getting to/from Sydney White Bay Terminal

[JennysUncle]

Big cruise ships (e.g. Oosterdam) calling at Sydney are now docking at the new White Bay Cruise Terminal. This is 6 km across a harbor from downtown, with no public transportation and no hotels nearby. Any comments by cruisers who have used the new terminal would be helpful to future cruisers.

[CruiserBruce]

There is discussion on this thread from the Australia/New Zealand board:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1923974

[1of4]

I was just in Sydney but not on a cruise. From a few conversations I had with locals, they are not happy with the new cruise terminal either. There was a large Carnival ship docked on both Friday and Monday at Circular Quay in Sydney. I don't remember the name off the top of my head but it had over 2000 passengers so not sure why HAL ships are being told they are not to dock there anymore.

[JennysUncle]

Our experience in the Caribbean, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean is that HAL uses the least convenient dock when there is a choice. I presume the port fees are less at the container docks.

[RDC1]

I was just in Sydney but not on a cruise. From a few conversations I had with locals, they are not happy with the new cruise terminal either. There was a large Carnival ship docked on both Friday and Monday at Circular Quay in Sydney. I don't remember the name off the top of my head but it had over 2000 passengers so not sure why HAL ships are being told they are not to dock there anymore.

 

The Circular Quay dock is pretty busy. I was in Sidney in March and a ship was there every day during the 6 days I was there. The bigger ships tend to dock there, smaller ships go to White Bay if there are two ships in town. I think that the total number of cruises leaving from Sydney has increased beyond the capacity of Circular Quay.

[Aussiepair]

Our experience in the Caribbean' date=' the Baltic, and the Mediterranean is that HAL uses the least convenient dock when there is a choice. I presume the port fees are less at the container docks.[/quote']

 

Bingo.

[BoatyBex]

Big cruise ships (e.g. Oosterdam) calling at Sydney are now docking at the new White Bay Cruise Terminal. This is 6 km across a harbor from downtown' date=' with no public transportation and no hotels nearby. Any comments by cruisers who have used the new terminal would be helpful to future cruisers.[/quote']

 

I was told that they are trying to get all ships to now go to white bay, except of course those that wont fit under the Sydney Harbour bridge. They were using Barangaroo as a temporary site until white bay was finished.

They say its due to the congestion in circular quay area from 2000 people getting off and trying to find taxis, and 2000 getting on with no where for relatives to park to drop them off. That I can understand. Maybe they are only letting ships in OPT circular quay if its not a start or end of cruise so they just have day tourists instead.?

White Bay Cruise Terminal is plain and has no real services or allure to being there , (except for sailing under the bridge and getting a photo of the harbour bridge and opera house in one photo).

The only way to get there is by the fruise line shuttle if you are flying in to Sydney or by taxi cab. If you catch a train to wynyard station a taxi is cheaper but that also means negotiating wynyard station with luggage.

In November we caught a cab from Sydney domestic airport, and it cost $35 for 2 ppl and 3 suitcases, if that helps with costs. but we had to explain to the driver where the cruise terminal was, as he had never heard of it. Another couple on board got dropped off at Circular quay by the taxi company (by mistake and they didnt look at the ship either)and they ended up catching a water taxi to White Bay cruise terminal. their taxi was also $35 and $30 for water taxi

[BoatyBex]

Our experience in the Caribbean' date=' the Baltic, and the Mediterranean is that HAL uses the least convenient dock when there is a choice. I presume the port fees are less at the container docks.[/quote']

White Bay is the new dedicated cruise ship terminal, its not a container dock at all

[highland cruiser]

This March we disembarked the Oosterdam in Sydney at White Bay. We were told on board that taxis would be hard to get. So we decided to carry off our luggage in order to get a taxi.

 

We were off thy ship by 7:15, in the taxi by 7:30 , ( there were LOTS of taxis), taken into Sydney and dropped off at the rental car office by 7:45 and on out way.

Cost about $15 US. It was a Sunday morning and very light traffic.

 

But it worked well.

 

Mary

[gigianne]

Good information being shared. We will be in Sydney next April on the Oosterdam and will probably be looking for taxis.