Snow & Christmas Travel

afatbollix · 30-11-2010 8:32am #1

So theres a light bit of snow falling where I live at the moment but its not sticking. Ground is very wet so if it does freeze first before the heavy snow comes it will be sheet ice under the snow...

Where screwed in other words :P

Fysh · 30-11-2010 9:11am

Yeah, we got a dusting of it outside, basically enough to have about half an inch to an inch worth of slush to trudge through. Ideal for falling over in

On the other hand, it's still an improvement on just having dreary grey skies and rain.

afatbollix · 30-11-2010 9:27am

I wanted to go into the Hyde park Market today.. If the wind doesent pick up it should be a good day for it...

If any one is in the area and chance of a update?

IamtheWalrus · 30-11-2010 10:04am

I'm in Borough and it's getting heavy. I have training with my running club tonight :eek:

LadyMayBelle · 02-12-2010 9:09am

Wahey!! Working from home because of the snow! Was a third of the way to work when I got the call, but oh tis sweet!

afatbollix · 02-12-2010 12:56pm

Work said they would pay for a hotel.. Except I was on the night shift so they bloody woudent pay for me.. ****

Also on Tuesday I went to the winter wonderland market in Hyde park with it snowing.. It was awesome!!! You have to go in the snow wrap up warm and first thing you do is buy some mulled wine!

LadyMayBelle · 18-12-2010 12:40pm

Serious amount of snow falling in the West Hampstead/Kilburn area of London..looks beautiful, but getting anxious about flights home on Tuesday! What's the snow like in your area?
Pics to follow!

Sinall · 18-12-2010 2:41pm

I'm getting worried too! Was due to have a visitor from Ireland today but flights are cancelled. Fingers crossed we are all okay getting home next week!

D-Generate · 18-12-2010 3:50pm

My brother has a double whammy of hassle. Has to get from New York to London on Tuesday and then London to Cork on Friday. I now know 3 other people besides myself on the 18:05 flight from Heathrow on Christmas Eve. Here's to hoping they are flying.

Irish Halo · 20-12-2010 12:04pm

For anyone stuck I can vouch for SailRail I use it to get home most times (sick of airports) and so far neither the train from Euston nor the ferry from Holyhead has been affected and it's only ~£30. You can buy online at Raileasy

bluedolphin · 20-12-2010 2:38pm

Rail & Sail tickets (£30) are sold out. I was at Euston this morning looking for a ticket for Wednesday. All sold out up to and including the 24th. However, you can still book individual rail and ferry tickets (rail is about £75 [£50 with 16-25 railcard] and ferry £30) departing from Euston at 09.10 for the 14.10 sailing from Holyhead to Dublin Port. Also, Eurolines depart from Victoria at 06.30 and arrive in Dublin at 18.30 for the princely sum of £27 for young persons (up to 25) and £64? I think for adults. There are options other than planes so don't panic! Last year my flight was cancelled and I did the Rail & Sail -really not that bad and good craic on the train!

Good luck getting home; I'm sure the journey will be worth it! Merry Christmas

Fysh · 20-12-2010 2:56pm

Hmmm, my flight to Spain on Thursday afternoon may be an entertaining (read misery-inducing) affair...

That being said, this made me laugh about the current snow situation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQhDlbqY2RM

Sinall · 20-12-2010 3:27pm

Apparently Frankfurt Airport has hired four CLOWNS to entertain travellers stranded there...I don't think I will be able to cope if clowns appear in Luton Airport on Thursday.

1505 With travellers frazzled by hundreds of flight cancellations across Europe, Germany's Frankfurt airport has hired clowns to try to keep travellers happy.

'Four clowns are performing in the terminal halls,' the spokeswoman for Frankfurt's international airport told AFP.

The clowns were sent in after fights broke out at the airport on Saturday between stressed-out holidaymakers.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1220/weather.html

Irish Halo · 20-12-2010 4:06pm

bluedolphin wrote: »

Rail & Sail tickets (£30) are sold out.

:eek: didn't expect that, guess it's going to be a bit of a scrum on Wednesday then ...

m@cc@ · 20-12-2010 7:11pm

Good luck getting home for all. Fingers and legs crossed for me for Thursday evening.

D-Generate · 20-12-2010 8:34pm

I hope that anyone who wished snow to come at any point this Winter wets themselves in bed and freezes to death tonight. You deserve it.

silvervixen84 · 20-12-2010 10:58pm

Supposed to fly home on Thursday, trying to stay positive about it so far. If I'm stuck I could be back on here organising an ad-hoc Christmas Do for stranded boardsies!

ballsymchugh · 20-12-2010 11:07pm

Irish Halo wrote: »

For anyone stuck I can vouch for SailRail I use it to get home most times (sick of airports) and so far neither the train from Euston nor the ferry from Holyhead has been affected and it's only ~£30. You can buy online at Raileasy

i was driving up the m20 to gatwick a few weeks ago and the m26 was blocked. ended up going with the traffic up to swanley and then around to gatwick but the flight was gone when i finally got there. decided that since i had 2 days to go home that i'd try sailrail, since the price was 1/10th of the flights.
so got the train from euston at around 8 to manchester to change at crewe. about an hour on the way there was an announcement that the ferries were cancelled due to high winds, and the train was late anyway so missed the connection in crewe. ended up going out to manchester airport and got the first flight in the morning.

i really really really hope no one else has to risk this and all the flights start going soon.
safe home to the lot of ye that are travelling!

