Tender off Solstice in Cairns Australia

[cruising sister]

Anyone with recent experience with the tendering in Cairns. We arrive at 8 AM, we are Elite and need to know if we can be off the ship and into Cairns to meet an excursion by 11. The tour company seems a little skeptical. I hear it takes 30 minutes on the tender and 30 minutes to get to Cairns. I am curious what the process is that I might not make it. This question has been posted in the Australia/New Zealand thread but not much response.   Thanks

[mahdnc]

Jan 7 2018, Cairns, shore excursion boats lining up to take on passengers from Solstice.

 

Hi.  We took the GBR cruise aboard Solstice back in Jan 2018, so I don't know if that qualifies as recent for you.  Solstice overnighted at Cairns during our sailing.  Back then Solstice arrived Cairns on Day 1 at 10 am, but after receiving feedback (I am told by the Solstice Shorex manager), the schedule now has been changed to arriving at 8am which is much better for you.

 

The Captain during our sailing said it takes about 3 hours to unload all 3,000 passengers.  And the 30 min tender transit time and 30 minute cab ride also doesn't factor in the waiting time to load these very large tenders (holding over 200 passengers), unloading time, waiting for a cab and car traffic.  Also because the tenders (or shore excursion boats) came in different shapes and sizes, there was a delay in between tenders because the cruise ship's ramp/stairs/platform had to be reconfigured for the next tender.  So in my opinion, it is possible to be in Cairns by 11am but it is not a certainty. 

 

As you may know, the priority boarding privileges associated with your Captains Club Elite level (we are also Elite) doesn't get you very far because you are second priority to all the passengers that have purchased shore excursions--and there are a lot of passengers who purchased their shore excursions thru the ship..  This caused a lot of passengers on sailings prior to ours to miss or barely make their independent plans.  The problem was severe enough that with our sailing, Celebrity began running an early tender on Day 2 that started at 6am.  You had to sign up at Guest Relations in advance to be given space on the early tenders.  

 

As you already figured out, the tendering situation at Cairns is very complex (you cannot use your Caribbean experience because it is quite different) and there is not a lot of information available.  For that reason, I went ahead an posted a photo review and a live thread during our GBR cruise.  The photo review includes information from other passengers as well.

 

BTW, the cruise was absolutely awesome.  You are in for a treat.  Let me know if you have any other questions.

Edited August 23, 2019 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

To improve your chances of making it to Cairns by 11am, I would talk to the Capt Club hostess because she may be able to assist you

[Jim_Iain]

As you may suspect the "Priority" is a subjective word.   There are many levels of priority that are or may be in front of you.   As others have stated Ship's Excursions have priority, Suite guests are escorted to tenders by the MCC on demand and then there are priorities for Concierge and Elite Plus.  

 

I would have a chat with the Captain's Club Concierge and see if she can assist. 

[cruising sister]

Thanks for the advice. I will re think my options. I am not up for stressful situations and may book with Celebrity for Cairns. 

[cruising sister]

Great reviews. Very helpful. 

[mahdnc]

29 minutes ago, cruising sister said:

Thanks for the advice. I will re think my options. I am not up for stressful situations and may book with Celebrity for Cairns. 

 

Jan 8 2018, Solstice at Yorkeys Knob (Cairns)

 

If there is an independent shorex that you really want to do at Cairns, your best chance is to do it on the second day there (I am assuming Solstice overnights at Cairns for your particular sailing).

 

Because tendering does not occur at night, you then have two options of getting to Cairns on the morning of Day 2.  1st, you could book a hotel and stay in Cairns for the night.  2nd, you can catch the special early tender that you have to sign up for in advance at Guest Relations (see photo below of the bulletin that we received in our stateroom).  I am assuming that Celebrity still arranges for the early tender. 

 

As you can see from my photo review, I booked a hotel for our overnight at Cairns for our cruise.  However the tendering was stopped early by the Captain because of high winds and we were unable to get off the ship that evening to make it to our hotel.  We caught the first early tender and was fortunate enough to make it in time to catch our dive boat.

