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Cairns & port Douglas reef trips


BKK

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We are meant to be doing port Douglas and cairns for Easter.


Do you recommend that we go out to a reef pontoon or an island?


We did the quicksilver reef cruise a couple of years ago and that was really good but expensive.


Now looking at the sun lover cruise from cairns or going to an island

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Madly reorganising this trip. Booked my son and i into a caravan park cabin. And my father and brother will stay in the 2 bedroom apartment as already booked.


Still looking at reef and day trips in cairns.

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Suggested day trip:


Cape Tribulation (via car ferry)


Mossman Gorge


Paronella Park


The park and swimming lagoon in central cairns - the esplanade


Day to the reef: quicksilver (from port Douglas) Sunlover or REEF MAGIC CRUISES.


Karanda sky rail up and train down


Fitzroy island

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I’ve hired a asx to get us all around and used the tip to take out travel insurance to cover the car hire excess.

 

We just drove an ASX for a week in newcastle and loved it. Co-incidentally it's also an asx that we're getting for Kununurra to Darwin, so happy about that.


ETA: Just check that you can take the hire car on the ferry - sometimes there are limitations on that.


The kuranda train is gorgeous.


ETA 2: I assume you've booked your flights. Don't know if you've been anywhere yet by air, but our trip last week to Newcastle involved five separate flight changes from Virgin. All worked out in the end, and bizarrely, if the hadn't cancelled our Saturday flight up (which I changed to the Friday) then we'd not have been able to go at all because the lockdown started at Midnight Friday.


Our upcoming April trip: Melbourne-Perth-Broome, then Darwin-Melbourne, has already had three flight changes. Two don't matter, but Virgin has cancelled their Darwin-Melbourne route until mid June, but although the change is on their website (now via Brisbane - 8 x hours) they haven't notified us yet. Not sure what we'll do about that one.


Just don't book anything expensive a few hours from landing. We've allowed four days in Perth because the Broome - Kununurra trip is $$$. We also then have a week to get to Darwin so have some flexibility both sides, excluding serious lockdowns.

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Reef trips, I have done more than a few. I prefer the smaller companies and the ones I mention are cheaper.

I have booked them using this aggregating site for great discounts https://www.bookme.com.au/things-to-do/cairns-port-douglas/activity/frankland-island-cruise-and-dive-great-barrier-reef-island-snorkel-day-tour/4623


. The Falla is a pearling vessel and whilst it runs under motor, the sail is hoisted. It can only take 24 passengers. I like that it has permission to stop at quieter sites as well. Lovely vibe sitting on this wooden ship and the owner is interesting in a good way. The food is meh, but for the price point I didn't care. They ordered a lovely roll for our vegan.


The trip to the Frankland Island south of Cairns is also really enjoyable and I like that it is the only boat there and that it is close to the mainland and quick to reach. The coral isn't as amazing as some of the other sites, admittedly, but you will see Nemo. just by swimming off the island.The walking tour of the island with a biologist was sensational The lunch was top notch and I ate my weight in prawns. Drive your car there, don't take the provided bus. Trust me.


Passion Cruises is bigger and more expensive than the other two operators but not as big as the big operators but I much preferred it to Quicksliber and other similar operators. It is a comfortable catamaran and also has licences to prettier reefs than the pontoons. The marine biologist talk on board is excellent.


Hope this helps. Feel free to ask me more questions

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acidulous osprey

We went with Quicksilver. The boat was really crowded and we were struggling with DS. The attendant saw us, went and told a table to move as they were at the disability table. They were pissed off but she was taking no shit about it.


In the water, the attendants were watching him closely and moving people who got too close to him. I was in the water as well but there were people with personal space issues who were really crowding him.


Have a fabulous time! I love that area of the world.

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Loved the day drive up to cape trib ... stopped a lot on the way. The Daintree discovery centre has a lovely rainforest walk on boardwalks etc.


Paronella park was a lovely afternoon, spend the morning driving around the waterfalls in the area.


Reef day .. we went with a sun lover one, the pontoon that has a waterslide, the kids loved it, a break from the snorkelling. The cruise out and back was lovely. Would have loved to have a done an island as well, but didn’t want to do both on the same day.


We actually booked our stuff the first day there ... walked down to the local tourist information centre (or you can usually do it through where you are staying). You can book combinations of things, which works out cheaper, so booked our Kuranda rail/sky lift day, and the reef tour at the same time, and chose the days based on the weather forecast, and which day was less heavily booked.

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Thanks for the hints and tips!


This trip was all booked in September 2020 but Qantas has cancelled our flight there and hence the need to move all bookings.


I booked the reef magic cruise out to a pontoon as it seemed to be the cheapest.


I am travelling with my elderly father, autistic brother and autistic son.


To make my son happy, I have booked a big 4 caravan park with all the kids fun play stuff.


My father and I both drive a Holden trax and hence we decided on the asx as it has the same features and is great for 4 adults.


At the moment there is a cyclone up there which hopefully won’t do too much damage. Last time we were up there we caught the last Jetstar flight out before they closed the airport.

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Booked the sky rail to Kuranda and will spend time there and take the train back. Being Easter we were told to book early.


