Anthem of the Seas - Queensland & Great Barrier Reef

Where this cruise calls, day by day

5 ports and 4 sea days over 8 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Sydney

   AustraliaDepart

   Two terminals, and which one you get changes the day completely. The Overseas Passenger Terminal sits on Circular Quay east of the Harbour Bridge, with no air-draft limit and the Opera House directly opposite the gangway. White Bay, out at Rozelle, only takes ships that fit under the bridge, and it has no train, no ferry and no bus at the gate. Berths are assigned by availability, so nobody can promise you one.

   • Sydney Opera House backstage or architectural tour
   • The Bondi to Coogee clifftop walk, or just the Bondi Beach bus
   • BridgeClimb over the Sydney Harbour Bridge
   • Ferry across to Manly or Taronga Zoo for the harbour view back

   Getting ashore

   Docked either at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, five minutes' walk from Circular Quay's trains and ferries, or at White Bay about 6km out, which is taxi or rideshare only - 15-25 minutes to the CBD.

   Best months

   Oct-Apr (southern spring to autumn)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3 · At sea

4. Day 4 · At sea

5. Day 5

   Willis Island (Scenic Cruising)

   AustraliaPort

   Willis Island is a coral cay about 450km east of Cairns, roughly 500 metres long and nine metres high, and the only permanently inhabited scrap of the Coral Sea Islands Territory. Four Bureau of Meteorology observers live there on six-month rotations, running the cyclone warning station established in 1921. Nobody goes ashore. The ship slows, everyone photographs a sandbar with an aerial mast on it, and that is the whole call - bring a zoom lens.

   • Watching the cay and its 1921 weather station pass from the open decks
   • Wedge-tailed shearwater and sooty tern colonies, which are large
   • The AMSA navigation light on the cay
   • Naturalist or destination-lecturer commentary on the station's cyclone role

   Getting ashore

   No landing at all - landings are prohibited and the call is scenic cruising only, weather permitting.

   Best months

   May-Oct (outside the Coral Sea cyclone season)

6. Day 6

   Cairns (Yorkeys Knob)

   AustraliaPort

   Yorkeys Knob is not a town so much as an anchorage. Cairns dredged its channel in 2020 and now berths ships up to about 300m right in the city, so anything bigger anchors off here instead, roughly 15km north, and tenders to a small boat harbour from which coaches do the rest. It adds a solid chunk of transfer to a day that is really about the reef and the rainforest behind the coast.

   • Outer reef pontoon day - snorkelling or an intro dive on the Great Barrier Reef
   • Kuranda by Skyrail Rainforest Cableway one way and the Scenic Railway the other
   • Daintree Rainforest and Mossman Gorge
   • Cairns Esplanade lagoon, since the sea here is not for casual swimming

   Getting ashore

   Anchored off Yorkeys Knob with a tender to the boat harbour, then 20-25 minutes by coach into Cairns; there is very little at the landing itself, so check whether your ship berths in the city instead.

   Best months

   May-Oct (dry season; the wet and stinger season runs Nov-Apr)

7. Day 7

   Airlie Beach

   AustraliaPort

   Airlie Beach is the mainland launch point for the Whitsundays and is small - one main street of tour desks, bars and backpackers, plus a public lagoon because of the stingers. Ships anchor in the bay and tender to the Port of Airlie marina. Nobody comes here for the town; the day is about getting out to the islands and the reef.

   • Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, silica sand that squeaks
   • Hill Inlet lookout at Tongue Point for the swirling sandbank view
   • Great Barrier Reef snorkel trip out to Hardy or Bait Reef
   • Airlie Beach Lagoon, the safe stinger-free swim in town

   Getting ashore

   Tender to Port of Airlie; the main street is a flat 10-minute walk from the landing, and reef operators often collect passengers from the ship's side rather than from shore, which is the quickest way out to the Whitsundays.

   Best months

   May-Oct (dry season)

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9

   Sydney

   AustraliaArrive

   Two terminals, and which one you get changes the day completely. The Overseas Passenger Terminal sits on Circular Quay east of the Harbour Bridge, with no air-draft limit and the Opera House directly opposite the gangway. White Bay, out at Rozelle, only takes ships that fit under the bridge, and it has no train, no ferry and no bus at the gate. Berths are assigned by availability, so nobody can promise you one.

   • Sydney Opera House backstage or architectural tour
   • The Bondi to Coogee clifftop walk, or just the Bondi Beach bus
   • BridgeClimb over the Sydney Harbour Bridge
   • Ferry across to Manly or Taronga Zoo for the harbour view back

   Getting ashore

   Docked either at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, five minutes' walk from Circular Quay's trains and ferries, or at White Bay about 6km out, which is taxi or rideshare only - 15-25 minutes to the CBD.

   Best months

   Oct-Apr (southern spring to autumn)