Advice please re backup plan in case of Eurostar disruption

Hi folks, I hope you can give me some advice on the following.

My spouse and I (Americans) are booked on the Eurostar for Monday, Oct. 26 (very early morning) from Paris to London. We booked these seats six months ago when reservations opened up, well before the immigrant problems began to cause some major issues with the Channel Tunnel and, as I understand it, the Eurostar at times.

We are embarking on a transatlantic cruise out of Southampton on Tuesday, Oct. 27, so our Eurostar travel is the day before the cruise (not day of).

Given the reports of Eurostar disruptions this weekend, I am wondering what the best backup options for travel from Paris to the UK would be in case we need a backup. My spouse and I really dislike flying, and we particularly don't like to get on the smaller commuter planes of the type operated by Flybee between Paris and Southampton, so that's really out.

There do seem to be a number of daily flights from Paris to London, operated by several carriers, including Air France and British Airways. Any sense of how hard it would be to get on one at the last minute?

Any other options I should be considering? (For example, how might we get to the ferry in Calais without renting a car? There don't seem to be that many train options as there were before the Channel Tunnel was built.)

Am I worrying needlessly?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Migrant incursions into the tunnel area have dramatically reduced in the past few weeks following greatly increased security & new fencing, but there was a delay of a few hours just a couple of days ago.

Your worries certainly aren't groundless, but there's a very strong probability that you won't be affected.

A problem with changing plans last-minute is that the reason to change is the same for everyone.

For instance, when the Iceland volcano ash-cloud grounded all northern European flights there wasn't sufficient capacity for everyone to switch to ferry or Eurostar. You could've sold a Eurostar ticket for a small fortune!!

If you had chosen to book flights rather than Eurostar, the price would have been tolerably competitive. But if you try to switch to air travel last-minute because of a big problem with Eurostar, everyone else booked on Eurostar will have the same idea so airlines will sell-out in a matter of minutes.

There is normally spare capacity on Eurostar. When there's a problem, they immediately suspend or restrict further ticket sales for that period, in the expectation that they can accommodate all ticket-holders on the consequently-fewer trains.

There are plenty of regional trains to Dover from central London's Charing Cross, St Pancras & Victoria, and several intermediate London stations. And even with Eurostar services temporarily suspended, there's usually sufficient ferry capacity for foot-passengers.

But in all honesty, that's irrelevant to you because this is a day-trip.

Paris was never considered to be a day-trip from London until Eurostar came along.

It involves a total of 5-6 hours of travel by Eurostar - but if you travel by regional UK train / ferry / regional French train, at a conservative guess it will involve at least twice as much travel time, making it pretty pointless for a day-trip.

I suggest you skip the idea of a Plan B. If there's serious grief outbound, cancel & spend the day in London.

If outbound is fine but problems flare up for your return on Eurostar, you have plenty of time in-hand to get to your ship.

If the delay is huge, this may involve taking a train (possibly Eurostar) to a port and a ferry across the English Channel (from Calais for Dover, or from Le Havre or Caen or Cherbourg for Portsmouth). Whilst again the vehicle capacity on ferries will sell out quickly, there's normally no capacity issue for foot-passengers.

The whole chabang would ruin the rest of your day & mebbe even rob you of a decent night's sleep.

No fun, but not catastrophic :)

Stick to Plan A & it'll probably work out fine.

If it gets fouled at the outset, forget Paris.

If it starts out fine but fouls for the return, there are several Plan B's depending on the circumstances & you won't miss your sailing.

JB :)

....

 

There are plenty of regional trains to Dover from central London's Charing Cross, St Pancras & Victoria, and several intermediate London stations. And even with Eurostar services temporarily suspended, there's usually sufficient ferry capacity for foot-passengers.

But in all honesty, that's irrelevant to you because this is a day-trip.

Paris was never considered to be a day-trip from London until Eurostar came along.

It involves a total of 5-6 hours of travel by Eurostar - but if you travel by regional UK train / ferry / regional French train, at a conservative guess it will involve at least twice as much travel time, making it pretty pointless for a day-trip.

 

I suggest you skip the idea of a Plan B. If there's serious grief outbound, cancel & spend the day in London.

 

If outbound is fine but problems flare up for your return on Eurostar, you have plenty of time in-hand to get to your ship.

 

If the delay is huge, this may involve taking a train (possibly Eurostar) to a port and a ferry across the English Channel (from Calais for Dover, or from Le Havre or Caen or Cherbourg for Portsmouth). Whilst again the vehicle capacity on ferries will sell out quickly, there's normally no capacity issue for foot-passengers.

The whole chabang would ruin the rest of your day & mebbe even rob you of a decent night's sleep.

No fun, but not catastrophic :)

 

Stick to Plan A & it'll probably work out fine.

