Photo Review: Solstice 12 Night Great Barrier Reef Jan 2 2018

[mahdnc]

 

Day 7, Mon Jan 8: Cairns Day 2 Shore Excursion (Independent GBR Snorkel/Dive)

 

There were a ton of snorkel boats at the Marlin Marina. And they were all soon going to head out to their Great Barrier Reef destinations. Many boat names were familiar to me from all the research that I did. As big of an operation the snorkeling tours were, I was mildly surprised that the check in was done at the boat (in Port Douglas we checked in at an office with people staffing multiple counters for a large operator).

 

 

Whether you buy your snorkel/dive day tour thru Celebrity or independently, the formula for the non-pontoon tours is pretty much the same:

 

1. Check in and get on the boat. The boats have comfortable interiors and exteriors. The interior was climate controlled for temperature and humidity (i.e. it was air conditioned!). All the boats had heads (aka bathrooms). The boat we were on today had showers in the bathrooms.

 

2. Once the boat took off, you get introduced to the crew. safety do's/don'ts, emergency info, sea sickness information, and an idea of what the itinerary is going to be like.

 

3. You sign a bunch of forms--personal information, medical condition declaration, waiver forms, etc

 

4. Sign up for an extras like diving, camera rental, snorkel guided tours. You are told that there will be a professional photographer taking your photos that you can buy on the ride back to the marina. The photos are well done because of the equipment and the experience of the photographer compared to the photos that you or I would take. They're priced ok but the manner in which you got them varied. The easiest one was on the Cairns Day 2 tour--the photographer would AirDrop your photos to you right there and then. Most of them would sell you the photos on a thumb drive or CD/DVD. There was one operator that made you pay for the prints before you could buy the digital copies. Yuck.

 

5. The divers and snorkelers are split up on the boat so that they can get their training/briefing. Divers are further divided into beginners and certified divers and get their pre-dive briefing from their dive guides. On our Cairns Day 2 tour, a couple of Japanese speaking guides were on board to work with a group of Japanese divers.

 

6. You are issued your gear during the ride to the reef. This includes stinger suits and everything. During our Cairns Day 1 tour there was inexplicably a shortage of sizes of stinger suits, so get your stuff early. You could also get floatation devices such as a life jacket or a swimming pool noodle. They were free. Because you could literally spend a couple hours swimming out there in the ocean, floatation assistance was a good idea and not to be dismissed so easily.

 

7. Once at the reef, you are given final instructions which include safety information, where you could snorkel, the amount of time you had, when lunch would be served, etc. To preserve the interior of the boats themselves, you were always warned not to go inside certain areas of the boats with wet clothing/stinger suits on. You either had to dry off and get out of the suits (the one piece suits are difficult to get in and out of esp when wet) or you had to stay out on deck where there was seating--but not always enough seating outdoors for everybody.

 

8. There is a dive/snorkel in the morning, then lunch is served and you can go diving/snorkeling again afterwards.

 

9. Diver groups are provided dive guides which is helpful. Snorkelers are guided if you pay extra.

 

10. There are some free snacks on the trip, but most of the good snacks including ice cream you have to pay for (ice cream in particular sells well on the ride back from the reef!). You often can run a tab for snacks, drinks, or such. On one boat, it was an honor system where you signed a sheet of paper on a clipboard and indicated what you took. Sea sickness medication was also for sale.

 

11. On this tour, the boat traveled to a second reef during the day to give you something new which was nice.

 

12. All the boats rigorously did a head count before leaving the reef or pontoon. They were very disciplined about doing it. They instructed all the passengers to not move about the boat while the count was being conducted. On one tour, the head count was done by multiple crewmembers and their numbers did not match so they had to re-perform the head count before leaving.