Also changed my car hire to a different company as prices had dropped for the same asx.


Still wondering if I change the caravan park cabin to a fancier villa but we are only there for 6 nights.


Found out that the caravan park does Woolworths online which means I can order and have my groceries delivered to the room prior to arrival.


Nothing like arriving in your room and being able to have a nice cold drink or a glass of wine.

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Booked the sky rail to Kuranda and will spend time there and take the train back. Being Easter we were told to book early.


Also changed my car hire to a different company as prices had dropped for the same asx.


Still wondering if I change the caravan park cabin to a fancier villa but we are only there for 6 nights.


Found out that the caravan park does Woolworths online which means I can order and have my groceries delivered to the room prior to arrival.


Nothing like arriving in your room and being able to have a nice cold drink or a glass of wine.

 

So they'll put the fridge and freezer stuff away for you? That's good service.

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So they'll put the fridge and freezer stuff away for you? That's good service.

 

That’s what I’ve been told.


Jetstar cancelled our midday flight and now we are arriving after 5pm. Not what I had planned.

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So they'll put the fridge and freezer stuff away for you? That's good service.

 

That’s what I’ve been told.


Jetstar cancelled our midday flight and now we are arriving after 5pm. Not what I had planned.

 

Yeah, unfortunately flight changes are the absolute norm at the moment. Last trip both of our Virgin flights were cancelled. They changed it to going via Brisbane both times, which meant a one hour twenty minute flight turned in to eight hours. Apart from the time on the phone it was easy, changed to another day and fortunate that our accommodation and car hire could both be changed.


Our next trip, Qantas have made our flight to Perth later, which means we can't do what we were planning that afternoon. At least next flight was only a slight change and made no difference but it still gives you a start when you get that email! Virgin have cancelled all their Darwin flights until mid June, so I'll be interested to see how long that refund takes, or if we have to fight for the refund. Extra $80 got us flights with Qantas three days later and we've booked more accommodation. We deliberately allowed a few days in Perth to allow for changes to both flights, so let's hope that's sufficient.


Fortunately, in our shoes, being retired and the adult kids here to look after animals we've got the flexibility that many others don't have for planning holidays.

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Hope you have a great time up North OP. I just booked flights and accommodation for our family of 4 to Cairns at the end of June. You’ve all got me worried now about the carriers canceling the flights, that will throw all my planning out of whack. I was looking at the Sunlovers reef tour but haven’t booked anything yet of course. My kids are in their late teens.


Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

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Hope you have a great time up North OP. I just booked flights and accommodation for our family of 4 to Cairns at the end of June. You’ve all got me worried now about the carriers canceling the flights, that will throw all my planning out of whack. I was looking at the Sunlovers reef tour but haven’t booked anything yet of course. My kids are in their late teens.


Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

 

I think you have to assume there will be some changes to your flights. That seems to be the norm at the moment. You don't want your plans thrown into disarray by changes and cancellations, so have a look at how often that flight goes (Virgin changed from going to Newcastle from Melbourne direct, every day, to three times a week, so we could change the day).


I think with vaccination things will settle down a lot though. I think once all aged care residents are vaccinated, states will feel more comfortable with the odd cases - Queensland have said as much.


Airlines are being fairly flexible with how they handle things. If an area locks down, chances are the airline will cancel their flights anyway, so you're covered.


Of the five flights we've booked this year, all have been impacted.

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We went to Cairns a few years ago. We booked our reef tour when we got there. We were overwhelmed by choice. We went with quicksilver in the end and went to a tiny little island. It was great. All tours are going to get you to the reef and do some snorkeling (and maybe a glass bottom boat or underwater boat) so don’t overthink it. The price for all 5 of us ended up being quite reasonable.


I just asked my then 10 year old his fave thing in Cairns. He chose the playground on the esplanade. Our hotel was almost 3km from town and we walked down the esplanade to get there. There were so many different things going on on the esplanade and all the activities and the lagoon pool were a hit. It is pretty hot so leave plenty of time for just relaxing by the hotel pool and doing whatever is in your caravan park. The churros at the cairns night market were the best we ever had!


And do the woollies online. We had a car but it was impossible to find a park near the city woollies. We ended up driving to a suburb with a parking lot.

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Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

 

I booked travel insurance with insure and go.


If the state locks down then the airlines will give you a credit and money back.


Book accommodation that has flexibility and is easy to cancel.


Someone said that it is the best time to travel Australia and see the sites as it’s not over crowded and you can really enjoy.

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Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

 

I booked travel insurance with insure and go.


If the state locks down then the airlines will give you a credit and money back.


Book accommodation that has flexibility and is easy to cancel.


Someone said that it is the best time to travel Australia and see the sites as it’s not over crowded and you can really enjoy.

 

Money back hopefully rather than credit. But I’ve booked the cheapest red e deal tickets so I guess we’ll see. Thanks for the tip on the insurance company. I’ll look into them.


You’re right on less crowds makes a better holiday.

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Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

 

I booked travel insurance with insure and go.


If the state locks down then the airlines will give you a credit and money back.


Book accommodation that has flexibility and is easy to cancel.


