Travel Review: Australia Vacation & New Zealand Cruise, Port Douglas, Sydney, Alice Springs, Great Barrier Reef Cruise, Uluru

Our trip was wonderful!  Our intent was to see inland Australia and then to cruise around new Zealand.  We booked the Australia through this company but the cruise online through another cruise company.

Our agent did a great job of interpreting what we wanted and planning accordingly.  The Great Barrier Reef trip was a disappointment because we didn't intend to snorkel and upon arrival at the island, there was nothing else to do but wait for the snorkelers.  The "glass bottom boat" showed little of the coral, if there was any at that location.  Other than a lovely sail to the island and back, it was wasted time for us.

I had contacted our agent about our need for visas on the New Zealand cruise which I was told could be obtained by a travel agent at no expense.  She didn't respond to our inquiry and we wound up spending $100 on visas that we didn't need to.  Her response was slow in many cases to our requests.  We obtained travel insurance through her and two days before the trip we still had not received any confirmation of the insurance.  She said she had sent an email earlier, but we never received it.  She did quickly get the information to us when we told her we had heard nothing confirming the insurance.

Our lodging in Port Douglas was fine but the office was only open when we were gone so we never got the benefit of info/local coupons they might have provided.