Coral Expeditions blots it's copybook

[Pushka]

In my opinion the group leader needed to take more responsibility to ensure that group members are physically fit enough to do a long hike in the tropical heat up hill. If there is doubt, they should not be accepted for the hike and their money refunded. And there should have been some kind of buddy system like in scuba diving where no one should be left alone along the way. This lady was traveling alone so the group leader needed to sort out these contingencies at the beginning of the hike.

It's a hard call to prevent people going on an excursion. I was told I shouldn't be in the experienced snorkeller group - because of my age. But I've snorkeled in mutiple wonderful locations. Another woman and I were excluded. Well, in the end the tour guide gave us both an apology as we two headed off on our own away from the group because the 'experienced' ones were all threshing around so much around the safety tyre as they virtually panicked in the choppy seas and we wanted to get out and snorkel.

Maybe this lady was an experienced bush walker and simply felt ill. There needed to be two tour guides. We don't know if there was. Enquiries needed to be made when the main group returned. Were they? Passengers should have been checked off the list. Were they? Lots of questions to answer.

 

[RooFlyer]

Reporting the Oz that the Captain (initially?) refused to cooperate with police. Denied by the cruise line..

The captain of a luxury cruise ship that abandoned an 80-year-old passenger to die alone on a remote Great Barrier Reef island allegedly refused to speak to police searching for her, the woman’s devastated family has revealed.

 

[tgh]

As I said.. more to the story..
Late this arvo the ship was still at anchor off Thursday Island

 

[VPS]

Lots of stories coming out now and the rest of the cruise has been cancelled.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/coral-expeditions-insider-claims-boat-that-left-behind-suzanne-rees-was-understaffed-and-under-time-pressure/news-story/9b0c9ddf8e808236bb91f4c6accf706f

Cruise ship had mechanical issues before grandmother's death on island

Passengers have left the the ill-fated Coral Adventurer following the death of Suzanne Rees. Ongoing mechanical problems have cut the journey short and the ship is returning south from the Torres Strait.

www.abc.net.au

 

[tgh]

..and the picture slowly emerges..not a great sight even allowing for a little journalistic licence in this report

Insider alleges cruise chaos before woman died on island

New allegations have emerged about the days leading up to Suzanne Rees’ death on a remote island during a Coral Expeditions holiday.

thenightly.com.au

 

[Quickstatus]

Coral Adventurer on its first voyage since the death of one of its passengers has hit a reef near Lae, PNG yesterday 27Dec25
Looks lke they are waiting for high tide, no immediate evacuations.

 

[mel-world]

Hopefully incidents don't come in threes.

 

[RB001]

Coral Adventurer on its first voyage since the death of one of its passengers has hit a reef near Lae, PNG yesterday 27Dec25
Looks lke they are waiting for high tide, no immediate evacuations.

Looks like they're going to need a bigger tide...

Stranded passengers to fly home from PNG after failed efforts to free cruise ship

Passengers on the Australian cruise ship stranded off the coast of Papua New Guinea will be flown out of the country after efforts to refloat the vessel failed.

www.abc.net.au

 

[Pushka]

Looks like they're going to need a bigger tide...

Stranded passengers to fly home from PNG after failed efforts to free cruise ship

Passengers on the Australian cruise ship stranded off the coast of Papua New Guinea will be flown out of the country after efforts to refloat the vessel failed.

www.abc.net.au

Things go wrong on cruise ships, mainly weather and maintenance issues. But both of these seem entirely preventable and the latter in particular should not happen. I'd have expected they'd have had a pilot onboard. Usually this happens around reef areas but maybe PNG is different.

 

[RB001]

ATSB preliminary report is out.

Cruise ship too fast, too wide before hitting reef, initial report finds

An early safety report into the grounding of a luxury Australian cruise ship says it will investigate why the ship was steaming so fast and turning too wide in confined waters when it swerved off course into a reef.

www.abc.net.au

 

[mel-world]

Since 2019, we have enjoyed 4 cruises with Coral Expeditions, starting with their most popular cruise to the Kimberley and following up with Southern Tasmania in the middle of COVID in Feb 2021, then South Australian Islands in 2023 and most recently from Cairns to Darwin last month.
We don't think we will be returning for a few reasons although we have enjoyed our previous cruses with them.

Here is a brief summary of my impressions, together with some photos that enhanced the cruise experience.

Kimberley


Things to like about the Company: The only significant Australian owned, operated and crewed Cruise Company with three small boats in their fleet. Mainly an older Australian demographic amongst the passengers. Their expedition guides and the enrichment programme has always been, and continues to be first class. The off-ship excursions have been immersive and generally planned with their passenger demographic in mind.

They have ventured outside Australia in recent years with trips as far afield as Japan and the Southern Ocean but are now mainly in cruising around Australia, to our near Asian neighbours and the South Pacific Islands. Their boats are too small for too many sea days.

One other highlight is always the post trip photo file with a selection of shots from the expedition crew and, even a professional photographer on our first cruise.

Tasmania




To be continued.....

 

[mel-world]

South Australia






Why we are unlikely to book with them again, besides the fact that we have been on most of their popular cruises. As with everything, their itineraries are getting more and more expensive. While we are happy to support an all Australian crew and an itinerary where everything is covered (including excursions, drinks with meals and basic internet on-board), they are under cost pressures.

The original owners have now all exited the Company and it is now fully owned by NRMA. Although the two guides on our most recent cruise have been with the Company more than 20 years and were excellent. However, the rest of the expedition crew did not equal our previous experiences.

The food was just not up to the standard we remembered and what we would expect from a cruise costing as much as it did. Not that we got sick but, on one occasion, the soup was cold and the overall menu and food preparation was just mediocre. There was a distinct feeling that corners were being cut in the selection and standard of menu variety and wine quality.

All Cruise lines give themselves the maximum flexibility in delivering the Itinerary. We do acknowledge that this last journey was always going to be affected by the recent cyclone in North Queensland and the Northern Territory but I would have thought that, being based in Cairns, that Coral would have planned better to adjust for advertised locations that could not be visited.

They did add Cooktown but 4 advertised locations were missed entirely. I just do not believe the Expedition Team looked hard enough for alternative activities to replace the locations that were not available. We lacked time just exploring the coastline to see what knowledge the Guides could share with us. We spent 5 of the 10 days at sea or just moored with on-ship activities.

Just not up to our previous experiences.

so, finally Cairns to Darwin