Seven nights round trip from Brisbane aboard Quantum of the Seas, calling at Airlie Beach, Cairns and Willis Island. Three 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 three 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 four in the afternoon, so the first evening is aboard. Embark Brisbane.
The first of three days at sea. She is running for Airlie Beach. Everything on board is open and the day is yours to spend on it.
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. Airlie Beach, gateway to the Whitsundays. Tender port.
The second of three days at sea. She is running for Cairns. Everything on board is open and the day is yours to spend on it.
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. Cairns. Royal Caribbean berths this ship at Yorkeys Knob, about 15 km north of the city centre, not at the Cairns cruise terminal.
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. The ship cruises past rather than calling. Willis Island is a vegetated coral cay in the Coral Sea about 450 km east of Cairns, with a weather station on it. The ship cruises past for roughly an hour and nobody goes ashore. Royal Caribbean lists it as 'Willis Island (Cruising)'. Not a sea day.
The third of three 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. Disembark Brisbane.
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.
Built for one and sold without the single supplement that normally makes a solo booking cost close to two fares. There are twenty of them, each with a virtual balcony rather than a window, at about ten square metres - genuinely small. They go early, and not one of them will take a second guest at any price.
An interior cabin with a floor-to-ceiling screen carrying a live feed from a camera on the bow or the side. It gives you the time of day and the weather without paying for glass, and it suits anyone who dislikes waking with no idea whether it is morning. It is a screen, not a view, and most people switch it off at night.
A sealed window, usually round, generally on a lower deck. The cheapest way to have real daylight and a horizon, which is worth more than it sounds if anyone in the party is prone to seasickness. There are only about a hundred and fifty on this ship against fourteen hundred balconies, so the choice of position is narrow.
The same single-occupancy deal with daylight and a real balcony, which is unusual - ships that sell solo cabins usually sell them windowless. There are eight. It suits someone travelling alone who wants outdoor space and will not pay a double fare for it, and it is still small and still strictly one person.
Royal Caribbean's full name for a standard balcony, and by a wide margin the most common cabin on board. Private outdoor space, and the upgrade most people are glad of on any sailing with sea days. Less compelling on an itinerary that puts you ashore every day, when you may use it twice.
More floor area, a proper sitting area, a bath as well as a shower and a larger balcony. The thing to know is that it sits outside Royal Suite Class, so it buys the space and almost none of the privileges - no private restaurant, no suite lounge, no concierge. Judge it as a large balcony cabin, not as a suite.
Tiered as Sea, Sky and Star, and what separates them is access rather than floor area: a private restaurant, a suite lounge, a concierge, priority boarding and tendering, with Star adding a dedicated attendant. Sizes run from a one-bedroom Grand Suite to a two-storey loft. Suites carry a higher daily gratuity, which is easy to miss when comparing.
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.