Carnival Splendor In Nov - Excursions.

[dlesh77]

Hi there. 

 

I will be on the Splendor in November. Apparently, excursions will not be available to purchase or to see until on board. I am a planner and find this frustrating. LOL. Can anyone give insight as to what excursions are offered in Cairns and Airlie Beach?

 

Thank you so much.    

[Jean C]

1 hour ago, dlesh77 said:

Hi there. 

 

I will be on the Splendor in November. Apparently, excursions will not be available to purchase or to see until on board. I am a planner and find this frustrating. LOL. Can anyone give insight as to what excursions are offered in Cairns and Airlie Beach?

 

Thank you so much.    

Hi, I suggest you have a look at Princess website, 7 day cruises from Brisbane in particular (maybe 29 July sailing) which go to Airlie Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas for some ideas. Happy researching 🙂

[MicCanberra]

Also try Viatour, Getyourguide,and TripAdvisor.

[Sparky74]

23 hours ago, Jean C said:

Hi, I suggest you have a look at Princess website, 7 day cruises from Brisbane in particular (maybe 29 July sailing) which go to Airlie Beach, Cairns and Port Douglas for some ideas. Happy researching 🙂

Here’s the excursions that Princess offers in Cairns. Carnival will offer similar excursions.

[Sparky74]

And here’s the excursions that Princess offers in Airlie Beach. Again, Carnival will offer similar excursions.
 

[MMDown Under]

4 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

And here’s the excursions that Princess offers in Airlie Beach. Again, Carnival will offer similar excursions.
 

I'm surprised how expensive the excursions are.  My friend, currently on Coral Princess, did a hop on hop off bus tour of Airlie Beach for $5!  In addition, for those who enjoy walking, there is a lovely scenic waterfront walk to Airlie Beach Lagoon and shops.  

[Aus Traveller]

14 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I'm surprised how expensive the excursions are.  My friend, currently on Coral Princess, did a hop on hop off bus tour of Airlie Beach for $5!  In addition, for those who enjoy walking, there is a lovely scenic waterfront walk to Airlie Beach Lagoon and shops.  

I hate to say it, but a HOHO bus tour of Airlie Beach wouldn't be worth more than $5!!😁

[MMDown Under]

18 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Here’s the excursions that Princess offers in Cairns. Carnival will offer similar excursions.

Recommend a walk along the Esplanade from the ship.  There is a big salt water lagoon with a lifeguard for swimming (free) as well as water aerobics.  Half way along there is a popular cafe, with Muddys Playground next door for children.  When the tide is out, there are a big variety of interesting birds to watch on the mud flats.  5000 long distance migrant birds stay the whole summer.  google migratory shorebirds of the cairns foreshore.  The Cairns Botanic Gardens, Edge Hill, is a tropical paradise where you may be able to join one of their free tours.

[MMDown Under]

7 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I hate to say it, but a HOHO bus tour of Airlie Beach wouldn't be worth more than $5!!😁

My senior friend said it was worth every penny, because she can't walk distance any more.  

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, MMDown Under said:

My senior friend said it was worth every penny, because she can't walk distance any more.  

I can understand that. However, for anyone else, just looking at shops and apartment buildings wouldn't be very exciting.

[Jean C]

2 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I'm surprised how expensive the excursions are.  My friend, currently on Coral Princess, did a hop on hop off bus tour of Airlie Beach for $5!  In addition, for those who enjoy walking, there is a lovely scenic waterfront walk to Airlie Beach Lagoon and shops.  

There's also a worthwhile lookout (so I hear) within walking distance called Honeyeater Lookout (bottom left of attached map). Airlie Beach is where you can take trips to the Whitsundays - we'll grit our teeth and do the Princess Whitehaven tour as our ship arrives too late to do a private trip. Map is Plan B if weather doesn't play ball 🛳

[arxcards]

3 hours ago, MMDown Under said:

I'm surprised how expensive the excursions are.  My friend, currently on Coral Princess, did a hop on hop off bus tour of Airlie Beach for $5!  In addition, for those who enjoy walking, there is a lovely scenic waterfront walk to Airlie Beach Lagoon and shops.  

