You cannot, I believe have a better holiday than cruising around on a cruise ship, no matter where you go.
I was lucky enough to do a 7 night Captain Cook Cruise on the "Reef Endeavour" departing Cairns and cruising around surrounding islands, it was an amazing experience and extremely relaxing. On the cruise you could do as little or as much as you wanted.
As we cruised “The Great Barrier Reef” one of Australia’s most natural and precious gifts, I was mesmerised at the actual beauty of it all especially when I snorkelled the outer Ribbon and Hedley Reefs. I saw the most amazing "creatures of the Sea” and colourful corals... we even found Nemo.....
We cruised through the Hinchinbrook Channels where we saw the Dugongs and Dolphins play, completely surreal. We saw the Giant Clam Gardens of Lizard Island and visited Dunk and Fitzroy Island where I relaxed, snorkelled and enjoyed a cocktail by the poolside bar.
The cruise itself was amazing, the accommodation faultless, with three meals a day, a swimming pool, library, bar and cocktail bar, if you didn’t want to leave the vessel who could blame you. The food was buffet breakfast and lunch, dinner was 5 star silver service and as a bit of fun they had an Island theme night on the last night. On one of the nights I was even invited to dine with the Captain for the Captains dinner.
One of the highlights as the vessel docked back into Cairns was visiting Australia’s work Heritage listed Rainforest. I glided over the gorgeous rainforest's canopys via the Skyrail. When we disembarked I was in this gorgeous town called Kuranda. Kuranda is a picturesque “Village of the Rainforest”; it’s quite touristy so it has lots of little craft stores and aboriginal artifacts.
After the cruise I visited Port Douglas,. It is only an hour’s drive north of Cairns, and was a great end to my stay in Far North Queensland, not to mention being able to get my land legs back. It was a real tropical Oasis and where two of our world heritage listed jewels meet, “The Great Barrier Reef" and the gorgeous “Daintree Forest”.
Whilst in Port Douglas I stayed at the Rydges Resort. The accommodation again was faultless with lovely rooms, a great swimming pool and spa, restaurants’ and bars. It was a little out of town (as most accommodation is in Port Douglas) so if you want to go into town buses are available.
During my stay at Port Douglas I did an amazing bus tour to Cape Tribulation, included was a Daintree River cruise looking for Crocodiles but unfortunately never seeing one and then travelling through the forest to Cape Tribulation. The scenery was beautiful though due to being summer time I was unable to go in the water because of the Blue Ringed Octopus. We were able to have a swim on the way back to Port Douglas in the freshwater of Emmagen Creek.
It was a wonderful holiday, very relaxing and I saw some wonderful things you could never see anywhere else in the world. Well worth the visit and I definitely would like to return one day.