Transportation To Dover

[simigirl]

We will be staying in London near Victoria station before our Crystal cruise out of Dover. Trying to decide if we should take the train or schedule a private car service. Looking for suggestions. Thanks!

[John Bull]

Hourly direct trains from Victoria station to Dover (Dover Priory station) take two hours

The regular fare is £50+, but cheap Advance tickets are available from about 12 weeks out & can cost as little as £12.60 - the price can rise significantly close to the day.

If your date is more than 12 weeks out, to see the Advance fares do a dummy booking for a date about 2 months from now.

The only disadvantage of cheap Advance tickets is that they're not amendable or cancellable and you can only travel at the train time that you book - miss it & you have to pay full fare for the next one (altho I'm told that if you present your Advance ticket they will knock the Advance fare off the full fare).

Suitable trains will be the 9.10am or 10.10am or 11.10am, or probably the 12.10pm

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

A taxi from the rank at Dover Priory station to the cruise terminal will cost about £10

 

Off the top of my head, a pre-booked private transfer from your hotel will cost north of £140.

 

JB 🙂

[Globaliser]

8 hours ago, John Bull said:

The only disadvantage of cheap Advance tickets is that they're not amendable ...

 

I think that Cotswold Eagle has often been trying to point out this frequent CC misconception. Advance tickets are amendable. For example, this is the text from Southeastern's website:

 

Can I change the journey on an Advance ticket?

 

Advance tickets are amendable, however an admin fee may apply. Advance tickets can only have their date and journey time changed, not the route or direction of travel. They can be amended right up to the time your journey is due to begin at a station, or up to the day before travel online.

 

If there is a difference between the price of your original paper ticket and the cost of your new Advance ticket, you will need to pay the difference. If you change to a train on which a cheaper fare is available, the difference will not be refunded.

 

You can change your Advance tickets in a few easy ways:

• If you purchased a paper Advance or eTicket through your Southeastern account, you can log in and amend the date and time.
• If you purchased a paper Advance ticket online and you don’t have a Southeastern account, or if it's the date of travel, you’ll need to visit a ticket office to ask for the changes to be made. Advance eTickets purchased as a guest cannot be amended at a ticket office*.
• If you purchased Advance tickets at a Southeastern station, you can return your ticket to any Southeastern ticket office where it can be amended.

 

*We’re unable to amend Advance eTickets at a ticket office if you have purchased your ticket online, but not with an account, as the existing Advance ticket QR code cannot be voided. However you can link your ticket purchase to a Southeastern account using the link at the bottom of your order confirmation email.

 

We're also unable to amend Advance tickets that have been purchased via PayPal. Please contact Customer Services if you wish to amend an Advance ticket purchased via PayPal.

 

The requirement to pay the difference between the original price and the new price is in effect basically the same as "if you present your Advance ticket they will knock the Advance fare off the full fare".

[edinburgher]

10 hours ago, simigirl said:

Trying to decide if we should take the train or schedule a private car service

Another option is to take an  express coach.  National Express coaches leave from Victoria Bus station, which is very close to the train station, with a frquent service, and once in Dover take a taxi to the ship.

 

It would probably be  worth spending a few minutes  of your time  checking the National Express website.

Edited May 21 by edinburgher

[John Bull]

Hi, G.

Thanks for that.

 

The detail for the route operator, Southern Trains, is a little different but more-importantly that detail is buried deep in the Terms & Conditions of both train operators. 

The only part which shows on the timetable page is

"Advance fares are valid only on the date and train shown on the ticket. Advance tickets are non-refundable but may be amended prior to the date and time of travel"

 

Digging deeper, International visitors are hardly likely to set up a Southern Trains account just to buy tickets for one journey, thus "If you purchased a paper Advance ticket online and you don’t have a Southern account, or if it's the date of travel, you’ll need to visit a ticket office to ask for the changes to be made".

and

"We’re unable to amend Advance eTickets at a ticket office if you have purchased your ticket online, but not with an account, as the existing Advance ticket QR code cannot be voided. However you can link your ticket purchase to a Southern account using the link at the bottom of your order confirmation email.

 

 

There's a great deal more detail about the can's & cannot's on various parts of the website - including one place which says amendments must be made before the date of travel and another place which says you can amend up to ten minutes before travel 🙄.

 

In the unlikely event that they will need to amend their travel, are one-journey international visitors likely to succeed in rescuing £12 even if they know about it?

 

All of this further confuses the issue (and going thro terms & conditions do my head in), so I posted just the basic easily-understood terms.

Further detail is more likely to persuade visitors to choose an alternative to the train than to try to take it all in.

