Hotel w. airport shuttle in Sydney
 

My uncle and aunt are taking a cruise - they want to stay at least one night in Sydney at end of cruise.

Have you done this? What hotel did u stay at?

Thank you for your help.

I don't quite understand what you are asking. Do you mean they are arriving by ship, are looking for a hotel for one night before flying home? To my knowledge hotels don't have their own shuttles to the airport and the independent ones are generally not recommended. I suggest they either get a cab or maybe train if they are staying near Circular Quay. To get helpful suggestions on this forum could you advise what day they will be here and how much they are prepared to pay for a hotel room?

They are arriving by ship and staying one night in Sydney before flying home.
They will be there in November, staying overnight in Sydney on satuday then flying home Sunday around 3pm.
They are in their late 70's and active.
Thank you,

Have a look at www.wotif.com.au &
www.bookings.com

Most convenient will be CBD, around Circular Quay & The Rocks; perhaps Swissotel or The Grace, closer to the centre of the retail sector.

The quickest and cheapest way to get from Sydney CBD to the airport is by train (about $16 one way per person). There are two airport train stations - domestic and international. Trains run frequently and timetables/details are available online at http://www.airportlink.com.au/

But is the ship actually arriving at Circular Quay oe elsewhere? and , to make suggestions easier, it would help to know how much they are prepared to pay for the hotel room.

Yes, as Peteralan indicates not all ships dock at Circular Quay any more, some come into Rozelle Bay, which is a ten minute cab ride from the centre of the city.

Thank you, we are checking the port with him and will post tomorrow.

The boat is probably coming into Circular Quay. The cruise ships dock there all the time.

Even if it doesn't dock at Circular Quay, you'd probably want to stay not far from there anyway.

Yes, Lauren, you were right, but there is a new cruise ship port at Rozelle Bay. Something very large was docked there yesterday. It's about 10 minutes out of the city - and there's nothing at all there, apart from the terminal.

Oh boy the people docking at the new cruise terminal are going to be so disappointed and forced into cruise excursions rather than just walking off the boat and taking public transportation. At Circular Quay, they could just get off the boat, walk around the harbor and take the boat over to Taronga Zoo. I guess there are too many cruise ships. As is true with all cruise ships, the ones who don't want to pay the steep fees to be closer will be farther away.

Well, Lauren, I wouldn't think it's all that drastic for people docking at White Bay.

It's 6.6 kms to Circular Quay ( approx 10 mins in a cab)
4.9 kms (6 mins) to the QVB.

No, it's not quite as convenient as being able to stride down the gangplank and along Circular Quay - but it's hardly in the boondocks.

Whilst we're very happy for people to visit our beautiful city, we quite like to see the iconic Opera House & Bridge ourselves. No doubt those paying stratospheric property rentals & guest prices at hotels, apartments & restaurants around Circular Quay would, too.

A gigantic floating block of flats does nothing to enhance the view from the MCA, Quay, any of the other restaurants in the vicinity!

Today the Ocean Princess is the 3rd ship in Circular Quay in as many days.

We have one day of respite and then another two days of boats blocking views.

A glance at the Sydney Ports website
shows 11 dockings at Circular Quay & 8 at White Bay in March, 2014.
http://www.sydneyports.com.au/port_o...ruise_schedule

So, as far as I'm concerned, a visitor spending 10 mins in a cab to get to Circular Quay or fewer to the centre of the CBD once or twice in a lifetime is far less inconvenience than the locals and visitors put up with far more often, without any reward at all.

OP - you may wish to check the link I posted to find where your family/friend's ship berths.

I must agree about the ships blocking the view.

I lunched at Doyles at the Quay on Sunday. Lovely view of loading food and luggage into the hold of the Oosterdam!

Probably not the iconic Sydney view preferred - but we did know the ship would be there.

Well, I thought the ships were part of the view at Circular Quay when I was there. Certainly Circular Quay is better from the point of view of those on the ships who have limited time in port. Remember they might not have Australian cash and that could create a hassle going back and forth in taxis. They will all sort of be forced on the overpriced cruise excursions because the will be confused and have limited time to sort everything out.

I did not consider the cruise ships as marring the view, but I did not stay in any of the expensive hotels either. I was, of course, in a home exchange home (in the Newtown area). I was there for almost a month, so I did master public transport. That is not possible for people staying on a cruise ship for 1-2 days with no public transport access.

Right. I see. Insurmountable hardship.

There is an ATM within the White Bay terminal building.

I understand from Sydney Ports there is a bus stop on Victoria Road. Approximately 1.5kms from the terminal.

There is a taxi rank at the terminal.

Lauren, I understand that as someone who visits occasionally, stays in Newtown & doesn't use the restaurants or accommodations around Circular Quay, cruise ships constantly in prime position in the Harbour would not concern you or distract from your enjoyment of the area.

Were you a local or someone patronising or running one of those establishments, you may feel differently.

Well just my opinion. Definitely will make it more difficult for cruise ship passengers though. Sydney has to decide how welcoming it wants to be to cruise ships and the proper balance between visitors and the locals. I was last in Australia November 2012-January 2013. I spent plenty of time in Sydney Harbor and did not even realize there was a problem.

