Hamilton Island

[kaseyoz]

We are seriously looking at the rhapsody queensland cruise this December and see one of the stops is Hamilton Island.

 

I don't recall if ships especially as large as the ROTS have stopped here.

I have never been before so any comments, ideas on what to do here?

[qld cruiser]

We are seriously looking at the rhapsody queensland cruise this December and see one of the stops is Hamilton Island.

 

I don't recall if ships especially as large as the ROTS have stopped here.

I have never been before so any comments, ideas on what to do here?

 

 

Hi Karon, years ago the ships would anchor at Cid Harbour, and passengers would be taken by tenders .

perhaps that is what ROTS will do.

there are no berthing facilities for large ships.

from Hamilton ,passengers on tours would probably be going out to the reef, Daydream Island etc.

 

kind regards, Lorraine:):)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

You can have a lot of fun on Hamilton Island for the day.We have been there a couple of times on a cruise and you do indeed anchor and tender ashore. If its Cid harbour it can take a while to tender ashore, but sometimes the ships anchor a bit closer.

Once there you can rent "buggies", and zoom around the Island. The resort pool is also open for swimming and they have shops and cafes (take lots of money as they are not cheap).There is also a great beach to laze around on.

They usually offer other tours to some of the Islands and to the Mainland as well ,but you can have a very pleasant day on the Island itself.

[The Fox]

We are seriously looking at the rhapsody queensland cruise this December and see one of the stops is Hamilton Island.

 

I don't recall if ships especially as large as the ROTS have stopped here.

I have never been before so any comments, ideas on what to do here?

 

Hi Karon,

 

we did a cruise up there and anchored in Cid harbour.hamilton island is very nice ...but like all islands its expensive. its very hilly and the only transport..is free bus shuttle from resort to resort or golf buggies at 55.00 per day.its a beautiful island.When we went to the whitsundays in 2007 we stayed at Airlie beach and did a tour which took in hamilton ,long and daydream island.Daydream island is only small but its absolutely beautiful.From the ship we had choice of hamilton island and reef trips.we did hamilton and the reef trip from cairns.

 

Hope this helps

 

what date do you sail on dawn princess in may...we are on 23.5.09

 

Regards

 

Col & Di:)

[kaseyoz]

I have been doing searches on the Australia ports of call and found a bit of information but also the info given here is great.

I never realised that the ships went to Hamilton but that maybe because I have never checked into it.

 

Col, We are only doing the 2 dayer from sydney to brisbane, part of a very large group, it is the june longweekend 5th June but the American countdown does make it look like we sail in May.

[BronteBlue]

We were up there on ROTS in December... it was about a 20-25 minute tender ride in. There are two places you can hire buggies... the resort or the harbour... (the harbour being the closest) - turn right when you get off the wharf and its a couple of minutes' walk on your left. With insurance it was $80 for the full day - not sure about the half day rate. You can phone and book but don't mention you're on a cruise ship. We had a good day zipping around the Island on the buggy and it seats 4 with shade. Don't forget your driver's licence. Lovely views from the top lookouts and the resort is worth visiting/swimming too. There were regular catamarans returning to ROTS - much faster than the tender boats.

 

Save the Reef for Cairns... the further north you go the better it is. We went from Port Douglas but ROTS isn't stopping there next season - a real shame. You will be tendered at Yorkeys Knob - 20 minutes north of Cairns. The only time we docked was Brisbane (Fisherman's Island) miles from nowhere lol. We had a great trip and loved Rhapsody :)

[kaseyoz]

We were up there on ROTS in December... it was about a 20-25 minute tender ride in. There are two places you can hire buggies... the resort or the harbour... (the harbour being the closest) - turn right when you get off the wharf and its a couple of minutes' walk on your left. With insurance it was $80 for the full day - not sure about the half day rate. You can phone and book but don't mention you're on a cruise ship. We had a good day zipping around the Island on the buggy and it seats 4 with shade. Don't forget your driver's licence. Lovely views from the top lookouts and the resort is worth visiting/swimming too. There were regular catamarans returning to ROTS - much faster than the tender boats.

 

Save the Reef for Cairns... the further north you go the better it is. We went from Port Douglas but ROTS isn't stopping there next season - a real shame. You will be tendered at Yorkeys Knob - 20 minutes north of Cairns. The only time we docked was Brisbane (Fisherman's Island) miles from nowhere lol. We had a great trip and loved Rhapsody :)

 

Thanks fro that information.

Did you write a review or anything. Did anyone else on your cruise write one?

 

I am getting seriously worried about the weather, how was it for you?

[BronteBlue]

No, I didn't write a review and I haven't read any reviews for either trip to FNQ - there was an earlier one in November on ROTS.

 

We had great weather the entire trip (2 - 13 Dec) and very flat water... like being on a lake. No rain. No cyclones - I think they come January or later. But hot in Cooktown, lol, nearly melted.

[rugbypopsie]

When we visited Hamilton Island on the Star Princess a few years ago they tendered..2700 on the Star so my guess is they will do the same.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

When we visited Hamilton Island on the Star Princess a few years ago they tendered..2700 on the Star so my guess is they will do the same.

How did it go that many people to shift?

When Superstar Leo was down here she attempted the same thing and we gave up waiting and enjoyed a day on the ship:eek:

[rugbypopsie]

How did it go that many people to shift?

When Superstar Leo was down here she attempted the same thing and we gave up waiting and enjoyed a day on the ship:eek:

 

We tendered in a few places, Bali was cancelled and we ended up in Penang instead and had to tender there. They were pretty organised the only problem was usually the small wharves. So there were some delays in unloading. It does not stick out in my mind so I dont think there must have been too many dramas, we got a golf cart and had a look around, hung out by the pool for a while.

 

Bouncing around in small hot tenders is not the best for those with motion sickness. Not my problem but if it is yours wait for the crowd to thin so you dont spend any longer in them than you have to.

[Froggy57]

I had some involvement with cruise ships at Hamiton Is a few years ago, a new anchorage was surveyed (near cid harbour) to allow big vessels to access the whitsundays. They used to use the cruise cats from the Hamiton Island ferry service to take people to hamilton ,white haven, the reef etc, not sure if they still do. some used their own tenders.

[raringtogo]

how about the ferry over to Airlie Beach- my son is on the ROS right now and that's what I've told him to do.

[lizzy77]

We did this cruise in Dec also. Hi Bronteblue.

It was a great cruise and we did b2b on nov 22nd and Dec 2nd. The Qld cruise had many more international cruisers too. Loved the ship would go back on her in a heartbeat.

We hired a buggy and pre booked it but it didn't seem to make any difference as we still had to line up in the sun for ages. They did say however, that they had reserved one for us in case they were all booked out but they had lots of them. I would recommend that if you do want a buggy to just get off the ship early. We had one for 1/2 a day and that was heaps of time to get around and see the sights and the resort. Hamilton Island is very expensive and we were glad we weren't there on holiday.

There is also the option of the tourist hop on hop off bus which is free.

The ship had hired some outside boats for the tender process which accommodated about 200 and it was a very smooth process getting passengers off the ship quicker than just using their own.

[NSWP]

We were on Star Princess in 2004, Sydney to Darwin. We anchored in Cid Harbour and tenders took us across to Hamilton Island, just a resort Island really, in 2004 it was a little run down down, but recently the resort has been renovated/refurbished. My niece works on the Island in Events Management.

 

If you just want to visit you can plane it from Brisvegas for $79 each way.

 

### RUGBYPOPSIE, were you on Star Princess, Syd to Darwin in February 2004 with us? ###