 

Hi Edinburgher,

 

Nat Express coaches seem to be far less frequent than pre-pandemic - just one coach at 9am would suit cruisers, the next one arrives early evening. But altho journey-time is over an hour longer, the fare at £7.40 is tempting and none of the nonsensical complications of buying train tickets.

 

But even their website isn't 100% customer-friendly - it offers journeys from Victoria coach station or Victoria train station  Starting from scratch, it sometimes offers only Victoria rail station & you have to continue with "....coach" before that option appears.

Yet if you select Victoria rail station and click on "find my journey" you get the message " Sorry, we couldn't find any journeys to match your search"

So why is Victoria rail station even mentioned?

That, and the dead-end created by simple single-letter typo like "Southhampton", have been that way for years

...................................................

I despair of the complications of ticketing, and the technology nerds' clueless attempts to explain them on websites.🙄

 

(and I'll take this opportunity to slate Microsoft for screwing-up "new" Outlook with stax of extra features which frustrate me when trying to do the simplest thing with e-mails 🥵)

Their nerds have brought in extra features like "my day", "sweep", or "snooze" which give me brain-fade having to hunt for basic features like "blind copy". Why do they do it ? Because people want the extra features ? No, they do it "because they can".🥵

Rant over.

 

JB 🙂

 

[Globaliser]

25 minutes ago, John Bull said:

In the unlikely event that they will need to amend their travel, are one-journey international visitors likely to succeed in rescuing £12 even if they know about it?

 

All of this further confuses the issue (and going thro terms & conditions do my head in), so I posted just the basic easily-understood terms.

 

Further detail is more likely to persuade visitors to choose an alternative to the train than to try to take it all in.

 

The "basic easily-understood terms" do not include "Advance tickets are not amendable".

 

It would be more accurate to say "Advance tickets can be amended to a different date and/or time, but a fee may be charged and you may have to jump through some hoops".

 

It may be that it's not really need-to-know information for a £12 London-Dover ticket. But the wrong advice is routinely given on a number of different CC threads about all sorts of UK rail travel. Some CCers are buying rather more expensive Advance tickets, or (worse) thinking about whether they should buy an Advance ticket or an even more expensive semi-flexible or flexible ticket. These CCers could really do with accurate advice about whether it is possible to amend an Advance ticket, because it may tip the scales in favour of buying a cheaper ticket that still has a degree of flexibility about it.

 

I count myself in that group. Until after Covid, I rarely bought long-distance UK train tickets. That's changed, for family/friends reasons. When I started travelling more on long-distance trains, I too worked on the advice that I'd regularly seen here that Advance tickets are non-amendable and non-changeable, and sometimes paid for a more expensive ticket when my plans were not sufficiently firm. I have Cotswold Eagle to thank for pointing out that "non-amendable" simply isn't true, which has meant that I have been able to buy Advance tickets more often than before.

[John Bull]

3 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

The "basic easily-understood terms" do not include "Advance tickets are not amendable".

 

It would be more accurate to say "Advance tickets can be amended to a different date and/or time, but a fee may be charged and you may have to jump through some hoops".

 

It may be that it's not really need-to-know information for a £12 London-Dover ticket. But the wrong advice is routinely given on a number of different CC threads about all sorts of UK rail travel. Some CCers are ,,,,,,,  thinking about whether they should buy an Advance ticket or an even more expensive semi-flexible or flexible ticket. These CCers could really do with accurate advice about whether it is possible to amend an Advance ticket, because it may tip the scales in favour of buying a cheaper ticket that still has a degree of flexibility about it.

 

I count myself in that group. Until after Covid, I rarely bought long-distance UK train tickets. That's changed, for family/friends reasons. When I started travelling more on long-distance trains, I too worked on the advice that I'd regularly seen here that Advance tickets are non-amendable and non-changeable, and sometimes paid for a more expensive ticket when my plans were not sufficiently firm. I have Cotswold Eagle to thank for pointing out that "non-amendable" simply isn't true, which has meant that I have been able to buy Advance tickets more often than before.

 

Different advice for different folk, G.

 

Your more-frequent long-distance train journeys are very unlikely to be replicated by international travellers like @simigirl, for whom too much detail is more a hindrance than a help.

