Dover to Heathrow Transfer

I know that I have made fun of people who book impossible flights but I am worried. We dock at Dover on a Wednesday at 6:00 AM. My wife insists that we can make a 12:00 noon flight out of Heathrow. We are obviously going to reserve a private non-shared taxi. My wife also insists that we do not have to do a walk off disembarkment but can go off in the first group and not miss our plane.

 

I am worried. Is she crazy or am I over worrying.

 

D ON

I know that I have made fun of people who book impossible flights but I am worried. We dock at Dover on a Wednesday at 6:00 AM. My wife insists that we can make a 12:00 noon flight out of Heathrow. We are obviously going to reserve a private non-shared taxi. My wife also insists that we do not have to do a walk off disembarkment but can go off in the first group and not miss our plane.

 

I am worried. Is she crazy or am I over worrying.

 

DON

 

I should have added that we are off the Pacific Princess.

 

DON

Oooh, pushing it a bit! Although docking time is 6 am, if the weather is dodgy then this could make you late. As it's a weekday, driving to Heathrow could encounter traffic as you get near London. We live near Dover and we normally take the train to London then the tube to Heathrow and it's 2 hours door to door. As your on an international flight, you need to get to Heathrow preferably 3 hours before (so 9 am, although if you can check in online you might get away with 2 hours before). The drive from Dover, with minimal traffic, is about 2 hours. So, if you can get off the ship by 7 am then you may be in luck.

My wife also insists that we do not have to do a walk off disembarkment but can go off in the first group and not miss our plane.

 

I am worried. Is she crazy or am I over worrying.

Does your wife perhaps think that your cruise ends in London? If so, you may want to gently disabuse her of that idea. Your cruise ends in a different city a hundred miles away from the airport that you are flying from. On the assumption that you will probably try to do that transfer by road because of luggage, you'll be driving towards London in the middle of a weekday rush hour, and then you'll be skirting the outside of London on a road which is infamous for being the largest car park in Europe.

 

Whether or not you want to try this depends on your appetite for travel stress and your risk tolerance. Most days, even with the usual number of accidents and breakdowns on the road, you'll probably make it to Heathrow to be able to check in for your flight before that technically closes (typically at 60 minutes before scheduled departure time), and then probably get through security and to the gate in time before boarding closes. But with a 2+ hour transfer, it could be tight and you could find yourself consulting your watch quite frequently.

I'm not a Dover local, but have driven around the M25 London orbital road (Globaliser's "car park") enough times to know that at that time on a weekday you'll find it very slow.

A drive that takes under 2 hours at midnight will take about 3 hours - longer if there's been an accident or even a broken-down truck.

It's likely to start out well, up the M20 & M26, but you'll then join the busiest section of the M25 for the next 35 miles to Heathrow.

 

Forget ship's quoted arrival time. And forget assisted disembarkation, which is likely to start at 7.30am - you need every minute, and unassisted which is likely to start around 7am will avoid any lines for ship's elevators, immigration, baggage reclaim etc in addition to that half-hour head-start.

Excluding any additional hold-ups, you're likely to be at LHR around 90 to 120 mins before your flight-time. That's OK, but allows little or no wiggle-time.

I'd rate your chances at well over 90%. That's OK for a concert or a ball-game, you might miss the start. But for a flight????

 

Local car service providers have way more experience than any of us, you could seek advice as well as a quote from http://www.dovertaxis.com/ and http://www.taxisfolkestone.co.uk/

 

Are there workable flight alternatives later in the day?

 

JB :)

Edited March 19, 2018 by John Bull

Are there workable flight alternatives later in the day?

 

JB :)

 

Possibly from Gatwick which is nearer.

We switched to a 2:40 flight. She still insisted that we would make the earlier flight but she went along. I pointed out to her the hassle and costs that we would incur when we missed the plane home. Now I can relax on the last day of the cruise and also on the trip to the airport.

 

Another quick question. I am trying to find an inexpensive shared ride to the airport from Dover. Now that I have a reasonable flight time, I don't need to splurge for a private car. Any thoughts on my options here. I don't want to use public transport as we do not want to lug our suitcases.

 

Many thanks for the help.

 

DON

Another quick question. I am trying to find an inexpensive shared ride to the airport from Dover. Now that I have a reasonable flight time, I don't need to splurge for a private car. Any thoughts on my options here. I don't want to use public transport as we do not want to lug our suitcases.

I think that your options are basically a private car, either shared with others or not shared; public transport (your reluctance for which I completely understand); or the cruise line's transfer. I can't immediately think of any other likely options, although others may have ideas. Jumping into a taxi from the dock at Dover is likely to be pretty expensive in comparison.

 

If you want to try to find others on your cruise to share the transfer with you, then (as you probably know) the only place you're allowed to do that is on the roll call thread for your specific cruise. If this is for the end of your 18 June 2018 cruise, then I know you're already active on that thread.

We switched to a 2:40 flight. She still insisted that we would make the earlier flight but she went along.

 

DON

 

Much more sensible, Don - you'll sleep better for it as your cruise comes towards an end.

 

 

JB :)