Victor posted:

Truckster,
"$105 inc car at the moment seems good to me.! "
I recently booked on the Spirit bound for Tassie on the 13/03/03
We get to pay $210 per person each way including car at the moment, but maybe we're just lucky cause we're Queenslanders.
Vicror.

Truckster posted:

http://www.spiritoftasmania.com.au/index0.htm

Djr posted:

victor, are you in a cabin or sitting, we are going in april (out of peak season) $100 per person including car
darren

Djr posted:

This is what we were worried about, did you get a car birth on the way back? So what were the boats like and how did you enjoy tassie? where did you go and what would you reccomend.

Mr Bean posted:

Hi djr,
yes I did get a birth on the way back, the car was in under cover but still got salt spay on it from the big round windows that don't have any glass.
A car cover would have been a good idea but I didn't know I was going to get salted. You now have the bennefit of experience! Take a cover with you and wash the car at Davo as soon as you get there.
There are several different travel options to take, I opted for an overnight cabin, which was comfortable if not a little cosy. Or you can sit up in an aircraft style chair overnight. I chose to put my stuff in my room and then went straight down to the restuarant and had dinner.Smoked ostrich if I can remember correctly and bloody nice it was to. A bottle of wine and then I was ready for battle. But I needed not to worry because the whole trip was very smooth and I had a few more sherbets and went to bed. They wake you up at about 5.45am while you are still about an hour out of port. Get up and have a shower quickly and get yourself down stairs if you want b/fast because all the coffee and food goes off at 7.00am. If all runs smooth you will be off the boat by 7.30am.
Ps sorry I may have given you the wrong impression when using the term "Car birth" as once you have parked your car you can't stay with it or for that matter get access to it. So take EVERYTHING that you will need for the night and the next morning. Oh, and don't forget to put your hand brake on (thanks for however said that)

Mr Bean posted:

Forgot to tell you about Tassie.
Brillant is all I can say about the place, actually another word I can use with confidence to describe Tassie is "RAINY" but then I was there in spring. I did the complete circumnavigation of the island and took three weeks to do it and still didn't get to see every thing I wanted. There isn't enough room here to tell you about every thing but a couple of must sees are Cole bay, Wine Glass bay, Tarkine air walk, Stanley, Strahan, Queenstown, simply as a good example of what you shouldn't do when mining. Heaps of other places, I fished and camped and 4wd my way around in a clockwise direction. I was only dissapointed by one place, that was Aurther River on the west coast.
Ps you just have to go on the 4wd motor bike tour at Henty sand dunes, near Strahan. Don't care how old you are you can do this and it will be the highlight of your trip. Also they have some great Atlantic Salmon fishing down there. I caught a 6.5kg (cleaned)salmon on a fly rod, took about twenty mins to land the monster.

Member - John posted:

Mr. Bean, Just a quick one if you don't mind? Why disapointment about Arthur River? Going over in March and was planning on visiting/camping at Arthur River. Your reply would be appreciated.

Djr posted:

Thanks for all of the advice.We are planning to spend about 3 weeks there but most of that time will be spent on the east coast where we are planning to get married at Bicheno and attend my step daughters wedding in Scamander. After that we are spending 3 nights in Hobart at the casino then travelling to the west coast and staying at Strahan, Cradle Mountain and Stanley then back on the boat for our return to Central Queensland. Cant wait to go back there, we were in tassie in Jan last year for about 10 days.
Darren

Mr Bean posted:

Hi John,
please accept that this is only my oppinion of the place, and others may find things different. When I was there the weather was.........not nice, is about as tactful as I can be. As you would have noticed on the map its very exposed to the Roaring Fourties. So if your going to camp choose a sheltered camp, beachfront is not a good option. While I was there I found the locals to be unhelpful, also there was no pub. This is definately not a good sign when you go to a settlement that doesn't have a pub. How ever there is a small town about 15 ks up the road to the north that does have a pub and the people were freindly, so thats where I stayed. Overall the sumary was the weather was bad the people discouraged me from staying there and everything was closed up. It had no pub and the place gave me a feeling of dismal desolation. this might be just what you like, but it didn't impress me.
Jeff.

Stephenf posted:

You mean they don't tie them down? It's been a few years since I've done the trip but they tied every vehicle to the deck with chains.

Truckster posted:

we went over on the bike in arouns 95, they didnt chain down cars.... in fact we took our own tiedowns for the bikes...

All they wanted to do was throw a rotted old rope over the seat... not to my $19,000 bike ya not pal!

Stephenf posted:

I'm talking back in the mid-70's when the Australian Trader did the Melbourne-Devonport trip. I can't believe that they don't tie vehicles down. It might be ok in summer, but in winter Bass Strait is the roughest stretch of water around. One decent roll and the whole load could shift. Maybe the company figures that it's cheaper to pay for the odd bit of damage than employ people to tie vehicles down.

Mikeys posted:

No, they certainly didn't tie the vehicles down on this trip (Easter 2001), although there were certainly chains and fixing points all over the car deck. I guess the (formerly employed) person in charge decided weather conditions didn't warrant it, but then again, everyone was supposed to leave their vehicle in gear or in park and with the handbrake on. Don't panic DJR, the big boats don't lurch around like the DevilCat did.
MikeyS

Mark posted:

Also forgot to add that cars are a lot further apart on the new boats, your passenger even gets to stay with you now.

Mark posted:

No I didn't but we were parked up in the pointy end away from the windows both there and back. I can see how it could be a problem though, you only have to look at how much spray is on the outside of the glass around the ship.