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

[MeeskaMooska13]

Charlotte was about the same as Raleigh.

Aer Lingus out of IAD is showing about 1000 per ticket, vs $1500 per ticket that Raleigh and Charlotte are showing.

I should have known!! I had enough miles for us to fly business class over but only economy back - and the taxes were going to be $1900! No thanks!! Taxes on economy for round trip for 3 is $600 total (at least they are direct flights which the business class seats weren't). Guess we'll have settle for coach.

 

[MPS516]

@gydell Kilmainham Jail is the farthest out, so I would get on the Hop On Hoff bus and stay on the bus direct to there. Then come diectly back to the city centre, get a sandwich in Starbucks or other sandwich place and then go to Trinty College and the book of Kells. Walk from there up Grafton Street, a pedestrian shopping street to Disney shop, which is right beside St Stephens Green Park.

The only thing I would do different is to pick something up from one of the food shops bye the shopping center or along the side street and take it with me to St Stephens Green where I enjoy sitting on a beautiful afternoon and watch all the people in the park.

 

[gydell]

The only thing I would do different is to pick something up from one of the food shops bye the shopping center or along the side street and take it with me to St Stephens Green where I enjoy sitting on a beautiful afternoon and watch all the people in the park.

Sounds good!

 

[BadPinkTink]

The only thing I would do different is to pick something up from one of the food shops bye the shopping center or along the side street and take it with me to St Stephens Green where I enjoy sitting on a beautiful afternoon and watch all the people in the park.

The only snag in that plan is our unpredictable weather , lol. Yes St Stephens Green is lovely when the sun shines and great for people watching, but on a grey wet and windy summers day its miserable. Fingers crossed though it will be good weather for the post visit

 

[MPS516]

If it would not be too much trouble, and since you are right there, could you put in a good word for us weather wise for June 13th

 

[Leslie Hand]

Good day everyone. As we have never been to london. Wondering what airport is the best to use. Plan on staying a few night in a hotel before the cruise We are departing from toronto. Thanks.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Good day everyone. As we have never been to london. Wondering what airport is the best to use. Plan on staying a few night in a hotel before the cruise We are departing from toronto. Thanks.

I will let someone else who knows London better speak about the differences between the two but the only reason that I chose Heathrow was because I could get a direct flight there. I could not get a direct flight to Gatwick. So it may boil down to which airport is "serviced" better from Toronto (including price). From what I've gleaned from these boards, you really can't go wrong with either airport (someone correct me please).

 

[MPS516]

Good day everyone. As we have never been to london. Wondering what airport is the best to use. Plan on staying a few night in a hotel before the cruise We are departing from toronto. Thanks.

Depends - for us we used LHR this past July because we could get economy comfort of the flights and still use 30,000 less points per person than flying to LGW regular seats. Additionally we were staying at Hyde Park area so there was no concern about rushing to port. When we returned to port, while LGW is presumably 10 minutes closer, several DCL busses heading for LHR left prior to the first bus leaving for LGW. When we hit traffic I don't think it really mattered where you were going, there were a line of trucks nearly 10 miles long headed to Dover, reminiscent of the truck lines from Canada to the US after 9-11. They were on the other side so we just had normal morning rush hour traffic.

We will be using LHR again this time, mostly because we can get direct flights and they are less points than LGW.

 

[Alohagirl73]

We are flying in and out of Heathrow as they was the only direct flight.

 

[Alohagirl73]

Badtinkpink

Any recommendations on what to see with young children. I will have a 1 and 5 year old with me. Thank you for your great advice. I was planning on doing the Hop on hop off bus with them.

 

[Leslie Hand]

Depends - for us we used LHR this past July because we could get economy comfort of the flights and still use 30,000 less points per person than flying to LGW regular seats. Additionally we were staying at Hyde Park area so there was no concern about rushing to port. When we returned to port, while LGW is presumably 10 minutes closer, several DCL busses heading for LHR left prior to the first bus leaving for LGW. When we hit traffic I don't think it really mattered where you were going, there were a line of trucks nearly 10 miles long headed to Dover, reminiscent of the truck lines from Canada to the US after 9-11. They were on the other side so we just had normal morning rush hour traffic.

We will be using LHR again this time, mostly because we can get direct flights and they are less points than LGW.

Actually we can do direct to either airport

 

[nzdisneymom]

Leslie, as for which airport to fly into, do you know where you are staying in London and how you plan to get from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel to the port? That might make a difference on which airport you want to fly into - whichever might be easier for getting to the hotel in London. Also, is there significant cost difference in the flights? What about the flight times (both going and returning)?

BadPinkTink, thanks for the great advice about what to do in Dublin.

School starts here tomorrow - which means we are about to hit some countdown marks for the cruise since as soon as Z is done with his senior year, it will be time to cruise! We booked our post-cruise-post-flight hotel in Orlando through DVC so our accommodations are all set for the trip as is our transportation (except deciding if we're going to rent a car to get to Orlando and back or just drive our own and park it - our state gov't contract just switched from Avis to Enterprise so we need to see whether it's still a good deal for personal use - about the only perk we get).

