MS Caledonian Sky Reviews

This was an amazing 28 day adventure that included 10 days on an exploration ship and 17 days on discovering the region on land. Our guides on the land were Kylie and Dean, and were fantastic! They had in depth knowledge of the area and taught us about the aboriginal people and the plants and animals. Dean was an expert driver over rough dirt roads, read more and Kylie was a gem for taking care of all the needs of the group. I would highly recommend the trip, especially with our guides.

Great ten day cruise and good value for money but disappointing regarding the final onboard payment. I could have paid cash in $AUD but, by mutual agreement with the ship, I paid using my Commonwealth Bank Mastercard credit card expecting to be debited just the ship account balance (in this case $AUD 1,819.00).

I now find on my Mastercard account read more that I have been charged an international transaction fee of $AUD 54.70 for this payment. I don't like surprises and query strongly why this credit card transaction was debited to a German bank account and not direct to my Commonwealth Bank MasterCard account.

Our 20 day Essence of the Kimberley with Grand Kimberley Coast tour was fabulous. However, we also had several events that happened to make it a little unsettling. First of all, our luggage did not arrive when we reached Broome on a Saturday, and there was no flight from Brisbane-Sydney to Broome until Tuesday - another 3 days! No one at the Broome read more airport to help either. Eventually we got a form to fill out and was told to wait until Qantas contacted us. We went to our hotel (Oaks Cable Beach - not the hotel that the tour was leaving from), spent the night there, then checked out and went to Cable Beach Club Resort where the tour would be leaving from the next morning.

Spoke to Mas from APT on Sunday, who tried her best to see where our luggage might be or when it might arrive. Our tour was leaving 7.00am on Monday morning! We had one change of clothes and minimal toiletries. APT suggested we purchase extra clothing and essentials and that they would get our luggage out to us as soon as possible. But they wanted us to join the tour. On a Sunday afternoon around 4.00pm, we managed to find a store open, KMart, bought a large bag and about $300 worth of basic essentials to start the trip. It is June and weather is cold at night and warm in the day. After returning to our hotel, later that evening, our luggage arrived! Thank goodness! But it was after we'd purchased extra goods.

So we were ready to start our 20 day Kimberley Tour. We're thankful that APT were as helpful as possible under the circumstances. It was disappointing that there wasn't a welcome dinner on the first night so we could've met the driver and other passengers. 7.00am Monday morning we start off on our tour. A full bus of 22 passengers. (We thought the maximum number of passengers was 20!) The air-conditioning wasn't working well, so Richard the Driver, Tour Leader, dropped all of us off in Broome town for an hour while he got the bus looked at at the depot. We got a new bus with better air-conditioning. So off we set. All going really well and enjoying the trip. Day 7, on drive to Manning Creek, we got punctures - 2 flat tyres! Fortunately we were near a rest stop with toilets, so we had morning tea while the 2 tyres were being changed. Off we go! Further down the road, we got another puncture and flat tyre! No spare tyres now!! Richard phoned for help with his satellite phone, but we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the day, with little shade. We waited over 2 hours for help to arrive so we could continue on. But the air compression brakes weren't working properly, so it was a slow trip to Bell Gorge, and no activities that day.

Fortunately, Bell Gorge Wilderness Lodge is fantastic and so was the food. Excellent, after a difficult day. All praise goes to Richard, the driver, and one of our passengers who helped with the tyres and getting us on the road again. It was good to get back to Broome and Cable Beach Resort Club and be able to do some washing before starting on our cruise. It was disappointing that there wasn't a final dinner or gathering when we arrived in Broome. We'd been through a lot together and it would've been nice to have one last meal or drink together once we'd arrived in Broome. The things we saw and experienced on the land tour through the Kimberleys was fantastic and despite our flat tyres, it was a great trip. We highly commend Richard, our driver, for getting us through some difficult times.

6 couples from the land tour also went on the cruise. The entire cruise was great and enjoyed everything...food, service, guides, experiences. Amazing to see some of the natural wonders of the area. It was great to see the Kimberleys from both sides...land and sea. It was truly amazing. We'd highly recommend doing this trip and seeing the Kimberleys from both sides. Many people only do the cruise, or just the land tours, but they're missing out of half of the beauty it offers. APT were helpful with our luggage delay and we're thankful for that. Whether the bus could've been in better condition, I can't say. We found that just having one person to be driver, tour leader, and everything else is probably too big a job. All of us on our tour felt that there should be a driver and a tour leader. The roads are so bad in some areas, that to navigate the roads was difficult enough, without having to give information about the countryside, what bird it that, what vegetation is that, how old are these ranges, etc, etc, and then also set up our roadside lunches, make sure everyone has enough water and is safe on the walks, and some of the walks were difficult. Overall...it was a thoroughly enjoyable trip and well worth it. I booked through Global Journeys and are happy with their service. Thank you.

