Cairns Liveaboard - October

[doronhall]

Hi All,

I am planning a trip to Cairns in October and am planning a Coral Sea liveaboard.
I have read on several sites that there are always empty berths at greatly reduced standby rates as the market is fairly saturated.
Does anyone have any experience with that? Is October a busy period? Is there a chance I won't find anything? To book in advance costs a fortune (minimum $1200), and I can't afford that.
Thanks in advance.....

 

[likelite]

Sorry, nothing to report other than that I'm doing a liveaboard on the Coral Sea in October as well...will post here if I do see anything tho.

Ours was a package deal including airfare from Nashville and a few days in Sydney. I think the total was around $5K.

 

[UndrWatrDan]

Hi All,

I am planning a trip to Cairns in October and am planning a Coral Sea liveaboard.
I have read on several sites that there are always empty berths at greatly reduced standby rates as the market is fairly saturated.
Does anyone have any experience with that? Is October a busy period? Is there a chance I won't find anything? To book in advance costs a fortune (minimum $1200), and I can't afford that.
Thanks in advance.....

We went to Cairns in October of last year without a reservation on a liveaboard. We were lucky and the first call we made to Explorer Ventures and we were able to get aboard the Nimrod for a 7 day trip. It was a significant savings over the regular price. You do run a chance of there not being any spaces on the liveaboards, but substantial savings can be had, if you do your research before you leave, and be ready to spend some time on the phone and on your feet. You'll find lots of resellers on the streets. If you can find the direct number to the liveaboards, you'll have better luck and cheaper prices. October is the beginning of spring, we had beautiful weather, very little wind, water temps were in the mid 70's. It didn't rain on us the entire week.

 

[doronhall]

Does this all have to be done in Cairns pesonally, or can I at least contact for standbys and book on the phone/net?

 

[UndrWatrDan]

You can contact them directly before you go. We just elected to wait till we got there and see if we could get a better price.

 

[ozdive]

Hi All,

I am planning a trip to Cairns in October and am planning a Coral Sea liveaboard.
I have read on several sites that there are always empty berths at greatly reduced standby rates as the market is fairly saturated.
Does anyone have any experience with that? Is October a busy period? Is there a chance I won't find anything? To book in advance costs a fortune (minimum $1200), and I can't afford that.
Thanks in advance.....

Doronhall - I understand your situation on the costs, but Oct/Nov are PRIME dive seasons. I have a US Dive Wholesaler and we sell only Australia - I have many of the live aboard boats availibility sheets so I know what kind of space is still open for sale on a weekly basis. I can tell you that both Oct and Nov are nearly sold out for the better boats. I might say yes to a standby rate on an off season period, but not at this time or you will go all the way to Oz and be stuck on land. I guess the best way to go is look for a quad share cabin (usually 4 bunks) but this will be the least expensive way to get on one of the boats. On our top sellers to date, there are many dates chartered or sold out, so would ponder this too much longer.