Thousands of passengers queued for several hours in the heat and humidity as they waited to reboard Quantum of the Seas moored off Cairns.
Quantum of the Seas is too big to berth in Cairns, so an estimated 27 return trips would have been needed for the four catamarans to return them to the ship moored off Cairns.
Angry passengers took to social media including Cruise Passenger’s Facebook page asking why so few tenders were being used. Royal Caribbean said yesterday it was investigating the incident and would respond as soon as possible.
At a time when more large vessels are servicing a record cruise season, the incident points up the need for more investment in port infrastructure.
Ports North, which runs Cairns, told Cruise Passenger: “The Cairns Shipping Development project completed in 2020 deepened and widened the channel into Cairns to accommodate ships up to 300m. The Quantum of the Seas is 348m and therefore too long to enter the port of Cairns and utilise the Cruise Terminal facilities.
“Ports North are not involved in cruise ship tendering operations from anchor into Yorkeys Knob.”
How the story unfolded
Quantum of the Seas left Brisbane on November 4 via the Whitsundays and Airlie Beach before mooring off Cairns. Passengers said it took nearly two hours to exit the ship to board tenders for the half-hour trip to a bus. The buses then took them to Cairns for their shore excursion.
“Just been on the ship and the tenders were a problem,” one Cruise Passenger reader commented. “Over 4000 passengers and only 4 boats in use was not good. By the time we got our tender tickets and then waited and waited, it was almost 2 hours before we got off the ship. This needs to be improved or more tenders in the water.”
As another passenger posted: “4000 passengers, coaches hold 50 people, 2 buses for 100 people, 80 bus trips to carry 4000 passengers into Cairns. Catamarans hold 150 so just under 27 catamarans to shuttle everyone off the ship. Then this has to be done in reverse to get back to the ship. We’ve been queuing since 3.45 and it’s almost 6 pm now.”
It is believed the ship left after 7 pm, more than two hours after its scheduled departure.
Size matters
While big ships pose an economic boost for regional ports, the long wait poses the question of whether vessels the size of Quantum (348m long and a capacity of 4819 passengers) can manage smaller ports.
The popularity of destinations such as Sydney means the Overseas Passenger Terminal is hitting peak capacity. The search continues for other regional ports that may be able to provide ports of call, despite a reluctance by lines to use them over Sydney.
Disney Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages have had to look elsewhere. The new Disney Wonder and Resilient Lady will homeport in Melbourne.
The Port of Eden on the NSW Far South Coast can welcome larger ships such as Brilliance of the Seas (2150-2580 passengers) as it has a dock. But many other ships would struggle.
“The capacity of berths across Port Authority of NSW ports is different in every port as each has its own specifications,” a Port Authority of NSW spokesperson said. “Port Authority takes appropriate measures to ensure all visiting cruise ships can safely access the port and berth.”
Even the largest of ships, such as Icon of the Seas with 5610 to 7600 passengers, are now sticking to the northern hemisphere. There are bigger ports are better suited to the larger ships now being launched.
Lines liberated by private islands
Some solutions are being found in the private island resorts of the Caribbean and the Bahamas which have the space to accommodate ever-larger ships. But even some of these islands use tender vessels to get passengers to shore, and not disembark on docks.
Islands include: Virgin Voyage’s Castaway Cay; Half Moon Cay (tender) for Carnival Cruise Line and Holland America Line; Royal Caribbean’ s Perfect Day at CocoCay; Norwegian Cruise Line and Regent Seven Seas Cruises’ Great Stirrup Cay (tender), Princess Cays for Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line (tender); Labadee island in Haiti for Royal Caribbean and Azamara Club Cruises; Harvest Caye in Belize for Norwegian Cruise Line, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Oceania Cruises; Ocean Cay for MSC Cruises; and Virgin Voyages’ Beach Club at Bimini in the Bahamas.
And unlike the northern hemisphere, cruise lines that travel to the southern hemisphere have no private islands – all except one. Royal Caribbean operates “Perfect Day at Lelepa”, an island in the southwestern Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
You mention perfect day at Lelepa. That does not exist, it was announced prior to covid, but nothing has come of it.
Too many large capacity ships and all of the smaller ones disposed of. Also the large ships severely limit the ports available as a port with 1000 to 2000 inhabitants can’t be expected to accommodate a 4000+ influx for a few hours wh
ere they used to welcome the 600 to 1000 range ships.
I have never been on a huge ship, nor do l want to go. 2000 pax is enough for me. No long queues and no long wait times. Win, win
The logistics of the situation should be re-considered. To minimize the tender trip, the large cruise ship could be anchored near the closest marina. From there, buses could be utilized to transport the passengers to Cairns city center.
