Review: Luxury Australia Vacation, Sydney, Port Douglas, Great Barrier Reef Diving, Featherdale Animal Park, Uluru, Blue Mountains

Overall our trip was wonderful.  Here are some specific observations:

1. Sydney.  There was a little hiccup with the transfer from the airport in Sydney as I arrived in the Domestic Terminal and my travel partner arrived in the International Terminal.  The itinerary was unclear as to which terminal the McDonalds was in where we were supposed to meet our driver.  We were also unsure what time we were going to meet him, since my partner and I arrived at different times.  I blame myself for not catching this ambiguity in the itinerary and asking for clarification from our super helpful travel agent.  We found payphones, however, and called the toll free number she had given us.  The Australian representative was very helpful and was happy I called, since the driver had called him asking what time we needed to be picked up.  The representative even got the driver to pick us up earlier than planned to accommodate my early arrival from the Gold Coast, so things worked out fine in the end.

That was the only very minor issue in Sydney.  We loved the driver who took us on a tour before dropping us off at the hotel, and we loved the Langham Hotel.  The room was beautiful (they gave us an upgrade since our original room wasn't ready), as was the rest of the hotel.  We had the first night's dinner in the hotel (Lambburger!) and it was delicious.  The breakfast buffet in the morning was also very impressive.  Well done to our agent for picking this hotel for us! The Blue Mountain tour and Featherdale park were amazing on our second day--we got pictures with koalas and kangaroos to our hearts' content.

2. Ayers Rock.  I wasn't very impressed with the ambiance or customer service at the Ayers Rock Resort, but I think this was mainly due to the isolated location, the difficulty they must have bringing supplies to the area, and the lack of competition Ayers Rock Resort has in the area.  There was a thunder storm the only night we were there, which resulted in the cancellation of our Sound of Silence dinner.  We provided the cancellation letter the Resort gave us to our agent when we got back, and she processed the refund immediately.  This is just one example of the stellar customer service she provided.  One other annoying thing that happened in the Resort was that we had a sunrise tour booked the day after we checked into the hotel.  We asked a front desk employee if we would be back from the tour in time to check out.  Rather than tell us she didn't know the specifics of our tour, she advised us to check out before 4:40 am, the time of our scheduled pick-up.  We did as she advised, only to find out the tour returned around 0900, well in advance of check-out time.  Consequently, we lost our room, and had to wait around all day for the airport shuttle in a hospitality room.  We were initially happy to have the hospitality room, but surprised to find out later that we had to share it with a random couple (the staff didn't mention it was shared, and we returned to the room after lunch to find it occupied with at least one occupant showering).   

3.  Port Douglas.  I loved Port Douglas.  It's a quiet coastal town with a surprisingly good variety of restaurants.  Unfortunately the Quicksilver catamaran we were supposed to take the first day was broken, so they put us on another catamaran with the understanding that we'd take the first day's catamaran the following day.  By the second day, however, the first day's catamaran was still broken, resulting in us taking the same catamaran two days in a row.  This wasn't too big of a deal because the Quicksilver staff tried to vary the dives sites up a little bit the second day, and the staff was very flexible in allowing me to change from an introductory dive to 2 certified dives on the second day for no additional cost (I am a certified diver, but hadn't dove in 8 years, so the introductory course served as a refresher for me).  Quicksilver even threw in some complimentary drink tickets on the second day, either as a reward for diving with them two days in a row, or for having to take the same catamaran both days.  Either way, free cold beer after a day of diving tasted great.  The hotel in Port Douglas was great--we liked how big it was, and the kitchen and dining room was a really nice "extra" as we were able to eat in for dinner for two nights.  We even got massages by the in-house therapist on our last day.