Westbound Transatlantic Information Request

[miller4x4]

Good morning,
I am currently considering the yet to be announced 2020 westbound transatlantic cruise from Dover, EN to New York, NY.
My previous cruises have all been out of Port Canaveral and I feel very comfortable with my navigating that embarkation process and planning the logistics of the trip.
So, I am hoping that those in this wonderful community that have more experience with the WBTA cruise can provide me with tips, tricks, guidance and/or lessons learned to help me prepare.
Some questions I have:

How does Disney transportation work? I like using the bus system from the MCO airport to Port Canaveral since we usually can get on the first bus and get into the terminal before it gets crowded. We also like using the MCO Hyatt for the night before embarkation and utilizing the luggage service to get our bags to the cruise

Along those lines, we typically have been booking the MCO Hyatt through Disney for our pre-embarkation night. However, in the case of England, we will probably front load our trip by a couple days to play tourist in London before the cruise starts. Does Disney have any agreements similar to the MCO Hyatt for booking in London pre-cruise and, if so, how would it work adding additional days to the hotel stay?

Any suggestions or tips regarding transportation or things to do (or not do)?

I am not very concerned about disembarkation. We live in central Pennsylvania, so getting home from New York City will not be an issue for us.

TIA

 

[tink1970]

You're going to receive a lot of suggestions on how to do it OYO from those who have done it that way. That said...

I sailed from Dover to Barcelona in 2017 with my elderly parents and wanted the easiest possible way to get from Heathrow to our hotel to the ship so I booked DCL transportation from the airport to the DCL hotel and then DCL transportation to Dover.

Most of it was easy-we were met after we collected our luggage by a driver and it was just our family. He drove us to the incorrect hotel at first (this was a communication problem-we were staying at the JW Marriott Grosvenor and he took us to the Grosvenor-confusing, to say the least) but we arrived fine. At the hotel, there were DCL reps who had desk hours in the lobby and they gave us tags for our luggage and information about the departure from the hotel. The day of embarkation, our luggage was collected and we got on the bus and it drove to Dover. Easy, peasy.

There were 3 hotels from which to chose in London proper the summer we sailed (they might vary slightly depending on DCL's contracts), 2 Marriotts and a Hilton, iirc. We reserved 2 nights pre cruise for 2 rooms and our TA said that the nights could be limited but since we requested at booking we were able to get what we wanted without issue. The hotel rooms were $$$ and reserving through DCL only made them more so, but I wanted to keep things simple since I was wrangling my parents.

There are several trip reports that have families who have done everything on their own, to staying in Heathrow to staying in Dover-all can be quite helpful if you want to avoid the DCL inflated prices!

As for what to do, again, I'd read some trip reports and get an idea of what you want to do most. Our day of arrival, DM, DH and DF did a hop on hop off tour (one of the stops was across the street from the hotel) and got a good overview of the city. The following day the guys took a tour to Stonehenge while DM and I went to the City to the Bank of England (painful and boring story there), then to the Tower of London to look at sparkelies, then to Harrods. If this is your first trip, you might want to do a walking tour, see the Changing of the Guard a Buckingham, or a tour of Westminster Cathedral, etc. If you're theater people, you might want to catch a show or there are so many amazing museums, you could do that. London is like NYC- you'll never do it all, so best to pick a few must dos.

Transportation is super easy around the city-buy an Oyster card and take the very well marked subway where ever you need to go.

Have fun planning

 

[gilsan]

Good morning,
I am currently considering the yet to be announced 2020 westbound transatlantic cruise from Dover, EN to New York, NY.
My previous cruises have all been out of Port Canaveral and I feel very comfortable with my navigating that embarkation process and planning the logistics of the trip.
So, I am hoping that those in this wonderful community that have more experience with the WBTA cruise can provide me with tips, tricks, guidance and/or lessons learned to help me prepare.
Some questions I have:

How does Disney transportation work? I like using the bus system from the MCO airport to Port Canaveral since we usually can get on the first bus and get into the terminal before it gets crowded. We also like using the MCO Hyatt for the night before embarkation and utilizing the luggage service to get our bags to the cruise

Along those lines, we typically have been booking the MCO Hyatt through Disney for our pre-embarkation night. However, in the case of England, we will probably front load our trip by a couple days to play tourist in London before the cruise starts. Does Disney have any agreements similar to the MCO Hyatt for booking in London pre-cruise and, if so, how would it work adding additional days to the hotel stay?

