Key takeaways
- Reef Experience is a purpose-built 24 metre catamaran with twin aluminium hulls, steadier in a swell than a single hull.
- A bacon and egg roll is cooked on board for breakfast, then a barbecue lunch of meat, vegetables and salads is served at the reef.
- A resident marine biologist gives a presentation on the way out to the reef, before the diving and snorkelling begins.
- Tea and coffee are available all day while the boat is not moving, and a glass of wine comes with cheese and crackers on the way home.
The boat: Reef Experience
Reef Experience is the catamaran used for these reef cruises from Cairns: a purpose-built vessel, 24 metres long, with twin aluminium hulls rather than a single one. A twin hull sits steadier in a swell than a single-hull boat, which is worth knowing if choppy water is what worries you most about a day on the reef.
The day runs as a full day out of Cairns, and it is one of the more involved great barrier reef cruise from cairns options because of how much happens between boarding and the return crossing. Boarding is directly at the vessel, and the catamaran works to a published itinerary: an hour and a half out, time moored at the reef for breakfast and lunch, and an hour and a half back. Two different reef sites are used across the day, chosen around the weather, so what a given departure sees can differ from the one before it.
Among cairns reef tours, this one is built around the boat itself as much as around the reef at the far end of it: how Reef Experience is constructed, how the day on it is timed, and what is served while it is moored.
Boarding at Cairns Marlin Marina
Board directly at the vessel at A Finger, Cairns Marlin Marina, rather than checking in at a separate desk first. Check-in is at 7:30 in the morning, and the boat departs at 8:00 sharp, which leaves a firm half hour between the two rather than a loose morning window to work with.
Dietary requirements are catered for if you tell the operator when you book, and the operator asks guests to call 24 hours before travel to reconfirm. Both are worth doing early, because the rest of the day, from the bacon and egg roll through to the wine on the way home, is built around food served at set points in the itinerary rather than on demand.
A bacon and egg roll, cooked on board, is served once the catamaran reaches the first reef site.
The marine biologist, on the way out
A resident marine biologist joins the crossing out to the reef and gives a presentation before the diving and snorkelling starts. It is one of the things that sets this trip apart from a straightforward reef transfer: a working scientist talking about the reef you are about to get into, rather than a recorded commentary.
The presentation happens on the way out, while the catamaran is making the run to the reef, so passengers hear about it before they are looking at it through a mask. The specifics of what is covered will vary by crossing and by the biologist rostered that day.
Breakfast once you reach the reef
Tea and coffee are available all day whenever the vessel is not moving, from the moment you board. Breakfast itself is a bacon and egg roll, cooked on board rather than pre-made and reheated, and it is served once the catamaran reaches the reef and moors up.
This is the first proper stop of the day: the crossing out is behind you, the boat is no longer underway, and breakfast and a hot drink come before anything is asked of you in the water.
24 metres
Reef Experience is a purpose-built catamaran with twin aluminium hulls, steadier in a swell than a single hull.
Diving and snorkelling from the boat
One scuba dive is included in the day: either a certified dive if you already hold a qualification, or a 20 minute introductory dive if you do not. Certified divers need to show proof of certification; anyone doing the introductory dive must be at least 12, and under-16s need a parent or guardian with them.
Snorkelling is unlimited, including at the second reef site the catamaran visits during the day. Additional dives beyond the one included are extra, and certified divers dive without a guide. Camera hire is not offered, and cameras are not permitted on a first introductory dive, which is Queensland law rather than a rule set by the operator.
A 16 or 17 year old can dive with written parental consent and the right liability forms signed by a parent or guardian, and certain medical conditions and medications can rule someone out of diving altogether. It is worth checking these before booking rather than after boarding. This is the part of the day that makes it a diving cruise great barrier reef visitors book specifically for, rather than a scenic run past the reef without getting into the water.
Lunch at the reef
Lunch is a freshly prepared barbecue: meat and vegetables cooked on board, with salads alongside. It is served at the reef, over about an hour according to the published itinerary.
The lunch stop is where tea and coffee remain available too, since the boat is still moored rather than underway. Dietary requirements are catered for at every meal, provided you tell the operator when you book.
Among cairns barrier reef tours, this is one where lunch is a freshly prepared barbecue of meat and vegetables with salads, served at the reef itself rather than back at the marina.
Wine, cheese and crackers on the way home
The run back to Cairns Marlin Marina comes with a glass of wine, plus cheese and crackers. It is one glass, not a bar tab, and there is nothing beyond it in the way of alcoholic or soft drinks included in the day.
That one glass, alongside the tea and coffee served earlier while the boat was moored, is the full extent of what is included to drink over the course of the day. Anything beyond it is not part of the booking, which is worth knowing if you are weighing up cairns great barrier reef tours on what is included to drink rather than only on what is included to eat.
