay in cash. We prepaid for our train ticket so we had to wait for our 9:30 train as upgrading to the 8:30 would have been well over $70 for 3 of us (we got there at 8:15). So my husband sat with the bags and my DD7 and I wandered around town.