Photo Review: Solstice 12 Night Great Barrier Reef Jan 2 2018

[Suzi66]

Airlie Beach - Susanne's version.

 

We went on the ships tour that was the Aquaduck. We arrived at the theatre exactly when we were supposed to, got our pretty stickers and were ushered straight down to the tendering deck. The guy in charge of the ship's tours kept singing the theme to Gilligan's Island and then said that he hoped we enjoyed our "three hour cruise" (have you all got an earworm now). Co-incidentally, this trip was for my parent-in-laws 60th wedding anniversary which happened a couple of days before we got on board the ship. We gave them the tickets for the cruise the previous Christmas and then my husband had given them for every birthday, mother's day, father's day etc a ship disaster movie of some sort including of course Gilligan's Island. This cruise is their very first and now they wish they had have started earlier. They are telling everyone they know to go on a cruise before you get too old.

 

Back to the aquaduck.

We got off at the tendering station and we got told we had to wait a little while as the tender process was a lot quicker than they expected (again in hindsight and looking at the day after I understand now). We didn't really wait all that long, perhaps 20 minutes, when the Aquaduck came into the carpark. They were really good about how they filled the duck, making sure that all groups of 4 or more were seated together before any doubles or singles got seated.

The tour director told everyone what Facebook page to go to for the pictures he would take that trip as we took off and then we started into the water. It has been many years since I went on an aqua duck but I was really surprised at a few things, one was just how long we actually spent on the water (probably 3/4 of the time of the tour) and how slow it was on land ( a walker passed us when we went up a hill).

 

 

Airlie Beach from the water.

 

Apparently this is a backpackers boat.

 

We had a little bit of trouble getting out of here (the Marina) as someone was trying to put a boat in at the ramp at the same time and there wasn't quite room enough for both, also the duck has trouble going uphill. Lots of very expensive boats in here, owned by some famous people.

 

 

After we left the Marina we drove through the town which had markets going on and the driver had some loud music going. YMCA anyone? The people of Airlie Beach are very used to it as they were dancing along as were we.

 

 

And then we returned to the tender station and the Aquaduck loaded for another trip. We returned to the ship and the one thing that I thought was odd was that the Celebrity staff were not there at that time offering a cold towel and a drink which they almost always are. I'm wondering if that is because we were one of the earlier ones going back and they hadn't set up yet.

 

[mahdnc]

This is nice and so are the photos. I learned a lot. I didn't know about the cannon salute.

[cherylroslyn]

Thank you for responding to my question!

 

And I really like the tag teaming with Suzanne. This thread now has something for everyone :)

[Suzi66]

Roomwise we have been on the Solstice a few times. This cruise we booked 9300 and 9302 because of the proximity of the elevators for my in-laws and we wanted the concierge lunch for them on boarding day rather than having to fight for a seat in the Oceanview. Coincidentally where we got placed for lunch was where we ended up sitting in the dining room in the evening as well.

Even though we had rooms that were classed as connecting staterooms we didn't use them that way but instead had our steward open the balcony and we went from one to the other that way. It was nice having the big balcony.

Two years ago was our first time on the Solstice and we had 9302 so the room for us wasn't a surprise but we didn't know then about the lunch. We got shuffled quickly through boarding because they saw my stick and the person doing it at Auckland mustn't have known about the concierge stuff. My kids tell me that is one bonus of me having had strokes at an early age. They get to go through a quick boarding procedure too.

 

Last year we were also on the Solstice in rooms 8247 and our son and his fiance was in 8243 as someone had already booked the rooms next to us.

 

In a few weeks we will be back in room 1633, so if anyone has any questions about any of these rooms or wants photos let me know.

[Wansbrough]

 

Kristy, our Capt Club Hostess ran the Elite Priority Tendering thing at each tendered port. It was done separately from the special early tender option for Cairns Day 2. I don't recall seeing anybody on our early tender that boarded through the Elite system.

 

But for you, the Elite Priority Tendering is your best and only play. Talk to your CC hostess to let her know about your situation. And talk to Guest Relations as well in case something special is being put together like for Cairns Day 2

 

I asked the question here a while back about who actually has priority tendering as there seem to be a few different status all claiming the privilege. Suite guests, ship tours and Elites. I got my answer in Airlie Beach.