 

 

Tours that involved a pontoon were similar but some of the activities (getting your gear and sometimes getting your food for lunch) were on the pontoon. More services were offered on the pontoon like semi-submersible rides (which were always free) and helicopter rides (which definitely were not free)

 

 

The crew on every one of our tours was great, friendly, and enthusiastic. There was no tipping involved nor expected. Nevertheless the service was excellent--they wanted you to have the best time. You just hoped that Mother Nature was equally kind to you that day in terms of having sunlight to light up the reef, the smoothness of the boat ride, underwater visability, and getting lucky with seeing some of the sea life.

 

I think we had about 50 divers/snorkelers on this trip. I would say that 33% were divers. I didn't run into anybody that was also a Solstice passenger. We visited two reefs which are pictured on the map below. The first two dives were done in the morning at Norman Reef. The third dive was done after lunch at Hastings Reef.

 

Edited March 3, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Your planning is admirable and despite the set backs you were very fortunate to get the early tenders the next morning, not to mention getting a taxi at Yorkeys Knob!!! No mean feat. :D

 

Yes, when I realized that the only two taxis that were there were pre-arranged by a group on our tender, there was a moment that I thought I had grossly screwed up and overlooked a tiny but critical detail. So, I used the taxi app on my iPhone and the dispatcher said that a taxi would be there in a few minutes. My only concern was that "my" taxi might get intercepted by someone else because it would take a while to figure out that the taxi was not coming--wasting more valuable time.

[mahdnc]

Thank you for this excellent review. I’m enjoying it very much.

 

Thank you (and everyone else) for your compliments. I don't expect a lot of people to be reading this thread because the itinerary is uncommon and my review is rather specialized in the topics it covers.

[mahdnc]

 

 

Day 7, Mon Jan 8: Cairns Day 2 Shore Excursion (Independent GBR Snorkel/Dive) continued

 

For us the ride out to the reef was very smooth although it was long (40 minutes each way) mainly because I was so impatient. Even though the weather was overcast and cloudy at Cairns, the crew told us that the nearby mountains always make it cloudy on land, but it should be very sunny by the time we get to the reef. They were right. After we left the harbor at Cairns, we had a distant view of Solstice on our way to the reef. The sunlight lit her up and she looked gleaming white against a gray backdrop. It made you smile just looking at it. Well, it made me smile.

 

 

As soon as we arrived at Norman Reef, one of the crew members at the front of the boat pointed and yelled out, "manta ray!". Well we were sitting in the back so I didn't see it. But it sure got my blood flowing!

 

 

Here are some photos that we took underwater. We could have had more BUT the batteries on our Canon underwater camera and the GoPro died after the second dive. In all the commotion from being trapped on board the ship last night (instead of being in a hotel), I forgot to go through my night time routine of making sure that those batteries were charging before I went to bed. We didn't have any spare batteries and I normally don't bring the charging cables with me. Sigh. In hindsight (having nothing to do with the battery problems), I wish I had purchased an underwater case for my iPhone X. It would have come in handy for the snorkeling even though we were armed with our Canon and GoPro. And I am sure they make the cases so that they float if you lose your grip on the iPhone.

 

 

Looking back on it, the snorkeling and diving compared more favorably than what we saw in the Caribbean. Although it might be comparing apples and oranges. In this case, I am liking the oranges. We saw a lot more fish, anenome, hard coral, and sharks. The fish were more in number and size. Some of the fish like the grouper were humongous.

 

 

To me the most amazing thing were the Giant Clams (below) which are not in the Caribbean.

 

 

The clarity and visibility of the water was amazing and you can see it in the above photographs especially the ones of the divers where you can see quite far and the divers looked like they were suspended in air.

Edited March 3, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

 

Day 7, Mon Jan 8: Cairns Day 2 Shore Excursion (Independent GBR Snorkel/Dive) continued

 

Seeing sharks on our GBR dives became quite common and you got pretty used to it. This makes me laugh because when I think of the GBR, I am thinking Great White Shark which are common to the area and I don't think I would ever get used to it. Fortunately, we never saw one.

 

We should have bought a fish card to identify the various sea life that we saw.

