Daydream Island!

Daydream!

 It takes about 40 mins to get from Hamilton Island to Daydream via Long Island on the ferry. It’s a beautiful trip; I couldn’t believe how many islands there are in the area! It’s a huge boat and they have a little shop on there that sells ice cream and drinks. I saw a sea turtle on the way!

When you arrive they meet you at the docks and give you a shell necklace, a bit of fun. During busier times they even have a few guys in tropical shirts playing island music.  Our group was met by the duty manager and he gave us a little rundown of the hotel.  They timed our arrival with the stingray feeding in their living coral lagoon thing; it was hilarious and scary, stingrays are weird. 

We got upgraded to a coral ocean view room and it was just amazing. The rooms were all refurbished after management changed after cyclone Yasi. They are clean and comfortable and a little swanky, the bathrooms are lovely because I love bathrooms. 

The balconies are narrow, two people can sit and face each other. If you have a family two people would have to sit inside on the inside chairs and face out. This isn’t a problem just trying to give you an idea of size!

The views are amazing, the difference between the ocean rooms and the coral ocean is the coral ocean have uninterrupted views (bar a few palm trees, so tropical) and the oceans have trees and stuff in front.  The garden rooms are at ground level, overlooking the grounds, but remember that the grounds are for public use so close the curtains if you need to!

There are two pools (maybe three; I heard whisperings of a third but never found it) down the hotel end. They are huge; one of them has bridges to swim under, (I found a lizard under one!) they have a cold spa, the pools felt heated but turns out its just that hot there!

One of the pools has a swim up bar which closes at 4:30pm (when the pool closes you can go back up to the main bar and get drinks from there though), it plays music in the day time which is fun, but not fun for the poor garden view rooms directly next to the pool, no naps for them...

They have two restaurants down the hotel end. There is the classy Mermaids down near the pool and beach; it was delightful, the food was classy (smaller meals, displayed all mastercheffy) and they bring in the singers sometimes. Some of the seats outside overlook the water and the sky, so lovely. 

The other restaurant is the buffet one inside, they have Italian nights, seafood nights etc, they alternate between these two, (it was only 20% capacity when I went so there was only ever one open, maybe busy times both will be open). 

Every night they have this awesome take away thing, normal pub food, fish and chips, schnitzel, noodles etc, you go and order and they give it all to you in a big bag and you can eat at the tables in the atrium, or near the coral lagoon and watch the sharks! We took ours down to the lounges on the beach, it was so so lovely, we chose that over mermaids for our last night, lying there reading after dinner listening to the kangaroos jump past and getting freaked out by these big weird birds topical north Queensland is full of...

  

They have a little kiddie day care thing, they have sessions during the day maybe only during peak times, and they have babysitting for if the parents want to go out to dinner, they will send someone to look after the kiddie in the room. For the richies they can also get people a nanny to take out on a tour so the parents can kick back and don’t have to worry about the kidlets falling overboard.

  

 

The living reef is just too cool for school. It circles the atrium where the checkin and restaurant etc is.  It has heaps of fish, like 3 or 4 sharks, 5-6 gigantic stingrays and they just circle round and they do feedings every morning (the stingrays come half out of the water and the shark splashed the lady!) which the kids (me) will love!  You can also pay extra and go handle some fish and they have a kiddie program with this too. 

There is an adults only dining room when you go down for brekky, its awesome, they play weird music and you can sit and eat your brekky while watching the fish and the waterfall which are right outside that room. The breakfast was awesome, bacon and eggs were deliciouso, they even have a pancake making machine!  Novelty! They come out on a conveyor belt! 

Down the other end of the island (not even a 10 minute walk) is where they have all the day trippers, its very bright and aimed at young people, music blaring constantly (yes, I’m getting old).  They have a bar by the pool, a few clothes and souvenir shops, a bakery and a restaurant, also the open air cinema is here too. 

Camira!  We accidentally picked the busiest day for this one so the boat was chockers, wouldn’t have been so bad but there was pretty much no shade and it was sooooo hot!   So much sunburn. Oh my.  They chuck you off the boat along the way to whitehaven for a snorkel, we saw a sea turtle and a jellyfish ran into my forehead!

You hop back on the boat and they take you to Whitehaven. It is so amazing, the water is beautiful (I saw a sea turtle!) the sand is divine, they give you footballs and stuff but we just hung out in the water in our pretty stinger suits.

 

You get back on the boat and get a big ol barbeque, then they take you the long way home and you just hang out and make the most of the included bevvies!

They organise tours (Camira, Whitehaven etc) on the island so the passengers will probably do it when they get there so make sure you get in first.