Sydney Australia

[Idratherbeatsea]

Where does the Ruby Princess dock in Sydney? Any recommendations for hotel couple days prior?

[pedirn]

The Ruby Princess docks in Circular Quay at the Overseas Passenger Terminal as it does not fit under bridge.   We are staying at the Four Seasons.   The first time in Sydney we stayed in Darling Harbor at the Four Points by Sheraton.  It was nice but after staying at the Four Seasons last time we decided we like the area and hotel ambiance better

[Colo Cruiser]

Yes Circular Quay just opposite the Opera House.

Right below the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

[LSGDRG]

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Old Sydney.  The hotel was just OK, but the location was great.  I was able to easily walk with my bags to the cruise terminal.    

[Cruise Junky]

2 hours ago, pedirn said:

The Ruby Princess docks in Circular Quay at the Overseas Passenger Terminal as it does not fit under bridge.   We are staying at the Four Seasons.   The first time in Sydney we stayed in Darling Harbor at the Four Points by Sheraton.  It was nice but after staying at the Four Seasons last time we decided we like the area and hotel ambiance better

Four points is no more. I think it’s now a Hyatt. 

[marybrodo]

We did not cruise to Sydney, but stayed at the Marriott at Circular Quay for five nights and do recommend it.  We liked the hotel and the location is great.   This may be outside of the scope of the board, but here goes: a "can't miss" walk in Sydney:  Coogie Beach to Bondi Beach.  

 

[Plant]

We stayed at the Meriton, Kent Street in Sydney.  It was very nice and close to lot's of things, including Chinatown, shopping and the subway.

I've heard good things about all the Meriton properties.  

https://www.meritonsuites.com.au/our-hotels/nsw/

[mcrcruiser]

We has booked into the Sydney Boulevard Hotel .It is very clean with a good breakfast area  buffet style  & reasonable .  Across the street is a Pub  where we ordered  Chicken Curry & a pint of beer  per order with a tip was $10 USD equivalent . Only use visa or Master card  that do not charge you   the foreign exchange fees  .We use the Chase Sapphire Preferred  for that purpose & we also get free trip insurance when pating for that cruise with that CC . Only thing we picked up rxtra was medical evacuation & medical  from Squaremouth.com   & my cost for 21 day cruise & 7 days in Sydney was $89  US D . 

If you do not already have the Chase Sapphire CC & can spend $4000 in 90 days you get back $600 in cash .If you leave the $600 with Chase Travel you  get a 25%  bonus ;which then makes it $750  i travel dollars .You can use it for airfares , cruise deposits ,hotels & car rentals . Anything related to travel 

 

 BTW ,there are fabulous restaurants one & a half blocks away  from the hotel ;but ,also very important was that the HOHO bus stopped tight there  ,Their conciege is fabulous for any tours ,We went to the Blue Mountain tour  .On our own using the HOHO bus we did a harbor tour .The bus drops you off there  .We went to Manly beach ;which is so clean .We also saw Bondi beach  . Up the road a bit is the Cathedral & the Sydney  Musueum  ,Tne HOHO bus also got us very close to the Opera House . 

 

 We loved our cruise & our 7 days in Sydney 

 

   

Edited September 29, 2019 by mcrcruiser

[Colo Cruiser]

12 minutes ago, mcrcruiser said:

Only thing we picked up rxtra was medical evacuation & medical  from Squaremouth.com   & my cost for 21 day cruise & 7 days in Sydney was $89  US D .    

Have you ever filed a medical evacuation claim with Squaremouth?

The reviews are scary.

The good reviews are because people paid cheap prices.  

 

I will stick with Medjet Assist.

 

 

[polmcs]

7 hours ago, marybrodo said:

We did not cruise to Sydney, but stayed at the Marriott at Circular Quay for five nights and do recommend it.  We liked the hotel and the location is great.   This may be outside of the scope of the board, but here goes: a "can't miss" walk in Sydney:  Coogie Beach to Bondi Beach.  

 

 

You can’t beat the Marriott for it’s location to the cruise terminal, but when we did our OZ- Fiji cruise, we opted for the Hilton downtown which probably about a 15 minute walk to the cruise terminal as we wanted to be a bit more central and as our cruise departed from the White Bay Cruise Terminal, I knew that we needed an Uber anyway.

 

I thought I was being clever by booking the 1888 Ovolo hotel near Darling Harbour  for our post cruise hotel, thinking it would be close by, but we ended the cruise at the OPT port, so a quayside hotel would have been ideal. That said, the Ovolo was a very nice, if quirky hotel and I would definitely stay there again if I was in the area.

 

We had a few days in Sydney prior to our cruise and we did the Coogie to Bondi beach hike one morning. It is a fantastic hike. Our only issue is that we did it in April, which is technically Autumn, but the temps were still up around 34C (92F) which was a record for that time of year. Still, that made that post hike beer at the bar overlooking the beach all that much “sweeter” 😉

[DougH]

I stayed at the Russell Hotel, almost across the street from the terminal. Fantastic location, Sydney is a great city to explore. I'd go in at least 3-4 days early as there is so much to see. I spent a week and it was not enough

[caribill]

13 hours ago, LSGDRG said:

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Old Sydney.  The hotel was just OK, but the location was great.  I was able to easily walk with my bags to the cruise terminal.    

We have stayed there twice and found it to be very acceptable as a hotel and, as you indicate, with a great location.

 

It is less of a walk from this hotel to nearby areas than the walk from the Marriott.

[joybook]

As you can see by my address, I live in Sydney. If I want to stay overnight in the city before getting on a cruise we always stay at Holiday Inn Old Sydney as it is just so close to the OPT. Just an easy 5 minute walk.

[leck57]

3 minutes ago, joybook said:

As you can see by my address, I live in Sydney. If I want to stay overnight in the city before getting on a cruise we always stay at Holiday Inn Old Sydney as it is just so close to the OPT. Just an easy 5 minute walk.

 

Another vote for Holiday Inn Old Sydney. I am an ex Sydney resident and now stay there when I'm in Sydney city. The best cheap excursion you can do in Sydney is catch the ferry (departs from Circular Quay right near the cruise terminal and hotel) over to Manly. The ferry, which I caught to work for years costs about $7 and goes past the harbour attractions on the way over to Manly which takes about 40 minutes. Walk up Manly Corso to the beach and enjoy one of the restaurants for lunch. But I lived there for 30 years so I am biased.

If you have time take another ferry to Taronga Zoo, one of the great zoos with great views back to the city. Another day, just walk from this hotel around to the Opera House and Mrs Maquaries chair and the gardens. Then walk to the Darling Harbour area. All that in the city and mostly free if you don't mind a walk. 

[DrippinCruiser]

We stayed at an AirBnB in Sydney and were very happy with it.  It was a short walk to the Promenade and the water taxis to take you all around the harbor.  

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18761052?source_impression_id=p3_1570078761_q7xxwSu3Iag778xI