Welcome aboard, Edwin! My European adventures with Disney Cruise Line were the most memorable ones yet, so I'm thrilled to hear that your family is getting ready to set sail on the Disney Magic for an enchanting European adventure too!
Disney Cruise Line offers
Ground Transfers from the London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports to the cruise port in Dover for guests. I highly recommend booking these optional transfers, especially in Europe, as they make the transition from land to sea and back again super seamless and easy. Disney takes care of all of the details! They also offer pre- and post-cruise stays at partner resorts, as well as transportation to and from those resorts and the airport and cruise port. If you're interested in these options, give the agents at Disney Cruise Line a call at (800) 951-3532 to get more details and add them to your cruise reservation. I love that when we stay at a partner resort the night before, Disney takes our luggage directly from the resort on our sail morning and sends it ahead to the ship. The luggage meets us onboard at our stateroom that afternoon. We keep a day bag with us to enjoy the resort that morning until it's time to head to the port. So easy!
Disney Cruise Line recommends that if you're booking your own flights, the latest arrival time into Heathrow or Gatwick on embarkation day would be 11:15 a.m. That being said, I highly recommend flying in the night before because you don't want to be stressed about possibly missing the ship due to any flight delays. When flying back out of Heathrow or Gatwick on debarkation day, the earliest flight time recommended is 1:15 p.m. Now, if you're on the cruise from Dover to Barcelona, the earliest departing flight you should book out of Barcelona for debarkation day is 11:30 a.m. or noon our of Copenhagen if you're sailing Dover to Copenhagen.
Have such fun planning, Edwin!
Marcy