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Cairns & port Douglas reef trips


BKK

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Well tomorrow we are up and off!


All packed and ready to go.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time and looking forward to a report from you when you get back!


Qantas has already changed our flights and we’re still about 11 weeks away.!

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Well tomorrow we are up and off!


All packed and ready to go.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time and looking forward to a report from you when you get back!


Qantas has already changed our flights and we’re still about 11 weeks away.!

 

We've had five flights booked this year.


Our flight out to Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the day before).

Our flight from Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the next day - fortunately accommodation and car were also able to be changed.)


Our flight from Darwin was cancelled (Virgin have cancelled the Darwin/Melb route until mid June), managed to get a refund - with difficulty. Qantas flight the same day was double the price, but three days on about half as much so we were fortunately able to add three days to that trip.


Our flight to Perth has moved by two hours so we had to cancel something we planned to do that afternoon.


Our flight Perth to Broome was moved by an hour - at least that one did us a favour and leaves at a more respectable 7am rather than 6am.


Hopefully with our trip being from next week to early May, the number of changes will reduce. I just don't assume any of them are going as they are shown now, after all of that.


I don't envy the logistics people in the airlines - must be a nightmare with sudden border closures.

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Well tomorrow we are up and off!


All packed and ready to go.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time and looking forward to a report from you when you get back!


Qantas has already changed our flights and we’re still about 11 weeks away.!

 

We've had five flights booked this year.


Our flight out to Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the day before).

Our flight from Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the next day - fortunately accommodation and car were also able to be changed.)


Our flight from Darwin was cancelled (Virgin have cancelled the Darwin/Melb route until mid June), managed to get a refund - with difficulty. Qantas flight the same day was double the price, but three days on about half as much so we were fortunately able to add three days to that trip.


Our flight to Perth has moved by two hours so we had to cancel something we planned to do that afternoon.


Our flight Perth to Broome was moved by an hour - at least that one did us a favour and leaves at a more respectable 7am rather than 6am.


Hopefully with our trip being from next week to early May, the number of changes will reduce. I just don't assume any of them are going as they are shown now, after all of that.


I don't envy the logistics people in the airlines - must be a nightmare with sudden border closures.

Qantas have changed our flight from 9:05 to 6:15! Not happy. We noticed there’s another flight into Brisbane which also leaves at 9:00 but they didn’t give us the option to move to that flight. We rang them and they said that flight is not available - all full. Yet we can see seats available online for the flight still being advertised for sale. Not sure what’s happening there but it’s very annoying. We now have to put up with leaving freezing cold Canberra early in the morning only to arrive in Brisbane for a 4 hour stop over till our flight into Cairns departs.

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Hope you have a wonderful time and looking forward to a report from you when you get back!


Qantas has already changed our flights and we’re still about 11 weeks away.!

 

We've had five flights booked this year.


Our flight out to Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the day before).

Our flight from Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the next day - fortunately accommodation and car were also able to be changed.)


Our flight from Darwin was cancelled (Virgin have cancelled the Darwin/Melb route until mid June), managed to get a refund - with difficulty. Qantas flight the same day was double the price, but three days on about half as much so we were fortunately able to add three days to that trip.


Our flight to Perth has moved by two hours so we had to cancel something we planned to do that afternoon.


Our flight Perth to Broome was moved by an hour - at least that one did us a favour and leaves at a more respectable 7am rather than 6am.


Hopefully with our trip being from next week to early May, the number of changes will reduce. I just don't assume any of them are going as they are shown now, after all of that.


I don't envy the logistics people in the airlines - must be a nightmare with sudden border closures.

Qantas have changed our flight from 9:05 to 6:15! Not happy. We noticed there’s another flight into Brisbane which also leaves at 9:00 but they didn’t give us the option to move to that flight. We rang them and they said that flight is not available - all full. Yet we can see seats available online for the flight still being advertised for sale. Not sure what’s happening there but it’s very annoying. We now have to put up with leaving freezing cold Canberra early in the morning only to arrive in Brisbane for a 4 hour stop over till our flight into Cairns departs.

 

Yep, I think you can safely assume they 'don't have' seats for 'transferring', only for 'new paying passengers'.


When Virgin cancelled their Melb/darwin route (as is their prerogative in these times) they changed us to going back via Brisbane with a four hour stopover there. Not only that, instead of leaving at 1am, it left at 2pm so we would have needed an extra night's accommodation. That's all cool, it's what it is at the moment, but they very cheekily tried to get us to take a credit note when we were clearly entitled to a refund.


