Six nights round trip from Brisbane aboard Carnival Encounter, calling at Willis Island, Cairns and Airlie Beach. Two days at sea.
Every time on this page is ship’s time. It is set by the captain and does not always match the local clock — or your phone.
Three ports, and two days at sea. You end where you started.
Brisbane is where you board and where you return. The line on the map is indicative; the course a ship actually steers is set on the day for weather and traffic.
Times are the ship’s scheduled arrival and departure and can move for weather or port traffic. All-aboard is normally 30 minutes before sailing.
The Brisbane International Cruise Terminal is at Luggage Point in Pinkenba near the river mouth, roughly 25 to 30 minutes' drive from the city centre. She sails at three in the afternoon, so the first evening is aboard. There is no public transport to the terminal, so a taxi, a rideshare or a booked transfer is the only way in and out.
The first of two days at sea. She is running for Willis Island. Everything on board is open and the day is yours to spend on it.
This is scenic cruising, not a port call. Willis Island is a low sand cay a few hundred metres long, far out in the Coral Sea, with an Australian weather station on it and nobody else. The ship slows and turns while a commentary runs, and what you actually see is a strip of sand, some buildings and a great many seabirds. Treat it as a sea day with something on the horizon and plan the day aboard accordingly. Scenic sail-by, NOT a port call. Carnival prints it as 'Willis Island (Onboard Experience)'; nobody goes ashore.
Two days compete here. The reef is the obvious one, out by catamaran to a pontoon or a dive site on the outer reef, and it takes most of the day. The other is Kuranda in the rainforest above the city, reached by cable car over the canopy one way and the old scenic railway the other. In town, the Esplanade lagoon is a free saltwater pool because the sea here is not for casual swimming. Cairns has a wharf terminal minutes from the city centre, but ships too large for the channel anchor off Yorkeys Knob and tender, which lands you a 15-minute drive north of town. Whether you walk off in town or tender to Yorkeys Knob depends on your ship's size, and it adds a transfer at each end of the day.
Airlie is the mainland doorstep to the Whitsundays and the day is normally spent on the water. Whitehaven Beach and the sand-and-tide pattern at Hill Inlet are the picture everyone has seen; snorkelling trips run to the fringing reefs, and light aircraft and helicopters go up over the islands and the reef. In town there is a swimming lagoon, a boardwalk and a row of cafes, which is a fair fallback and not much more. The ship anchors in Pioneer Bay and tenders to Port of Airlie, which is a short walk from the main street. It is a tender port and everything worth doing is weather- dependent, so a windy day can cancel the boats and the flights together.
The second of two days at sea. She is running for Brisbane. Everything on board is open and the day is yours to spend on it.
The cruise ends here and you disembark in the morning. The Brisbane International Cruise Terminal is at Luggage Point in Pinkenba near the river mouth, roughly 25 to 30 minutes' drive from the city centre. There is no public transport to the terminal, so a taxi, a rideshare or a booked transfer is the only way in and out.
Seven grades on this ship. The gap between the cheapest and the dearest is wider than most people expect, and so is the difference in what you get.
No window and the cheapest grade on the ship. Around fifteen square metres, dark with the lights off. On the short Queensland and South Pacific runs this ship sails, where you are ashore or on deck most of the day, it is a reasonable trade; on a longer reef or Vanuatu itinerary with sea days it starts to tell.
An interior-sized cabin low in the ship with a genuine porthole in the hull. Cheaper than a proper ocean-view cabin and it does give you daylight and a sense of the sea state. The window is small, it is very low down, and the position near the waterline is the noisiest part of the ship in a swell.
A sealed picture window, mostly on the lower decks. The cheapest grade with a real horizon, which is the thing that helps if anyone in the party is prone to seasickness. A number of categories here are sold as obstructed because a lifeboat sits in front of them, so the specific cabin matters more than the grade.
Private outdoor space, and on a South Pacific itinerary the upgrade most people are pleased they paid for - the ship spends long warm days at sea between islands. This is a 2002 hull, so the balconies are smaller than on a new ship, and the lower ones are overlooked from the decks above.
The same cabin with a much deeper balcony facing directly astern, over the wake. The best outdoor space on the ship short of a suite, and there are not many. The trade is real: aft cabins sit above the engines and the propellers, so they generally carry more vibration than anywhere else on board.
A larger cabin with a sitting area, a bath and a bigger balcony. It is a big room rather than an entry into anything - it does not admit you to the Byron Beach Club or to the suite services that come with it, which is the distinction most people assume the word suite covers.
Five grades, from a vista suite up to the presidential, and what they share is the Byron Beach Club: a gated deck area with its own pool and bar, kept over from the ship's P&O Australia years. The club is the point of the tier. Suites are also charged the higher daily gratuity rate.
Midship and low is the calmest ride. A ship pitches around its middle and rolls around its centreline, so the middle of the ship low down moves least. Forward and high is the worst combination.
A “guarantee” fare is a category, not a room. It saves real money and the line assigns your actual cabin whenever it likes — sometimes days before departure, sometimes with an obstructed view. Fine for a couple who do not mind. A poor choice if you are travelling with children, need a specific location, or are prone to seasickness. On some lines a family of four booked this way can be split across two cabins.
The fare you compare online rarely covers everything. Tick anything you want priced with the cruise — bought with the booking it is usually cheaper than on board, and you know the total before you go.
Australia. Cambodian passport: Visitor visa (subclass 600), Tourist stream, applied for from outside Australia. Not eligible for the ETA (subclass 601), whose eligible passports are Brunei, Canada, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States; not eligible for eVisitor (subclass 651), which is for European passports. Home Affairs states the subclass 600 Tourist stream covers going on a cruise. Australian passport: Australian citizens have a right of entry to Australia and hold no visa. Home Affairs states that Australian citizens are ineligible to apply for an ETA and directs them to Entering Australia instead.
We have not yet confirmed the position for Australia (Coral Sea Islands) from an official source, and will do that for you before you commit.
Checked 2026-08-12. Immigration rules move, so we re-check yours when you book — and we arrange the visas ourselves.
The fares above include taxes, fees and port expenses. The line charges an automatic daily gratuity to your onboard account, and drinks, specialty dining and shore excursions are extra. We set the whole total out for you before you pay a deposit.
Many standard travel policies exclude medical treatment beyond a set distance from land — which is exactly where you are on a sea day — and cap or exclude evacuation from a vessel. Helicopter evacuation from a ship runs into six figures.
Buy a policy with explicit cruise cover, and buy it on the day you pay the deposit, not before you fly. Cancellation cover only works if the policy is already in force when the thing that cancels your trip happens — and cancellation penalties on a cruise typically begin months before departure, not days.
Check the evacuation limit as a number. “Unlimited medical” does not always mean unlimited evacuation.
Seasickness is a smaller problem than most people expect — about one in ten visits to a ship’s medical centre. Slips and falls, and ordinary coughs and colds, are both more common.
If you are susceptible: take something before you sail rather than after symptoms start, pick a cabin midship and low, and get where you can see the horizon. This route is sheltered by comparison with open ocean, and a ship this size moves very little.
The medical centre is an urgent-care clinic, not a hospital, and it is not free — consultations and medicines are charged. Bring your own of anything you take regularly.
Tell us how many of you there are. We will come back with the cabin grades, the total including gratuities, and what the flights and any visas will take — before you commit to anything.
Enquire about this sailing→Tell us who is travelling and we will come back with the cabin grades in US dollars, the total including gratuities, and what the visas will take — before you commit to anything.
If you do not hear from us, email info@dltravel.net and we will pick it up.