 

In 2017 for our day in Airlie Beach we had booked a private helicopter flight out over the Heart Reef with a stop at Whitehaven Beach and despite the ship arriving at 8:00 the first proper tender across wasn’t until 10:00 because they needed to fill the catamarans going out to the reef on ships tours first. All this was being done directly from the ship so with limited space for boats to dock, the tenders ashore were moved down the list. Our agreed pick up time ashore was 9:45 so we were not exactly pleased with the situation. It’s a bit naughty advertising the stop as being 8:00 until 5:00 but then not allowing you the option to leave the ship until gone 10:00 with added travel time to shore of 25 minutes. Even with our Elite privilege, I had thought we had built a nice buffer zone into getting ashore but that was wiped out in one swift move by the Celebrity tendering operation. Angry doesn’t go anywhere near describing how I felt at the time and if it hadn't of been for the CC hostess helping us out we would have missed our trip.

Fortunately, we made it just in time and had an amazing day.

 

Celebrity Solstice Postcard #35 – Airlie Beach, Australia

[mahdnc]

I asked the question here a while back about who actually has priority tendering as there seem to be a few different status all claiming the privilege. Suite guests, ship tours and Elites. I got my answer in Airlie Beach.

 

In 2017 for our day in Airlie Beach we had booked a private helicopter flight out over the Heart Reef with a stop at Whitehaven Beach and despite the ship arriving at 8:00 the first proper tender across wasn’t until 10:00 because they needed to fill the catamarans going out to the reef on ships tours first. All this was being done directly from the ship so with limited space for boats to dock, the tenders ashore were moved down the list. Our agreed pick up time ashore was 9:45 so we were not exactly pleased with the situation. It’s a bit naughty advertising the stop as being 8:00 until 5:00 but then not allowing you the option to leave the ship until gone 10:00 with added travel time to shore of 25 minutes. Even with our Elite privilege, I had thought we had built a nice buffer zone into getting ashore but that was wiped out in one swift move by the Celebrity tendering operation. Angry doesn’t go anywhere near describing how I felt at the time and if it hadn't of been for the CC hostess helping us out we would have missed our trip.

Fortunately, we made it just in time and had an amazing day.

 

Celebrity Solstice Postcard #35 – Airlie Beach, Australia

 

So, this is the "fun and games" that you spoke of in your other post? Interesting story and nice trip you took there.

 

I had heard this exact near horror story or one very similar to it from travelling8 (Kim--a CC-er on our Jan 2018 GBR cruise) as we were monitoring your GBR sailing. From tracking the tenders on MarineTraffic.com I discovered how slow the tendering process was and then realized that they don't run overnight at Cairns. Then Kim relayed your story (or someone's similar story) based on one of the social media sites she was monitoring. Now I understood why the dive companies I emailed did not want to do business with cruise passengers. And how Celebrity created a near monopoly on snorkel shore excursions as a byproduct of the tendering process.

 

For a while, I thought about just giving in and booking CN30 (Exploring the GBR) thru Celebrity for Cairns Day 2 and be done with it. We had already booked it for Day 1 and I wasn't even sure if the snorkel boat would go to different reef for Day 2. It was going to cost $1280 USD plus scuba surcharges for my family of 4. But later I decided to bite the bullet and book a snorkel trip independently ($500 USD plus scuba charges) and get two hotel rooms ($280 USD total) to ensure that we made it to the dive boat in time. I really didn't like the idea of paying money for a hotel when we had a paid for room on the cruise ship. But I wanted to go diving with a company of my choice in Cairns and I thought I had a plan that would beat the system; it looked so good on paper.....

 

For whatever reason, I was disappointed with the diving/snorkeling at Airlie Beach. Our particular experience there paled in comparison to both days at Cairns and Port Douglas. If I had to do it over again (knowing what I know now), I seriously would have looked into booking an air tour such as yours with the objective of seeing this Heart Reef and wiggling my toes in the cool sands of Whitehaven Beach. I thought Celebrity offered something like that.