And for the very few who do contemplate exploring the UK by train, far more worthy of mention are Railcards such as those for 16 to 30 yr-olds, seniors, disabled folk, and "two-together" Railcards. (most Railcards give approx 30% off most rail journeys but cost £30, so not worthwhile for a few comparatively short journeys) 

 

I've very occasionally suggested, mainly to folk travelling from an airport, that they consider buying Advance tickets for two train times - one that they want but are likely to miss if there's even a short aircraft or airport delay and one that's more comfortably-timed - two Advance tickets still cost significantly less than one walk-up ticket. OK, so they can buy just one Advance ticket and get it amended at the station - if they stand in line at the ticket office, go thro the hoops, hope that the hoops aren't insurmountable, hope that Advance tickets are still available, pay the £10 amendment fee & hope that the train doesn't leave before they've dealt with that bureaucracy - all in order to save a net £3 - £5 pp on a Waterloo to Southampton or Victoria to Dover train journey. 🙄  

 

Being a simpleton country-boy, I can readily understand how complicated UK rail ticketing can be to a foreign visitor. So I try to do my damnest to keep it tolerably simple by mentioning only the most common & important factors.

 

In the main nationalisation of businesses isn't my political philosophy, but screw-ups like the privatisation of the railways, the water companies and the Post Office, all of which are essential services and none of which have significant competition, have all been a privatisation too far.

"That was a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Bleedin' Obvious Party. We now return to our scheduled programmes"😏

 

JB 🙂

[edinburgher]

2 hours ago, John Bull said:

at 9am would suit cruisers, the next one arrives early evening. But altho journey-time is over an hour longer, the fare at £7.40 is tempting and none of the nonsensical complications of buying train tickets.

That is disappointing to read JB. We rarely travel to either Dover or Southampton although we did fly to Southampton one time and also  took the coach to Dover once.

 

The latter we quite enjoyed as we saw districts of London which were new to us and it also diverted into some of Canterbury, also new to us, but just like the frequency, maybe the route has also changed post pandemic.

Edited May 21 by edinburgher

[Globaliser]

21 hours ago, John Bull said:

Your more-frequent long-distance train journeys are very unlikely to be replicated by international travellers like @simigirl, for whom too much detail is more a hindrance than a help.

 

What are you talking about? CCers are routinely buying Advance tickets for long-distance journeys such as these.

 

In any event, IMHO none of this justifies you deliberately giving CCers wrong information.

[John Bull]

30 minutes ago, Globaliser said:

 

What are you talking about? CCers are routinely buying Advance tickets for long-distance journeys such as these.

 

In any event, IMHO none of this justifies you deliberately giving CCers wrong information.

 

Hi, G.,

 

Perhaps you & I have different ideas of what is "long distance".

I regard "long distance" as London to Newcastle (275 miles) or Carlisle (300 mls) or Edinburgh (380 mls).

@@simigirl's  London to Dover train ride, and those to Southampton, are both way under 100 mls, which I don't see as "long-distance"

And you have already accepted that "it's not really need-to-know information for a £12 London-Dover ticket".

 

The National Rail timetable simply says "(Advance) tickets are valid only on the date and train service(s) shown on the ticket(s)." No mention of being able to amend Advance tickets.

Ditto the timetable of LNER 

Ditto the timetable of the Trainline.

Yes, the timetable of Southern (the train operator) does say "Advance tickets are non-refundable but may be amended prior to the date and time of travel". But only when digging deeper into that website do you find mention of a £10 admin fee and other hoops for amending an Advance ticket, all in the hope of the OP saving just £2.60 - the price of the cheapest cup of Starbuck's coffee.

 

My posts tend to be too long anyway, and I'm not inclined wear down my typing finger or to confuse CC members by digging into all the hoops and terms that have no relevance to their airport to seaport journey.

 

I'll stick to what I'm doing

 

JB 🙂

  

[phabric]

If traveling from London to Dover on embarkment day, check out International Friends.  It is not listed under Shore Excursion & Transfers.  You will find under Search by Destination.

 

They pick up at certain London to Dover with an option of a stop at Dover Castle then Dover ship terminal.

 

www.internationalfriends.co.uk

[johnboy036]

My group (5 adults and one child) is taking the train from Waterloo East to Dover Priory. An adult group return ticket is 30.75£ each for any off peak train on day of travel booked and not a particular train time. In our case, to Dover 27 July and return 9 August. Add a child return ticket for 1£. You need at least 3 adults traveling together to qualify for this fare. We booked directly on Southeastern website. Took this route before and very easy to do.

[simigirl]

Thanks for all of the recommendations. I think we will go with the advanced train tickets. We shouldn’t have any issues making the train since we are staying close to the station. 

[simigirl]

Are there any luggage restrictions on the train to Dover? Thanks!

[gumshoe958]

35 minutes ago, simigirl said:

Are there any luggage restrictions on the train to Dover? Thanks!

No.

[gnome12]

1 hour ago, simigirl said:

Are there any luggage restrictions on the train to Dover? Thanks!

 

26 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

No.

Except you have to be able to get your own luggage on and off the train.