Brisbane: Options for late flight departure

[Kamfish642]

Our cruise on the Coral Princess disembarks in Brisbane on March 29, 2024.  However, our flight back to the United States does not depart until 10 pm that evening.  As such, we are looking for any suggestions on what to do during the day until our flight departs.  Any ideas on any day group or private excursion companies from cruise terminal and returning to Brisbane Airport, or other options?  Thank you in advance for your insights.

[Jean C]

Hi, it costs an arm and a leg, but Coral will offer a debark tour that will take you sightseeing around Brisbane, drop you at the South Bank for time on your own, then take you to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where you'll see lots of Aussie wildlife and birds, including hand feeding Roos, then take you to the airport.

 

We did this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it - our guide also took us to Mt Cootha (sp?), a scenic high spot, which wasn't on the itinerary. It was so good and so convenient that I've booked it again this year for family - even though it cost an arm and a leg 💰 Our guide/driver was a Frenchman who'd been in Aussie for 40-odd years but still had an accent any female would fall in love with [swoon]. I hope we get him again 🥰

[SinbadThePorter]

32 minutes ago, Jean C said:

our guide also took us to Mt Cootha

 

At the base of Mt Cootha are the Botanic Gardens and Planetarium.

[Sparky74]

3 hours ago, Jean C said:

Hi, it costs an arm and a leg, but Coral will offer a debark tour that will take you sightseeing around Brisbane, drop you at the South Bank for time on your own, then take you to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where you'll see lots of Aussie wildlife and birds, including hand feeding Roos, then take you to the airport.

 

We did this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it - our guide also took us to Mt Cootha (sp?), a scenic high spot, which wasn't on the itinerary. It was so good and so convenient that I've booked it again this year for family - even though it cost an arm and a leg 💰 Our guide/driver was a Frenchman who'd been in Aussie for 40-odd years but still had an accent any female would fall in love with [swoon]. I hope we get him again 🥰

I was going to suggest Lone Pine. 
And yes, you’ve spelled Mt Cootha correctly. 

[Jean C]

1 hour ago, Sparky74 said:

And yes, you’ve spelled Mt Cootha correctly. 

Thanks, it also has an indigenous spelling with an apostrophe somewhere, so I couldn't be sure whilst typing 👍

[Bubbeh]

I was in Brissie for a conference a few years ago and took a free Brisbane Greeters walking tour.  It was fantastic and I would recommend to anyone else.  Check out the link below, I believe most of the tours are free, being undertaken by enthusiastic locals they don't even ask for donation afterwards. 

https://www.queensland.com/au/en/things-to-do/tours/p-56b26484d5f1565045da7d6a-brisbane-greeters

[cruiser3775]

Your big problem is what to do with your luggage. Maybe you can find luggage storage somewhere in Brisbane.  Then you will be free to do a DIY tour of the city, as long as you get to the airport by about 7pm.

[Aus Traveller]

I wonder if you could contact a local tour operator who could personalize a tour for you including Lone Pine, Mt Coot-tha etc. Your luggage could be kept in the car/van with you.

[cruiseaholic78]

We have used this company for Sydney when our flight left late evening, we chose an hotel at the airport with a pool. It made leaving the ship and the wait for our flights so much more relaxing.

https://au.dayuse.com/s/australia/queensland/brisbane-city

Rosalyn 

[arxcards]

7 minutes ago, cruiseaholic78 said:

We have used this company for Sydney when our flight left late evening, we chose an hotel at the airport with a pool. It made leaving the ship and the wait for our flights so much more relaxing.

https://au.dayuse.com/s/australia/queensland/brisbane-city

Rosalyn 

We have done the same in Sydney to rest-up for late flights, but just book direct with the hotel.

[cruiseaholic78]

Just now, arxcards said:

We have done the same in Sydney to rest-up for late flights, but just book direct with the hotel.

I tried that but were not able to do so far in advance and I wanted to get it sorted earlier.

Rosalyn

[Sparky74]

2 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

Your big problem is what to do with your luggage. Maybe you can find luggage storage somewhere in Brisbane.  Then you will be free to do a DIY tour of the city, as long as you get to the airport by about 7pm.

Years ago there were luggage  lockers at the airport and also at Roma Street Station. They may have taken them out after 9/11 or the service  may still exist. 🤷‍♂️

[Sparky74]

1 minute ago, Sparky74 said:

Years ago there were luggage  lockers at the airport and also at Roma Street Station. They may have taken them out after 9/11 or the service  may still exist. 🤷‍♂️

Apparently there are still luggage lockers at the airport. 
 

https://www.bne.com.au/passenger/passenger-information/check-in-and-baggage#lockers

[mum and son]

5 hours ago, Sparky74 said:

And yes, you’ve spelled Mt Cootha correctly. 

Not quite. It's actually Mount Coot-tha. Hard to believe I know, but, after decades of seeing it written is passing, I refused to believe this was the actual spelling, and what appeared on road signage etc. But it is.

Edited November 9, 2023 by mum and son

[Sparky74]

11 minutes ago, mum and son said:

Not quite. It's actually Mount Coot-tha. Hard to believe I know, but, after decades of seeing it written is passing, I refused to believe this was the actual spelling, and what appeared on road signage etc. But it is.

Mandela Effect! 🤷‍♂️

[mum and son]

2 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Mandela Effect! 🤷‍♂️

Sure is. I think I found out the spelling at a pub trivia. Nobody knew how to spell it and it was actually visible from the pub! 😹

[Kamfish642]

On 11/8/2023 at 7:04 PM, Jean C said:

Hi, it costs an arm and a leg, but Coral will offer a debark tour that will take you sightseeing around Brisbane, drop you at the South Bank for time on your own, then take you to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where you'll see lots of Aussie wildlife and birds, including hand feeding Roos, then take you to the airport.

 

We did this last year and thoroughly enjoyed it - our guide also took us to Mt Cootha (sp?), a scenic high spot, which wasn't on the itinerary. It was so good and so convenient that I've booked it again this year for family - even though it cost an arm and a leg 💰 Our guide/driver was a Frenchman who'd been in Aussie for 40-odd years but still had an accent any female would fall in love with [swoon]. I hope we get him again 🥰

I don't see this post-cruise excursion on-line for our cruise.  Did you book your excursion prior to cruise or while on cruise?

[Jean C]

3 hours ago, Kamfish642 said:

I don't see this post-cruise excursion on-line for our cruise.  Did you book your excursion prior to cruise or while on cruise?

Hmmm, I looked at your cruise and see what you mean.

 

We booked last year's debark tour while on board, as we ended up with a lot of OBC. However, I'm doing the same cruise again in a couple of weeks with family and thought it would be a good tour and convenient drop off to airport for all of us, and we've already booked it on line.

 

Quite a few tours are offered for your disembark day in Brisbane. On both occasions for us, only two tours were offered, both debark tours. My guess is that Princess has published the wrong list for your cruise, I'm thinking it's the one for Brisbane as a port of call mid-cruise, so you may have to wait and see what develops!

 

I can only do one thing at a time on my cellphone so will do another post in a moment showing our options and details for our debark tour.

 

Kind regards 😊

[Jean C]

As promised (PS, my cruise is 7 nights QLD, Coral Princess, departing 24 Nov, if you want to look at the excursions offered to see what I mean) -

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Jean C