[mahdnc]

 

Day 8, Mon Jan 9: Port Douglas (tender)

"Giant Clams and Clownfish and Whiskers on Kittens"

Celebrity Today

MDR Dinner Menu page 1 and page 2

MDR Dessert Menu page 1 and page 2

Shore Excursion: Snorkel/Diving the Great Barrier Reef (Independently Booked); $246 AUD per person for snorkeling

 

This was our final Great Barrier Reef port before we turned around and headed south. As an avid diving family (well, my wife is the avid one--the rest of us dutifully follow), I was surprised to see that Celebrity did not offer a single snorkel/dive excursion at Port Douglas. Not one. If you look at the map below (sorry to use this map again), you can see how well positioned Port Douglas is for exploring the Great Barrier Reef--just as well as Cairns is. I guess Celebrity figures that all but a few die hard passengers will be satisfied with snorkel offerings in Airlie Beach and 2 days at Cairns.

Port Douglas allows for easy access to the Great Barrier Reef. Our snorkel/dive trip would visit Agincourt Reef which is about 40 miles away.

 

 

 

I ended up booking a snorkel/diving trip with a company whose boat did not leave Port Douglas until 10 am with a no-later-than 9:45 am check in time . Unlike our stop at Cairns, all the dive/snorkel boats left from the same marina that Solstice's tenders would use. This company used a massive boat that went out to a pontoon moored at Agincourt Reef. I really wanted to book a smaller boat run by the same company which visited 3 Agincourt Reef dive sites (no pontoon), but they wanted you to check in no later than 8 am for it. With Solstice scheduled to arrive at 7 am and the hoopla surrounding all the tendering, I decided not to risk going for that one.

 

7:47 am: David and Goliath! We were booked on the large boat on the left for our trip to the pontoon on Agincourt Reef which leaves the marina at 10 am. I was hoping to get to Port Douglas early enough to get on the smaller dive boat on the right which leaves at 8 am. Both boats are owned by the same company.

 

 

 

There would be no special early tendering on this day, so our plan relied on using our Elite Priority Tendering privileges to get us ashore in time to for the trip to the pontoon. And if some miracle were to occur and we got there early enough to check in for the smaller boat, I would see if we could switch our pre-paid reservations over to that boat. I was so tempted to go for broke and book the more desirable (to me) 8 am tour and plead my case to be switched over to the bigger 10 am tour if we missed it.

 

Port Douglas marina.

 

 

 

The gathering point for the Elite Priority Tendering was by the MDR. Kirsty, our Captains Club Hostess, was on hand to receive us. We boarded our tender at 7:08 am and we got off the tender at Port Douglas at 7:54 am. The seas were very calm.

 

9:22 am: While waiting for our boat to take us to Agincourt Reef, we watch one of Solstice's tenders drop off passengers at Port Douglas.

 

 

 

There is a little shopping mall at the marina. We found the check in office for the dive boat inside the mall. I asked about availability for the smaller dive boat since we were there on time. The reservation clerk told me that they had 3 spots left on the boat but only 1 of the spots was for diving. Ugh. So I went thru the check in process for family for the big boat. However that boat would not sail for another 2 hours. So we had breakfast at one of the restaurants while we waited.

 

8:33 am: Port Douglas marina

Edited March 4, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

Day 8, Mon Jan 9: Port Douglas (Shore Excursion)

"Giant Clams and Clownfish and Whiskers on Kittens"

 

The 40 mile ride to the reef aboard our boat was thankfully smooth and quick. The catamaran was massive as we had 400 passengers on board. It also was an engineering marvel. It's built on a wave-piercing hull for a smoother ride. It is well appointed on the inside and outside. The hull is made of aluminum and is not painted (I think). I am guessing that since aluminum doesn't rust, they don't bothering painting it even for appearance. So this very expensive boat had a dirty grayish look to it. Sorry, let me reign in my engineering nerd side and get back to something more interesting.

 

Our catamaran, Quicksilver VIII, is at the right--docked against the pontoon. A semi-submersible boat (glass bottom for viewing) is in the foreground to the left.

 

 

Our destination was Agincourt Reef which is where the pontoon is anchored. Like the catamaran, the pontoon was also very large. Lunch was served on the pontoon.

 

 

The dives and snorkeling were amazing. For us it was like Cairns Day 2. Fish were everywhere and the sun lit up the reef. We saw quite a few sea turtles. But compared to our other dive sites, this place seemed to have an abundance of Giant Clams and clownfish. As soon as I jumped into the water for the first time, there was a Giant Clam right in front of me. You could also see the biggest grouper fish I ever saw sitting underneath the pontoon.