Fysh · 21-12-2010 12:10am

silvervixen84 wrote: »

Supposed to fly home on Thursday, trying to stay positive about it so far. If I'm stuck I could be back on here organising an ad-hoc Christmas Do for stranded boardsies!

It's looking like we might be stuck here too and I was thinking along similar lines. May as well try and muster some Christmas cheer through a pub expedition and some nerdiness,eh?

Irish Halo · 21-12-2010 9:11am

ballsymchugh wrote: »

... a few weeks ago ... there was an announcement that the ferries were cancelled due to high winds

You had me freaking out there, thought this was yesterday/day before. For anyone else planning on getting the ferry Stena and Irish ferries are running with extra staff and no delays currently.

Stena Lines updates

Irish Ferries twitter

joseywhales · 21-12-2010 9:22am

Right I've a flight on Friday from Gatwick.

I'm now going with the sailrail contingency tomorrow. God I hope this works.

Jack B. Badd · 21-12-2010 10:09am

Irish Halo wrote: »

For anyone stuck I can vouch for SailRail I use it to get home most times (sick of airports) and so far neither the train from Euston nor the ferry from Holyhead has been affected and it's only ~£30. You can buy online at Raileasy

Booked a backup ferry home if my flights are ****ered - it'll get me to Dublin at least and then my fate is in CIE's hands

Cheers for the info!

Edit: Ah, just noticed that people were saying that SailRail was booked out - I booked via the RailEasy link though...

Sinall · 21-12-2010 10:45am

Jack B. Badd wrote: »

Booked a backup ferry home if my flights are ****ered - it'll get me to Dublin at least and then my fate is in CIE's hands Cheers for the info!

Edit: Ah, just noticed that people were saying that SailRail was booked out - I booked via the RailEasy link though...

Have just done the same! Don't want to run the risk of not getting home.

Scarinae · 21-12-2010 12:33pm

Sinall wrote: »

Apparently Frankfurt Airport has hired four CLOWNS to entertain travellers stranded there...I don't think I will be able to cope if clowns appear in Luton Airport on Thursday

My friend was on a flight from Luton to Dublin this morning, and it actually arrived on time. Hopefully you'll be ok!

My flight is from Heathrow, feeling less positive about that

biZrb · 21-12-2010 4:32pm

I'm booked on a flight out of Heathrow on Friday, hope not only Heathrow is ok by then but also Dublin Airport, as its closed atm.

I tried booking a rail & sail ticket for Friday (can't go any earlier than that) but there doesn't seem to be tickets available. To book the train and ferry separably was just too expensive.
In the end I booked a rail & sail ticket for Tuesday, I might not make it home for Christmas but at least I'll make it back for a few days.

I usually don't really care about Christmas, but this year things were different as I've been away from home for so long that I'm really looking forward to it, so I hope I get home in time.

Irish Halo · 21-12-2010 6:49pm

biZrb wrote: »

To book the train and ferry separably was just too expensive.

Just so people know, I had to look into this for a freaking out friend, if you buy ferry and train separate, it is ~£100 with the train ticket being about £75 but as you are booking late and paying that much the train ticket at least is refundable (with a £10 administration charge) if you don't use it.

I'm probably getting into Dublin port tomorrow *fingers crossed* but the folks are "snowed in" (North county Dublin and not trust my Dad the drama queen) so may end up staying in GF's folks house

D-Generate · 21-12-2010 9:36pm

Do you know what we need right now?

Yup you guessed it! Some lovely industrial action!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1221/aerlingus.html

silvervixen84 · 21-12-2010 10:08pm

Fysh wrote: »

It's looking like we might be stuck here too and I was thinking along similar lines. May as well try and muster some Christmas cheer through a pub expedition and some nerdiness,eh?

I have Tekken and Singstar :pac:

Sinall · 21-12-2010 11:05pm

D-Generate wrote: »

Do you know what we need right now?

Yup you guessed it! Some lovely industrial action!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1221/aerlingus.html

Seriously??!!!! For f**k's sake. I'm not travelling with Aer Lingus but that's just downright wrong. And mean.

Jack B. Badd · 21-12-2010 11:24pm

D-Generate wrote: »

Do you know what we need right now?

Yup you guessed it! Some lovely industrial action!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1221/aerlingus.html

C*nts! I thought you were joking until I saw the link. I don't suppose a Spanish-style response is on the cards...

LadyMayBelle · 22-12-2010 1:21am

Got home this evening Luton to Galway with a twenty min stopover in Waterford. Minor delay of an hour. Very acceptable! Biggest problem was getting a train to the airport though, as the amount of cancelled trains/delayed one /lost ones was a joke. My advice is to leave as early as you can, even if it means you sit in the airport for an extra few hours.

Good luck everyone!

bluedolphin · 22-12-2010 2:32am

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 · 22-12-2010 8:23am

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 · 23-12-2010 8:18pm

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 · 23-12-2010 8:48pm

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

Jack B. Badd · 23-12-2010 9:15pm

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 · 24-12-2010 12:17am

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 · 24-12-2010 3:47pm

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

m@cc@ · 24-12-2010 11:04pm

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 · 27-12-2010 2:45pm

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 · 27-12-2010 3:34pm

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.

Snow & Christmas Travel

Comments