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.