 

We saw lots of sea turtles. They were pretty mellow and many times you could swim along side of them. Everytime I saw one like this, my mind would think about the surfer dude turtles in the movie, Finding Nemo. I would be thinking to myself, "hey dude, Mr. Turtle! Nice to meet you in the big ol' blue! You totally rock, man!"

 

Did I tell you how awesome Giant Clams are? Oh, that many times...hmmmm. My daughter, who is posing behind one, absolutely hates how she looks in a photo with the air regulator in her mouth. So she began taking it out so she could smile for the camera! Vanity, thy name is Katie!

 

 

Edited March 3, 2018 by mahdnc

[tb4]

Thank you both for posting all this great information. I'm getting really excited for the cruise at the of th he month.

Could you please share the name of the taxi app you used. May come in handy.

 

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[mahdnc]

Thank you (and everyone else) for your compliments. I don't expect a lot of people to be reading this thread because the itinerary is uncommon and my review is rather specialized in the topics it covers.

 

I forgot to mention that I also like Susanne's photos and information because all of my GBR stuff is beneath the waves!

[mahdnc]

Thank you both for posting all this great information. I'm getting really excited for the cruise at the of th he month.

 

Could you please share the name of the taxi app you used. May come in handy.

 

 

 

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You are welcome. I used 13CABS. When I was in Newcastle trying to get a taxi for our return trip to the ship (we couldn't get an Uber), I downloaded this app which was recommended by an employee at the quad bike company. There is some set up involved and quite frankly I never could order up a taxi strictly by using the app (like Uber). Part of the problem was being unfamiliar with geography names. Instead, I always ended up using the call option on the app (at the bottom of the 2nd screenshot). That worked like a charm in Newcastle and in Yorkey's Knob!

 

Edited March 3, 2018 by mahdnc

[tb4]

Thanks again. I've shared your review with my roll call. So much helpful information.

 

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[cherylroslyn]

The Doubletree debacle sounds like a play right out of my playbook. Thankfully not much of a debacle at all. I am anxiously reading about this tendering process as I am on the 4/29/18 Cruise from Honolulu to Vancouver, which is another 12 night cruise with a couple of tender ports.

 

At our first stop in Maui my group booked an elaborate excursion that includes a drive and a helicopter. As it turns out it takes off from the opposite side of the island. The only way to get the group there is a rental car and I have to get off the ship as soon as possible to pick up the rental.

 

Obviously this is not a Celebrity Excursion and in fact Celebrity offers nothing like it as this is also a cruise that only happens twice a year.

 

Some people have said being Elite might help with the tendering process, I did not remember that having any effect. I assume they accommodated you because of the mix up the day before or is this something you think would be worth looking into on the first day?

 

Great review!!!!! I literally feel like I'm on the trip with you and your family!!!!!

[mahdnc]

 

 

Day 7, Mon Jan 8: Cairns Day 2 Shore Excursion (Independent GBR Snorkel/Dive) continued

 

The day went very well. The dives were great. But no matter how good the dive day went, you still are thinking about a hot shower, change of clothes, food, and alcohol. Unlike our last two dive trips where the boat goes directly back to Solstice, this boat goes back to port so that we can take another boat to the cruise ship (with a taxi ride in between). Ugh. The dive boat got us back to Cairns around 4:45 pm. According to Celebrity Today, the last tender leaves Yorkey's Knob at 6 pm so we were good.

 

 

At the marina, we were able to flag down a taxi at 5:12 pm who promptly got us back to Yorkey's Knob by 5:40 pm. I am used to standing in a long line to catch one of the last tenders to the ship. There was no line when we showed up. None. In fact we had to slow down on our way to the tender in order to get our well earned cold water drink and iced towel that were being handed out under the canopies set up at the pier.

 

 

Our large commercial tender was named, Fantome Cat. It is normally used by SeaLink Travel Group for passenger ferry service in Townsville (to Magnetic Island), a GBR port city located between Airlie Beach and Cairns. Celebrity contracted a couple/few of these large comfortable tenders to shuttle passengers back and forth between Solstice and Cairns. It was also likely used for Solstice tendering at nearby Port Douglas on the following day.