 

 

10 second video of clownfish seeking refuge from scary GoPro on a stick.

28 second video of large Giant Clam

5 second video of large clownfish playing around the anemone.

9 second video of small Giant Clam

19 second video of my daughter finding a flatworm

 

 

Semi-submersible rides were free.

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

Day 8, Mon Jan 9: Port Douglas (Shore Excursion) continued

On the way to Agincourt Reef there was a temporary desk set up on the boat for helicopter rides. You could book a 10 minute ride to see the reef for $150 AUD. You could also buy a ride on the helicopter to see the reef and then ride it back to Port Douglas!

 

 

So I signed up for one of the 10 minute rides. There is a floating helicopter platform located 1/4 mile away or so from the pontoon and boat. There is a motorized boat that shuttles helicopter passengers between the pontoon and helicopter pad. It's a very efficient operation. The helicopter is a 7 seater. There is one seat among the 7 that is not next to a window. I was lucky and drew the seat next to the pilot.

 

You can see the shadow of the helicopter in the above photo. The large scale of the Great Barrier Reef is very apparent from the air!

 

 

Even our pilot could not resist taking out his iPhone for a couple of quick shots! A few of my pictures had the pilot in it and he appreciated getting copies. I tried to AirDrop them directly to his iPhone after we landed but his battery was dead (better that it's the phone and not the helicopter!). I ended up sending them to him later that day.

 

 

Surprisingly, the 10 minute flight time felt like plenty of time for us.

 

 

You can see the catamaran and the pontoon anchored next to Agincourt Reef. My 1:30 pm helicopter ride was the last one for the day. After that, the pilot dropped us off at the helicopter pad and took six passengers who paid a lot to fly back to Port Douglas. I am sure the price of the air fare included the 10 minute tour that the rest of us got.

Edited March 4, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

Day 8, TUESDAY Jan 9: Port Douglas

Sorry, but I just realized that I have identified our Port Douglas day incorrectly as Monday on the three prior posts.

 

After getting back to Port Douglas, my wife was thinking of checking out some of the shops in the mall. I had other ideas as I was thinking about a hot shower, change of clothes, food, and alcohol. In the end, the rest of the family managed to whine enough to change her mind and we headed straight to the tender.

 

Cruise Critic member clementfan (Art) invited us to his table for late seating on this evening. During most of the cruise, we usually saw him at the Elite Cocktail Hour up in the Sky Lounge to talk about the day's events and we occasionally discussed Pittsburgh Steelers football, California wine, and his son who lives in Sydney. His dinner invitation was very kind and on this port-intensive day, it was awesome not to have to rush back to the ship to make our 6 pm early seating. Instead, we got to relax and enjoy a beautiful sunset from our balcony.

 

Art and his tablemates were very interesting to talk to. He resides in California where I went to school (Caltech) and my son will be working (Apple), so we always had something to talk about there. One couple at his table lived in Perth and another were from the UK. Unfortunately I did not get that much time to talk to Art! He did pick out an excellent bottle of California wine for our table though!

 

Our four diving intense days of the itinerary were over and we had a sea day tomorrow. Somehow, just about everything worked out for us. Although it has nothing to do with diving, we still had some gaps in our transportation planning for our port day in Brisbane. Fortunately the next two days were at-sea and we had that time to work on the problem.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2018 by mahdnc

[WeBcruisingMN]

Great review and photos and explanations! We are soaking it all up, as we get ready to board the Solstice on March 30. We plan to be on the 400-person boat out of Port Douglas too; it was awesome to hear that the sea life was incredible to see. Are you using a GoPro camera or something else underwater?

 

I like how you think, too. After some of the cruise excursions (especially those where we are physically active), we always yearn to be back 'home' on the ship and enjoying showers, food, and alcohol. That Conundrum wine is absolutely one of our favorites. We tasted it at a local bar that had a wine tasting a few months ago, and we bought two bottles for a special proce of 2 for $35. We now wish we had bought 22 bottles- especially at that price. The Conundrum white is tasty, too.

