Snow & Christmas Travel

bluedolphin

Made it back tonight to Limerick. Got the 09.10 Euston-Holyhead and 14.10 to Dublin. Chaos! However, I'm typing this in bed now in my PJs with a cuppa......feck twas worth it!

Apparently, the SailRail tix seem to be still going; when I was in Euston on Monday there were signs everywhere saying 'sold out' very definitely. However, I spoke with people who bought SailRail tix after that and I didn't notice sold out signs in the station this morning. I don't know what the story is, but it seems they've started selling them again.

I'd also like to make a special mention to the extremely kind man at Dublin Port who came to collect his daughter who has returned from Sydney. She met some old college friends on the ferry and called her dad who is a private mini-bus driver and told him to bring his small coach to the Port... Once she and her friends got on, he opened up the last six remaining seats to anyone around offering lifts to basically anywhere in the city. I was fortunate to be able to nab a seat to Heuston and avoided waiting up to another hour in the snow without a guarantee of getting on the next Dublin Bus to Bus Áras and would certainly have missed the last train to Limerick. He was an absolute gentleman and personification of the meaning of Christmas.

Good luck to everyone, hope you make it!

Jack B. Badd

bluedolphin wrote: »

Apparently, the SailRail tix seem to be still going; when I was in Euston on Monday there were signs everywhere saying 'sold out' very definitely. However, I spoke with people who bought SailRail tix after that and I didn't notice sold out signs in the station this morning. I don't know what the story is, but it seems they've started selling them again.

There are probably a lot of people like me who bought tickets as contingency in the event that their flight was cancelled. If they informed SailRail that their place on the train/ferry was no longer needed, it probably opened it up to others.

Fysh

Right folks, I'm sitting in gatwick and looking at an awful lot of unhappy people being told that their flights to dublin are cancelled, because dublin airport has been closed. Aerlingus say they've no places to accommodate anyone whose flights have been cancelled until Stephen's day, due to overspill from previous cancelled flights.

If you're trying to get from London to dublin tomorrow, i'd look into either alternative flying routes or the raileasy/sailrail option.

D-Generate

For anyone who has gone through Gatwick or Heathrow, what was the security situation like? Massive queues?

Jack B. Badd

Heathrow queues yesterday were a bit mad - probably 30+ mins to get from the end of queue to the other side of security. Apart from that everything was fine but I'd definitely get there a bit early to cover yourself. On the plus side, I think Cork has benefitted from Dublin's bad luck re weather

Fysh

D-Generate wrote: »

For anyone who has gone through Gatwick or Heathrow, what was the security situation like? Massive queues?

Gatwick today was a bit busier than usual but not too bad. I got there about 3:45, dropped off my checked bag by 4 and was through security by 4:30. ('Course, my bloody flight was delayed and eventually cancelled, but that's the fault of Aer Lingus, not Gatwick's security people...)

Jack B. Badd

Hope everyone got to where they were going to. Happy Christmas

m@cc@

My flight was cancelled 20 mins last night before I was due to flying whilst I was at the departure gate. Left Stansted and went straight to Euston, got my sis to book the next boat. She booked it for 14.10 today. Arrived at Holyhead at 3am and got the 2.40am boat which had been waiting for our arrival. 23 hours after I left work, I arrived home.

djpbarry

bluedolphin wrote: »

Apparently, the SailRail tix seem to be still going; when I was in Euston on Monday there were signs everywhere saying 'sold out' very definitely. However, I spoke with people who bought SailRail tix after that and I didn't notice sold out signs in the station this morning. I don't know what the story is, but it seems they've started selling them again.

I did hear that Irish Ferries were prepared to put on extra sailings if needed. I got the last Hoyhead-Dun Laoghaire Stena Line sailing on Christmas Eve and it looked far from full. Terminal was a bit crazy, but aside from that, the sail & rail option was pretty handy. I’ve done it a couple of times before, but was expecting it to be pretty crazy this time around due to the circumstances. Turned out to be relatively hassle free. For £30 London-Dublin, I’d recommend it to anyone. Great value.

As an aside, the number of people I encountered en route who didn’t have a clue what they were doing was astonishing. I was asked several times at Holyhead “Sorry, do you know what ferry I’m supposed to be on?” while being shown a ticket – do people not check these things out before leaving home? Half the passengers at the terminal didn’t even seem to know which operator they were sailing with. I genuinely worry how Britain/Ireland would cope in a real crisis!

silvervixen84

My flight on the 23rd from Heathrow was cancelled that morning, and every other flight to Cork left that day, grrrr. Had to scramble and book a train, ferry and bus and eventually got home on Christmas Eve, a full day after I set off from my flat in London.

Train: 5 1/2 hours
Waiting at Pembroke port: 4 hours
Ferry to Rosslare: 4 hours
Bus to Midleton: 3 1/2 hours

Had a great laugh on the ferry though, was drinking in the bar at 2.45am on Christmas Eve with other people who got stranded at Heathrow!

Getting home on the 3rd is the next hurdle, should be ok at this stage now that the snow has disappeared.