Transportation from Cruise dock in Dover to Ashford International Train Station

[Patinmn]

We will be on the docking in Dover, England after our Disney Cruise and I am trying to arrange transportation from The Dock to the Ashford International train station to go to DLP.

I have tried to contact a transportation company from a website I found, but have not heard back from anyone yet. I have a 10:58 train to catch and want to make sure I have prearranged transportation.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on how to get from the dock to the station?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[DISNEY FANTASY]

I would get a taxi to Ashford direct, pre book it. At Dover port there are taxis but only a few, in 2010 I can tell you most people pre booked taxis. They wait down the pier and are called up.

Dover has a train station, which is Dover priory but you need a taxi there and you could wait 15 mins for a train, so with Ashford not that far away book a taxi direct there.

Taxis.

http://www.dovertaxis.com/

http://ashfordexecutivecars.co.uk/toplocations/index.php

http://www.premiertaxisfolkestone.co.uk/services.php

 

[jrabbit]

We have decided to be on the safe side that we are going all of the way back to London to catch the train to Paris. That 11am train out of Ashford looks tempting, but I don't want to "miss the train" because of any hiccups getting back to Dover.

 

[Patinmn]

Thanks for your input.

I already have my Eurostar ticket so I am going to have to risk it. If I miss it I can go into London and catch another one as they have a several more that run to Paris, although not to the Disney train station. I will try and pre-book my transportation before I leave.

 

[disneyholic family]

Thanks for your input.

I already have my Eurostar ticket so I am going to have to risk it. If I miss it I can go into London and catch another one as they have a several more that run to Paris, although not to the Disney train station. I will try and pre-book my transportation before I leave.

this thread is from 3 years ago, but i wonder how you finally managed to get to ashford...and if you managed to get to your 10:58 am eurostar...
that's the one i'm looking at now and wondering if the disney magic makes it in in time for that train.

i've been desperately looking for a private car service that will take us from dover to ashford, but thus far without success.
we're a group of 9, so i'd need a minibus or i can break us into three taxis...

.

 

[jrabbit]

One thing to MAKE SURE OF is when the cruise is scheduled to return to Dover. I don't remember if they gave us a time (incorrect) or I just assumed that it would be at the same time as "all of the other cruises" - arrival around 6am off of the ship by 9am.

After we boarded (and after we sailed - so maybe the next day) we were made aware that the cruise was not scheduled to dock in Dover until after 9am. We were panicked because with the train schedule we did not think we would make it to London on time to catch our train to Paris. DCL guest services were great in phoning Eurostar for us and we spent quite a bit of time on the phone (ship to shore) trying to work out alternate travel times (we didn't because the price to change times to one hour later was 4X the original price we paid )

That being said, the captain sprinted us back to Dover from Tallinn and we arrived several hours earlier than scheduled. I think that there were a LOT of passengers that had booked earlier transportation (and that makes me think that DCL gave us incorrect info). The crew was great over those last sea days keeping us informed of our progress and estimated ETA. We did make it back to London in time to catch the Eurostar.

That was my experience on the cruise and getting to London. I did not hear how @Patinmn fared on their adventure to Ashford.

 

[disneyholic family]

One thing to MAKE SURE OF is when the cruise is scheduled to return to Dover. I don't remember if they gave us a time (incorrect) or I just assumed that it would be at the same time as "all of the other cruises" - arrival around 6am off of the ship by 9am.

After we boarded (and after we sailed - so maybe the next day) we were made aware that the cruise was not scheduled to dock in Dover until after 9am. We were panicked because with the train schedule we did not think we would make it to London on time to catch our train to Paris. DCL guest services were great in phoning Eurostar for us and we spent quite a bit of time on the phone (ship to shore) trying to work out alternate travel times (we didn't because the price to change times to one hour later was 4X the original price we paid )

That being said, the captain sprinted us back to Dover from Tallinn and we arrived several hours earlier than scheduled. I think that there were a LOT of passengers that had booked earlier transportation (and that makes me think that DCL gave us incorrect info). The crew was great over those last sea days keeping us informed of our progress and estimated ETA. We did make it back to London in time to catch the Eurostar.

