Cairns timing question

Cairns is our second stop in Australia and we are scheduled to be there from 8 AM - 11 PM. Wondering about the timing to get off the ship to take a privately operated tour. For those of you with prior experience, would it be possible to get off the ship by about 8:15 since the ship had already cleared Australian customs on an earlier stop? Thank you.

Cairns is our second stop in Australia and we are scheduled to be there from 8 AM - 11 PM. Wondering about the timing to get off the ship to take a privately operated tour. For those of you with prior experience, would it be possible to get off the ship by about 8:15 since the ship had already cleared Australian customs on an earlier stop? Thank you.

We tendered into a very small port north of Cairns and tendering was a bit slow. We had arranged to do Skyrail and it all worked out, but we were later than we had planned and had to cut short out time.

Cairns is our second stop in Australia and we are scheduled to be there from 8 AM - 11 PM. Wondering about the timing to get off the ship to take a privately operated tour. For those of you with prior experience, would it be possible to get off the ship by about 8:15 since the ship had already cleared Australian customs on an earlier stop? Thank you.

You are correct that customs will not be a problem but do you know if you will be tendering or tie up at the dock? Some larger ships have to tender and sometimes there might be more than one cruise ship in port. Also be aware that in Australia port clearance sometimes takes more time than other countries. Nothing moves until local port authorities are done. Bottom line - getting off by 8:15 is not a sure thing even if you are tied up. If tendering, no way. In March this year Cairns authorities took around 45 minutes to check all the ship's paperwork before we were allowed to get off.

If you are looking at a Great Barrier Reef excursion from Cairns most of them like to leave by 8 or 8:30. If you have a group they might be willing to wait for you. I found them most accommodating but, then, I had a group of 30 organized. The reef was spectacular!

Robbie

If you could let me know which ship and whether you are tendering at Yorkey's Knob or docking at Cairns Cruise Terminal I could let you know approx times that each ship takes. Getting off at 8.15am will not happen even if you are docking at Cairns. Yorkey's Knob is even slower. If you are looking at doing a reef tour, forget about booking privately, the catamarans leave before the ship docks, even though you have plenty of time in the afternoon/night it is the morning that is the problem. I always recommend that passengers take the ship tour for the reef (even though it goes against the grain saying this! )

You know, ship's tours are not all that bad at times. We did a mixture of those and private tours in Europe last year. It was very comforting when we were stuck in a massive traffic jam in Lisbon to know that the ship needed to wait for us, as they also did when my husband was on a ship's tour to Pulpit Rock in Norway. I found that the private tours were so anxious to get us back on time that they cut the tours short.

Cairns is a relatively small city and there are not the quantity of tours available to cater to a lot of different arrival times for the cruise ships.

Thank you all for your quick answers. We will be docking at the Cairns Cruise Terminal, but it seems the timing is too tight to risk. We prefer setting up our own outside tours, but do ship's tours when it looks like time is tight. We also did a ship's tour for Pulpit Rock, since only had a half hour do spare! thanks again.

I am not sure what you are hoping to do but here is my experience, we arrived at the cruise terminal on an Oceania ship (small one no tendering) on time. I went to the Kurunda railway after prebooking with them, take the gold coach it is worth it. After that I took the cable car down with a bus transfer back just a few minutes walk from the ship. DH was booked with Skedaddle tours which have a very fast boot which left around noon and was back about 16:30. It was exactly what he wanted no time wasted waiting in line for everyone no buffet just straight to the reef and snorkel away. Looks as though you have more than enough time to do either of these or to take a private tour. Whatever you decide have a great day/cruise.

Rosalyn

Hi we have just sailed from Cairns on Sun Princess. We arrived about 7.30 am from another Australian port and people were leaving the ship by 8am but be careful, if there are ships tours, they can get priority leaving the ship. We hired a car in Cairns, Cruising Car Rental, which I would happily recommend. They picked us up at the terminal and took us to their rental office. Paperwork completed and we enjoyed two days touring this lovely area. Small car cost $65.00 per day. Unlimited mileage and we were dropped back at the terminal next day at the end of our rental. I would recommend booking in advance to secure a car if you go this way.

Hi we have just sailed from Cairns on Sun Princess. We arrived about 7.30 am from another Australian port and people were leaving the ship by 8am but be careful, if there are ships tours, they can get priority leaving the ship. We hired a car in Cairns, Cruising Car Rental, which I would happily recommend. They picked us up at the terminal and took us to their rental office. Paperwork completed and we enjoyed two days touring this lovely area. Small car cost $65.00 per day. Unlimited mileage and we were dropped back at the terminal next day at the end of our rental. I would recommend booking in advance to secure a car if you go this way.

Where did you go in the car?

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First day we did a loop up Gillies Hway to Atherton Tableland, visiting Milla Milla Falls, Malinda, Atherton and Mareeba and continuing done the Kennedy Hway past Kuranda back to Cairns. Left about 9.30 am and got back around 6 pm.

Second day we visited local beaches north of Cairns. We didn't drive To Port Douglas as we have been there but you could definitely do this in a day