GBR/Cairns: Looking at day trip or 2 day/1 night trip

[123kij]

I'm a new diver (fewer than 10 dives) and my wife just enjoys snorkeling/lounging on the boat. We have a couple days in Cairns/PD and were thinking of doing one of these options:

• Day trip from Port Douglas with either Poseidon or Calypso -Adventure Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef with Poseidon Cruises |or Port Douglas Dive Vessel - Dive Trips to the Outer Great Barrier Reef

These both appear to go to Agincourt Reef and the dives are guided for no extra charge.

• 3 Day Reef Dive And Daintree Rainforest with Reef Encounter

-3 Day Reef Dive and Daintree Rainforest

This looks like it goes to Hastings, Breaking Patches, Saxon, Norman or Jorgensen Reef.

I think if we had an extra day, we might consider one of the 3 day/2 night trips, but that may also get a bit boring for my wife. I understand that the longer trips get to see better parts of the Reef but oh well.

Thoughts on any of those options?

Thanks

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Have you looked at a 2 day 1 night option from Cairns? It gives a bit more value for money and may suit your wife as well. Once you consider land accommodation and food it works out cheaper than 2 day trips and you get more dives / snorkel sites in.

There are 2 options from Cairns Ocean Quest or Kangaroo Explorer (the budget option).

Both stay on the Reef and move around from site to site. You get 7 dives on OQ and 6 on KEX. Both have daily transfer vessel that takes you out and brings you home, so first 2 dives are off of the transfer vessels.

OQ is a bit more luxurious with a lot more lounge area and has different prices depending on what cabin type you want, and KEX has one price for all cabin types.

Dive sites suit all levels and although guides do cost extra you will be buddied you with other divers and there are always crew in the water to follow if you don't feel that confident.

 

[123kij]

Have you looked at a 2 day 1 night option from Cairns? It gives a bit more value for money and may suit your wife as well. Once you consider land accommodation and food it works out cheaper than 2 day trips and you get more dives / snorkel sites in.

There are 2 options from Cairns Ocean Quest or Kangaroo Explorer (the budget option).

Both stay on the Reef and move around from site to site. You get 7 dives on OQ and 6 on KEX. Both have daily transfer vessel that takes you out and brings you home, so first 2 dives are off of the transfer vessels.

OQ is a bit more luxurious with a lot more lounge area and has different prices depending on what cabin type you want, and KEX has one price for all cabin types.

Dive sites suit all levels and although guides do cost extra you will be buddied you with other divers and there are always crew in the water to follow if you don't feel that confident.

Yup, the Reef Encounter is the 2 day/1 night we're looking at from Cairns. Thoughts on that trip?

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Reef Encounter is a different operator. Kangaroo Explorer is Cairns Dive Centre and Ocean Quest is Deep Sea Divers Den. I linked to them both above so you could see the differences.

Reef Encounter is more comparable to Ocean Quest but bit more expensive. Kangaroo Explorer the cheapest but as I already said is a budget boat, so if not too worried about accommodation etc then good option. All sites about the same. OQ offers 7 dives over 2 days and 6 on Reef Encounter and KEX.

Personally for me I would go 1. OQ, 2. Reef Encounter, 3. Kangaroo Explorer, but thats just me.

 

[123kij]

Thanks, appreciate the info.

In your opinion, how much worse are the Hastins/Norman/etc. reefs that these boats go to vs the Agincourt that Poseidon goes to?

 

[Aquapro Dive Services]

Norman is great, Saxon not so good and Hastings also good depending on what sites on there you go. Agincourt is also a great reef, and superb for a day trip.

There are some links on the web site I linked to above that gives more detail on the actual dive sites themselves if that's any help.

Poseidon is also on there for the day trip out of Port if you want to check that out. Poseidon is great trip.

If you do want to do day trips out of Port Douglas, apart from Poseidon, you could look at something very different like Quicksilver. Its a big boat that takes lot of people out to a pontoon. Diving OK, but would give you wife things like semi submersible trips, glass bottom boats, and plenty of good snorkelling.

In Cairns I would look at Reef Magic for something similar as the Quicksilver pontoon, but on a much smaller scale.

Maybe PM me if you need more specifics so we don't tie up the thread.

 

[123kij]

Norman is great, Saxon not so good and Hastings also good depending on what sites on there you go. Agincourt is also a great reef, and superb for a day trip.

There are some links on the web site I linked to above that gives more detail on the actual dive sites themselves if that's any help.

Poseidon is also on there for the day trip out of Port if you want to check that out. Poseidon is great trip.

If you do want to do day trips out of Port Douglas, apart from Poseidon, you could look at something very different like Quicksilver. Its a big boat that takes lot of people out to a pontoon. Diving OK, but would give you wife things like semi submersible trips, glass bottom boats, and plenty of good snorkelling.

In Cairns I would look at Reef Magic for something similar as the Quicksilver pontoon, but on a much smaller scale.

Maybe PM me if you need more specifics so we don't tie up the thread.

Good deal, thanks again for the information

 

[Steyr]

As a fairly new diver I spent to nights on the Reef Encounter with my non-diving girlfriend and it was great! As far as liveaboards go the facilities were excellent. Private ensuite for each room; good food and plenty of it; friendly staff who were keen to be there.

Each site is good for both diving and snorkeling, so my girlfriend had plenty to do too. And with (I think) 6 water sessions per day but only allowed to dive on 4 of them, there were plenty of opportunities to go snorkeling with her.

Night dives; dawn dives; even kind of a gentle current drift dive (they took us out on the tender and we swam/drifted back along the reef to the mooring line).

Many of the other boats and operators might give you a similar experience, but I can recommend Reef Encounter as a good option for new divers.

Here is a video of some of my diving there.