Arlie Beach or Yorkeys Tenders

[Yehootu]

We are on a 10day Queensland cruise and have something planned in Brisbane and a GBR tour out of Port Douglas. Not too interested in what these 2ports have to offer so here’s my question.

Wife she needs to get “stuff” for Grandkids, I need hubby day care at bar while she’s doing her thing.

I’ve read both of these ports are LONG” tender rides so which should we do?

Mahalo

[possum52]

15 minutes ago, Yehootu said:

We are on a 10day Queensland cruise and have something planned in Brisbane and a GBR tour out of Port Douglas. Not too interested in what these 2ports have to offer so here’s my question.

Wife she needs to get “stuff” for Grandkids, I need hubby day care at bar while she’s doing her thing.

I’ve read both of these ports are LONG” tender rides so which should we do?

Mahalo

Yorkey's Knob is where the tenders drop off passengers for Cairns. There is likely to be a shuttle taking passengers into Cairns from Yorkey's Knob. Cairns is a beautiful city with lots to do. Airlie Beach is a very pretty little town. I would do both, but if you really want to have a day to yourself on the ship, perhaps Airlie Beach is the place to do it. 

[MicCanberra]

I would still do both and just do the walk around the town and shops.

Airlie Beach is likely a 20-25 minute tender ride, it is a relatively easy walk into the main town area although there are also cyclotour people that can ferry you into town if you don't want to walk it.

For Yorkieys Knob, the tender ride is close to 30 mins and then there is a 25 minute shuttle bus into Cairns. That may be the one you want to miss.

[ceeceeDee]

Also with Airlie there are market stalls where your wife might find something for the grandies. We were there mid-week and they had a scaled down market set up (I think they do this whenever a cruise ship is in) and the main markets are on weekends. The town is very quaint and there are plenty of places for you to enjoy a cold one whilst your wife hits the markets. We thoroughly enjoyed the morning we spent just wandering around Airlie.

As for the length of the ride from the ship to shore (and back, of course) it depends whether you are loaded onto a ship's tender or one of the cats. We ended up doing both. Cat ship to shore and tender shore to ship. We honestly didn't find the ride either way to be a burden. Obviously the Cat was quicker.

[guy01]

Airlie Breach was about a 20 minute tender boar ride and you're lucky your cruise ship will out on a locally-based boat (the type they use to get to the islands or the reef) doing the transfers. Its a small town but a number of pubs for your daycare time. Its also got a great artificial lagoon set up on the water front which is free to use. Much larger than a cruise ship pool.  Just take a towel from the ship with you.

[Jean C]

For both Cairns and Airlie Beach, if it's a nice day, I would highly recommend going ashore. I haven't tendered to Yorkeys Knob so I can't comment there. Plenty of watering holes for your hubby day. If either or both of you like getting wet, the lagoons are stunning, and free.  As said above, for Airlie Beach the ship also uses catamarans as well as tenders - air conditioned and comfortable, padded seats. If you make sure you go both ways on the cat, it won't be an unpleasant ride. Only down side is that they don't open the bar 🤣

[mr walker]

View from yacht club at Airlie, having lunch & a couple of beers - well worth the tender ride in.

Note: photo used zoom on camera & the ship is further away than it looks in the photo.

 

We had done the aquaduck tour prior to having lunch - not sure if it still operates as I saw it was up for sale a couple of years back.

 

 

[arxcards]

2 hours ago, Yehootu said:

We are on a 10day Queensland cruise and have something planned in Brisbane and a GBR tour out of Port Douglas. Not too interested in what these 2ports have to offer so here’s my question.

Wife she needs to get “stuff” for Grandkids, I need hubby day care at bar while she’s doing her thing.

I’ve read both of these ports are LONG” tender rides so which should we do?

Mahalo

I don't think these tender rides are overly long. As mentioned above, they use local catamarans to speed things up - not only on the water, but it keeps the queues short as well. If you are stuck with a Majestic ship tender, get up on the roof to enjoy the view and the breeze. Airlie Beach is particularly easy, and you can walk to the markets and/or a bar in town.

 

Yorkeys can be a pain. The tendering is OK, but you are then up for around $25pp return coach shuttle into Cairns. At times, the coaches and tenders don't sync very well and queues will form. One plus is the tenders at Yorkeys drop you at the Boating Club. Bar opens at 10am.

https://www.ykbc.com.au/

 

[Jean C]

PS, a tip if you do end up on a ship's tender. We boarded one for a long'ish ride and were ushered to the inside back section. There were plenty of spare benches but I spotted the opening at the very back and thought, fresh air, that'll be good. I've been on enough tender rides, I should have known better - that's where the engine is and all we got were unpleasant engine fumes coming in the window! One of our party turned decidedly green 🙁

[possum52]

32 minutes ago, Jean C said:

PS, a tip if you do end up on a ship's tender. We boarded one for a long'ish ride and were ushered to the inside back section. There were plenty of spare benches but I spotted the opening at the very back and thought, fresh air, that'll be good. I've been on enough tender rides, I should have known better - that's where the engine is and all we got were unpleasant engine fumes coming in the window! One of our party turned decidedly green 🙁

Or you get wet, if the sea is a little rough as happened to us in Bali. It actually was quite pleasant and don't recall the fumes from the engine at all.