[mahdnc]

Great review and photos and explanations! We are soaking it all up, as we get ready to board the Solstice on March 30. We plan to be on the 400-person boat out of Port Douglas too; it was awesome to hear that the sea life was incredible to see. Are you using a GoPro camera or something else underwater?

 

I like how you think, too. After some of the cruise excursions (especially those where we are physically active), we always yearn to be back 'home' on the ship and enjoying showers, food, and alcohol. That Conundrum wine is absolutely one of our favorites. We tasted it at a local bar that had a wine tasting a few months ago, and we bought two bottles for a special proce of 2 for $35. We now wish we had bought 22 bottles- especially at that price. The Conundrum white is tasty, too.

 

Thank you!

 

All of the posted underwater photos except for one were taken with a Canon S100 PowerShot camera with a custom underwater case. The videos were all shot with a 3 year old GoPro (Hero4) at 1080p 60 frames/sec by my wife. She puts the GoPro on an long pole which is important. The GoPro is an amazingly easy device to operate and the video for what you get is equally amazing.

 

I forgot to mention that I strongly recommend hiring a guide whenever possible. If you are diving, a guide is normally included in the price and for safety reasons they want to have someone with you even if you are certified because things can go wrong. If you are snorkeling, you have to pay extra.

 

The snorkel/diving guides know the reef well and they will find you stuff or point out stuff you would otherwise miss. And being with a guide gave you a sense of confidence that you were in the right places in the reef. At the other reefs I just snorkeled on my own, but I always was a bit uneasy because I didn't know if I was wasting my time in a bad section of the reef.

 

This ramble brings me to another point. One of the things that I was not used to with snorkeling/diving at the GBR was that all of the spots we went to were in the middle of no where. You could not see land and you felt like you were in the middle of the vast ocean. Most of our Caribbean dives are done with land in sight--especially, of course, with shore dives where you just walk in. But when you are at the GBR--pontoon or just a dive boat--you cannot see any land and it was a bit intimidating to me--especially if there were no roped off areas. I did not anticipate this sensation prior to our trip. Having a guide with you makes all those insecurities disappear--well, if you have those insecurities.

 

 

At Agincourt Reef I decided to do something different and paid for a guide. I was in with a group of about 12 people. We were guided by Hayley--a marine biologist from New Zealand. She was a riot; but a knowledgeable one. She seemed to have an eye for sea turtles and pointed them out to us--ones that I would not have otherwise seen on my own. Of course she knew where many of the Giant Clams were.

 

Our snorkeling tour was an hour long (which is a lot of swimming). She took us outside of the roped off area that other snorkelers were not permitted to go which was cool. I was surprised at how enthusiastic she was in speaking to our snorkel group. I am sure she has given the same speech many times before, but from her it sounded like she was saying it for the first time. I still laugh when I remember her saying how things were so mind-blowing to her as she explained the wonders of the sea to us.

 

So that brings me to the only downside of the guided snorkel tour--it is difficult to assemble in the ocean around your guide to listen to him/her without bumping into your snorkeling neighbor which got to be a pain. Sometimes I would just try to float around outside of the main group during an ocean lecture but that would mean I would not be able to hear about the things that blew Hayley's mind.

 

Yes, Art picked out a fantastic bottle. We went through it fast. This one cost $45 in the dining room which I thought was pretty reasonable and that was before we got to use our 20% off Capt Club coupon on it.

[Suzi66]

Port Douglas - Susanne's version.

 

Today we were going to go on a riverboat tour on the Lady Douglas, a paddleboat that goes up the river looking for crocodiles. I tried to prepay for this as I like to prepay for everything but the operators wouldn't let me. My father-in-law was getting very tired and because I hadn't paid, and so wasn't going to lose any money he decided he wanted to stay on board the Solstice at Port Douglas. So MIL, husband and myself lined up to take a tender to just have a look around the area. We just missed on of them taking off and were not far from the front of the line when someone started a rumour that the weather was bad and the tenders were having trouble getting beside the ship again. MIL "I'm not going across if it is not nice" and off she trundles back to the room. It didn't take much longer and we boarded a tender.

