Wilsons Parking at BICT

[doenbucket]

Bookings for Wilsons parking , undercover (P1) at cruise terminal have been opened. This is the closest parking to the terminal. Price for the  5th to 19th August was $181.12. This price was online. Better price than some others & so convenient.🚢🚗

[MicCanberra]

Cheers

[Aus Traveller]

Wilsons quoted $128.44 for a car parked in their Premium parking area 1 for our seven-day cruise. The problem is that they have some 'under shade' carparks and the rest are open air. I was told that if you arrive and there is an under shade space available, you can use it. Otherwise you park in the open. At the moment there is no option to book an under shade space. The under shade spaces are under structures that hold their solar panel array.

[doenbucket]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

Wilsons quoted $128.44 for a car parked in their Premium parking area 1 for our seven-day cruise. The problem is that they have some 'under shade' carparks and the rest are open air. I was told that if you arrive and there is an under shade space available, you can use it. Otherwise you park in the open. At the moment there is no option to book an under shade space. The under shade spaces are under structures that hold their solar panel array.

Thanks for letting me know that.😀 Have not booked yet and I would have checked out how spaces are allocated. May have to look elsewhere. We'll see.

[Aus Traveller]

6 minutes ago, doenbucket said:

Thanks for letting me know that.😀 Have not booked yet and I would have checked out how spaces are allocated. May have to look elsewhere. We'll see.

The only other option I see is Portside Parking but they are more expensive. The person I spoke to at Wilsons, said that they are just getting the parking at BICT up and running and she felt that they might offer two options - under cover and open air in parking area 1. However, this was just her opinion.

[OzKiwiJJ]

28 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

The only other option I see is Portside Parking but they are more expensive. The person I spoke to at Wilsons, said that they are just getting the parking at BICT up and running and she felt that they might offer two options - under cover and open air in parking area 1. However, this was just her opinion.

Portside isn't more expensive. We've booked for our 7 night cruise, undercover, for $105. Their undercover parking is in a building not just under a shade roof topped with solar panels.

Edited May 9, 2022 by OzKiwiJJ

[Aus Traveller]

2 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Portside isn't more expensive. We've booked for our 7 night cruise, undercover, for $105. Their undercover parking is in a building not just under a shade roof topped with solar panels.

Great. I originally got a price from Portside Parking of $105, but then it changed to $152.10 when we specify the booking is for a cruise. Today the price their website showed the same price. I will see if we can get a booking at $105.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Aus Traveller said:

Great. I originally got a price from Portside Parking of $105, but then it changed to $152.10 when we specify the booking is for a cruise. Today the price their website showed the same price. I will see if we can get a booking at $105.

My confirmation shows 'Shuttle to cruise terminal" so they know it's for a cruise. I booked late March.

[Aus Traveller]

7 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

My confirmation shows 'Shuttle to cruise terminal" so they know it's for a cruise. I booked late March.

You might have got a good deal.🙂 I will try tomorrow.

[OzKiwiJJ]

14 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

You might have got a good deal.🙂 I will try tomorrow.

Good luck.

 

Yes, they may not have factored in the extra time needed to get to the new terminal.

[arxcards]

3 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Good luck.

 

Yes, they may not have factored in the extra time needed to get to the new terminal.

Indeed. Their Pinkenba complex is on hold, and they are shuttling from their existing building. Their site has added this comment - 

Due to considerable construction delays and costs the opening of our new car park at 142 Main Beach Road, Pinkenba has been postponed. We will therefore continue to service our cruise customers from our existing facility at 11 Curtin Ave West, Hamilton. Prices have increased doe to the considerable cost involved in transferring people out to the new terminal. All prices quoted are inclusive of transfer costs.

 

Their Pinkenba block is still showing as for sale, so unlikely they will be constructing anything until that happens (sell to lease back and fund the construction)

[arxcards]

So a question for the Portside experts.

For the above example of $152 to be dropped at the ship and get picked-up a week later, I can't understand why they only charge $117 for the same service to the airport when both are similar distances from their Hamilton site.

[Aus Traveller]

17 minutes ago, arxcards said:

So a question for the Portside experts.

For the above example of $152 to be dropped at the ship and get picked-up a week later, I can't understand why they only charge $117 for the same service to the airport when both are similar distances from their Hamilton site.

Particularly when the shuttle buses to the cruise terminal would virtually always be full, whereas those to the airport would usually have only a few people on board.

[Aus Traveller]

14 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

My confirmation shows 'Shuttle to cruise terminal" so they know it's for a cruise. I booked late March.

I will phone Portside Parking today about parking for our June cruise. I would like to mention the price that my friends got. I know your first names, but unfortunately I don't know your surname. Do you mind mentioning it? If you prefer, you might like to email me -   peterandevon  at  bigpond  dot com

[arxcards]

13 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

Particularly when the shuttle buses to the cruise terminal would virtually always be full, whereas those to the airport would usually have only a few people on board.