That was my experience on the cruise and getting to London. I did not hear how @Patinmn fared on their adventure to Ashford.

why did you take the train from london rather than ashford? or is there no train to paris from ashford?

we're heading to disneyland paris - so i figured why head all the way back to london, when the direct to disneyland eurostar stops in ashford on its way to DP.
although, now that you mention that time issue, i'll check again to see if there are any later trains to DP - but i'm guessing there aren't.

how did you get to london? by train from dover? if so, how did you get to the dover train station?

i really don't want to overnight in london - we aren't interested in doing anything other than DP then heading straight to the airport - i guess we'll fly out of CDG.
Hopefully, flying into barcelona and out of paris won't be an issue. Should be ok. I'll check out the prices.

.

.

 

[msmama]

this thread is from 3 years ago, but i wonder how you finally managed to get to ashford...and if you managed to get to your 10:58 am eurostar...
that's the one i'm looking at now and wondering if the disney magic makes it in in time for that train.

i've been desperately looking for a private car service that will take us from dover to ashford, but thus far without success.
we're a group of 9, so i'd need a minibus or i can break us into three taxis...

.

I took an UBER from Dover to Ashford last summer. We had a later train (to Paris though we did eventually make it to Disneyland Paris) so spent the morning at Dover castle (which we got to via taxi) and then got an Uber from there. People (locals) seemed surprised that there were Ubers in Dover, but the driver told me that there were a lot of them on cruise ship days.

There were tons of taxi's outside of the Dover terminal, too so I'd imagine one of them could take you (though they may argue about it, but I would guess the fare from Dover to Ashford would be similar to several fares from the port to the train station).

A note - the Ashford train station is smaller than I expected and it's half commuter train and the Eurostar is on the other side. Most transportation seems to drop off on the commuter train side and it's a bit confusing to find the other end. There's an outlet mall right across the street too, lol.

 

[jrabbit]

why did you take the train from london rather than ashford? or is there no train to paris from ashford?

we're heading to disneyland paris - so i figured why head all the way back to london, when the direct to disneyland eurostar stops in ashford on its way to DP.
although, now that you mention that time issue, i'll check again to see if there are any later trains to DP - but i'm guessing there aren't.

how did you get to london? by train from dover? if so, how did you get to the dover train station?

i really don't want to overnight in london - we aren't interested in doing anything other than DP then heading straight to the airport - i guess we'll fly out of CDG.
Hopefully, flying into barcelona and out of paris won't be an issue. Should be ok. I'll check out the prices.

.

.

We chose leaving from London / St. Pancras because of the timing of the train(s) out of Ashford - we were not comfortable cutting it that close in the morning - or waiting until much later in the afternoon. If the ship had arrived at it's scheduled time there was NO WAY anyone would have made it to Ashford in time to catch the train. There are a lot more trains from London to Paris - and we were going to Paris proper, not Disneyland Paris.

We took the train from Dover Priory (the train station) back to London - St. Pancras station. Was only 60 or 75 minutes if memory serves me. Very short walk from the platform, to an escalator down to Eurostar and we were right there. We took a taxi from the Port of Dover to the train station - less than 10 minutes. It is not (safely) walkable with luggage.

Our Eurostar was between 12:30 and 1:00pm in the afternoon and we were in Paris by 4:00 (loose an hour - timezone change). The train ride is between 2:15 and 2:30 depending upon departure time, and there appeared to be about one per hour from St. Pancras vs. limited departures from Ashford before 11:00am or around / after 2:00pm.

 

[disneyholic family]

I took an UBER from Dover to Ashford last summer. We had a later train (to Paris though we did eventually make it to Disneyland Paris) so spent the morning at Dover castle (which we got to via taxi) and then got an Uber from there. People (locals) seemed surprised that there were Ubers in Dover, but the driver told me that there were a lot of them on cruise ship days.

There were tons of taxi's outside of the Dover terminal, too so I'd imagine one of them could take you (though they may argue about it, but I would guess the fare from Dover to Ashford would be similar to several fares from the port to the train station).

A note - the Ashford train station is smaller than I expected and it's half commuter train and the Eurostar is on the other side. Most transportation seems to drop off on the commuter train side and it's a bit confusing to find the other end. There's an outlet mall right across the street too, lol.

thanks for the heads up about where the eurostar is at ashford station...
we'll be 9 people, so i guess we'll need 3 taxis to get us from dover to ashford...

.

 

[disneyholic family]

We chose leaving from London / St. Pancras because of the timing of the train(s) out of Ashford - we were not comfortable cutting it that close in the morning - or waiting until much later in the afternoon. If the ship had arrived at it's scheduled time there was NO WAY anyone would have made it to Ashford in time to catch the train. There are a lot more trains from London to Paris - and we were going to Paris proper, not Disneyland Paris.