We also had this problem on the Royal Princess. Queueing for hours in the hot sun, Squashed in like sardines in small life boats, The heat was terrible. Both my husband and I plus our friends got COVID. Never again will I do a cruise with tenders. In fact not sure I will go on another cruise. We have two booked, but will cancel these. Very disappointing.
We had similar issues in Auckland with Ovation of the Seas.
Had to dock at the working main commercial Port as ship too big.
Only 12 buses arrived to take us through the port, each one escorted by a car. We gave up trying to get off boat as queues straddled 2 whole decks. A disaster. Only in port for 6 hours. We decided to give up and stay on board, but, so disappointed could not get off.
I am now not keen on these large ships at all now. Trip otherwise was fabulous.
The boats of this size don’t anchor of Cairns. The stop off York’s knob. Just to the north. It takes about 30 mins to get into the centre of Cairns from there. Add to this a 2hour wait to get ashore and not a lot of time in Cairns region.
I was one of the passengers on the Quantum of the Seas celebrating my 60th birthday with my husband and two adult children. Due to the fact that my birthday fell on the day we arrived into Cairns, we decided to head into the city to celebrate rather than staying on the ship. After lunch we queued for a bus/tender from 3pm and didn’t arrive back on the ship until 6.30pm. Not one single person from RC bothered to keep us informed about delays or check on us to see how we were managing. Instead we were left to queue for hours in the sun without shade or water. It is hard to believe that someone from their PR Department didn’t take control of the situation and at the very least provide us with water for the duration. I’m sure they have lost a lot of potential repeat guests. Very disappointing.
I’ve been on Rhapsody of the Seas and it was able to dock in Cairns and I’ve also been on Radiance of the Seas and it docked at Yorkeys Knob, I know it depends on the tide for docking in Cairns but Ovation and Quantum are too big and would never be able to dock in Cairns and the same for a lot of the ports and they also have double the passengers to be tendered to ports.
If you have mobility issues it can be hard to get on a tender if at all.
We decided to go on smaller ships after years on larger ships. Cruising on Azamara or Viking while more expensive it is more relaxing and far less crowded.
Forget the mega-cruise ships. Sail with lines who offer smaller guest numbers.
Cairns conga line in the sun,equalls heat stroke..a special kind of torture, that you cannot escape from…lol
Pacific Eden was a good fit,been twice to png out of Cairns,but
Still missed a island stop due to sea conditions.
Maybe we need scenic cruises, just drift off the ports and island’s!!!
I was onboard the ship during this cruise. The water was rough causing delays for people getting between the tender and the ship, the tenders were bounding around like crazy. There was a lot of tenders but they only have little amount of space to have them come along side the ship
The same thing happened to us in Cairns. We had a double cruise, one to New Guinea and the second one to Auckland. We had to disembark in Cairns and reembark which took quite a few hours. Never again for me. I have mobility problems and had to wait hours to reboard. Shocking.
This is not only a problem for larger ships. On world cruise with Coral Princess a number of ports where it took two – three hours of waiting to get off the ship and then the worry is queueing to get back on time and the stress for older people of waiting and queueing on their older bodies. I think cruising is going to have to think outside the box if they are going to maintain the high numbers of cruisers as many are now seeing these sorts of problems.
Why build such big ships. my experience suggest that 2000 passengers boats are far more suitable. why cruise on such big ships, all about cruise companies profits.
Surely the detailx are wronb — why would you anchor off Cairns then bus pax all the way to Airlie Beach. That trip requirex a plane, not a bus. And I doubt it’s possible as a return day trip on a bus. I know I wouldn’t like to do it.
Why would anyone be surprised. Just another example of our dreadfully inadequate infrastructure. What do you expect when the Government can find 450 million dollars for a waste of time Referendum but cannot afford to pay for infrastructure that will actually result in generating billions of dollars for the Australian economy.
I have cruised since 1968 and have done over 40 cruises from Sydney mostly to our close South Seas islands and I have always avoided cruises that have more tender ports than docking ports for the reasons highlighted in this report.
This was always going to be a problem at some point. 4,5,6 + thousand pax just dont make for a comfortable situation like what has happened in Cairns.
A couple of things can contribute;
– passengers leaving it to the last tender to reboard – cruise lines could schedule the reboarding to earlier in the afternoon – first off/first back
– the ship & jetty may only have limited access (depending how close the ship is to the jetty) and only be able to handle 4 at a time – one alongside the ship, one at the jetty and one coming & one going. All the tenders in the world would not make it any faster than they can be filled & unloaded.
Why bring those big ships, use the smaller ones more often. Not everyone likes the noise or the queues or kids,