I figure they are a separate arrangement. They would have a shuttle for the airport running from early morning till late night, with full time employees driving. As the cruise days are scattered, they may be hiring a shuttle bus and driver on cruise days, and the going rate makes it dearer. 

 

They need to careful not to price Wilsons into it though. For me if I was driving to Brisbane, I could just disembark and drive off from the terminal and be on the gateway to home 15 minutes later. The undercover bit doesn't concern me so much.

 

Good luck in getting a better rate.

[Aus Traveller]

I don't think I will be able to negotiate a better rate with Portside Parking, but it is worth asking.😁 I am not concerned about under-cover parking, but my husband is a bit paranoid 🤣 worried about a hail storm.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I will phone Portside Parking today about parking for our June cruise. I would like to mention the price that my friends got. I know your first names, but unfortunately I don't know your surname. Do you mind mentioning it? If you prefer, you might like to email me -   peterandevon  at  bigpond  dot com

I've sent you an email.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I've sent you an email.

Thanks. I will phone Portside Parking soon and will let you know how I go. I don't expect them to match the price they had on their website a couple of months ago.

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Thanks. I will phone Portside Parking soon and will let you know how I go. I don't expect them to match the price they had on their website a couple of months ago.

No, but they need to price themselves lower than Wilsons or they won't get the cruise business. Although they appear to have better and more secure undercover parking, the 20 minute shuttle ride each way and possible additional wait times to get on a shuttles are deterrents.

 

I must admit that when I booked I was hoping they would have their Pinkenba facility operating by June. 

[Aus Traveller]

As expected, Portside Parking said "if someone got in early, they got the better price". They then justified the $152.10 price by saying that they have to hire vans for the day and they allow $20 each way for the transport. When they have their Pinkenba facility ready (he said the end of the year) the price might be lower than $152.10.

 

For our 26th June cruise, we will book with Wilsons Parking at the BICT.

[arxcards]

4 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

As expected, Portside Parking said "if someone got in early, they got the better price". They then justified the $152.10 price by saying that they have to hire vans for the day and they allow $20 each way for the transport. When they have their Pinkenba facility ready (he said the end of the year) the price might be lower than $152.10.

 

For our 26th June cruise, we will book with Wilsons Parking at the BICT.

That is a bit sad that they have been caught out by the 2 years of nearly no travel. It was definitely bad timing that had them looking to develop a new site for BICT only months before a pandemic was about to hit. I hope it works out for them in the end, but they have priced themselves out of being first choice for now. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 minutes ago, arxcards said:

That is a bit sad that they have been caught out by the 2 years of nearly no travel. It was definitely bad timing that had them looking to develop a new site for BICT only months before a pandemic was about to hit. I hope it works out for them in the end, but they have priced themselves out of being first choice for now. 

Yes, it is a bit sad. The cruise usage won't be all that great over the next few months so I guess they figure losing business to Wilsons won't hurt them too much. 

 

We'll stick with our booking with them as we did get a good price. Hopefully the shuttle service will be reliable. I'm not too worried about disembarkation but I don't want to have our embarkation screwed up by slow shuttle service.

[Aus Traveller]

8 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, it is a bit sad. The cruise usage won't be all that great over the next few months so I guess they figure losing business to Wilsons won't hurt them too much. 

 

We'll stick with our booking with them as we did get a good price. Hopefully the shuttle service will be reliable. I'm not too worried about disembarkation but I don't want to have our embarkation screwed up by slow shuttle service.

There is a cruise before your 26th June so it's likely some passengers from that cruise will have cars parked at Portside Parking. Shuttle buses would be taking them from the BICT from around 7.30 or 8am. I think you said you have an early check-in for your cruise. If you arrive at Portside Parking fairly early (say 10am) I don't think you would have much wait. They might get busy later in the morning and if they only have a few vans, a queue could develop. I suggest getting ahead of the main crowd. Of course, we don't know how many people will have their cars at Portside Parking.

[OzKiwiJJ]

12 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

There is a cruise before your 26th June so it's likely some passengers from that cruise will have cars parked at Portside Parking. Shuttle buses would be taking them from the BICT from around 7.30 or 8am. I think you said you have an early check-in for your cruise. If you arrive at Portside Parking fairly early (say 10am) I don't think you would have much wait. They might get busy later in the morning and if they only have a few vans, a queue could develop. I suggest getting ahead of the main crowd. Of course, we don't know how many people will have their cars at Portside Parking.

Yes, I was thinking of getting there around 10am. It's a bit of a juggling act though as we don't want to hang around a possibly crowded cruise terminal for too long waiting to embark. 

[Aus Traveller]

23 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Yes, I was thinking of getting there around 10am. It's a bit of a juggling act though as we don't want to hang around a possibly crowded cruise terminal for too long waiting to embark. 

If you have time to fill in, there would probably be an outdoor area where you could wait until closer to embarkation time.