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Imagine waking up on the Great Barrier Reef. Spending your day exploring coral gardens, swimming with the fish and coming up to relax on the sundeck, with all your meals and all the details taken care of. Not to mention sunset at sea, when a thousand golden hues light up the sky, before being replaced by a million sparkling stars. You can experience all this and more on a liveaboard reef trip from Cairns. This is our review of a 3 day / 2 night trip on OceanQuest, where we’ll cover the boat, the cabins, the food and most importantly, the reef – so without further ado, let’s dive into the details.
Dive time! You can do up to 10 dives on a 3 day / 2 night liveaboard trip on OceanQuest. 8 day dives and 2 night dives. Fantastic reef sites, with abundant marine life.
Our OceanQuest liveaboard dive tour started at 7.30am at the Divers Den office, which is on Draper Street in the city. Once everyone had checked in, buses transported us over to the Marlin Marina and we jumped on their day boat, to head to the reef. It was a comfortable ride and all snorkelling and scuba diving paperwork was completed on the boat, as were the briefings on equipment and the day ahead. At 10.40am it was dive time – from the day boat – at a site called Turtle Bay on Norman Reef. The visibility was pretty good, and we were excited to explore the reef, which had excellent coral cover – we ‘found Nemo’, so it was a great start to our liveaboard dive trip. After lunch on the day boat, there was the chance for a second dive, but our son had some equalizing issues, so we went for a snorkel instead. At 2.30pm we pulled up alongside OceanQuest and transferred to the liveaboard boat, our home for the next couple of days.
“Liveaboard dive tours are the best! You get to make the absolute most of your time on the Great Barrier Reef and when you book for 3 or more days, you get full days of just diving, snorkelling, exploring, eating and resting. It’s the ultimate recharge. We’d been on OceanQuest many years ago and were excited to do it again now, with our son. The cabins are comfortable and the boat has lots of tribal touches, thanks to the wooden masks and carvings, so that was as we remembered it. The crew were excellent, keeping us advised of dive times, meal times and everything else. We highly recommend booking a liveaboard reef trip, if time and budget allows.” – Julie Johnston
Once we were aboard OceanQuest, we were greeted by the crew who provided an overview of the boat and the daily itinerary. We were also allocated our rooms, with time to move our bags before we were straight into the diving / snorkelling again, with a site briefing at 3.15pm. Our son’s ears had ‘fixed’ themselves (thankfully) so it was dive time on a site called Coral Gardens at Saxon Reef. We splashed down at 3.58pm and spent the next 50 minutes exploring the coral walls and bommies. There was an abundance of Great Barrier Reef fish, including pink anemonefish, slate sweetlips, schools of striped fusiliers streaming around the reef, colourful giant clams, sea squirts, a lionfish, barramundi cod, coral trout and large beds of staghorn corals. We had an hour to refresh and relax before dinner, so we headed to the sundeck to watch the sunset and it was spectacular! After dinner, there’s the option for a night dive (we didn’t take it) and the free Sharks in the Dark experience. For divers, you see the sharks in the water, while snorkelers can lay down on the lowered platform for a front row seat to the hunting action – we did it and saw lots of giant trevally.
Dessert was served at 8pm and then we all settled in for the night. As a family of 3, we were in different cabins (as all cabins other than the 1 x quad share room, only accommodate a maximum of 2 people); Julie and Ethan shared a twin cabin, while Richard was in a separate twin cabin, with another guest on the boat. All the cabins are air conditioned and have ensuite facilities, and there’s nothing better than a hot shower at the end of a big day in the sea. It was a relatively early night. Richard woke early for the sunrise, but Julie and Ethan slept in until 7am – with breakfast served at 7.30am. Breakfast included fresh fruits, toast, cereals and cooked options. While we ate, OceanQuest moved to a new reef site.
The first water briefing for the new day was at 8.15am and we were excited to get back in the water. This site was called Twin Peaks on Saxon Reef. We splashed down at 8.49am, highlights of this dive included seeing some more magnificent anemone with pink anemonefish, surgeonfish, pufferfish and chromis, to name just a few. After a relatively short surface interval, we had our second dive at this site, when we saw diagonal banded sweetlips, butterflyfish, coral trout and more. After that it was time for lunch, and while the boat moved to a new site, we refueled our tanks on burgers and chips. So good!
The third water session of the day is in mid-afternoon, with a briefing at 3.15pm. OceanQuest had moved to a site called Sandra’s Bommie, on Norman Reef – and this site delivered a very special surprise for us, finding a pink anemonefish tending its clutch of eggs. Have never seen this in person before – so this was awesome!! As we were diving unguided on OceanQuest, we had the freedom to plan our own dive – so when we found this, we just stayed there for at least 10 minutes and were mesmerized. On the way back to the boat, we saw large schools of gold band fusiliers, Queensland groper, giant trevally and more. We climbed back on the boat at 4.28pm and then just relaxed until dinner at 6pm.