My mum has caught that bus, which is a shuttle to near the markets. We like the walk along the board walk, although it seems longer each time we walk it.

[Aus Traveller]

26 minutes ago, arxcards said:

My mum has caught that bus, which is a shuttle to near the markets. We like the walk along the board walk, although it seems longer each time we walk it.

On our first several visits to Airlie Beach the ship's tenders took passengers to the Abel Point Marina from where the boardwalk follows the coast to near the swimming lagoon. However, the last couple of times we have gone ashore, the tenders went to the Port of Airlie at the other end of town. There is a lovely cruise terminal there so I think that is where the ships' tenders will go now. We didn't go ashore on our 26th June cruise so I can't confirm that the tenders go to the cruise terminal.

[arxcards]

15 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

On our first several visits to Airlie Beach the ship's tenders took passengers to the Abel Point Marina from where the boardwalk follows the coast to near the swimming lagoon. However, the last couple of times we have gone ashore, the tenders went to the Port of Airlie at the other end of town. There is a lovely cruise terminal there so I think that is where the ships' tenders will go now. We didn't go ashore on our 26th June cruise so I can't confirm that the tenders go to the cruise terminal.

Cool. If nothing else, a different walk awaits us.

[Aus Traveller]

57 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Cool. If nothing else, a different walk awaits us.

The cruise terminal is only a short walk to where the markets are held.

[2022cruisey]

At Airlie, we did the Proserpine River crocodile cruise.  Excellent and unable to be done that day with any other company so worth the money.  They pick you up at the terminal and return you to the terminal in plenty of time.  Includes morning tea and lunch.
 

In Cairns we did the sky rail up and train down - booked direct.  It cost $500 for 3 adults 3 kids which was less than half than if we booked through Princess.  The company picks you up from the Pullman Hotel at 10.30 or 11.30 and takes you to the sky rail.  You have time for lunch at Kuranda (not included) and then catch the 330 train back.  You can easily walk or get a taxi back from the Cairns train station.  Once again, a fabulous time was had by all.  We stayed an extra day in Cairns due to conditions at Port Douglas and spent the day going along the Esplanade, shopping, going on the Ferris wheel near the lagoon and having a massage.  
 

[Jean C]

On 7/20/2022 at 10:40 AM, Jean C said:

There's also a worthwhile lookout (so I hear) within walking distance called Honeyeater Lookout (bottom left of attached map). Airlie Beach is where you can take trips to the Whitsundays - we'll grit our teeth and do the Princess Whitehaven tour as our ship arrives too late to do a private trip. Map is Plan B if weather doesn't play ball 🛳

Hahaha, we discovered from the catamaran skipper that Honeyeater is a l-o-n-g walk and that the first 1.5km is very tough - he said it's a good workout! We wandered the town instead, very pleasant, and went for a dip in the lagoon - cold but not too bad. Our second day we went to Whitehaven Beach, very beautiful and worth the long journey there. Went in the sea, even colder than Airlie Lagoon, but ... you have to do these things when you can, brrrrr 🏊‍♀️ 😊

[NSWP]

Jean C how is the cruise going? Happy with it all?

[Jean C]

1 hour ago, NSWP said:

Jean C how is the cruise going? Happy with it all?

Hi, see my rundown on the "warning if you're about to embark" thread.  Generally a flat mood among passengers for the first couple of days, I guess to be expected after the trials many faced, and plenty were disappointed with changed itinerary, 2 days at Airlie Beach. Weather there was perfect and we hadn't been before, so we weren't troubled with longer stay.

 

A bit frustrating that cruise director seemed to imply that it was all Aussie passengers so we and other travellers (Kiwis and Yanks plus others no doubt)  were usually left out of his spiel - yet the 2nd most Princess travelled passengers were American! Ah well, I guess sometimes it's good to fly under the radar 😄