A very big thank you to everyone involved in organising this amazing trip! Scott and I had a wonderful time from the moment we met the Cruise Express staff at Central Station and the friendly and informative volunteers on the train. We met some lovely people and enjoyed listening to their stories about travelling on similar trains and carriages in the past. We were lucky enough to share our carriage with a very friendly couple. We shared our life stories, travelled on coaches with them, shared meals at restaurants, wineries and farms, and laughed heaps!
Our accommodation at Quest, Griffith was great. The coaches were new and clean and the drivers very friendly. Everywhere we went we learnt something new about farming sheep, growing wine, fruit harvesting, cruising and the work that goes into maintaining and running heritage trains! The meals we had were fantastic. From the breakfast pack on the train to the great meal at Piccolo made by Nona and her family! The dinner at McWilliams, the wonderful lunch at the Junee Railway Station Cafe, dinner at Zecca Restaurant and the breakfasts and dinners at Griffith. Not forgetting the sandwiches and rolls from Moss Vale!
We hope you will be organising this trip again and we will highly recommend it to our family and friends. Thank you again to everyone involved, we have made new friends and lots of new memories.
Having now experienced the whole Cruise, Sail, and Rail package last week, we are full of admiration for the whole Cruise Express team for the detail which had gone into the planning of the package over such a long period. The personal input of all the team, including the volunteers, was of such a high standard that it would be unfair to mention anybody by name – if I could remember all their names that is.
The Heritage Train experience was exactly what the name implied – an experience, and the operators of the train did a fantastic job in preparing the rolling stock for the trip, even the locomotives had their share of ‘spit and polish’. Our personal ‘refuelling ‘ stops at Junee and Seymour far exceeded any expectations with the amount food provided and at Seymour, to be entertained with classical music was another unique experience. Another ‘well done” to whoever arranged all that. So much provided for our refreshment that it was hard to refuse, but commonsense had to prevail.
All in all, we considered this a very successful experience and will have no hesitation in recommending the services of Cruise Express to anybody we meet.
We had our Sea Princess cruise from Sydney to South America and back cut short in January when Andrew fell during a walk around Punta Arenas, fracturing his skull and cheek bone. He is recovering well now but can I say that the SureSave insurance that Cruise Express sells was excellent. SureSave phoned us regularly and organised for someone to take care of everything and accompany us home. Princess Cruises helped us a lot and courtesy of SureSave, we flew back to Sydney in first class. I want to thank Cruise Express for their assistance. We have booked over 12 cruises through them and they are always so helpful and reliable, saving us a lot of time and effort. We are looking forward to cruising to the UK next year with Cunard and cruising back with Sea Princess again. From our experience, it’s vital to have travel insurance from a reputable company every time you travel.
A big THANK YOU for the memorable 5 day R&R we have just completed: 3 days on Golden Princess, 1 day in Melbourne culminating with the train journey home, partly on The Spirit of Progress and then the renewed rail motor to Sydney. Every detail was attended to. The train trip was awesome. No time to be bored!!! It was like being on the cruise ship. Breakfast, lunch and dinner provided with morning and afternoon snacks and of course the wonderful “happy hour” with beer, bubbles and chips. A big thank you also must go to the “train” staff for all their work. Congratulations and well done!
