Port Stephens Dolphin Watching With Tamboi Queen Cruises

When I was doing research for our Sydney Family Trip itinerary in Port Stephens Tourism website, I stumbled on "the top 10 things to do in Port Stephens",  especially for the dolphins. The reason why we wanted to go to Port Stephens was the sandboarding, but seeing the website, I just knew that dolphins watching is also another main attraction in Port Stephens.

We put the Dolphin Watching in our itinerary knowing we could see the dolphin from a boom net. That would be awesome for our Kiddos! Actually, we could also watch dolphin in Lovina Bali, but there is no boom net.

After the cruise in Port Stephens, I asked our Kiddos, which one they like the best, the cruise in Port Stephens or our cruise in Milford Sound NZ? With no doubt they answered Port Stephens. I believe the boom net is one of the reason.

Awesome boom net!

We choose the early departure at 10.30am from Tamboi Queen Cruises, and arrived early at d'Albora Marina Nelson Bay. Before our cruise, we could enjoy the Marina for a while. Kiddos had their ice cream, and I went to shop for my hat. Yes it was so hot that morning! 

Afterwards, we waited for our vessel which is called MV Spirit of Port Stephens ready at the beach having a playground.

Ice cream and the shops at d'Albora Marina

A lovely playground on the beach

When we saw people were queueing to get to our vessels, we walked to Dock D where the vessel is parked. The crew were so friendly, they invited us to start our journey having a coffee break.

Getting into the dock

The free flow coffee, tea and biscuit
is provided on the cruise

The cruise depart on time, and everyone was so ready for the adventure!

Yeay let's start our cruise!

After about 15 minutes, the vessel stopped, and one crew started to put the boom net on the water. He made sure everyone had their towel ready near the boom net, so the inside part of the vessel will not get wet. 

All the children suddenly had filled up the boom net and they had tons of fun!

Look at those happy faces

It's not only for the kids, adults may join the boom net as well

"Look, the dolphins are coming!" 

Finally the dolphins came, one..two...and in a group! Everybody was busy taking pictures and enjoying the moment. The dolphins are so beautiful. I wonder how amazing it would be if we could see a whale. Too bad the season for whale watching at Port Stephens was already over.

And yes we could see the dolphins:)

Three of the dolphins

There were also other boats watching the dolphins

Up close and personal with the dolphins

After the dolphin watching, Tamboi Queen Cruise still had another bonus, it is the slide! I didn't dare to try it though, but our Kiddos#1 tried it. "Can he swim back to the boat, it might be flooding down there?" the crew asked me, worried. Kiddos answered YES, when I asked him. So he slide and he could swim back to the vessel. "He is a good swimmer, I should not have asked you!" the crew comment after seeing our Kiddos#1 swimming in the sea.

(We didn't take the picture of the slide, but we took picture of the next cruise departure. And you may see the slide at the back of the vessel).

The beautiful MV Spirit Port Stephens

However, I didn't let our Kiddos#2 who is 5 yo to try the boom net. So after his brother tried the slide, we went to the boom and Kiddos play water on it.

The boom was empty when everyone were busy with the slide

The slide session last for 30 minutes, we went back to the marina after the staff closed the access to the slide. The boom net was also closed approaching the marina.

It was in total a 2 hours cruise, and I recommend this activity to anyone visiting Port Stephens.

We are finally back to the beach

Thank you Tamboi Queen Cruise for having us. It was a cruise to remember for our family:)

written on January 31, 2015 by @tesyasblog

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