 

 

The boat waited for a little while for more passengers. Still when we left, it was not very full. Unfortunately it doesn't make the ride go any faster. When we got to the cruise ship, we didn't have to wait for the other tenders--perhaps Celebrity knew that I was getting hungry for dinner. We immediately pulled up along side her to get off at 6:40 pm.

 

 

Because I figured we would get back to the ship too late to make our 6pm MDR seating, I scheduled us to have a 7:30 pm dinner at Sushi at Five. The reservation (made on-line in December) cost $20 USD pp which means that you have paid for $20 per person of food. Anything beyond that you pay extra. They gave us the option at the table to make it "all you can eat" for an extra $10 USD pp which we agreed to. I had read about this option on Cruise Critic but I didn't see it available when I made the on-line reservation.

 

We have been there once before when we sailed aboard Infinity. It was my son's introduction to sushi then and it was for lunch. He loved it as he pretty much sucked up every roll in sight. He might as well have tilted the plate towards his mouth and allowed the rolls to slide down into it. So it was clear we had to do dinner there on this cruise.

 

I remember service at this restaurant being slow when we did lunch aboard Infinity. This time it seemed even slower and I was dying from hunger. The place was empty (maybe 2 other tables were occupied) and I did not understand why it took so looooong to get our food. If the waiter had showed up at our table with a fishing pole in his hand and said, "hey we're still working on it", I could understand. After eating the first couple of dishes and once the wine started to kick in, I started to fade from fatigue. It made waiting betwen the dishes (which took for ever) very difficult to stay awake for. You start listening to the table conversation with your eyes closed and then...zzzz. I must have been dreaming about our next stop in Port Douglas which was going to be another highly anticipated dive/snorkeling day.

 

7:22 pm: This Reef Magic boat was being used as either a tender from Yorkey's Knob or as shore excursion transport to Reef Magic' s Marine World pontoon (CN01 GBR Snorkeling excursion). Either way it was coming back rather late since Solstice was supposed to be leaving promptly at 7 pm in order to make the arduous 28 mile trip to Port Douglas by 7 am the next day.

Edited March 3, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Some people have said being Elite might help with the tendering process, I did not remember that having any effect. I assume they accommodated you because of the mix up the day before or is this something you think would be worth looking into on the first day?

 

Great review!!!!! I literally feel like I'm on the trip with you and your family!!!!!

 

Thanks. Up to and including the 2nd day in Cairns, we did not use the Elite Priority Tendering privileges because either we were on a shore excursion or because I did not think that it was going to get us ashore early enough for Cairns Day 2.

 

Take a look at this Celebrity bulletin that all the passengers received on the 3rd day or so of the cruise. Look at the very last sentence which talks about providing an early tender for people with independent tours for Cairns Day 2. When I saw it, I put our name down at Guest Relations as a backup plan or even as a primary plan if I was convinced that it would get us to the dive boat in time thereby allowing me to cancel my Doubletree reservations. The problem with this option was that although I listed ourselves as needing to be at Yorkey's Knob by 6:30 am, Guest Relations could not tell me that they would structure the early tender schedule to meet this need. It wasn't until we received that Tender A ticket the night before that it looked like it would work--but we were on the hook for the hotel rooms by then. Furthermore the tender ticket said to meet at the Grand Foyer at 6 am which really didn't tell me when they intended to launch that tender. If we all met at 6 am only to get on a tender that left at 7am, well that might not work for us was my thought. I needed certainty which is why I stuck with the hotel plan.

 

Once the hotel plan completely crumbled like a cheap fortune cookie, the early tender ticket was all I had left which is what we used. When I found out by talking to Guest Relations on the phone that the tendering to Cairns on Day 1 at already stopped, I immediately began verifying that we were on the early tender list. So no further accommodation was made or could be made by the ship. The early tender would have to work.

