Belfast Transportation

We will be in Belfast on the Zuiderdam Aug 2nd. Look like will be at Stormont Wharf .

Can anyone answer the following:

1) Are you allowed to walk from Stormont Wharf to town thru the port area?

2) Do most ships operate a shuttle bus from Stormont Wharf and if so, does it take you to the Visit Belfast Welcome Centre on Donegall Square North.

3) Do taxis accept USA "Chip and sign" credit cards?

4) We are looking at taking the train to Carrickfergus. They say you can buy a ticket from the conductor. Do they make change or do they require exact fare? Credit Cards?

It's about 2.5 miles from the ship to the centre of Belfast. You can walk it but it's an industrial port with a lot of heavy goods vehicles on the roads in the port. If it was me I'd get a taxi. The taxis will take chip and pin cards or cash and it's the same with the train, you can pay on board with cash or card. There's a train station ( Yorkgate station ) about five minutes drive from the ship that you can catch the train to Carrickfergus. Having lived near Carrickfergus I wouldn't recommend it at somewhere for a tourist to go.

http://www.translink.co.uk/Services/NI-Railways/Routes--Timetables/All-Timetables/

It has been a couple of years so things might have changed, but when we were in the British Isles, including Belfast, there was a big difference in Europe's chip and pin cards and the US's chip and sign cards. Our chip and sign cards didn't work in machines (including train ticket machines) or in any handheld scanners.

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theres a train station outside the port gates ( 15min walk from the ships berth ) - york street station takes you to carrickfergus

http://www.translink.co.uk/Services/Other-Translink-Services/Park--Ride/Park--Ride-Locations/Yorkgate-Park-Ride/

timetable

http://www.translink.co.uk/Documents/timetables/NIR/Current/LINE02-Belfast-larne.pdf

The Celebrity shuttle (cost $12 round trip) did stop outside the Belfast Visitor information office. I understand taxi rate is about 10 GBP, depending on time of day. There is also uber which you could pay by credit card.