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by mahdnc

[Suzi66]

Adding onto mahdnc's comments, I was on the same cruise.  We took ships excursions and because of the dreadful sea conditions (the weather was delightful BTW) we waited in the theatre for well over an hour from our expected boarding time of the tender to when we actually got on one, then it needed to fill and then go over to Yorkey's Knob.
We had booked the Skyrail to Karunda and then train return.  Because of the delays we had a total of 30 minutes in Karunda which was not ideal.  However my in-laws loved the train trip and the following day the tendering process into Cairns was far less stressful and we bussed around seeing the sights.
We are going to do the same trip this January with only one day in Cairns this time, but plan on just doing things as we feel like it as we don't have two 85 year olds with us.

 

[PeterGavin]

What is the excursion which you have booked please? Where to? How long duration?

[resolute]

We will be sailing on the 1/14/20 b2b Aus/NZ cruise. We booked a catamaran tour out of AIrlie. Do they provide the snorkeling gear? It does not have it in the description. It is a Celebrity tour.

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, resolute said:

We will be sailing on the 1/14/20 b2b Aus/NZ cruise. We booked a catamaran tour out of AIrlie. Do they provide the snorkeling gear? It does not have it in the description. It is a Celebrity tour.

 

Yes, if it is a snorkeling tour, they will provide all the gear.  Which catamaran tour are you specifically talking about?  For example, if it is IE05 ("Great Barrier Reef") or IE15 ("Whitsunday's Sailing and Snorkeling Adventure"), then all the snorkeling gear (incl stinger suits if needed) will be provided.  For IE05, the gear will actually be provided at the pontoon that the catamaran sails to (photo).

 

Although it is not fool proof, usually the shore excursion description will tell you what to bring.

 

Jan 7 2018, Heart Pontoon located at Hardy Reef.  The catamaran is partially visible to the right.  It is run by Cruise Whitsundays which is contracted by Celebrity Cruises to run the IE05 (Great Barrier Reef) shore excursion at Airlie Beach.  Even though the catamaran picks you up at the ship, it takes 2 hours to get out to the pontoon.

Edited August 25, 2019 by mahdnc

[Muffinz]

We did the GBR cruise in March / April 2018 and tendering into Cairns / Port Douglas was no problem, as the weather was good and the seas were calm - however we didn't make it to Airlie beach as the seas were too rough for the tender boats

We found the tendering process to be very good and well organised  - but they do give priority to passengers who have booked excursions with Celebrity.

The best thing to do is grab a tender ticket number from the cellar masters when they announce they are available, so you'll be on one of the first available tenders.

Celebrity also use the services of external companied with much larger boats to help the tender process in Cairns / Port Douglas

 

Enjoy your cruise - we loved the itinerary

[Team Alpha]

We did the top end cruise on Solstice in 2015 which stopped at Yorkey's Knob. It was a funny/odd port stop in that the scheduled time of arrival there was 12 noon with an 8pm departure that evening. The first to disembark was anybody booked on a Celebrity tour - some jumped straight on catamarans and headed to the reef. It was quite choppy so tendering was delayed/suspended a couple of times. I reckon it was about 3pm before we made it to land. As per your post, yes you are correct that the tender trip took about 30mins and the bus ride into Cairns itself about 30mins. Because of the delay tendering, most if not all other non Celebrity booked excursions were missed/cancelled. Some very unhappy international passengers as a trip to the reef was to be the highlight of the cruise. Even many of those with land based (non celebrity) booked tours missed out. Tendering back was interesting too as the later the day went the worse the seas became. It was a rough trip back to the ship for some. My recommendation for anyone stopping at this port is to book a cruise ship excursion.

[Northern Aurora]

We did a version of a Great Barrier Reef cruise in 2017 which included tendering both at Airlie Beach and Cairns.  My memory is that for Cairns the tender trip, once the large private tender was loaded, did indeed take about 30 minutes.  We had a large amount of non-refundable OBC on that cruise, so used some for a ship excursion at Cairns.