Disney Magic
July 9 - 21, 2017
British Isles Cruise Day Prologue
Touring and Transfers.
Final thoughts about our London tour with Evan Evans.
Really felt great to walk the inner circle at Stonehenge.
.
It was a perfect first stop before visiting the standing stones in Scotland.
Kirkwall, Scotland
Standing Stones of Stenness
Ring of Brodgar
Invergordon, Scotland
Clava Cairns
(inspiration for the series Outlander where Claire passes thru time)
But they pack a lot in with these private tours.
We were constantly on the move.
Want to know what it’s really like to tour Evan Evans by coach?
Check out this video. (My photos simply don’t do it justice)
It shows their day tour to Windsor; Bath & Stonehenge - not the inner circle.
But well worth the watch for a number of reasons:
- pickup point is Victoria Station London
- exceptional detail of Windsor Castle – including some sneak footage inside St. George’s Chapel
- beautifully and thoroughly showcases Bath – for anyone considering a visit.
- shows more of what being roped off at Stonehenge is like.
- It begins to rain at will after perfect weather, and you’ll see how random and miserable the weather quickly changes to. (hence the need to pack raingear)
- you really get a sense of the rushed nature of these multi-stop tours. Refers to it as “an overview” at one point – which is the truth.
Here it is:
DCL Touring and Transfers.
Two of the biggest decisions for this British Isles cruise were
“what to tour” and
“how to get to the Port of Dover”.
And both had to be decided on ASAP to gain the best advantage.
So book early if cruising next year.
I. What to tour?
Figuring out “what to tour” was a major undertaking. This was a 12 nt. cruise with 8 days docked at various ports – not including Dover.
The possibilities were endless.
4 key elements played a role in whether we’d opt for the DCL excursion vs a Private tour vs venturing on our own:
- Where to go
- How to get there
- Total cost
- Travel distance from port
The private excursions typically cost less and visited more sites. They also provided better guides who have a vested interest in the overall success of the tour.
But touring this way meant sacrificing a lot of time otherwise spent sightseeing, shopping and enjoying a meal in order to see and do more.
On the flipside: The Disney excursions included fewer sites and provided a lot more free time to spend and enjoy on your own. Unfortunately, you have no control over the guides which can make or break your experience on a long day.
So we balanced our bookings - half thru DCL / half private which gave a little bit of everything.
Busy Bus is an excellent example of a full coach tour - very hands on within a small company.
2 DCL excursions to compare would be Le Havre, France vs Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood Palace.
Both were full day tours and the guides couldn’t have been more opposite.
Arromanches, France (Normandy) - excellent guide. extremely knowledgeable.
Holyrood Palace - (Edinburgh) bus parking lot (terrible monotonous ill-prepared guide in red)
All our excursions will be covered in much more detail to give a well rounded introduction.
Next major area:
II. How to get to the Port of Dover (via DCL)
There were 4 ways to get DCL transfers to the port.
The first three were previously mentioned:
- Same day cruise arrivals / departures from Heathrow and Gatwick airports
- Anyone staying at the Sofitel London Heathrow or Hilton London Gatwick
- Anyone staying at a Disney London hotel if and only if booked directly thru DCL
But there was a 4th option we never knew about.
4. London City Centre pickup in front of the DoubleTree at Hilton London. (Victoria)
Apparently DCL had also run transfer busses with a central pickup from London to Dover.
Anyone could book these. All you had to do was get to the pickup point at the DoubleTree at Hilton London hotel in Victoria.
Official website:
http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/ho...lton-hotel-london-victoria-LONVCDI/index.html
FYI: JQ called the DCL and confirmed this pickup is being offered for 2018 – the cost is $60.00.
There was a question about this on our cruise meet thread.
starts here:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...uise-from-dover.3515878/page-14#post-57419663
@mickeyfanmom was asking if anyone heard of a Doubletree pickup point? We weren't able to confirm it, and nothing was posted further about it.
Months later the cruise docs arrive and the ground transportation page contains this paragraph titled:
PRE-CRUISE TRANSPORTATION PICK-UP INFORMATION
which is talking about scheduled ground transfers from the DoubleTree at Hilton London.
Again at this point it was so close to our sail date nobody followed up.
Fast Forward to now:
There is a young vlogger who was on our cruise. (sequined mickey ears)
She's been uploading a series of videos to highlight each day of their trip.
I’ve linked one here for a very important reason. It shows them using the DCL transfers from the Doubletree to Dover for our cruise.
At the 2:17 minute mark on her Embarkation video, you’ll see them getting dropped off via taxi at the Doubletree Hilton London Victoria;
notice there’s a pile of tagged luggage lined up curbside and 2 DCL reps outside checking in guests.
So add these on immediately if you are considering a non DCL hotel in London and would like to use Disney transfers to get to Dover.
Next up: A Disney ride to Dover