 

On the next day to Port Douglas, it was important to get to the port as fast as possible. Not as much pressure as Cairns Day 2, but I was hoping to catch an earlier (better) dive boat instead of the one that we had booked (same company operated both) I will be posting that next--probably tomorrow. We did use the Elite Priority Tendering option and that got us ashore pretty early--ahead of the crowd.

 

When CC-er travelling8 (Kim) and I studied the March 2017 GBR cruise we were told by people on that cruise that the Elite Priority Tendering did not solve the problem of needing to get ashore to Cairns early enough for their private tours and that people got pretty upset. It sounded like the Elites were 2nd priority to the massive number of people that bought shore excursions. I did not know of the early tender which I think was done on that sailing as well. So I had concluded that staying at a hotel during the Cairns overnight was the only way to independently book a Cairns dive boat.

 

Kristy, our Capt Club Hostess ran the Elite Priority Tendering thing at each tendered port. It was done separately from the special early tender option for Cairns Day 2. I don't recall seeing anybody on our early tender that boarded through the Elite system.

 

But for you, the Elite Priority Tendering is your best and only play. Talk to your CC hostess to let her know about your situation. And talk to Guest Relations as well in case something special is being put together like for Cairns Day 2

Edited March 3, 2018 by mahdnc

[Muffinz]

thanks for your very detailed review of the cruise and the barrier reef.... did you actually have time to enjoy the cruise? seem like you were too busy writing each day's review to actually have fun!

 

you are just making myself and my wife more excited about our cruise coming up in 29 March!

[Suzi66]

I've been really enjoying reading your review too, especially as we did all land based activities.

[mahdnc]

I've been really enjoying reading your review too, especially as we did all land based activities.

 

 

 

Thanks! No report for Cairns Day 2?

[Suzi66]

Cairns Day 2 - Susanne's version.

 

Tendering today was quite easy, we got off exactly when planned which was very nice.

 

My in-laws had picked a tour which would show us the sights of Cairns. The trip finally showed us some of the flowers that MIL expected to see in the Queensland tropics.

 

First of all we headed north towards Palm Cove. We passed more wild wallabies (who said there were no kangaroos to be seen other than in zoos) but I wasn't close enough to get a photo this time AND I live in an area where kangaroos do live. We have had to get animal control to remove one from the school that I work at last year.

 

Palm Cove is full of holiday resorts and is a pretty little village. The beach has signs all over it to look out for crocodiles as they have had them as well as the vinegar bottles for stingers. They had a special area you could swim which was supposedly stinger free because of the nets, but as they are so tiny I wouldn't risk it.

 

 

 

Supposedly where the crocodile was last time.

 

[Suzi66]

Cairns Day 2 - Susanne's version part 2.

 

We then headed into town and saw lots of different areas, the shopping precinct, the waterfront which has an area which people can safely splash around in water, the markets, the casino, the different styles of homes - including the classic Queenslanders, and a tree which the driver was disgusted that was 'infested' with fruit bats. The way he spoke made the people on the bus also make noises of disgust.

These bats have been forced from their normal breeding areas by logging and building and they have found a perfect tree in town that they have decided to make a breeding tree. At night they fly into the forest and pollinate the forest. They are wonderful creatures. The council have tried to move them but they keep moving back to the tree they want. Eventually they will move on to another tree when the hustle and bustle of the city upsets them but they should be left alone until then.

 

I've pinched this picture of the bats as I couldn't get one from the bus to do it justice. We drove past too fast and all I got was a large tree with large blobs. Look at how beautiful they are. I think people hear bats and think vampire, rather than essential part of our ecosystem as they pollinate plants.

 

 

We also got to go to the place my mother-in-law had been looking forward to, the Botanic Gardens. They are beautiful and we regretfully only got to see a tiny part because we were only given a short time to be there. We spent most of our time in the butterfly house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today's tour took us about 2 1/2 hours and then we went back to the ship. It is amazing though how much doing small tours took out of my in-laws. As I said if I had my way again we would have done this one yesterday as it wouldn't have mattered about time and there wouldn't have been any stress about meeting deadlines, and then do the Karunda today especially as tenders didn't seem to be a problem.