The Sharks in the Dark experience is on every night – as we had done it the previous evening, we opted to spend some quality time downloading images and playing Uno. The next morning – Day 3 – was our last one on OceanQuest. The boat moved while we had breakfast, and our first dive of the day was on Norman Reef, at a new site called Playground. It was more anemonefish for us – which is awesome, because we love them. We saw 4 different types of anemone and anemonefish. We also saw a flowery cod, barramundi cod, bicolour parrotfish, schools of robust fusiliers and more. What a great way to start our last day. We stayed here for our last dive of the trip and this time, we explored the shallow coral gardens, where we saw humbug dascyllus, black spotted wrasse, Moorish idols, titan triggerfish and blue blanquillo. We climbed back on OceanQuest at 11.42am and it was a quick hustle to check out of our cabins by 12pm. Lunch was at 12.30pm with the transfer from OceanQuest back to the day boat for our return to Cairns, scheduled for 2.30pm. We spent this time in the upstairs air conditioned lounge, looking at fish ID books and talking about our awesome time at sea. The transfer was made on time and we arrived back into Cairns at 5pm.
OceanQuest was my first time on a liveaboard dive boat. Before I went, I thought it would be sleeping on a boat and consistently diving, but it was all of that and more. On my first dive on a liveaboard, I was still getting used to living on a boat, which was strange at first because I wasn’t used to doing that many dives a day. My favourite dive time of the day was the afternoon dive, because the sun wasn’t as high and so it wasn’t glarey. The coolest thing I saw on this trip was all of the different coloured anemones, anemonefish and nemo eggs. The cabin was really good, but it would have been better if the family could all have stayed together. I can’t wait to go on another liveaboard.
Yes, if you have the time and budget, we highly recommend doing a liveaboard trip from Cairns. Early mornings and late afternoons in the ocean are awesome, not to mention the sunrise and sunset over the Coral Sea.
Yes, the OceanQuest Cairns liveaboard dive tour is worth it and provides excellent value for money. It includes transfers to and from your accommodation to their office, boat transfers to and from Cairns to the Great Barrier Reef, all of your accommodation and meals, reef site briefings. The boat moves twice a day – weather permitting – so you will see a range of different Great Barrier Reef sites.
You can book anything from a 2 day / 1 night trip on OceanQuest, to a 5 day / 4 night trip.
Like most liveaboard boats, the daily itinerary on OceanQuest revolves around swimming / snorkelling / diving, eating, sleeping and relaxing. Below is a snapshot of a day on OceanQuest.
All of the cabins on OceanQuest take a maximum of 2 guests, except for the 1 x quad share cabin which takes 4 guests. The cabins are a combination of doubles and twins.
No, not really. The 1 x quad share cabin sleeps 4 people in bunk beds. Otherwise, the cabins are a combination of double and twin rooms. When our family of 3 went – Mum and Son stayed in a twin share room, Dad stayed in a twin share room with another guest.
Yes, OceanQuest is suitable for snorkelers. There were a few snorkelers staying on the boat at the same time as us. Snorkelers can also try scuba diving for the first time, on an introductory dive. No previous experience necessary. The minimum age to participate is 12 years old. Some health conditions, including asthma, epilepsy, heart conditions, chronic sinus and more will prevent you from trying / participating in introductory diving.
The diving on OceanQuest is good, they have access to some excellent reef sites. All of the diving is unguided, with the option to pay for a dive guide, which is an additional cost to the tour price.
There’s lots of inclusions in the OceanQuest Cairns liveaboard dive tour price, which we will bullet point here for you.
Most things are included in the OceanQuest price. Additional costs are below.
The OceanQuest tours leave Cairns every day of the week. To get to OceanQuest, you will be transferred on a day boat, which departs Cairns promptly at 8.30am. Check in is at the Divers Den offices from 7.30am, which are located at 319 Draper Street, in Cairns city.
The OceanQuest Cairns liveaboard dive tours stay on Cairns’ outer Great Barrier Reefs. They have access to 19 different sites, located across 3 different reefs – being Norman Reef, Hastings Reef and Saxon Reef. Where you will go on your trip is all dependent on the weather, tides and current. The captain will pick the best sites to maximum your inwater experience, at the time of travel.
We had a great time on OceanQuest. The boat was comfortable, the reef sites were excellent, and the crew were really good. Don’t think, just do.
OceanQuest Cairns is owned and operated by Divers Den, which also has day tours and day boats. Your transfer to OceanQuest is on one of these day boats, which means you can start your trip on any day of the week. The boat is spacious and comfortable and the cabins are air conditioned with ensuites. You can book a liveaboard tour anywhere from 1 night to 4 nights. The more time you have at sea, the more reef sites you will visit and more opportunities for snorkelling and diving. All of the OceanQuest sites are on Cairns’ outer Great Barrier Reef, this boat does not go to the Ribbon Reefs or Osprey Reef. This trip is suitable for snorkelers and divers.
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