If it gets fouled at the outset, forget Paris.

If it starts out fine but fouls for the return, there are several Plan B's depending on the circumstances & you won't miss your sailing.

 

JB :)

Hi John,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Might be a bit of confusion here, so let me clear it up. This isn't about a day trip to Paris from London. We are flying pre-cruise from the US to Paris, where we'll be spending several nights before taking the Eurostar to London (Oct. 26) and then heading on to Southampton for our transatlantic home that sails on Oct. 27. So it's not about skipping Paris, but making sure that we can get from Paris to the UK.

That being the case, what would be the best ferry route to consider as a back up (assuming, as you say, that the flights would sell out quickly)?

Thanks!

JB has summed up the situation pretty well. As said, the 'storming' of the tunnel and terminals has abated greatly. Autumn/winter is coming, so its a less palatable prospect for the immigrants to be spending cold nights trying to get across the water. You probably won't get affected at all, but even if you did, you can afford a 24 hour delay and just miss your night in London (or Southampton). You say you are getting an early train, so you will probably be in London by 9am (the one hour time difference works in your favour), so you could easily be in Southampton by 1pm using the Waterloo - Southampton train. As long as you get away from Paris by 8am on the 27th you should be OK. Going by the past few weeks events you probably won't be affected at all.

Simon

Yep, I didn't properly read your post. :rolleyes:

(something I do quite often :o)

OK, it's a one-way, Paris to London.

If you learn of problems, be guided by Eurostar.

If their trains are still running to Calais you have the option of the short (90 minute) ferry-crossing to Dover (a couple of dozen ferries per day) then train to London. That's simplest, especially if you are committed to a London hotel that evening.

In the unlikely event of protracted delays you could consider the train from Paris to either Le Havre or Caen (or even Cherbourg) on the Normandy coast, for ferries to Portsmouth.

Le Havre & Caen ports are 2 to 2.5 hrs on direct trains from Paris.

The ferry at Le Havre is a five-minute taxi ride from the train station.

Or from Caen station it's 20 minutes to the ferryport of Ouistreham, I think the ferry operator offers a shuttlebus.

Only a couple or three ferries per day on each route, and its a longer crossing (about 6 hours). But Portsmouth is only an hour from Southampton or under 2 hrs from London, by direct train or Nat Express bus,

Keep a note of these ferry operators:

Calais - Dover

http://www.poferries.com/en/dover-calais

Le Havre or Caen or Cherbourg to Portsmouth

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/

But the prospects are that you'll not be troubled. :)

JB :)

I wonder what options your insurance would allow. I suspect the train to Calais>ferry>train to London route which Eurostar would offer would be the only acceptable alternative.

If Things were really bad; sometimes the Calais to Dover ferries have their own problems, you could strike out on your own; hire a car, drive to Cherbourg (about 4 hours) and take the ferry as a foot passenger to Portsmouth, probably overnight. That would at least ensure that you didn't miss the cruise.

However, as others have said, if you worry too much about this stuff, you will spoil your holiday. These disruptions get a lot of publicity, but they are nowhere near as bad as you might think.

Thank you all! This board is truly one of the best on CC in terms of prompt and helpful advice, and I say this as someone who clearly spends a lot of time on here. :)

However, as others have said, if you worry too much about this stuff, you will spoil your holiday. These disruptions get a lot of publicity, but they are nowhere near as bad as you might think.

You are so right. I am by nature a worrier, and I pretty much drove my spouse crazy yesterday over this. :eek:

You have all helped me get back to earth. Thanks again for the advice and the links.

I agree with all these others.... I would stick to your plans with Eurostar and don't worry about it. :)

We're back from our trip now and I just wanted to report that our Eurostar journey went off without a hitch. The train departed on time and arrived on time. As Americans, we found being able to travel in about two and a quarter hours on a comfortable and punctual train between Paris and London to be pretty amazing.

Thanks again to everyone on this board for all the help I got in planning this part of our trip (and for the reassurances above)!

Glad it all went well.

Simon

We're back from our trip now and I just wanted to report that our Eurostar journey went off without a hitch. The train departed on time and arrived on time. As Americans, we found being able to travel in about two and a quarter hours on a comfortable and punctual train between Paris and London to be pretty amazing.

 

Thanks again to everyone on this board for all the help I got in planning this part of our trip (and for the reassurances above)!

Thanks for the feedback.

"Without a hitch" was always by far the most likely scenario, but knowing that there are occasional problems it was sensible to research a Plan B. Glad you didn't need it

JB :)

We were on Eurotunnel last week and had one of the best journeys ever (we often go to France). However, there was a large police presence on the French side and they had erected extra fences

We didn't see one migrant and we usually see a lot of them.