VO's Port Douglas & Great Barrier Reef Need information

[MSEm]

We are planning to do the Port Douglas and Great Barrier Reef post cruise offered by Viking Ocean in March 2020.

I want  to know more about the underwater viewing platform or observatory, if anyone has taken this tour or similar please tell me more about the tour and viewing platform.

Also what is the water temperature at the reef the end of March.

Thanks for the help.

[Jim Avery]

 I can tell you about using the Viking tour to the GB reef on the Inaugural WC but it could be different now.  Hope so.  Our GBR trip included some 300 of our best friends.  All on one boat.  The float at the reef was very crowded.  We said if we ever had the chance to do it again we would bite the bullet and use one of the small group helicopter trips.  Hopefully VO has modified the reef tours to make them less crowded at the float.  Group size would be my first question to them.  As to the reef itself, the place we were taken was not that pretty.  The corals were mostly shades of brown.  Not anywhere near as nice as Cozumel, for one example.  Still, glad we did it.  Hope you get a better tour experience.  We went in February and the water was a nice temp.  We had to wear the "stinger suits" for the poison jellyfish so were warm anyway.  The platforms are just barges anchored out there.  Ours had bathrooms and an underwater viewing area.  There are stairs for entering the water.  

Edited July 15, 2019 by Jim Avery

[Heidi13]

Based on the inaugural WC reports, including Jim's, above we are avoiding the reef and taking an inland tour to the rain forest. We are currently considering a couple of different options rather than the GBR.