Live Reports - Cruising on Coral Princess September 2022.

[Cbtours]

26 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

That is a shame.  Why not share a maxi taxi to Racecourse Road, Ascot (shops and restaurants) and get him to take you up to Bartley's Hill Lookout, Massey Street, Ascot for great views of the river. There are lots of beautiful Queenslander houses in Ascot and Hamilton.  My daughters went to Ascot State School (Public).

Can recommend FarmRak Signature (That Thai)  at 133 Racecourse Road, Ascot for great dine in or take away food.

Would be a good idea for a local shopping centre to run a free shuttle bus like in Honolulu.  I doubt there will be a ferry service because it would take too long into the city  

We got picked up by friends and went for lunch. They actually took us to the old port as plenty of parking, restaurants and really quite nice complex with all the trees. I now get what people are talking about re the difference in old port and new port!!!!

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, MMDown Under said:

That is a shame.  Why not share a maxi taxi to Racecourse Road, Ascot (shops and restaurants) and get him to take you up to Bartley's Hill Lookout, Massey Street, Ascot for great views of the river. There are lots of beautiful Queenslander houses in Ascot and Hamilton.  My daughters went to Ascot State School (Public).

Can recommend FarmRak Signature (That Thai)  at 133 Racecourse Road, Ascot for great dine in or take away food.

Would be a good idea for a local shopping centre to run a free shuttle bus like in Honolulu.  I doubt there will be a ferry service because it would take too long into the city  

We used to always go off the ship when they docked at Portside, either to catch the ferry into the city or to just poke around the shops there and have coffee and/or lunch at one of the cafes or restaurants. 

 

I agree, I doubt there will ever be a ferry service but it would be good if they could run shuttles one of the ferry wharves.

 

It's actually very pleasant having a quiet afternoon on the ship, looking out over the river mouth. 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Cbtours said:

We got picked up by friends and went for lunch. They actually took us to the old port as plenty of parking, restaurants and really quite nice complex with all the trees. I now get what people are talking about re the difference in old port and new port!!!!

Chalk and cheese!

[Cbtours]

Just now, OzKiwiJJ said:

Chalk and cheese!

Absolutely!!!

[MMDown Under]

47 minutes ago, Cbtours said:

We got picked up by friends and went for lunch. They actually took us to the old port as plenty of parking, restaurants and really quite nice complex with all the trees. I now get what people are talking about re the difference in old port and new port!!!!

Yes you would notice the difference.  I used to go to Dandy movies there with four hours free parking.  I enjoyed checking out any ships in port.  I wonder if small ships will still come to Portside.  You can walk from there to the ferry to the city. 

[arxcards]

47 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

Yes you would notice the difference.  I used to go to Dandy movies there with four hours free parking.  I enjoyed checking out any ships in port.  I wonder if small ships will still come to Portside.  You can walk from there to the ferry to the city. 

Portside cruise terminal is being repurposed. As it is now, Pacific Explorer can still make it to Portside, but won't be. No scheduled ship is berthing there. The cruise lines are happy to save the extra hour of transit time up the river, and the restrictions that come with it.

 

With the new terminal, it is up to the cruise lines to provide a decent link to the city. The boutique smaller ships are still bound to make a worthwhile effort of it.

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Cbtours said:

We got picked up by friends and went for lunch. They actually took us to the old port as plenty of parking, restaurants and really quite nice complex with all the trees. I now get what people are talking about re the difference in old port and new port!!!!

Still our preferred place to stay pre-cruise at the apartments there.

 

On the flip side, the new terminal is chalk and cheese compared to the old one. It is just the location that will take a bit of getting used to.

[Cbtours]

1 minute ago, arxcards said:

Still our preferred place to stay pre-cruise at the apartments there.

 

On the flip side, the new terminal is chalk and cheese compared to the old one. It is just the location that will take a bit of getting used to.

We are very impressed with the cruise terminal! 

[MMDown Under]

6 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Portside cruise terminal is being repurposed. As it is now, Pacific Explorer can still make it to Portside, but won't be. No scheduled ship is berthing there. The cruise lines are happy to save the extra hour of transit time up the river, and the restrictions that come with it.