Any suggestions or tips regarding transportation or things to do (or not do)?

I am not very concerned about disembarkation. We live in central Pennsylvania, so getting home from New York City will not be an issue for us.

TIA

I went on the WBTA last year and have a trip report here https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...updated-april18-dcl-transport-london.3731605/ My last post is about DCL transportation to Dover. Disney has a shuttle that picks up at the Doubletree Hilton at Victoria, It was super easy to use.

 

[GPaLarry]

We did our WBTA a few years ago as the second leg of a B2B with a Med. cruise beforehand and Barcelona being home base (flew in a few days early to see the city and saved a bit of touring for the switchover day between cruises.) DCL planned everything for us, much like Tink1970 above. Met the DCL rep at the airport and driven to our hotel in a sedan with only us and him. As mentioned, there was a DCL desk in the lobby of the hotel (selected by DCL and in a great location) which made confirming our connection with the Magic for the cruise very easy. Everything went as planned, except for the pickpocketing near Parc Gruell (gotta watch that in Barcelona).
Now, we also used DCL for all transportation when we did the Northern Europe Baltic Capitals cruise out of Dover a couple of years ago, too. From the personal meeting at the airport to the great hotel to the easy transport to the ship and back to airport it went just great. We flew in a few days early to see the city. Tink1970 was right about picking highlights of London to see because there is so much. We used the Hop-on, Hop-off double decker bus to get around. Beware that they end their day early, maybe around 6pm (check with the driver/ticket person for sure). We got stranded one day when the driver said his day was over and he was headed to the bus barn...we got off and walked back to the hotel. Saw the changing of the guard, Tower of London (great tour here), Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey (look for the tomb of the unknown soldier inside and the relationship with the US), cruise down the Themes and tried to get in the Globe Theater (a Shakespeare play was going on inside in Chinese and they wouldn't even let us peek inside). On cruise day everything worked like clockwork with the luggage picked up, put on the bus with us and all delivered to Dover. We wished we had more time in Dover...maybe next time. Coming back was easy with bus waiting for us to go to the airport and home.
After studying the DCL schedule for next year, as far out as it goes, I believe the 2020 WBTA will leave Dover Sept. 18, a couple of days later than our earlier WBTA. We have been looking at this cruise for us, again, as a B2B. When you book with DCL just tell them you want to spend x number of day in advance or after the cruise in London...they will accommodate. We have never tried it, but maybe you could also plug into Adventures by Disney to help you explore in the city or country. In any case, if you have questions or concerns, just call DCL. They have been great with us through nine cruises...#10 (yeah!) coming up next summer back to the Caribbean.

 

[miller4x4]

Awesome. Thanks for all the great advice and insight. I love this board.

 

[Amunet]

I have a trip report as well. We did our own transportation to Dover from London.
Link at the top of my signature

 

[ahen]

So we sailed out of Dover last year and were doing it again in August. We stayed in London for 2 nights before, we flew into Gatwick and took the Gatwick express to London. We stayed at the Grosvernor Victoria and that makes it super simple because it backs up to Victoria Station which makes getting around London very easy. We took a private car to the port it's about a 2 hour drive and it was lovely. The port is dover is tiny compared to Port Canaveral so its super simple. I would love to do a transatlantic cruise.

 

[smmco]

You will come out ahead booking the hotels yourself. Both hotels are between 400-500 dollars a night for a standard room. This year I priced out the churchhill at 348 pounds. The JW was more. Booking through Disney I was quoted over 600 a night. It may have been closer to 700. If you have Hyatt points its only 25,000 points a night which is a great value if your knowledgeable about points. If I decide to stay at the Churchill I will definitely go the points route.