London Cruises out of Tilbury vs. Greenwich

[mancunian]

Liz130 Just a suggestion. A US couple we were friendly with on the ship decided they were not going to battle on the train to London and instead took the ferry across to Gravesend and took a local bus to Rochester. We would have done this too if we had thought of it. Just an idea. The ferry goes from the jetty next to the Prinsendam. I am assuming you are talking about what to do with your time there, and not referring how you are actually going to get from Prinsendam at the end of your cruise.

[hotzej]

wish that was a help, but we will already be in London, taking a few days before to visit a beautiful city...now we need to get to Tilbury, not Greenwich which was easy to get too! We need to figure how to get from Victoria Station to Tilbury.....any ideas out there?

[JesterPlaying]

On the TripAdvisor London Forum there was a thread with all the train stations to get from London to Tilbury including Victoria Station. Do a search there.

[Liz 130]

Mancunian - Thanks so much for the suggestion - Rochester sounds like a lovely destination. I'll have to do some research about buses if we decide to book this trip.

 

Thanks again.

[Liz 130]

Have been doing some research on how to get into Central London after we disembark.

 

Have not had any success in finding anything acceptable in my searches. The train from Tilbury does not seem to be luggage friendly - and depending on the stop in London - there may or may not be lifts (only stairs) - which would be impossible with luggage from an 18 day cruise.

 

So I decided to call HAL. Spoke first with rep - who informed me that the cruise line is only offering transportation options to passengers that have booked hotel packages with them. Since we are not staying at a hotel in London - this is not an option for us. Could not believe that this was accurate - asked to speak to her manager. Spoke with Steve Eilermann - who confirmed that the only transportation to London at the end of this trip - offered by Holland America was for passengers with their hotel package. How is it possible that this ship can disembark in Tilbury and offer no transportation out of Tilbury? Because of the remoteness and lack of public transportation options at this port - you would think that they would address this issue.

 

Has anyone else had any success in solving this problem.

[mancunian]

Liz 130 You would not book Rochester - it is the public ferry and then the local buses, so you can decide on the day when you see the weather.

 

On the question of how you get away from Tilbury on the last day, we obviously did not do this, we embarked there and spent the last day there and sailed up to Greenwich at midnight.

 

However, on the last day we spent there they provided a shuttle bus to the station. If they do this again beware because it was only a small bus about 18-20 seater with no luggage provision. Obviously we did not havy any. The station is not in walking distance, certainly not with luggage and quite frankly as it is up a road through the docks and wasteland I would not want to walk it at all. Therefore you are down to taxis to the station if you decide on the train and quite how many there would be there is hard to assess. It is out of the area of black cabs. I really think you all need to complain bitterly to HAL and try to insist on them providing transportation to Central London.

 

When we were diverted from Greenwich to Tilbury about three days before sailing, the letter basically told us to report to Tilbury. However, they did say if there were problems they would be providing a shuttle bus from Greenwich to Tilbury. This was probably forced upon them as it was too late to contact some people who had left home well before the three days. I was uneasy about this shuttle bus because I knew there were no facilities at Greenwich, and felt we might have a long wait. How true that proved. There were quite a lot of unhappy passengers hanging around waiting for this very infrequent shuttle service. I was so glad we had chosen to bite the bullet just decided this was no way to start a cruise and contacted a company called Dolphin Cars on the internet a couple of days before and we had one of their chauffeur driven cars from Euston station to Tilbury which cost about £50 for the car. This worked like a dream and I have no regrets. One of our US friends hearing this booked one from Gatwick Airport to Tilbury and they too were very happy. If there were more of you they have bigger cars/people carriers and I guess this would work out cheaper still. Try and get more people and give it a go. You can either pay in advance or the driver on the day.

[Liz 130]

Thank you again.

 

You have been so much more help than anyone I have dealt with at HAL.

 

I was told I could keep on talking to people there but they would not change their position - I agree that everyone who is inconvenienced by this should call and complain - maybe they will get the message. Checked the tours offered for this trip on the HAL website and they seem confused as to whether they are from Greenwich or Tilbury - maybe someone should update that too.

[SDakota Cruiser]

My wife and I are on the 14-day Kiel Canal and Baltic Explorer cruise. We leave from Amsterdam on August 14, 2010 and we now debark at the London Cruise Terminal at Tilbury (http://www.londoncruiseterminal.com/) instead of Greenwich, England. This was confirmed to me by Holland America representatives. This has forced us to stay over one additional night in London so that we can make a nonstop flight from Heathrow to Minneapolis.

[hotzej]

Do you have the email address from the car service. This appears to be the best option for those of us that do not have transportation from down town London to Tilbury...thanks

[hotzej]

Really having a hard time finding transport to Tilbury from London...any ideas? car services? Please assist, HAL won't help us

[JesterPlaying]

If you look at my post on the first page of this thread I provided a number of links to car services. Hope that helps.

[bishop84]

It could have been worse and HAL could have changed the call to Harwich or Dover, both euphemistically called London in some cruise brochures but are both at least 65 miles away from the city.