We took the train from Dover Priory (the train station) back to London - St. Pancras station. Was only 60 or 75 minutes if memory serves me. Very short walk from the platform, to an escalator down to Eurostar and we were right there. We took a taxi from the Port of Dover to the train station - less than 10 minutes. It is not (safely) walkable with luggage.

Our Eurostar was between 12:30 and 1:00pm in the afternoon and we were in Paris by 4:00 (loose an hour - timezone change). The train ride is between 2:15 and 2:30 depending upon departure time, and there appeared to be about one per hour from St. Pancras vs. limited departures from Ashford before 11:00am or around / after 2:00pm.

in checking the eurostar website, it seems there's only 1 eurostar a day that's direct to disneyland paris (DLP).
it starts at st pancras (i think), then makes two more stops in england (including ashford), and that's it....no more stops until DLP...
we have no interest in paris, we're just interested in DLP ..
and since this cruise ends in dover, it makes it possible to get there on the eurostar (i hope)....
so we can avoid both london and paris and just do pure DLP...
a few members of our group of 9 were interested in doing a few days in london before heading out to DLP, but i don't think the 3 young toddlers would have much to do in london..
however, if we can't get the train timing right, we may have to overnight in london to get on the eurostar direct to DLP...
.

 

[loril13]

We're doing the British Isles cruise in September. We'll be heading to Paris after the cruise. All this is super helpful info.

I am freaking out there is so much how to get from a to b involved with this. - Heathrow to our hotel in London; our hotel to the port in Dover; Dover to Paris; are we getting an Airbnb in Paris or near DLP?
Oi!! I should only think about this with a glass of wine in hand. LOL

 

[jrabbit]

We're doing the British Isles cruise in September. We'll be heading to Paris after the cruise. All this is super helpful info.

I am freaking out there is so much how to get from a to b involved with this. - Heathrow to our hotel in London; our hotel to the port in Dover; Dover to Paris; are we getting an Airbnb in Paris or near DLP?
Oi!! I should only think about this with a glass of wine in hand. LOL

this is going to sound smug, but its not that hard ...

Heathrow to your hotel: Hopefully your hotel is near an underground stop. Use a London Planner, Tube Planner or Underground Trip Planner web site ... like tubeplanner I used an app (Tube Map London Underground) at home to plan my routes for our time in London, and used it in while in London as well (this one does NOT need access to the internet to work) Hopefully your hotel will tell you what underground stop to use. IDK if you are spending time in London before the cruise, but you can buy "tourist" length of stay passes for the underground. We were in town for a week before our cruise and our pass did not work for Heathrow into London. But we were able to purchase a supplement ... BUT we were in that line for a LONG time. We should have just purchased a full price one way ticket into town.

London to Dover: Use the National Rail website to get in idea of times and prices. We took the train to Dover Priory (vs Dover Court!). Departure time and transit time determine the cost. I think that leaving after 9am was MUCH cheaper than earlier in the morning.

Dover Priory to the Port: Short 10 minute taxi ride. Didn't cost too much. Gave our driver a tip and he was surprised and grateful (always a nice feeling).

Dover to Paris: We looked at taking the ferry across to Calais then train to Paris. Wow - That's a LONG trip, so we took the train from Dover Priory to St Pancrass to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Others have gone to Ashford to catch it (it might only go to DLP from Ashford). From St Pancrass the train stops in Gare du Nord ("North" train station). From there we took the Metro (subway) to our hotel. Again, there are trip planning tools online and apps for your phone that can help with the planning of your travels.

Typically, I enjoy this part of the planning of my trip ... and for our time in London and Paris it was fun tracking down these details.

And IF you are spending a few days in London before your cruise, you should check out London Walks for 2 hour walking tours. You find the one you want to do, show up at the appropriate place and time, meet up with your guide, pay them in cash and away you go. We did several of these and they all were very awesome!

 

[disneyholic family]

We're doing the British Isles cruise in September. We'll be heading to Paris after the cruise. All this is super helpful info.

I am freaking out there is so much how to get from a to b involved with this. - Heathrow to our hotel in London; our hotel to the port in Dover; Dover to Paris; are we getting an Airbnb in Paris or near DLP?
Oi!! I should only think about this with a glass of wine in hand. LOL

totally..
have to admit i'm stressing about our making it from the port to the train..
and then from DLP to the airport..
and in barcelona getting from the hotel to the science museum...
and from the airport to the hotel and hotel to the port.
and where to eat and on and on and on