Hubby decided to send a message to his sister with "Can you tell me Mum's phone number?" Really it was so he could call his parents out to the balcony so he could take a photo of them, but it had the added bonus of scaring his sister into thinking we had lost their parents :D

 

 

 

We got off at the Marina and saw the Lady Douglas and were surprised at just how small the paddleboat was. Coming from the Murray River we are used to large tourist paddleboats and I think I was imagining one of those, especially if we were going to be looking for saltwater crocodiles. It wasn't much bigger than a medium houseboat.

 

 

We then walked through the market which normally sets up in the park but was at the waterfront for the ship's passengers and then went to look at the town.

 

We thought the little church, St Mary's by the Sea was sweet, and the town very tourist orientated. We didn't spend a long time but it was worthwhile having a look around.

 

 

[mahdnc]

Nice photos. I like the balcony one!

[Cruise Junky]

The market at the wharf isn't anything like the Sunday Port Douglas Market. It's there every week at the wharf, put pretty small in comparison. The Sunday market is spectacular. I build our land trips around the sunday market :)

 

We did the Lady Douglas in November too. Small, but ok for a couple of hours.

[mahdnc]

 

 

Day 9, Wed Jan 10: Willis Island (cruising)

 

Celebrity Today

MDR Breakfast Menu page 1 and page 2

MDR Dinner Menu page 2

MDR Dessert Menu page 2

 

This was a day of recuperation from the last 4 days that were very port intensive. Today we visited Willis Island which is really a glorified at-sea day since the ship neither docks nor anchors there. This island is Australian territory and it is very small. It has a meteorological station that is staffed by 3- 4 people. The island is barely above sea level and it must completely disappear during a hurricane. There is nothing attractive to look at from a tourist standpoint other than the brown and red footed boobies that inhabit the island.

 

 

What the ship does is pull up close to the island (without running aground of course, because that kind of thing would be frowned upon) and then the Captain slowly spins the ship around a couple of revolutions so everyone gets a chance to see it. I didn't bother turning the television on to Channel 4 to hear it, but the reef pilot communicates to the island meteorologist via radio. Somewhere along the line, I think the Captain blew the ship's horn (I think).

 

Judging from the time stamps on my photos, it looks like the Willis Island encounter started at around 10:45 am and finished at 11:30 am to give you a rough idea of when and how long it was. The visit is listed for 11 am - 1 pm on the itinerary.

 

Binoculars were useful to see details of the island, the birds, and the various man-made structures on the tiny island.

 

 

There were two Captains Club events on this day. The first one was Elegant Tea at 3pm which we didn't go to and haven't gone in quite some while. I remember when it used to be a daily event open to everyone, years ago.

 

The second event was the Senior Officers Party at 7:45 - 8:30 pm which we attended right after our 6 pm dinner at the MDR. We saw Art (clementefan) there and he took of photo of myself and my son with Captain Kafetzis. We had a brief chat with the Captain about the tendering issues that had occurred earlier in the cruise. Little did we know that we would bump into him later at the Australia Zoo.

 

 

Today was the first day we had eaten at our assigned table in the MDR since being absent for 4 days in a row. No big deal, although it was nice to have our waiter and the rest of the dining room staff that we were used to. In talking with him, you got the sense that main seating at the MDR during the GBR port days was pretty sparsely attended.

 

 

There is no Captains Club Elite Cocktail Hour on two days of the cruise--embarkation day and on the day that the Senior Officers Party is held which was today. I had actually forgotten and I marched the entire family up to the Sky Lounge before dinner which is a short trip since our cabin sits all the way forward in the ship. Once I figured out the error of my ways, we proceeded to the go to the Martin Bar for the first and only time. Earlier in the cruise, CC member travelling8's husband, Jim, introduced our son, Chris, to the art of martini during an Elite Cocktail Hour. So I used it as an excuse to have the whole family go to the famous Martini Bar this night. We ran into jayde43 (Debbi) there. And so, we all had martinis together!

 

We enjoyed Debbi's company at the Martini Bar!

Edited March 7, 2018 by mahdnc

[Wansbrough]

Are you aware of the reason for visiting Willis Island? We were told the following................

 

As this cruise is all Australian home ports it isn’t technically an international cruise and therefore they are not allowed to sell any duty free items onboard. To get round this the ship has to drop anchor very briefly off the coast of Willis Island so that it can be recorded in the ships logs and thus qualifying it as a international stop.

