Question Re: Land Tour With Princess Cruise

[SPARKLE10]

Hi:

 

We have a five day land tour and a 12 day Sapphire Princess cruise booked for March of next year. I was just wondering if during the land tour portion of the cruise, do you have time to do things on your own, like the bridge climb etc., or is everything planned for you as a group? We've cruised many times, but only done a land tour one other time with Princess to Alaska.

 

Thanks.....Happy Cruising...Sparkle 10

[Spikesgirl]

We did a post and pre cruise when we went to Aus/NZ. There are options, should you want to do a tour with a group or you can go off on your own. We did the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House on our own with no trouble what so ever. The Bridge is especially incredible. Take the backstage tour if you have a chance - that was a lot of fun and not very crowded. You are going to have a blast - Sydney is a fun town - make sure you dine down on the Quay. There is something for everyone there.

 

Enjoy!

 

Charlie

[SPI_Rick]

Sparkle, for us it depended on the location. You will probably have some free time at all stops, but you may not have enough time for major activities at all stops.

 

On our itinerary: 2 days in Sydney, 2 days at Ayer's Rock and 2 days in Port Douglas....this is what we were able to do:

 

Sydney - the only 'scheduled activites' were:

 

Day 1: a group cocktail party in the evening where we met the other members of our tour group and got our departure schedules for Ayer's Rock.

Day 2: a morning bus tour of the city.

 

There was time on day 1 for "on your own" activities in the late morning and all afternoon. There was time on day 2 in the afternoon. You could easily manage the bridge climb and some ferry rides across the harbor or other exploring.

 

 

Ayer's Rock - We had relatively little time on our own. Other than going to the swimming pool or to the resort shops there was not much to do at the resort and the attractions are a 20-30 minute bus ride away from the resort area so we didn't mind not having free time. Being out near Ayer's Rock or the Kata Tjuta formation was the main attraction.

 

Port Douglas - The schedule called for the afternoon of day 1 to be free and part of the afternoon of day 2 to be free....but due to the cyclone we had lots of free time, but were mostly stuck in the hotel.

 

 

So, I would say that you could schedule outside activities for Sydney and for Port Douglas, but probably not for Ayer's Rock.

 

By the time you get your travel documents you should be able to view your detailed itinerary online. If you see "Afternoon at Leisure" or "Morning at Leisure" listed then you will know that you have that time available for your own activities.

[doyleb]

Sparkle 10,

 

We were on the Diamond in March (Sydney to Auckland) and did a 5 day pre-cruise tour - Sydney - Carins - Sydney. Nothing was planned on our arrival day other than an orientation at 6:00 PM (we arrived at 8:00 AM in Sydney) so we had the entire day to wander and explore the Opera House, the Rocks, Circular Quay, etc.

 

Day 2 in Sydney was AM city tour, PM harbor tour and we still had time in the afternoon to do things on our own. Had dinner at Doyle's in Circular Quay (despite the great name, the food was not too good). Day 3 was our flight to Cairns, but we got caught in Cyclone Larry and were locked into the hotel for the majority of our time there - missed the reef entirely. I think we would have had time to do some wandering in Cairns had it not been for the storm. Day 5 was our flight back to Sydney and embarkation.

 

See the roll call thread for the 21 March 2006 Diamond sailing - there's alot of review information from SPI_RICK or email me with any questions - doyleb at yahoo.com

 

Brendan

[klo]

We, too, did the pre-cruise tour and an extension in Auckland in March 2006. Although we wanted to do the tour like Brendan and Rick mention above, we were booked on the reverse tour since that tour was already full, but it worked out really well anyway. In fact, we were really fortunate since we were able to go out to the reef and missed the cyclone by two days.

 

We flew to Cairns and stayed in Port Douglas for two days, flew to Ayers Rock for two days, and then on to Sydney for two days before boarding the Diamond Princess. Just to respond to your question about having enough time to do things on your own, that was my question too since Princess didn't provide us with optional excursions when we received our tour documentation. I took a Princess cruisetour to Alaska several years ago, and I received a booklet with optional tours to schedule for our free time. I spoke to my travel agent and was informed that Princess doesn't do this for Australia. At any rate, I had an idea of what I wanted to do just in case we had time, but found we really didn't have any spare time.

 

In Port Douglas, the day we arrived we had the welcome cocktail party where you meet your fellow travel companions and receive information about the days to come. We arrived in mid-to-late afternoon; thus, not enough time to do anything else. The next day we were on the boat to the Great Barrier Reef which was virtually an all day tour. We didn't do anything else the rest of the day, but many others stayed in town to eat and do a little shopping. The next day we flew to Ayers Rock right around mid-day.

 

At Ayers Rock, you're taken on a bus sightseeing tour in the afternoon to see the Olgas and then to Ayers Rock where we watched the sunset. We sat with many other tourists but were treated with champagne and munchies, which made it much more enjoyable. It was a beautiful sight and very relaxing. It's a little surreal to finally sit and think, "wow, we're finally here!" The next day, we were taken on a tour to the aboriginal cultural center, a bus ride around the rock, and then stopped to walk a path. We were returned to the hotel in the afternoon. We had a few hours (perhaps from 1:00 - 4:00) before the Sounds of Silence Dinner in the evening. I wanted to ride a camel to the rock, but I really didn't have the time. We ate lunch as soon as we returned to the hotel and that was it for the afternoon.

 

The next day we flew to Sydney and had the afternoon free. After checking into the hotel we walked to the Rocks and ate dinner at the Circular Quay. The next day we had a sightseeing tour of the city and had the afternoon on our own. This was the only time that I thought we had enough free time. The one thing I wanted to do before the trip was to climb the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I booked it on my own from home and I did the climb around 4:30 that afternoon. I was apprehensive, at first, but I didn't feel a bit scared when up there. I would recommend it to anyone, but just that experience took about four hours. I arrived back to the hotel around 8:30pm.

 

The final day in Sydney, we were taken to the ship around 12:00 noon. We ate a quick lunch on board and then walked to the Sydney Opera House for a tour. The ship was docked right across from the Opera House -- an easy walk there. The ship departed for Melbourne at 9:00pm so we had much of the day to walk the harbor and nearby shops. I heard from another cruisetour mate that they took a tour to the Blue Mountains and then boarded the ship on their own later that day. It's far though and it was an all day trip.

 

As you can see, there really isn't much time during the cruisetour portion to do much on your own. I never thought, though, that I missed out on anything much. We saw what we wanted to see in Australia, but we know we missed many other wonderful places.