Everyone everywhere wants the business that comes from tourists and then complains about the disruption they cause. Certainly, it is the same deal in Washington, DC, where I live.

In my view, if you can't deal with tourist disruption anywhere, don't live there. Move somewhere else.

It's not about how welcoming we want to be - it's more about how many ships there are. They have to go somewhere. Those prepared to pay get Circular Quay. The others get somewhere else.

I can tell you they loaded a lot of fruit and vegetables and chickens into the hold of the Oosterdam. That was my entire view.

So the bottom line is there will still be fruits and veggies loaded at Circular Quay but only for ships that pay a premium for the privilege, so your view will still be blocked. Have I got that correctly?

Throw my two cents in.... Agree that the cruise ships at Circular Quay are so huge that that they do block the iconic views of Sydney Harbour. I think they should cap the size of ships which dock there. That would be better for both tourists and locals, both of whom want to see more than what, I agree, looks like a large block of apartments.

Ok Lauren, let's say you have bought a house on a beautiful bay & there's a scenic road in front of it which leads to a carpark beyond your house.

Huge double decker tourist buses come & park right in front of your house. The tourists disembark to see the sights of your town, but the bus stays there. You can't see most of the bay - only the buses. The tourists only return to the buses to sleep and then depart in 1 or 2 days. And then another bus arrives & the same thing happens.

The tourists on the buses would still have the scenic entry and drive around the bay if the buses parked in the carpark beyond your house. It would only cost the tourists, who have paid thousands for their bus trip, $10 -$15 to go from the carpark to the city.

Yet the buses stand empty in front of your house all day.

How would you feel about that?

And the tourists complain because they can't see the beautiful buildings for which the Bay is famous once they leave the buses. They have bookings at top flight restaurants, part of whose charm is the view of the Bay's iconic buildings. But they can't see anything because their buses are parked in front of the view.

Had their bus parked in the carpark, they'd have paid $10-$15 to come into the city and everyone, including you, would be able to enjoy the beautiful Bay to its full extent.

Look all cities with mega amounts of tourists have the same problems and most deal with them poorly. I live in Washington DC. They provide almost no parking for tour buses and then complain that they constantly circulate spewing fumes. When parking is provided it is at an exorbitant price.

New York City has similar problems.

Again, if you live in a city as a resident that is a tourist magnet, you have these problems. Maybe you could get Sydney to build a bus garage that didn't charge exorbitant prices. If the price is too high, the buses simply won't use the garages. It is exactly what happens in Washington, DC--and it is stupid. As a resident I cannot solve the problems of too many tour buses (much worse than Sydney, by the way) but I can be helpful to tourists when then ask for directions and live with it without a lot of complaining.

I don't know. I did plenty of walking around Circular Quay and ate in a lot of restaurants when I was there. I visited many viewpoints around the Harbor and had no problem seeing anything. I sort of liked the large cruise ships as part of the scenery. As a tourist, I had no complaints about the cruise ships at all. I did eat at some of the top flight restaurants (but only a couple--including the one on the island in the middle of Sydney Harbor).

If you buy a house on the Harbor, you know what is there before you buy.

And that is my view.

For the record, this thread was originally about cruise ships docking in Sydney Harbor. It has veered off into tour bus complaints. Take it up with your local government. The solution is free parking for tour buses at locations so convenient that they will use them. Everyone loves the money tourists bring in everywhere and everywhere you hear the same complaints about tour buses. I have guide licenses in both DC & NYC and have heard it all. It's all the same.

I was using the tour bus & your bayside house as an allegory.

I thought you may then be able to see both points of view.

Clearly I was wrong.

I don't live in Sydney but I have visited twice from the US. No, I don't see the anti tourist point of view. It's like buying a house next to a baseball stadium and then complaining about traffic and noise. You know what is there when you buy.

No one is expressing an anti-tourist viewpoint.

Having SOME cruise ships motor down the Harbour, past the Opera House, under the Harbour Bridge to a berth a $10-$15 can ride from Circular Quay is neither a hardship nor anti-tourist.

Stating the FACT that the views from west Circular Quay are obscured by large cruise ships is not anti-tourist.

The fact that you have not eaten at any of the restaurants whose views are blocked does not mean some of the passengers on those ships do not wish to do so.

Any one of those cruise passengers booking at Quay, the MCA cafe, Doyle's or any of the other restaurants because they wanted the total experience, including the views normally available, will be very disappointed.

Wishing to have the views open for EVERYONE, including all the tourists who are NOT part of the small % who arrive by cruise ship, those who do and the locals is not anti -tourist.

I understand that you are unable to grasp that.

However, it's a somewhat moot point: 1. some cruise ships are too big to fit under the Harbour Bridge and will continue to berth at Circular Quay.

2. White Bay Cruise Terminal will continue to host other cruise ships.

BTW, given that Fort Dennison is east of the Opera House & has a direct line of sight to it and the Harbour Bridge, it is hardly surprising that your view was not obscured by a ship berthed in the curve of west Circular Quay.