Excursions in Oz

[Pippawhipper1]

Hi,

Does any one know if Oz is like the Caribbean where we can get off of the port and just get a minibus or taxi to go where you like or is it best to go with celebrity

Please any info

[Muffinz]

I presume you mean 'Australia'?

if so it depends on the port

We did the great barrier reef cruise last year and in Newcastle, they had a free bus to take passengers into Newcastle - for those who were doing their own thing.

In Cairns they offered a shuttle bus for $22US? per person if you just wanted to go into town and explore on your own - same for Brisbane.

At each of these ports there were taxi's waiting and some passengers just opted to get into a taxi

[NCHPcruiser]

We were on the Solstice for an Australia/NZ 16 night cruise and did no Celebrity tours.  I either booked tours ahead of time or we did things on our own which we found very easy to do.  You just need to do your homework!  One thing we found different about tours in Australia was while European or Caribbean ports depend on cruise passengers for much of their business that is definitely not the case in Australia.   It was often difficult to find a tour that coincided time wise with our time in port.  

 

I don’t know if your cruise includes a stop in Esperance but if it does rent a car and drive to the beaches (the Great Ocean Drive is a 40k loop).  Avis car rental (where most people from our ship were going) was great and reasonable.  The beaches were beautiful and in late February, deserted.  We had them to ourselves.    It would have been a completely different experience had we been on a Celebrity bus tour!