Is it worth another phone call closer to the trip? Perhaps by then they might allow transfers to the other flight? Those rules must fluctuate the way the fares do.

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We've had five flights booked this year.


Our flight out to Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the day before).

Our flight from Newcastle was cancelled (but we were able to move that to the next day - fortunately accommodation and car were also able to be changed.)


Our flight from Darwin was cancelled (Virgin have cancelled the Darwin/Melb route until mid June), managed to get a refund - with difficulty. Qantas flight the same day was double the price, but three days on about half as much so we were fortunately able to add three days to that trip.


Our flight to Perth has moved by two hours so we had to cancel something we planned to do that afternoon.


Our flight Perth to Broome was moved by an hour - at least that one did us a favour and leaves at a more respectable 7am rather than 6am.


Hopefully with our trip being from next week to early May, the number of changes will reduce. I just don't assume any of them are going as they are shown now, after all of that.


I don't envy the logistics people in the airlines - must be a nightmare with sudden border closures.

Qantas have changed our flight from 9:05 to 6:15! Not happy. We noticed there’s another flight into Brisbane which also leaves at 9:00 but they didn’t give us the option to move to that flight. We rang them and they said that flight is not available - all full. Yet we can see seats available online for the flight still being advertised for sale. Not sure what’s happening there but it’s very annoying. We now have to put up with leaving freezing cold Canberra early in the morning only to arrive in Brisbane for a 4 hour stop over till our flight into Cairns departs.

 

Yep, I think you can safely assume they 'don't have' seats for 'transferring', only for 'new paying passengers'.


When Virgin cancelled their Melb/darwin route (as is their prerogative in these times) they changed us to going back via Brisbane with a four hour stopover there. Not only that, instead of leaving at 1am, it left at 2pm so we would have needed an extra night's accommodation. That's all cool, it's what it is at the moment, but they very cheekily tried to get us to take a credit note when we were clearly entitled to a refund.


Is it worth another phone call closer to the trip? Perhaps by then they might allow transfers to the other flight? Those rules must fluctuate the way the fares do.

 

Yeah you know I said to DH they’re probably keeping those seats so they can sell more tickets and make more money. Since they’re already got our money we’re not important at the moment! Good idea about calling them back closer to the date. Knowing our luck though there won’t actually be any seats left by then..

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We are up in port Douglas at the moment.


In cairns we stayed at the big 4 Ingenia coconut resort. Best resort and so much to do.


We hired an ASX which is a great sized car.


On the first day we went to Josephine falls were you swim in the pool below the waterfall and can waterslide down the waterfall. Lots of fun. This is near Paronella park which we didn’t get to.


Also went to the rainforest station and did the truck/boat trip which was informative and fun.


Crystal cascades in another waterfall and swimming area that we loved.


We tried to get out to a reef pontoon with magic reef cruises but they cancelled the cruise twice and once when we were on board. The staff are loverly and the boat is very nice. They stoped at an island on the way over that looked really good.


The city centre has the lagoon pool, a loverly port front and muddys cafe and playground. All worth a visit.


We went to palm cove for lunch one day and that’s just a beautiful beach and cafe area with a netted swimming zone.


Kuranda- I dropped the carb off at freshwater station after I had left the others at the armoured museum next to the sky rail. The taxi fair back was only $22. We then took the sky rail up to Kuranda and had lunch and walked around. Very pretty little village. We then to the railway back to freshwater station.


Today we went to Mossman gorge. This was well worth it. You park at their visitor centres car park and pay for a shuttle bus up to the gorge. We went swimming here as well.


The highlight has been waterfall swimming.

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For our last day I’m taking my son to the reef with reef magic from cairns. All of the cruises seem to be booked out in port Douglas.


Port Douglas relies on backpackers to work but without them, they are having issues with filling vacancies and getting everything to a COVIDSafe normal.


It looks like planned new resorts are not going a head.


All of this is why we need to support our Australian tourism industry.


There is so much to do and see up here!

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Julie3Girls

When you book the Kuranda day, we parked at the skyrail, and they had coaches that did a shuttle run from there to the train station. Guessing it was added into the price, but saved us having to work out drop offs/taxi etc. so easy.

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