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Green
Island
Family
Fun with Big Cat Cruises |
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We visited beautiful Green Island with Big
Cat Cruises recently and
had such an excellent day! Big Cat has a special program designed
just for kids - the ‘Family Fun Pak’. It's a full
day at the island and you can participate in a range of family-friendly
activities including a guided island walk, glass bottom
boat ride, a wheelhouse tour and snorkeling. We absolutely
loved it and the kids haven’t stopped talking about
it since!
I
found the boat excellent for families, there was enough room
even for families with prams and the big seats
at the front are great for children to spread
out on for a rest. There was plenty of shade and
the air-conditioning helped keep everyone cool. Safety features
were all good too. |
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The crew was excellent; they were very friendly
and easygoing with the children. During each of the presentations
they fully involved the children in the experience by asking
them questions and answering all of theirs too.
Facilities
on the island were very good, with plenty to do. Showers,
change rooms and even baby change
tables were available. Shade was the only real issue for
families with young children that I noticed. Families traveling
with
young infants might need to consider hiring a shade umbrella
(the resort has these available) or bringing a lightweight
portable shade tent along. |
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lunch on board Big Cat was superb and very healthy! It
was a buffet style lunch with plenty of choice available
and something for everyone.
Snorkeling
was great fun, I’ve always loved exploring the reef and
really liked being able to share this experience with my boys.
I took turns with showing each one around individually and
this was a real example of those shared moments we’ll
both treasure together - with each child we saw different things,
a giant clam
with my eldest, nibbling parrot fish with my middle son and
a big spotty sea slug with my youngest. My
youngest
two
boys
just
used goggles without the snorkel and were still able to really
enjoy the experience; my eldest had practiced snorkeling in
the pool before
coming and quickly got the hang of it, something I would recommend
to other families planning a visit.
The Glass bottom boat was lots of fun, the
presentation was excellent and the interactive nature of
it and the small group meant the children were able to ask
lots of questions as they thought of them. The children were
fascinated by the sucker fish attaching themselves to the
glass, they also loved being able to find Nemo and seeing
a whole family of clown fish playing in the anemone! The
fish feeding was also popular and lots of fun. |
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We
really enjoyed all of the activities; the time went
so quickly, we could have easily come back the next
day and still found plenty more to do!
The
guided island walk was very interesting, the information
was presented in an easy to understand way and Nick,
our guide, was great with the children. I liked the
shipwreck theme which tied it all together too.
After our island walk we did a wheelhouse tour, the children really enjoyed exploring
the wheelhouse, seeing all the navigational equipment and meeting PK the Big
Cat skipper. |
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The
semi submersible was another highlight of our trip, and a
great alternative for those not
wanting to swim but still wanting to
see the Great Barrier Reef. My eldest son found this his
favourite activity and we were lucky enough to see a sea
turtle and a stingray as we made our way through the reef.
I
was really impressed with the amount of content and
the quality of the information provided throughout
the day. All three of my boys learnt so much by participating
in this trip. They were able to
talk about things like how the island was formed,
a number of different trees, types of coral and names
of the birds and the fish they’d seen.
On
the trip back the children were really tired but
too excited to sleep. They were thrilled to receive
their
Turtle Rescue Club certificates and colouring sheets. |
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I'd like to congratulate
Big Cat Cruises on offering this excellent program for families.
It is a
perfect example of conservation and education through
tourism and an excellent way to raise awareness about the importance of the
Great Barrier Reef. It's also great fun! The children (and
their parents) are thoroughly
enjoying themselves as they learn about one of the most beautiful natural wonders
in the world.
Green Island with Big Cat cruises |
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