Australia Trip Report 2015

Beach and crocodile access...LOL! Reminds me about the sign saying watch for alligators where we swim in Nassau Bay/Clear Lake!

TXTransplant said:

Beach and crocodile access...LOL! Reminds me about the sign saying watch for alligators where we swim in Nassau Bay/Clear Lake!

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Yep, just like home

Day 2 - Cairns

Today we head north to the Great Barrier Reef! We took a high speed catamaran to the outer reef. It took about an hour (plus 30 min coach ride) to get out to the reef. The ride was good for most of us. Some were a little sea sick, but I don’t think anything too serious. I’d suggest bringing meds or whatever works for you. When we reached the outer reef we docked with a huge platform where we spent the day.

There are many activities to choose from including snorkeling, scuba, helmet dives, semi submersible subs, and helicopter rides. You have time for 2-3 activities. We did snorkeling first thing after arriving, had a quick lunch afterwards, did a 30 min sub ride, and lastly a 10+ min helicopter ride over the reef. It was all awesome. Absolutely amazing. Each activity showed us the reef from different perspectives. The helicopter ride was an additional cost, but it was well worth it. I highly recommend it. There were several families that did it. If you have any specific questions, let me know, but for now I’d recommend to have an idea of what you want to do and organize it (particularly the snorkeling and helicopter ride) on the boat ride out to the reef. We saw Nemo, so many other fish, and an unbelievable amount of coral. From the air, we saw the beautiful turquoise blue water, coral spreading out like islands and continents on a map, and even the dark blue drop off where the sea floor drops from a few meters to thousands of meters. The GBR is AMAZING!

The evening was on our own. Gavin chose pizza for the night so we ate at Portobello’s in Palm Cove. Gavin loved it… I thought it was ok. However, it was a beautiful evening and we ate out overlooking the beach and ocean. It was a great day!

Day 2 - Cairns


Our own marine biologist explaining the day


On the catamaran to the outer reef


Our 20,000 Leagues under the Sea style sub






















Amazing view from up high!




Here’s where the snorkelers start off from. There’s a large area that’s roped off just for snorkelers.


You can even send a postcard from the GBR!




Dinner for the evening!

Was the water chilly for snorkeling? Looks like another great day. I would definitely do the helicopter. The views from above look amazing

tgeorge said:

Was the water chilly for snorkeling? Looks like another great day. I would definitely do the helicopter. The views from above look amazing

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Chilly when we first got in. I forget the actual temp, but it wasn't too bad.

Signing in! I'm just loving this trip report so far. Everything looks fabulous and your pictures are definitely persuading me that this is one to put on the list. Then again, I'm already ADD enough on the ABD site (oooh, I like that trip! And that trip! I like alll the trips!).

Exciting that you got to see the Opera at the Opera House! Sounds like you went on some good tours prior to your adventure starting. Do you use someting like TripAdvisor to find those or do you use a travel agent? Continue having a great time, and again, loving all the pics!

mare1203 said:

Signing in! I'm just loving this trip report so far. Everything looks fabulous and your pictures are definitely persuading me that this is one to put on the list. Then again, I'm already ADD enough on the ABD site (oooh, I like that trip! And that trip! I like alll the trips!).

Exciting that you got to see the Opera at the Opera House! Sounds like you went on some good tours prior to your adventure starting. Do you use someting like TripAdvisor to find those or do you use a travel agent? Continue having a great time, and again, loving all the pics!

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Usually I use tripadvisor. But this forum and a Disney Cruise Line crew member from Cairns gave me a lot of good ideas. Everything we organized or booked ourselves.

Day 3 - Cairns

We started the day at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Center getting welcomed and hearing their stories.








Attempting to make fire… It took a long time! They were really working at it. At some point even the guy playing the didgeridoo came down and lent a hand.


Success!






Boomerang throwing. Very cool. Very tricky.


Spear throwing. Incredibly difficult. Pretty much everyone bit the dust.


One of the wonderful women who was giving Gavin some helpful hints on boomerang throwing.


ABD Arts and Crafts time.


Gavin showing off his new hat he purchased in Kuranda




Riding the Sky Rail over the rain forrest







In the evening we went to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure where they opened the park up just for ABD

Wow! This trip just looks so amazing!

Was there a meaning to the additional colors on your cheeks (besides the black you had at first?) (And, for that matter, what was the specific meaning of the black markings?)

Sayhello

sayhello said:

Wow! This trip just looks so amazing!

Was there a meaning to the additional colors on your cheeks (besides the black you had at first?) (And, for that matter, what was the specific meaning of the black markings?)

Sayhello

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Just identification markings. Sometimes it indicates rank similar to stripes in the military, but I think mostly its just family or personal ID.

Loving this trip report! I keep telling my other half that we can do this long flight, but that's still a discussion in progress. I can't wait to read/see more of this. Love your pictures. When you get home, please let me know how you resized photos on a Mac. I've tried to do it before, and I have yet to figure out the secret.

Joining in to follow along. Your reports are always so great. This trip is on my husband's list so I am excited to learn more and especially see how your son likes it. My kids are 10 and and 12 so close in age to him. I am especially curious to see how your weather plays out. We do our big trips in the summer and I much prefer warm weather when I travel so we will see....

Off topic to your report, but did you ever do a trip report for your Backstage Magic trip??

AquamarineSteph said:

Loving this trip report! I keep telling my other half that we can do this long flight, but that's still a discussion in progress. I can't wait to read/see more of this. Love your pictures. When you get home, please let me know how you resized photos on a Mac. I've tried to do it before, and I have yet to figure out the secret.

