Journey To The West, Part Three

Jul 25, 2026

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I slept … OK-ish … in my airport hotel. Technically I woke before my alarm, but not by much.

The lines at check-in are insane, in my previous experience, so I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time; Thus, a nearby hotel & an early alarm.

Hatton Cross Underground Station, on the Piccadilly Line

So, those lines I was worried about? Yeah, not so much. Only one person ahead of me to check in.

When I commented on it I got a brittle laugh and an “Oh, just wait” from the check-in staff.

By the time I got through security, I was still ridiculously early for my flight; Maybe 2½ hours early, the gate hadn’t even been announced. ( Though it was in the same area it always is )

I made sure that I had a bunch of time between flights at Dublin, based on how long the queue for US Preclearance was the last few times. The departure boards showed a time when access to preclearance for my flight would open, but a question to the line management person led to the advice that I should just go through now, before it got busy, so I did that.

Bag got swabbed at preclearance security ( I don’t know why they have a security screening for people who have, in order to get to that point, already cleared security ), but otherwise no issues there, and there was only one person ahead of me in the line for CBP clearance.

I was nervous about this bit, because these are the folks who can decide whether or not you get to continue, based on whether they think you’re going to abide by the visa requirements. There have been some stories about people having trouble here due to weird technicalities, though many more about people having trouble because they were in fact planning to work on a tourist visa and said so when asked.

My combination of Nerd Shirt ( Gen Con 2016, which has a dragon on it ) and description of the planned trip did not set off any alarms, and the only “is this person being suspicious” question was whether I’d bought anything to sell or trade.

The first thing you get to on the other side of preclearance is a souvenir kiosk of Twee Irish Stuff, for that last-minute Shamrock/Leprechaun fridge magnet purchase.