Dover Disembarkation Information?

[Luv2Diz]

I haven't been able to find any recent information about disembarkation in Dover. Hoping someone here has recent information to share.

Our cruise arrives in Dover on Sunday morning, September 15. We plan to take the train to Waterloo East as we will be spending a week in London after the cruise.
We have never cruised from Dover before so don't know what the disembarkation process is like. I've heard we don't have to do immigration/customs?

Can we reasonably make a 9:58 a.m. train from Dover Priory? Maybe an earlier train? An advance train ticket is £10.10 (about $12.86) whereas an anytime ticket is £25.10 (about $31.97), so quite a difference.

We would appreciate any insight from those who have cruised from Dover. How quick/easy was disembarkation at Dover?

Thank you!

 

[MasonDuo]

We disembarked at Dover last year after our British Isles Disney Cruise. The process was a breeze, walked off when they called our luggage being ready - found it easily then walked out to the taxi pick up and taxi to the station. Easily made the train time. I believe we had a similar train time but made the earlier one since the whole process was faster than we expected.

You can easily make the 9:58 train. If you want an earlier time you could keep your luggage with you and get off the boat as soon as they clear the boat if you want to give yourself extra time. I'd say have some breakfast and take the 9:58 and you won't feel pressured at all.

We'll be on this cruise with you this year - we'd be doing the same thing but we are heading to the airport afterwards....it's our first back-to-back so unfortunately we have to head home afterwards. You'll love the British Isles cruise, we did - hence why we are doing it again

 

[mmmears]

We disembarked in Dover last summer. It was very easy. We did express walk-off after breakfast since we had a driver waiting for us but it wasn't the mess I've seen in Canaveral. We cleared UK customs before docking in Scotland, so in Dover there wasn't anything to do in terms of documents or customs. If you are worried about the time you can always do the express walk off.

 

[belle032]

Nothing to add but thank you for asking this question! DH and I will be sailing with you on this cruise (so excited!) and was starting to wonder which train would be best to take back to Central London! We’re staying an extra 2 nights around St. Pancras after we disembark

 

[Luv2Diz]

Belle032: Wish I had a crystal ball to know which is the best option. I feel pretty confident we can easily make the 9:58 train. I read someone's post stating they were at the station at 8:15. That would make for a long wait!

I need to think this over awhile longer. It might be best to just buy the off peak ticket to hop the next train after we get to the station. There are a lot of things we want to do in London on Sunday. We will want to get crackin’!

 

[KDG]

Nothing to add but thank you for asking this question! DH and I will be sailing with you on this cruise (so excited!) and was starting to wonder which train would be best to take back to Central London! We’re staying an extra 2 nights around St. Pancras after we disembark

My traveling party will be disembarking in Dover on 7/21 and will also be staying across the street from St. Pancras/Kings Cross in London. We have tickets on the high speed train Dover-St. Pancras at 9:49 am and will arrive in London at 10:54. I recommend you take this train. We took this high speed train in the opposite direction last September to start our British Isles cruise and it was fast, easy and comfortable.

 

[belle032]

My traveling party will be disembarking in Dover on 7/21 and will also be staying across the street from St. Pancras/Kings Cross in London. We have tickets on the high speed train Dover-St. Pancras at 9:49 am and will arrive in London at 10:54. I recommend you take this train. We took this high speed train in the opposite direction last September to start our British Isles cruise and it was fast, easy and comfortable.

Thank you for the advice! 9:49 just seemed so early but I guess with breakfast and DCL getting you off the ship quickly, it makes sense. And if we pre-purchased tickets, it would make the process even smoother. I’d rather not be waiting around the train station with luggage for hours!

 

[KDG]

Thank you for the advice! 9:49 just seemed so early but I guess with breakfast and DCL getting you off the ship quickly, it makes sense. And if we pre-purchased tickets, it would make the process even smoother. I’d rather not be waiting around the train station with luggage for hours!

We have seat reservations and printed out the confirmation, but the print out says our actual tickets must be printed out at the station. However, we don’t anticipate that will add much time to the process.