The Kimberley is an amazing part of Australian and well worth a visit. The land component saw some very long days travelling in the vehicle. The APT ‘glamour ‘ tents were great to stay in. The days are nice and warm but the nights can be very cold in winter. At times we were cold during the night and at dinner as all the dining areas were outside. The read more cruise was fantastic and enjoyed going out on the zodiacs at least once a day. Would highly recommend doing the land tour first then finishing with the cruise. This gives you time for a little bit of relaxation after a very busy land tour.

Ship accomodation, meals + beveridges excellent, crew & expedition team exceptional (APT charge a premium & always do it very well)! Itinerary good, visiting coral islands & cays in zodiacs. Great opportunity to see wildlife & visit places not seen... to enjoy a different expedition holiday experience.

I have to start by thanking Georgie from Global Journeys for her special effort with our late reservation. Am so glad she succeeded. We knew nothing of APT and have been in awe of their organisation of everything from transport, accommodation and the expedition experience. Service and food presentation on the ship was first rate. Safety -particularly read more with zodiac transfers and snorkelling- was of high order. Of course it goes without saying that seeing this part of the WA coast and its islands was very special.
Jan and I will travel again with APT if another chance like this appeals to us. Thanks everybody.

The cruise on the Caledonian Sky was once again a wonderful adventure. This was the fourth time we have travelled on this ship. Previously we had toured with Noble Caledonian tours and we can honestly say that the service from the expedition team and hotel staff was the same which was of high quality The highlight of the trip was Montgomery's reef. read more If you thinking of taking this trip it would be better at the end of the wet season as when we where there in September the waterfalls were dry but the landscape was beautiful. The knowledge of the expedition team was fantastic.

The only negative was that on arrival in Broome we had not been booked into the hotel that we originally booked and paid for due to confusion between Oaks and APT but the staff of Oaks Cable Beach were able to organise with Oaks Town for us to stay with them sat the Oaks Cable Beach Sanctuary. Thank you Rachael from Oaks Cable Beach.

We had a wonderful time on the Kimberley cruise. The Caledonian Sky was very comfortable, the meals and drinks were first rate and the crew were excellent, very attentive and always polite. Overall, we’d give it 10 out of 10.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Kimberley cruise. The crew were lovely, and efficient, and the expedition team were great… very knowledgeable and helpful. The cabin was spacious and comfortable. The food was great.. with lots of variety, but also not huge portion sizes ( which I appreciated ). We did have a few COVID cases on board… but the Captain was very read more good with keeping us informed on what was happening. A great and comfortable way to see the Kimberley coast.

Everything was superb bar one. The boat, the cabin, the hotel staff on the boat, the expedition team and the musicians were all wonderful. We had a totally enjoyable time. Fellow travellers were all very nice. Food and drinks were very good.
According to our personal itinerary we were supposed to go to Hilton Darwin at 3.30 pm May 6 2022 to be taken read more by bus at 3.45pm to the embarkation pier. But it was changed to 12.30 pm, No one informed us. No phones calls, no SMS, no email. Quite a few of our fellow passengers who stayed at Hilton Darwin also were not informed of the change. As our luck had it we went to Hilton Darwin on May 5 2022 just to check out the place and found out that departure was changed to 12.30pm. Even then we thought it was only for travellers staying in Hilton Darwin. In any case we went to Hilton Darwin at 12 noon to have lunch and only then did we realise that the 12.30 pm departure applied to everyone.

Travelled on APT Caledonian Sky 9 night cruise from Broome to Darwin late May 2022. We had the most wonderful time. The sights and experiences were unforgettable and we loved every moment of the cruise. Very professional, very organised, food above expectations. Cannot fault any aspect of this trip. Special thanks to Hannah at Global Journeys for read more her assistance over the past couple of years as we maneuvered our way through COVID and cancelled trips. Hannah was always timely in her responses and kept us informed of any new developments. Will certainly book through Hannah and Global Journeys for future trips.

We would book with Global Journeys again and this is our 3rd very happy trip with APT. Caledonian Sky was fabulous. Staff, food, music, rooms all first class. However, we wouldn't do a cruise again on this particular ship because of the zodiacs. They are difficult to sit on for any length of time and quite often you get very wet which is to be expected read more I suppose. On another APT cruise they used Explorers and we found them so much better. Overall tho, we really had a fabulous holiday.

