Disney Magic
British Isles Cruise
Day 1 – Dover, England
July 9, 2017
(weather – sunny high 77 °F / 25 °C)
Dover Cruise Terminal
Looks like
DCL has only 5 sailings using Dover in 2018. There are so many cruise possibilities from here, so hopefully this will expand.
Let’s review our port experience so far:
Disney collected us from the London airport hotel at 11 am and did not get us to Dover until 1:45pm - way beyond the 11:30 am call for boarding time.
We cleared a security check downstairs, and proceeded upstairs to bag screening & check-in.
The main security queue begins as you reach the top of the stairs.
Screening is set up next to the check-in area so it’s easy to see how the lines would back up during peak arrival times as
@tink1970 described. (of course by the time we arrived, it was pretty empty.)
At 2:00 pm – we cleared security and were ready to check-in.
(
note: it took 15 mins. to get to this point from the time we exited the bus - but we were hours behind most cruisers)
There were 4 designated sections for check-in:
- General guest check-in (new cruisers) – enter left of the “guest check-in” banner. We chose this queue since there weren’t that many using it. But it’s serviced by fewer DCL reps at the counter so it may not be faster.
2. Silver & Gold CC line – most popular (line formed between the 2 banners)
A red divider separated Gold & Silver CC (left side in photo) from us "guests" (right side).
Compared to everything so far, the check-in area was really busy. So I’m guessing a few DCL busses may in line ahead of us - but we were moving.
The remaining two areas were designated for:
3. Platinum
Castaway Club
4. and Concierge guests
Both had their own lines set up a little farther down.
By 2:15 pm – we finally reached the counter. (so 15 mins. for that line)
continued in next post...