 

[fantasmic000]

Hello All,
My BFF Dalila and I will be cruising with you all! This will be our 3rd Europeon cruise, having cruised the Mediterranean in 2007 and British Isles in 2013. We are super excited for our next adventure.

We will be flying in from Sunny Los Angeles, still looking for places to stay and transportation from LHW to Port.

Darlene

 

[DisneyDDS]

Hi everyone. I get nervous when I see that a lot of people are getting their hotel and air booked already. We are going to fly in on Wednesday night and plan on staying somewhere near Hyde park until heading down to Dover on Sunday. We were also planning on flying home the day we get kicked off the ship. Will a 2:30 flight give us enough time to get to heathrow from Dover? We haven't booked our flight or hotel yet.

Any suggestions for London hotels and transport to the port?

It is just me (Kris) and my husband (Patrick). We are both looking forward to this cruise!

 

[MPS516]

Hi Kris and Patrick,

This past July we were on the Baltic Cruise with Berlin, we stayed a few days prior to the cruise at the Hilton Hyde Park. While we checked the pricing which we found to be pretty good, we used our Hilton frequent stayer points. The Hotel is directly across the street from the Park and just a few steps from the gate at the north end of a main pathway, running in front of Kensington Palace. We used EC Minivans for transport to the ship however there were 4 of us. We took the 2:30 flight out of Heathrow on the day we got off the ship and had plenty of time.

 

[gydell]

Hi everyone. I get nervous when I see that a lot of people are getting their hotel and air booked already. We are going to fly in on Wednesday night and plan on staying somewhere near Hyde park until heading down to Dover on Sunday. We were also planning on flying home the day we get kicked off the ship.

We are using Coastal Cars from London to Dover. Seem to be reasonably priced.

 

[DisneyDDS]

Hi Kris and Patrick,

This past July we were on the Baltic Cruise with Berlin, we stayed a few days prior to the cruise at the Hilton Hyde Park. While we checked the pricing which we found to be pretty good, we used our Hilton frequent stayer points. The Hotel is directly across the street from the Park and just a few steps from the gate at the north end of a main pathway, running in front of Kensington Palace. We used EC Minivans for transport to the ship however there were 4 of us. We took the 2:30 flight out of Heathrow on the day we got off the ship and had plenty of time.

Great! It sounds like we had similar ideas. I've been looking at the doubletree by Hilton near the park. We don't plan on spending a lot of time at the hotel, as it will be my husband's first time abroad and I plan on a pretty intense 2 1/2 days in London prior to boarding the ship. Are you booked for this cruise also?

Thanks for the info!

 

[DisneyDDS]

We are using Coastal Cars from London to Dover. Seem to be reasonably priced.

I will look into that. Did you book them already?

Thanks!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Good day everyone. As we have never been to london. Wondering what airport is the best to use. Plan on staying a few night in a hotel before the cruise We are departing from toronto. Thanks.

I would advise Heathrow. Its about 1 hour from central London but it is on the tube network. I would advise getting a hotel at Heathrow, as they are about half the price of hotels in central London. You can then get the tube direct from the airport into central London, see the sights and return in the evening to your hotel.

Gatwick is not on the tube network. You need to get a regular train from Gatwick to central London, which is alot more expensive than a day tube ticket.

Badtinkpink

Any recommendations on what to see with young children. I will have a 1 and 5 year old with me. Thank you for your great advice. I was planning on doing the Hop on hop off bus with them.

Hi, yes a hop on hop off bus is a good idea. This is something I found which may be ideal for your little ones http://ark.ie/

You should also check out
Dublin Zoo http://www.dublinzoo.ie/
The Viking Interactive Museum called Dublinia http://www.dublinia.ie/
The Viking Splash Tour http://vikingsplash.com/

 

[MPS516]

Great! It sounds like we had similar ideas. I've been looking at the doubletree by Hilton near the park. We don't plan on spending a lot of time at the hotel, as it will be my husband's first time abroad and I plan on a pretty intense 2 1/2 days in London prior to boarding the ship. Are you booked for this cruise also?

Thanks for the info!

As of now we are still on this cruise, we will probably drop 1 for sure and could end up cancelling should things get real bad at the Hospital. We also did not spend much time in the Hotel however being able to grab a sandwich and a beverage and walk back into the park during the evening was great. We also lucked out (if you can call it that), due to the tube strike they left the gates open to enter the park after dusk. Normally, they told us at the hotel, you can always get out but they did not allow entry after dark.

BadPinkTink - I have been meaning to ask about options for getting from Dublin / Belfast to Dover. Since we are spending the week pre cruise in Ireland we are looking for some options, so far all we see is to London and then down to Dover.