Someone said that it is the best time to travel Australia and see the sites as it’s not over crowded and you can really enjoy.

 

Money back hopefully rather than credit. But I’ve booked the cheapest red e deal tickets so I guess we’ll see. Thanks for the tip on the insurance company. I’ll look into them.


You’re right on less crowds makes a better holiday.

 

Money back is if they cancel.


If you have to cancel due to state lockdown it's not considered their fault and they will give you a credit, generally.


It's complex over all the airlines though, and I will wait to see what happens with Virgin and the flight from Darwin that they cancelled. They simply said 'fare rules' will determined whether we get a refund or credit, however plenty of people have accepted a credit not realising they were entitled to a refund. Bizarrely after the early shutdowns last year Jetstar tended to have a better rep than Virgin our Qantas. (Of course Virgin was in a different situation.)

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Hope you have a great time up North OP. I just booked flights and accommodation for our family of 4 to Cairns at the end of June. You’ve all got me worried now about the carriers canceling the flights, that will throw all my planning out of whack. I was looking at the Sunlovers reef tour but haven’t booked anything yet of course. My kids are in their late teens.


Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

 

I think you have to assume there will be some changes to your flights. That seems to be the norm at the moment. You don't want your plans thrown into disarray by changes and cancellations, so have a look at how often that flight goes (Virgin changed from going to Newcastle from Melbourne direct, every day, to three times a week, so we could change the day).


I think with vaccination things will settle down a lot though. I think once all aged care residents are vaccinated, states will feel more comfortable with the odd cases - Queensland have said as much.


Airlines are being fairly flexible with how they handle things. If an area locks down, chances are the airline will cancel their flights anyway, so you're covered.


Of the five flights we've booked this year, all have been impacted.

 

I hope any changes aren’t too bad. I’ve specifically booked the week before school holidays as the kids being in year 11 and first year Uni, finish the week before official school holidays - so we avoid even more crowds and $$$. And it fits in with their school schedule. But if it changes then we may struggle to find accommodation during the holidays at short notice. We really need a holiday as we haven’t had one since December 2018 and we’ve had a crap time since then with both my parents passing away. We all really need a good break. We were originally planning on returning to New Zealand in December last year (North Island this time) then you know what happened. So I wanted to postpone till December this year but again who knows if that will even be possible, so we decided to do Cairns mid year instead.

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Hope you have a great time up North OP. I just booked flights and accommodation for our family of 4 to Cairns at the end of June. You’ve all got me worried now about the carriers canceling the flights, that will throw all my planning out of whack. I was looking at the Sunlovers reef tour but haven’t booked anything yet of course. My kids are in their late teens.


Any recommendations on travel insurance companies? Should I just go with Qantas? I guess we just lose our money in airfares if the QLD government decides to lockdown at the same time we’re wanting to arrive or leave. We’re in Canberra and I’ve made sure the flights are via Brisbane so as to avoid Sydney.

 

I think you have to assume there will be some changes to your flights. That seems to be the norm at the moment. You don't want your plans thrown into disarray by changes and cancellations, so have a look at how often that flight goes (Virgin changed from going to Newcastle from Melbourne direct, every day, to three times a week, so we could change the day).


I think with vaccination things will settle down a lot though. I think once all aged care residents are vaccinated, states will feel more comfortable with the odd cases - Queensland have said as much.


Airlines are being fairly flexible with how they handle things. If an area locks down, chances are the airline will cancel their flights anyway, so you're covered.


Of the five flights we've booked this year, all have been impacted.

 

I hope any changes aren’t too bad. I’ve specifically booked the week before school holidays as the kids being in year 11 and first year Uni, finish the week before official school holidays - so we avoid even more crowds and $$$. And it fits in with their school schedule. But if it changes then we may struggle to find accommodation during the holidays at short notice. We really need a holiday as we haven’t had one since December 2018 and we’ve had a crap time since then with both my parents passing away. We all really need a good break. We were originally planning on returning to New Zealand in December last year (North Island this time) then you know what happened. So I wanted to postpone till December this year but again who knows if that will even be possible, so we decided to do Cairns mid year instead.

 

Feel free to ignore my advice, but what I did with Newcastle was be really familiar with the flights on the day before and after, so that unless they cancelled that route, I knew what the go was on other days. Even on the way back (we left at midday on the Friday before the Vic lockdown so Vic-NSW flights significantly disrupted) we checked out where we could stay for one night so we could act at short notice. They didn't just cancel the flight, they first of all sent us via Brisbane with a 2hr stopover, not too bad, but before we could even decide what to do they changed it to what would be an 8 x hour trip Melbourne - Newcastle. They did the same coming back.


Usually if they are just cancelling some flights due to poor traffic they do it fairly early and there are flights the days either side. We were just staggeringly lucky that our airbnb owners block out a day either side of bookings to give them extra time to clean, and could accommodate us at both ends.


I usually take bargain airflights too, so it was annoying when Virgin cancelled our Darwin ones because the replacements were nowhere near as cheap, but I must admit I booked knowing there might be problems.


Fx for you that you get away without incident, given the year you had.

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