The Kimberley is a once in a lifetime experience and one that all Australians should undertake. The landscape, coast, wildlife, Aboriginal art and culture are unique. The APT vessel, crew, expedition team and service were faultless. We have been on many trips, cruises and independent travel - this experience was the best we have ever experienced. We read more can recommend it without reservation.

Great trip well organised but I suggest people do the land trip first and followed by the cruise.The food, accomodation and itinerary for land and sea trips were first class.

Our first APT trip - and what a trip. Everything was wonderful - the experiences, the learning, the company, the food, the wine, the cabin, the entertainment and best of all - the amazing crew. We loved that there seemed to be genuine respect and appreciation between all staff (different to other big ship experiences). Despite having to answer the same read more questions and give out the same information hundreds (1000's?) of times, everyone acted as if it was the first - and with a big smile. The cabin attendants (hi Savio!) and catering and other hospitality staff always looked and sounded as if they were delighted to see you, the deck guys were amazing AND entertaining and the expedition team were just wonderful - enthusiastic, generous, knowledgeable and skilled. We were sad to arrive in Darwin at the end of the cruise. Thank you everyone.

The holiday was fine but in a few respects, lacked attention to detail. The least satisfactory component was the lack of coordination related to the travel plan and the pre and post activities. APT claimed that they provided detailed options to clients for both but none of this information made its way to us. APT staff said that if clients booked direct read more they got all details but clients who booked via second parties missed out because agents fail to pass on information. The truth might be different?

We thought the trip overall was excellent but multiple journey APT clients seemed to be grumbling that the execution of arrangements fell short of previous experiences. Some are hard to please!

One real deficiency is that there was no meet and greet activity on arrival in Tokyo. We arrived at the hotel and found one other couple wandering around. We didn't see an APT representative until next day.

On departure we were scheduled to leave the ship at 9 am but not fly out until 11.45pm. Last minute changes were made by APT, at additional cost, but we still reached the airport almost 8 hours before fly time and five hours before luggage could be handed over.

Once on the ship we were well catered for and most daily plans seemed appropriate. We saw rather too many temples and gardens. With a little thought the program could be enhanced. For example, the staple Japanese food is rice. It would be possible to visit a rice farm and hear about production, transport and marketing of this important crop. We just drove past farms like they didn't play any role in society. Further, several major car manufacturing plants were observed being Mazda and Toyota. Many on the trip would have loved an opportunity to see a robotic car production line. Japan is a great manufacturing country and they have enormous price in their products. Surely more diversity is possible?

A lasting impression will be the friendly welcomes provided by locals in all of the small ports visited. Their efforts were remarkable. The brief visit to South Korea was no different.

Great holiday but sadly with a few hiccups. Arrived on an early flight into Tokyo booked by APT picked up by rep and taken to our hotel to find that us as well as many others on the tour could not get into our rooms until mid afternoon (after 2pm) which left many weary travellers longing for a shower and rest to hang around the hotel.

Similar problem read more at the end of the tour when a lot of us had been booked on late night flights after disembarking in the early morning but APT did, on realizing the problem, organize a morning tour with an afternoon drop off at the airport, at an extra cost, which filled in a few hours but still a long wait for our 11.30pm flight home!

The tour itself was very enjoyable with great inclusions and a good group. Unfortunately we both came down towards the end of the trip with a very aggressive respiratory infection which laid us up for over a week which is why I am late sending in this feedback.

I like small ship travelling as you get to interact with all the fellow passengers. I have been to Japan several times and have experienced much of its beauty and culture, but on this trip I did do some things that were new for me. I found this trip was a great mix of things to do with a friend who I was introducing to this part of the world, culture read more and people.

One thing that could be improved would be more tasting of the authentic Japanese food which is just great, healthy and a work of art also.

Thank you for the effort that was put into this trip.

Fascinating country and people. Comfortable ship with a good crowd of passengers. Excellent crew. The cruise was well organised, combining the ship's cruise director and her deputy with the three botanical guides. However once we left the ship on the final day, with only the botanical guides to lead us, the trip fell apart to some degree.

The shore read more excursions were a little disappointing as the Japanese guides tended to be hesitant, not fluent in English and often there was a tension between the Japanese guide, our botanical guide and the cruise director or deputy on the bus. Who was in charge?

Attention to detail and special events - demonstrations / treats etc were appreciated. The welcome to port and farewell from port events were especially memorable. Would recommend Botanica to friends even though they may only have a passing interest in gardens as there were lots of other sights included in the cruise.

APT Botanica & Global Journeys are so reliable! I know that when I book through Yvonne - the hassles & worries of organising such a trip as this, are left in very capable hands. I loved the combination of gardens, culture & art. My fellow travellers were a great mix & I would recommend this trip for solo travellers. Fabulous!