where in whitsundays?

[jimmil]

hi booked on queensland cruise,where does the ship stop at the whitsundays?

cheers

jim

[karmac]

When I cruised the Fairstar we stopped at the Whitsundays adn we just anchored around Daydream/Hamilton/Sth Molle area. Have you been there before? In my opinion, it would have to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.

 

Karen

[Skyrules]

I think Airley Beach

 

 

 

hi booked on queensland cruise,where does the ship stop at the whitsundays?

cheers

jim

[jimmil]

Thanx for reply ,no have never been .I am really looking forward to it though.

jim

[Kiwi Kruzer]

The stop for cruise ships in the Whitsundays is Hamilton Island.Depending on what ship ,the state of the seas,the tides etc will determine where your ship will anchor.You will go ashore on the ships tenders (lifeboats) which is an adventure in itself.

Hamilton Island is fantastic .You can rent golf buggies and drive around,or just walk over to the beach and chill out.For the day that that you are there you can also use the Hotel pools,or just go shopping and visit the the cafes.

You can also book a tour to Airlie Beach,but we heard from folk who did this that it is a long boat ride to get there and you almost get off the boat and it is time to come back to get you back to the ship.

[lias]

More recently, the ships have been anchoring off Airlie Beach. For P&O cruises to The Great Barrier Reef area they take a special reef pilot with them for the entire cruise. He usually gives a couple of talks during the cruise which are very interesting. As Kiwi Kruzer correctly said, they will vary the anchorage position slightly for various reasons, including protection of the Barrier Reef Park.

 

The tenders will take you in to the mainland and from there it is about a ten minute walk to Airlie Beach township or there are coaches if you don't want to walk. The walk is very easy, but on an extremely hot or wet day you may wish to pay a small fee for the shuttle coaches.

 

I think most of the tours (Outer Barrier Reef, A day on Daydream Island and so on), all leave from the ship itself. The land tours of course leave from Airlie Beach. There is a large man-man lagoon at Airlie Beach, so take your swimmers if you like.

[lias]

Oh dear! Just took a look back at my last post. Man-man was supposed to be man-made! It must be this wine I have been enjoying. It is a cleanskin (no label) but very nice all the same! :o

[karmac]

Must be the thing to do. I'm sitting here with a glass of wine too.

 

KAren

[Kiwi Kruzer]

More recently, the ships have been anchoring off Airlie Beach. For P&O cruises to The Great Barrier Reef area they take a special reef pilot with them for the entire cruise. He usually gives a couple of talks during the cruise which are very interesting. As Kiwi Kruzer correctly said, they will vary the anchorage position slightly for various reasons, including protection of the Barrier Reef Park.

 

 

Thanks lias ,

Thats good to know.Anchoring off Airlie Beach is a much better position ,but as you say it is a National Park,so they have to anchor were they are told.On one we cruise we were on the ship wanted to anchor off one of the outer reefs to drop folk off to visit the reef,and the Park Ranger who was on board said they had only been permited to drop the anchor in a very confined area and if they missed could have been fined many thousands of dollars for damaging the sea floor.Another reason they stick to easier anchorages now.

[jimmil]

Thanks for all the answers.I suppose I'll have to wait to february to find where we pull up.Airlie or Hamilton Island,does it matter they all sound good.

cheers

jim

[karmac]

No it doesn't matter because anywhere in the Whitsundays is beautiful. Personally I prefer Daydream to Hamilton. Went to Daydream for 14 days back in '84 when it was the really small resort. Great holiday. Went back there for 2 days in '95 and although it's much more classy now & a beautiful resort, I think it's too big and doesn't have the same friendly feel that it did before. As for Hamilton, nice island but has more of a Gold Coast feeling (lots of high rise apartments).

 

Karen