EasyJet Hands Free

I asked a similar question last year on booking our first flight with EasyJet from Manchester but am still unsure on how the Hands Free works in practice. We are due to fly out tomorrow, with cabin bags and handbags only. I have read the info on the EasyJet site, and I know that we can only bring one piece of hand baggage onto the plane. We are therefore looking at checking in the Cabin baggage, but it is not clear whether we can just do this when we arrive at the airport, or whether we need to prebook and pay online. It says that it costs £6.00 per case, but as we only want to use the service for the outbound flight, I am unsure whether if it is pre booked we would be required to pay for both journeys as is the case when checking in hold luggage.
I would be grateful for any advice, as I cannot find the thread for the original question I asked, and I cannot seem to find anything on the TA flight forum without asking my own question. TIA Pauline.

Hi Pauline, I did this a few weeks ago. 

To get round the Ryanair problem can you not just book as two separate transactions, out with a bag and return without? Do you have to book both legs in the same transaction? Never tried it so I don't know.

Thanks for the info TD. From Edinburgh I have the choice of Ryanair or Jet2 who are almost always a good deal more expensive.  To be fair to Ryanair I have never had a problem with Ryanair.  I always follow their rules.  My only problem is the dreadful queue at Faro, up and down stairs with nowhere to sit.  Jet2 used the airbridge which was much better.

Thanks for the advice all. We arrived here yesterday on our first EasyJet flight (they’ve only recently started flying from Manchester). The bag drop was easy and took only a couple of minutes. We hadn’t booked online, so we went to the desk to pay and were given a receipt to check in the bags and drop off. So very handy, as we were able to take handbags with IPads and a snack onto the plane whilst offloading our cabin bags which I was able to pack with liquids, and other bits and pieces which are more expensive, and often difficult to find over here. First part was a breeze, with easy boarding, and promise of arriving here ahead of schedule. Sadly that was not the case, as thanks to our British weather, we had to wait for the plane to be de-iced, then this was followed by the discovery of a technical fault which meant we remained on the tarmac for almost two and a half hours. This was rather frustrating, but much better to be safe than sorry. Thanks to a tail wind, we recouped a half an hour on the journey. The Captain was very apologetic, and the cabin crew were friendly and efficient, so overall not a bad experience. We have already got a further three trips booked through EasyJet for this year as they came in quite a bit cheaper than Ryanair and Jet2.
I have to say that I like the idea of the £6.00 bag drop (NB information in their February flight magazine is incorrect, as it still states it’s a fiver per bag). It will save us having to take a big suitcase every few trips to get those liquids and other items over that cannot go in the cabin.