 

With the new terminal, it is up to the cruise lines to provide a decent link to the city. The boutique smaller ships are still bound to make a worthwhile effort of it.

I'd rather get  a small ship to Bangkok than Laem Chabang, on the ocean, and Hanoi,140 klm inland from the South China Sea.  I'd rather get a small ship to Portside, Hamilton, with all its facilities than the new port.  Do you know why they are discontinuing with Portside for small ships.  All those high rise buildings are only there because of the port.  

[Aus Traveller]

14 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I'd rather get  a small ship to Bangkok than Laem Chabang, on the ocean, and Hanoi,140 klm inland from the South China Sea.  I'd rather get a small ship to Portside, Hamilton, with all its facilities than the new port.  Do you know why they are discontinuing with Portside for small ships.  All those high rise buildings are only there because of the port.  

The residents of those high rise buildings complain, and complain, and complain about the cruise ships. To try to placate them, noise restrictions were put in place (similar to Sydney) where the sailaway is quiet - no horn blowing, no loud announcements etc.

[arxcards]

14 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I'd rather get  a small ship to Bangkok than Laem Chabang, on the ocean, and Hanoi,140 klm inland from the South China Sea.  I'd rather get a small ship to Portside, Hamilton, with all its facilities than the new port.  Do you know why they are discontinuing with Portside for small ships.  All those high rise buildings are only there because of the port.  

Pretty simple. Why pay to maintain two cruise terminals when you only need to pay for one that caters for all ships

 

A boutique small ship can still go a lot further up the river than Portside. I believe they used to go under the Story Bridge back in older times, and there was a cruise wharf somewhere near the Botanic Gardens.

[Aus Traveller]

Just now, arxcards said:

Pretty simple. Why pay to maintain two cruise terminals when you only need to pay for one that caters for all ships

 

A boutique small ship can still go a lot further up the river than Portside. I believe they used to go under the Story Bridge back in older times, and there was a cruise wharf somewhere near the Botanic Gardens.

In early Brisbane, even during WWII, the wharves were a kilometre or two downstream from the Botanic Gardens. They were near the Customs House (corner of Queen and Ann Streets). The first photo below is from 1943. The Customs House would be on the far left of the photo. The second photo is of the Customs House from the Queen Street side in 1898.

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, arxcards said:

Pretty simple. Why pay to maintain two cruise terminals when you only need to pay for one that caters for all ships

 

A boutique small ship can still go a lot further up the river than Portside. I believe they used to go under the Story Bridge back in older times, and there was a cruise wharf somewhere near the Botanic Gardens.

That would be wonderful as Brisbane River is scenic. I do a small boat cruise from gold coast to brisbane.  

[arxcards]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

In early Brisbane, even during WWII, the wharves were a kilometre or two downstream from the Botanic Gardens. They were near the Customs House (corner of Queen and Ann Streets). The first photo below is from 1943. The Customs House would be on the far left of the photo. The second photo is of the Customs House from the Queen Street side in 1898.

Thanks for that.

We stayed at a hotel somewhere near Anne/Queen St many years ago, and they had a photo of ships at the dock, including a migrant liner. We walked the Botanic Gardens during that stay, so erroneously connected the two. 

 

It was nice that they had light rail going to the cruise terminal way back then. 😉

[arxcards]

In the way that street names in cities work, where railway st/ave/rd are usually where the railway station is, I figure Wharf St ran down to the original wharves?

[Aus Traveller]

4 minutes ago, arxcards said:

In the way that street names in cities work, where railway st/ave/rd are usually where the railway station is, I figure Wharf St ran down to the original wharves?

Wharf street probably did lead to the wharves. The Customs House (no longer used for that purpose) is a couple of hundred metres downstream from the river end of Wharf Street.

[arxcards]

On 10/4/2022 at 4:07 PM, OzKiwiJJ said:

We actually got in this time. 

 

We like sea days, thank goodness.😊

 

The larger ships can't navigate safely into the atoll, particularly in windy conditions, so they built a pontoon on the other side of the island to accommodate this. The jetty is in the atoll and fully protected from the elements, while the newer pontoon is outside the atoll. Seems that depending on wind direction, both options can be considered unsafe on the safe day.

 

We consider ourselves very lucky to have got onto the island.