 

My in-laws didn't get off the ship at Port Douglas but I will leave that until tomorrow,

[mahdnc]

We passed more wild wallabies (who said there were no kangaroos to be seen other than in zoos) but I wasn't close enough to get a photo this time AND I live in an area where kangaroos do live.

 

You made me laugh. Perhaps if kangaroos could swim, I would have seen one in the wild! Come to think of it, if those guys really could swim, I think we would see them everywhere across the world!

 

Nice pictures, by the way!

[Suzi66]

I have seen emus swimming across the Murray River, but I will have to rack my brains about kangaroos swimming. I know they can for short distances when there is flood to get out of the waters, but normally they have moved before then. My husband was telling me about when he was sandbagging a friends house once years ago, watching all the creatures race before the waters, none of them caring about any other thing in the way.

 

BTW do you want me to add what we did at Airlie Beach and Newcastle?

[Cruise Junky]

Suzi, are the botanical gardens just outside of Cairns? We’ll be back in Port Douglas for a week next year and always looking for new places to visit.

[mahdnc]

[quote=Suzi66;55449133

BTW do you want me to add what we did at Airlie Beach and Newcastle?

 

 

Suzanne, of course add those ports to this thread. Quite frankly you can add anything you wish without my say so. And even if you differ with what I've posted. We're here to help out others that are taking this GBR cruise.

 

Our shore excursion choices complement each other perfectly!. But add your onboard experience as well

[Suzi66]

Suzi, are the botanical gardens just outside of Cairns? We’ll be back in Port Douglas for a week next year and always looking for new places to visit.

 

They are between the airport at Cairns and Cairns itself. According to Googlemaps not that far from the airport at all.

[Cruise Junky]

They are between the airport at Cairns and Cairns itself. According to Googlemaps not that far from the airport at all.

Thanks so much

[Suzi66]

Newcastle - Day 2 - Susanne's version

 

So as you can see I'm going backwards.

 

We didn't book a ships tour for this one. Nothing really interested my in-laws that much from the ship's offerings but I had seen that there was an old tram that did a tour around Newcastle. On days that there is a ship they are hired by the local HOHO bus as one of their vehicles. The cost was $25 AUD a person and we got given a bottle of water each and several discount vouchers that we could have used at the different stops. We didn't get off at any of the stops for the reason I will tell you soon, but Steve (my husband) and I will be going on another cruise at a similar time next January that will stop in Newcastle again and we plan to do the same thing and stop everywhere this time.

 

The water tower where we waited for the tram to pick us up. You could climb to the top for great views. (I didn't because I thought I was going to do a bit of walking later on in the day. I was wrong)

 

The tram

 

The tram took us along the foreshore to show us Nobby's Beach and then we headed up to the first stop Fort Scratchley. The amount of people waiting to get on the tram was probably 2/3rds of the capacity of the whole tram and we were already full. Just under half got off but my in-laws decided they wanted to stay put and that's how we stayed for the whole trip. The driver put a call through for another vehicle to pick up those that weren't able to get on with us. The Fort looked like it would have been a fascinating place to visit and we are definitely exploring it next time.

 

We then kept heading down along the shore looking at different beaches and one of the stops was a big boardwalk.

Then we headed into town itself and looked at the old buildings including one of the stops that was the Cathedral.

 

 

 

After the tour finished many people went shopping but we headed back to the ship where my in-laws had a lovely time without many people on the ship, in the pool, at the buffet etc.

 

We sat out at the Oceanview Bar as we left at the end of the day and watched the cannons go off at Fort Scratchley as tribute to our leaving.

 

[tb4]

You made me laugh. Perhaps if kangaroos could swim, I would have seen one in the wild! Come to think of it, if those guys really could swim, I think we would see them everywhere across the world!

 

Nice pictures, by the way!

We have wild wallabies here in New Zealand. Introduced many years ago, no swimming involved!

 

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