[Jean C]

10 minutes ago, possum52 said:

Or you get wet, if the sea is a little rough as happened to us in Bali. It actually was quite pleasant and don't recall the fumes from the engine at all.

For myself, if going downstairs in a tender I would try to sit as close to the entry/exit openings as possible. Again, for myself, I don't usually go upstairs in sunny conditions, I prefer to seek shade wherever possible 🙆 

[possum52]

3 minutes ago, Jean C said:

For myself, if going downstairs in a tender I would try to sit as close to the entry/exit openings as possible. Again, for myself, I don't usually go upstairs in sunny conditions, I prefer to seek shade wherever possible 🙆 

We actually didn't have a choice for where we sat, usually we would do the same as you.

[Lunarballoon_0]

 If you're looking for a shorter tender ride, I'd recommend going with Brisbane. It's a bit closer compared to Port Douglas, so your wife can get her grandkid "stuff" while you enjoy some quality time at a nearby bar.

[Jean C]

Not an issue for Yorkeys Knob or Airlie Beach, but we had a horror tender ride at Easter Island. There's a narrow channel into where the tenders dock. Sea conditions were a bit rough and all of a sudden, the staff member who had his head up out of the hatch near the "driver" frantically called out "reverse, reverse, reverse" - we'd been caught by a rogue wave and were about to be slammed into the rough rocky wall 🥴 Thankfully their quick reactions saved us from that fate 😊

[Yehootu]

Mahalo for all the replies. We usually like to ride up top. Both of have a lot of crossings between the Hawaiian Islands on small boats. Me fishing, she sailing. Guess my biggest complaint with tendering is the lines to come back to the ship. We'll go early, she can shop and it's never to early for a beer. Sounds like Arlie is where we'll get off, Yorkey can be a ship staycation.

[ceeceeDee]

Last time at Airlie we only had to wait about 10-15 minutes for a tender back to the ship which wasn't too bad in my opinion.

[Jean C]

Because the catamarans hold so many passengers and run frequently alongside the tenders, wait times and lines aren't horrendous 😊

[Kristelle]

8 hours ago, mr walker said:

We had done the aquaduck tour prior to having lunch - not sure if it still operates as I saw it was up for sale a couple of years back.

 

 

I dont think so.

 

We  were in Airlie Beach in 2022 (not on a cruise) and it wasnt there then. I rang the company that does the Aquaduck in Brisbane and Gold Coast and they said the Airlie Beach one was no longer running.

[robncruise]

Tendering art these ports can vary hugely.  On Majestic princess Queensland cruise last February the return tendering at Airlie beach, Yorkeys Knob and Port Douglas was horrendous.  No catamarans were available at Airlie Beach and even with them in use at the other two ports they took about 45 mins to load.  The wait in the hot sun to return to the ship was distressing for many. The staff were amazing and did their best trying to help with umbrellas and water but not enough to compensate for the extremely hot conditions. Hopefully this year they have improved the process.  

[MicCanberra]

5 minutes ago, Kristelle said:

 

 

I dont think so.

 

We  were in Airlie Beach in 2022 (not on a cruise) and it wasnt there then. I rang the company that does the Aquaduck in Brisbane and Gold Coast and they said the Airlie Beach one was no longer running.

It wasn't running January/February 2023 either

[arxcards]

It is partly in the timing. 

On Majestic in October 2022, the 3 x tender ports were a breeze. We had only 1 cat + 3x ship tenders in the water on the day. On each occasion, we were off early and back by 1pm when the weather was starting to heat-up. On each occasion, we were on a tender or cat within 5 minutes. After 3pm, the queues get progressively longer.

 

This picture is from a cruise mag from just 2 months ago - early November at Yorkeys Knob with Quantum of the Seas at anchor. I normally wouldn't borrow, nor mention the source, but since one of their writers likes to copy/paste comments from this forum without attribution, it is only fair. The time was 3:45pm.

 

Edited January 16 by arxcards

[mr walker]

26 minutes ago, arxcards said:

 

I normally wouldn't borrow, nor mention the source, but since one of their writers likes to copy/paste comments from this forum without attribution, it is only fair. The time was 3:45pm.

 

👍😁

[colourbird]

8 hours ago, Jean C said:

Not an issue for Yorkeys Knob or Airlie Beach, but we had a horror tender ride at Easter Island. There's a narrow channel into where the tenders dock. Sea conditions were a bit rough and all of a sudden, the staff member who had his head up out of the hatch near the "driver" frantically called out "reverse, reverse, reverse" - we'd been caught by a rogue wave and were about to be slammed into the rough rocky wall 🥴 Thankfully their quick reactions saved us from that fate 😊

 

They need lifeboats on the tenders!

[MicCanberra]

1 minute ago, colourbird said:

 

They need lifeboats on the tenders!

Really, don't tell me you're a tender chicken.

[colourbird]

3 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

Really, don't tell me you're a tender chicken.

 

No, but I always sing this song when i'm in a tender: