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Why Brisbane is crucial to the future of Australian cruising

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OzKiwiJJ Great Review Rare

OzKiwiJJ

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Harder to do popular one week tropical cruises from other major ports.

 

If Brisbane does build a new terminal then I suspect we'll see New Caledonia and Vanuatu becoming the South Pacific equivalent of the Caribbean.

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shrekaus

shrekaus

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I am not sure it is crucial.

We did our first cruise from Brisbane (homeport) 12 months ago on Sea Princess. Last month we cruised from Sydney on Solstice.

 

Embarkation in Sydney was so efficient compared with Brisbane.

 

I realise this has nothing to do with the siting of Hamilton port as opposed to an oceanside terminal, but if they are going to expand cruising from Brisbane they certainly need to improve their portside service.

 

We sail again from Hamilton in 3 weeks and hope it will be easier to board but from all that I have read P & O are worse at handling it than Princess, which I find strange as I understand portside personnel are not directly employed by the cruiselines.

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Pushka

Pushka

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And once the Cruise Lines have lobbied for a new port terminal at Brisbane they move on and will turn to somewhere else, eg Adelaide, and say this location is the most important growth area in Australian tourism. It really is all about lobbying and not necessarily reality.

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GUT2407

GUT2407

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I am not sure it is crucial.

We did our first cruise from Brisbane (homeport) 12 months ago on Sea Princess. Last month we cruised from Sydney on Solstice.

 

Embarkation in Sydney was so efficient compared with Brisbane.

 

I realise this has nothing to do with the siting of Hamilton port as opposed to an oceanside terminal, but if they are going to expand cruising from Brisbane they certainly need to improve their portside service.

 

We sail again from Hamilton in 3 weeks and hope it will be easier to board but from all that I have read P & O are worse at handling it than Princess, which I find strange as I understand portside personnel are not directly employed by the cruiselines.

 

 

Yep no matter what the terminal is like (or to a degree where it is located) it needs to WORK.

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

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I agree Brisbane is an important port for Aussie cruises and having a terminal for the larger ships would be awesome, but I would also say that the development of other ports is equally important. Melbourne's station pier has been having some issues with turn around days so perhaps that is also on the radar. Along with the development of some of the pacific island facilities and wharves to cater for the large numbers going there each cruise.:D

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Aus Traveller

Aus Traveller

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Having a terminal near the mouth of the river roughly opposite the Grain Terminal would be great. :) You could drive there from Portside in probably ten minutes, but it takes ships an hour to negotiate the river up to Portside. Of course, the major disadvantage of Portside is that it can only be used by mid-size cruise ships.

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Beanb41

Beanb41

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The Grain Terminal where the larger cruise ships tie up is the pits in fact its probably worse than the pits. Cruise ships are going to get larger and thus more passengers are going to want to be looked after ashore. If this doesn't happen then the port will be excluded from the company's ports of call.

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Aus Traveller

Aus Traveller

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The Grain Terminal where the larger cruise ships tie up is the pits in fact its probably worse than the pits. Cruise ships are going to get larger and thus more passengers are going to want to be looked after ashore. If this doesn't happen then the port will be excluded from the company's ports of call.

Yes. :D

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The_Big_M

The_Big_M

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Having a terminal near the mouth of the river roughly opposite the Grain Terminal would be great. :) You could drive there from Portside in probably ten minutes, but it takes ships an hour to negotiate the river up to Portside. Of course, the major disadvantage of Portside is that it can only be used by mid-size cruise ships.

 

The other advantage of that location is it is brilliantly close to the airport, for both international and domestic travellers.

 

As distinct from their current GP terminal, which is contrastingly distant and especially remote from anything else.

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Aus Traveller

Aus Traveller

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Hopefully the river ferries will extend their route to the new terminal when/if it's built. It's much more pleasant catching a ferry into the city on a nice day than sitting on a bus.

My guess is that they won't. I doubt the Council would include this remote spot at the mouth of the river in their schedules because it would be out of the normal run. It takes an hour for a cruiseship to get from Portside to the mouth of the river. I think the CityCats travel a bit faster (not sure) but it is still a long way. A cruiseship would only be at the proposed terminal a couple of days in a week and there would be no point in a ferry travelling to that spot if there was no cruise ship. For the Council it would make more sense to have a shuttle bus operating from the proposed new terminal to either the city or to the Portside ferry stop. I think there is now one more stop past Portside at a riverside park.

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OzKiwiJJ Great Review Rare

OzKiwiJJ

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They would run a shuttle into the CBD , or do what Singapore does, run a shuttle to the nearest train stop, in this case the airport right next door.....

thats if the airport train is still running by then...:D

 

The airport isn't anywhere near the Singapore cruise terminals. The main one (these days, I think) is at Marina Bay and the other is at Harbourfront (near Sentosa).

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Aus Traveller

Aus Traveller

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They would run a shuttle into the CBD , or do what Singapore does, run a shuttle to the nearest train stop, in this case the airport right next door.....

thats if the airport train is still running by then...:D

It would be closer for a bus to go to the end of the CityCat route (near Portside) than to the airport for the train. Another point is that the CityCat is owned and run by the city Council whereas the airport train is a privately-owned rail line. A ticket on the train is quite expensive, $17.50 one way :(.

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SeaDog-46

SeaDog-46

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The proposed site near the so called QM2 lookout at Luggage Point already has a deepwater jetty previously used by large import crude tankers.

Since BP shut their Bulwer Island refinery last year it is no longer required & could easily be turned into a concrete wharf to handle the largest cruise ships.

Unfortunately it is right next to the north Brisbane Sewage Works.

 

From Brisbane Domestic terminal it is 9 km. to Portside & over 22 km. to the Grain Terminal. The new terminal would only be about 4 km. as the crow flies, but currently about 15 km. by road.

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Aus Traveller

Aus Traveller

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The proposed site near the so called QM2 lookout at Luggage Point already has a deepwater jetty previously used by large import crude tankers.

Since BP shut their Bulwer Island refinery last year it is no longer required & could easily be turned into a concrete wharf to handle the largest cruise ships.

Unfortunately it is right next to the north Brisbane Sewage Works.

 

From Brisbane Domestic terminal it is 9 km. to Portside & over 22 km. to the Grain Terminal. The new terminal would only be about 4 km. as the crow flies, but currently about 15 km. by road.

To get from the proposed terminal site to the airport, the route goes most of the way to Portside before going north, then the long drive through airport land.

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

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It would be closer for a bus to go to the end of the CityCat route (near Portside) than to the airport for the train. Another point is that the CityCat is owned and run by the city Council whereas the airport train is a privately-owned rail line. A ticket on the train is quite expensive, $17.50 one way :(.

 

Citycat is much better and cheaper, unless you are going to the airport anyway.

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Aus Traveller

Aus Traveller

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Citycat is much better and cheaper, unless you are going to the airport anyway.

Agreed. That's why I feel the most reasonable way to get from the proposed terminal (if it ever gets built in our lifetimes:D) would be by shuttle bus to the end of the CityCat route or by bus all the way to the city.

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