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Thanks! The fight really wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but then we've kind of worked up to it with flights to Europe and Asia, so maybe we're building up some immunity

For posting purposes, I had to upload the photos to flickr first then place the link here. Not too bad.

hilarys said:

Joining in to follow along. Your reports are always so great. This trip is on my husband's list so I am excited to learn more and especially see how your son likes it. My kids are 10 and and 12 so close in age to him. I am especially curious to see how your weather plays out. We do our big trips in the summer and I much prefer warm weather when I travel so we will see....

Off topic to your report, but did you ever do a trip report for your Backstage Magic trip??

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10 and 12 are good ages for Australia. There are a few 10, 11 and 12 year olds on our trip.

I never did a BSM trip report. There seemed to be so many trip reports and information on the Backstage Magic ABD, I didn't know how useful it would be. Also, the day after I returned from the BSM, I went on a family trip to Europe to Prague and other places. So, I didn't quite have the time to post one.

Cousin Orville said:

For posting purposes, I had to upload the photos to flickr first then place the link here. Not too bad.

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I've done the same thing with Photobucket before. I was hoping for a different shortcut. Thanks for letting me know!

Great TR so far ... definitely now have ABD Australia on my radar for the future!

Day 4 - Cairns to Uluru

We woke up early in the morning to check out of our resort in Palm Cove and fly to the Ayers Rock. Uluru is now the preferred Aboriginal name. Uluru itself is within a park that is owned by the Aborigines. The Australian government gave it back to the local tribe with the agreement that people can still climb Uluru. The Aborigines feel it's disrespectful to climb it, but the government was ultimately concerned of a drop in tourism to Australia. Anyway, this was years ago. There is a path that one can take to climb it, but it sounds like most travelers choose not to.

Uluru was certainly a highlight and one of the major attractors to coming to Australia. It was awesome. Sadly it was overcast that day and night so there was no beautiful starry sky. Of course it was forecasted to be clear the entire week after we've left. Just bad luck. I'm sure we'll plan to return to Uluru one day. Hopefully, then we'll have better luck.

It was still a wonderful day and felt very special to see such an iconic landmark. Is it a natural wonder of the world? Probably. It was amazing.

So let's see. What wasn't so amazing? The hotel for one. We stayed at the Desert Gardens Inn. It's apart of a larger complex that has another (possibly) nicer hotel and a camping site. I had been warned by others that took this trip that the hotel is a bit of a disappointment. To be fair there's only this hotel and the Sails of the Desert Hotel which appears to be better. So there's not many options to say the least. Another thing to keep in mind is it's only for one night. Having said that, the hotel is not good - definitely far below any hotel on any Disney property. Now, maybe the Sails in the Desert isn't much better. I wouldn't know. It get's higher reviews. It's about $130 more expensive a night according to tripadvisor. Even our bus driver said it was a 3 1/2 star hotel (suggesting that it was the top hotel here). We had plumbing issues with our room. Another family (with 2 rooms) had one room that had a powerful oder, so they all slept in the other room. Except they found bed bugs in one of the beds. It could happen in a 4 star resort, so it might not be fair to completely blame the hotel. Are these widespread problems? Who knows? I can say this - there was a perception by some of the guests that the other hotel might have been better. Many of the families taking this trip have traveled with Abercrombie & Kent before, and Abercrombie stays at the Sails. I don't know if ABD see's itself at the same level as A&K, but if they are trying to be competitive here, they need to change hotels. On that same topic, I've asked several of the guests who have done both ABD and A&K which they prefer, and I'm usually given mixed answers (not a resounding "ABD!"). Usually, it boils down to the guides are amazing with ABD, but the hotels/food are better with Abercrombie & Kent. I don't know if other guests give ABD that feedback, so I'll put it here FWIW.

The dinner. Not great either. I won't blast it as I did the Xi'an lunch last year (that has since been changed). I didn't think it was all that bad, but it was a slow and some guests were getting frustrated. I thought my steak was ok, others felt their fish was overcooked. I'd just give it a "meh". Not amazing.

Sounds like a negative day, so I'll again stress it was awesome. Seeing Uluru was incredible. Our local guide was great. There's nothing that can be done about an overcast sky. The guides were absolutely awesome as well - ABD's ace the hole as far as I'm concerned. But one day I'd like to do this adventure again with my wife and younger kids. IF there are better options in Uluru as far as sleeping and dining - I hope ABD changes to them.

Day 4 - Cairns to Uluru





After seeing Uluru (Ayers Rock) from a distance we took a couple of hikes around it.







I haven’t had a chance to post a picture of our guides. Here’s 1/2 of the team - Suzanne. She and Amber are amazing guides.



We came across a pool of water in Uluru - apparently very rare.






Despite it being (mostly) one big rock, there’s so much variety.



After coming back to the resort and having lunch. Gavin and I took a walk around the area. There’s a pathway that leads you from the hotel to a lookout point to get a nice view of Uluru. On the way up, Gavin stopped to make some sand art.

Cousin Orivlle, I had the exact same feeling about the Desert Garden. I included my feedback (on the hotel) on the survey ABD sent me when we returned. Something along the lines of "the hotel in Uluru must be changed on this trip". It is definitely one of the worst hotels I have stayed in. We had no idea there was central heat in the room (it certainly wasn't apparent where it was), so I froze most of the night. When I was taking a shower in the morning there were bugs crawling up the wall between the tiles. Dd had to shower with her eyes closed and her flip flops on. However I wouldn't let this one hotel stop me from taking the Australia ABD. It is the only blip on the entire on an otherwise stellar trip.

I am *loving* your trip report so far.