The New and Very Improved DUB

As far as I'm concerned, the "160-character" experiment is over.  I'm just too much of a blabbermouth to be able to say what I want to say in a tweet, and facebook is just a field full of privacy and ownership landmines.  So it's time to resurrect (again) the venerable ol' blog.  For this iteration, I am going to try to focus on topics related to travel and mountaineering (and hopefully some that combine these two loves of mine).

For my first post back from this two-year hiatus, I would like to expound on the awesomeness that is the new Dublin International Airport.  These days, major international airports have standardized, and most of the amenities are comparable across the board.  There are vast, airy spaces trying to evoke the awe that a bygone era of air travel used to evoke in all passengers.  There are usually long walks through the terminal, and there are usually lounges, shopping, and food to pass the time.  And of course there are the hassles of immigration control, security, and customs.

DUB's brand new Terminal 2 is no different than others in these regards.  What sets this airport apart in my book are two things:  the US "Preclearance" area, and the "Whiskey Collection" duty-free shop... and most importantly, the combination of the two.

For those of you who have traveled back and forth between the US and Canada, the US Preclearance Area is the same thing as you see at Toronto Pearson or Vancouver Airports.  Before boarding your flight, you clear US Customs and Immigration.  This means that upon landing in the US, your plane taxies up to a domestic gate instead of international.  Note that they haven't rolled out Global Entry, so you have to stand in line regardless of your standing in the program.

As for the Whiskey Collection duty-free store, I was initially skeptical.  I'd read about it in the hype surrounding the opening of the new terminal, but frankly, I was doubtful that any real finds could be had there.  I was going to be content with just picking up a bottle of Midleton Very Rare or perhaps a Jameson 18 at the duty-free price.  So I was rather pleasantly surprised to find not only those two bottles (which I would consider the absolute minimum bar to be taken remotely seriously), but I found some extremely limited, single cask, numbered bottles on display.  I was in a major hurry (unnecessarily, as it turned out, more on this later) so I didn't have much time to take notes or pictures of these rare (and expensive, or at least out of my price range) bottles, unfortunately.  Next time.

What I walked away from the store with was a bottle of Connemara Turf Mór, which can be found elsewhere but not in Washington, and a bottle of Greenore 19 Year Old single cask, a special bottling of 300 units just for this store.  Wow, now I was impressed.  And only €160 sans duty!  The store has only been operating since the terminal opened in November, so they are certainly still feeling out their clientele and market.  I'm hopeful that word spreads among passengers that good stuff can be found there, enabling the store to continue stocking the rare items instead of reverting to the standard, bland duty-free selections you find at most other airports.  Finally, they seem to have staffed up with salespeople who are knowledgeable about their product.  The friendly saleslady who helped me had all the basic facts about the Irish distillers at hand (I know, there aren't that many so it's not that hard to know this info, but this is an airport duty-free - most employees of these around the world couldn't tell the difference between a whiskey and rum!) and went so far as to rattle off the peatiness in PPM of the Turf Mór when I exclaimed how smokey it was upon sampling it.

So far, some of you may be unimpressed.  The coup d'état here lies in the combination of the whiskey store and the customs pre-clearance.  Normally, if you have a connection after landing in the US, you must pass through security at the US airport after having cleared customs.  In this case, flying back through Newark, I would have had to clear customs in Newark, then go through security there again to get into the domestic terminal.  At which point, my whiskey would have been confiscated if I hadn't rejiggered my luggage to check the booze.  On this flight, though, since we came directly into the domestic terminal, I didn't have to pass through security again.

This means I can carry-on the 2+ liters of liquids in the form of the nectar of the gods without further hassle*!

It's sad that this is something I have to rave about, given that ten years ago anybody could have brought any number of bottles of whiskey in their carry-on, but alas.  This is the Brave New World, and I have to take my victories in small doses.

 

* In the interest of full disclosure, I will detail the process at DUB.  You can decide if it's a hassle or not.

1. Arrive at Terminal 2 by land, check-in as usual, and proceed up to the secure area.
2. Clear Irish security.  There is no separate passport control for outbound passengers.  Irish security did not ask me or anybody around me to remove their shoes, but did ask for laptops and liquids out of the bags.  So you wouldn't have been able to bring a bottle of whiskey that you'd purchased at, say, Celtic Whiskey Shop (a fine establishment, by the way, I only hope that the airport store doesn't hurt their business) in your carry-on.
3. Enter "The Loop" shopping area.  The Whiskey Collection is towards the far left side as you enter from security.  Take care of your shopping.  Keep in mind that you carry your purchase with you; it is not delivered plane-side as some operations do.
4. Clear US Immigration and Customs.  The airline and various authorities will tell you to get here between 1.25 and 1.5 hours before your flight OR ELSE!!!!!!!!  Here is what I'll say about that:  the lines can be very long.  I arrived in line 1 hour and 10 minutes before departure time.  I stood in line for 30 minutes and was processed in well under 5 minutes.  The entire time I stood in line, the video screen showed my flight as "Final Call" so I was alarmed.
5. After you are interviewed by the CBP officer, you proceed to another security checkpoint.  My heart fell as I approached this, thinking "crap! they are going to confiscate my whiskey and it's probably too late to check a bag!"  I put my whiskey on the x-ray machine, in the umtampered duty-free sealed bags.  I am pretty sure this is key - do not open the bags and repack until you have landed in the US and entered the domestic terminal.  Nobody batted an eyelash at my booze.  They did make me take off my shoes here, and of course the laptop and small liquids in a quart ziploc rule applied to non-sealed liquids.  There were no magnetometers, and certainly no "advanced screening" machines here.  I am not sure if this checkpoint was more for CBP to find contraband or for TSA to "secure" the plane.  In any case, it seemed an asinine hassle since we'd just cleared Irish security only moments before, but you didn't hear me complaining because I had to catch my "Last Call" flight!
6. I arrived at the gate with about 40 minutes to go before departure time - the screens still flashing "Last Call" in desperation.  I'd say about 80% of the passengers had already boarded.  However, I certainly wasn't even close to being the last.  We actually departed a few minutes late, so I ended up sitting on the plane for nearly an hour before we moved an inch.  This was probably my biggest beef with this whole process - to me, "Last Call" means the plane is imminently leaving.  Say, within 10 minutes, and they are waiting on only one or two passengers.  In this case, I know that they used the Last Call thing to get everyone to go through the CBP process as early as possible and that's fine since it's a process that most people aren't familiar with.  But next time, I'll know not to even think about panicking at those words, at least in this airport.
7. So there you have it.  We were airborne shortly thereafter, and, as advertised, we pulled up to the domestic terminal in Newark and proceeded straight on without further security screening.  I was able to carry my 2 liters of booze right on to my connection and all the way home.

Comments

[8of12]

Great post and a hearty welcome back to Shanghai Yummy!

Your description makes me want even more to make a long overdue trip back to Ireland.

I agree with you about the benefit of pre-clearing US immigration and customs in airports with large proportions of flyers and flights to the US. Montreal's Trudeau also has this, and it's a great thing. On a recent trip out of Cancun airport I was surprised that US flyers were not pre-cleared.

[Eden]

Pierre Trudeau -- dead at age 80.