Any advice on Great Barrier Reef tour

Hi all,

I will cruising Auckland to Sydney over Christmas/New Years and plan on being in Cairns the first week of January. I am trying to decide on the best bang for my buck at the Great Barrier Reef. We'll only have one evening and then a full day there so I have to book in advance as I don't want to take any chances the day of. I have narrowed down my choices to Reef Experience, Osprey V and Reef Magic tours. I would prefer a couple stops in the Outer Reef and a place that has glass bottom boat/semi sub tours. Anything that makes any of these stand out as better than the others for the price? Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.

Connie

PAST CRUISES:

Discovery Sun 2003 Freeport Bahamas Day Cruise

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1659913

Carnival Miracle 07/30/13 Alaska http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=39476968#post39476968

Reeg magic has a very goos reputation.

Passions of paradise (not sure if it fits your requirements) is another good trip out

Avoid Quiksilver

Reeg magic has a very goos reputation.

 

Passions of paradise (not sure if it fits your requirements) is another good trip out

 

Avoid Quiksilver

Thanks, I looked at Passions of Paradise. I was hoping for Outer Reef with 2 stops. Not sure about snorkeling just from a beach. We want to have the option of glass bottom boat ride so Michaelmas Cay would be good too. So many choices.

Does anyone have experience on how good the areas are snorkeling from the shore?

I've only snorkeled out of Port Douglas, so I can't be of any help with recommendations on the boats that operate out of Cairns.

But I will say that snorkeling in the Outer Reef is much preferable to snorkeling off a beach. We have snorkeled off the Low Isles (Port Douglas) and while it was fun, the variety of sea life and coral was nothing compared to what we have seen on our many snorkeling excursions on the Outer Reef. If you are thinking about a snorkeling trip to Green Island, you might want to research it further. I have read many reports that the coral is dead off Green Island, so that would make for very poor snorkeling.

We really had fun on a 4 day cruise out of Cairns going to Port Douglas on Coral Princess II. This "Australian Princess" has several different cruises but all are small ship with good food, wonderful facilities for snorkeling and diving in the outer reef areas, mostly Australian passengers so much different from the main line big ship cruises. We loved it so much we have scheduled another cruise with the company for Feb. 2014.

Thanks so much, we've decided to go with Reef Experience. We definitely want to snorkel the Outer Reef and after comments and reading we agreee that snorkelling from the beach isn't for us.