 

Purely a technical stop. :D

[GUT2407]

Are you aware of the reason for visiting Willis Island? We were told the following................

 

As this cruise is all Australian home ports it isn’t technically an international cruise and therefore they are not allowed to sell any duty free items onboard. To get round this the ship has to drop anchor very briefly off the coast of Willis Island so that it can be recorded in the ships logs and thus qualifying it as a international stop.

 

Purely a technical stop. :D

They also have to play a recorded info message about Willis.

[cruise kitty]

Thanks so much for your review & the beautiful photos :)

[BermudaBound2014]

I very much appreciate your contributions! Thanks :)

[TFLG]

Awesome review, I can't wait to get on board for the March 30th GBR cruise.:D

[mahdnc]

Are you aware of the reason for visiting Willis Island? We were told the following................

 

As this cruise is all Australian home ports it isn’t technically an international cruise and therefore they are not allowed to sell any duty free items onboard. To get round this the ship has to drop anchor very briefly off the coast of Willis Island so that it can be recorded in the ships logs and thus qualifying it as a international stop.

 

Purely a technical stop. [emoji3]

 

All 3 pictures in the post were taken during dives on Mon Jan 8, Cairns Day 2

 

 

I appreciate you bringing this up. First let me slightly correct what I wrote when I referred to Willis Island as being Australian territory. More specifically it is an external Territory of Australia called the Coral Sea Islands Territory (I learned a lot of Australian geography on this trip). Now I have read on these boards that the point of visiting Willis Island is to qualify the cruise for duty free sales, but I didn't really understand how visiting another part of Australia did that. So I did more digging and found that the Goods and Services Tax operates in the Australian "indirect tax zone" and this zone does not include the external Territories. Furthermore I found official examples that say cruises to the Coral Sea Islands Territory qualifies for duty free (see page 3).

 

 

Another thing I forgot to add about our Willis Island day. That day we had lunch with a very nice couple from Brisbane at the MDR. They had lived a long time in Brisbane and had retired and were in the process of relocating up north near the Australia Zoo. They had sold and moved out of their house in Brisbane but could not move in yet to their new house because the construction schedule fell behind by a couple of weeks. So to buy time while their house was being finished, they booked this cruise!

 

We were still trying to figure out our plans during our stop in Brisbane which was still two days away. Our family would split up at this port. My son and I were going to either visit Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary or the splashy Australia Zoo. My wife and daughter were headed south to Mermaid Beach but we hadn't figured out a cost effective transportation plan for them. Talking to this couple over lunch helped us solve both problems!

 

First they adamantly recommended the Australia Zoo over the Koala Sanctuary. I was a bit surprised by their strong opinion because my online research shows a wide variety of different opinions on which was better to visit and that it wasn't so clear cut. Anyway they were so persuasive, that I went with their recommendation.

 

My wife and daughter would be heading 55 miles south of the Port of Brisbane to Mermaid Beach because my daughter wanted a tattoo from an artist there that she admired for some time now. Our ground transportation options had significant drawbacks: car rental (we wife did not want to drive on the other side of the road), taxi (expensive), Uber (can only do one way from Brisbane and that would expensive but not as bad as taxi), public transportation (too complicated and their travel schedule was tight). The couple suggested that we book the ship's shore excursion, BS10: Day at the Gold Coast which cost $59 USD per person and it would cover most of the distance to Mermaid Beach leaving the reminder to be cheaply done by taxi or maybe Uber. It was also time efficient such that they would be able to get to the tattoo parlor in time for the work and get back to the ship in time before she sailed. Problem solved and we had our lunch mates and Celebrity's shore excursion to thank for it!

 

Edited March 8, 2018 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

Thanks so much for your review & the beautiful photos :)

 

Thank you, but I was amazed at your photos on your Australia and New Zealand cruise. I especially liked the shots of Solstice taken at Sydney from a high vantage point on the Harbour Bridge.

[Innkeepers]

Thank you for this helpful thread. Your pictures are amazing. We also board the Solstice soon and this info has been invaluable for our planning!

[cruise kitty]

Thank you, but I was amazed at your photos on your Australia and New Zealand cruise. I especially liked the shots of Solstice taken at Sydney from a high vantage point on the Harbour Bridge.

 

Thank you, that's so kind, especially coming from you :)