Providence Whitsunday Sailing — Attraction in Airlie Beach

I hate leaving poor feedback, I know it's not easy to run a business, but sometimes it's warranted.

Biggest concern is that all online imagery + marketing literature glossily (falsely) illustrates Providence as some kind of upmarketish sailing vessel, purportedly offering a relatively comfortable guest experience. This’s not the reality on board whatsoever, Providence is in VERY tired condition, quite lacking in charm, and service on board is very disappointing at best. I’d in fact describe marketing of Providence as substantially dishonest + unethical; if you're going to offer a very downmarket product, just be truthful to prospective clients that that's what they're going to receive? There's genuinely no shame in positioning your business as a budget option, just be truthful about it so people know what they're getting into when they hand over payment. To make matters worse, images of Providence online are misleadingly intermingled with photos of an entirely different vessel (MiLady) -- which is a predictable source of confusion to any layperson unfamiliar with their two vessels. Make no mistake, if you’re travelling on Providence, forget travelling in comfort.

Voyage out and back is terminally slow, which is not made clear at time of booking. 3hrs out to Whitehaven, and 3hrs back, for a total of 6 very long hours in transit. Importantly, the entire duration is spent sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers on very thin mats on the cabin roof, totally unsheltered + exposed to the elements, without back support or any space to spread out. For SIX HOURS. It’s also very loud. Providence marketing photos (which all conspicuously omit to show any propellor wash behind vessel) won't inform you that this voyage requires use of roaring diesel engines to make it out n back -- don't be fooled into thinking this is a tranquil sailing voyage, it is not so.

Island views during voyage are beautiful, it must be said, however this is not exclusive to Providence and could obviously be viewed from a more comfortable vessel, which I’d recommend.

The incredibly LONG and SLOW transit on the Providence means of course your time on Whithaven is substantially eroded; you'll set up on the beach to have a swim, and in short order you'll need to start trekking back to the boat! There’s a 10~15min walk to n from the drop-off point, plus time shuttling guests on a dinghy between Providence and shore, which trims your total actual "beach" time to about 60 minutes. For this reason alone if your intention is to spend the day on beautiful white sand beaches, choose an alternative mode of transport. I cannot emphasise this point enough.

Catering on board was lacklustre and actually quite depressing. Online photos show staff in uniforms handing out petit-fours, with a smattering of guests spread over a spacious deck? Totally false (not just from perspective that they don't wear uniforms): Morning tea comprises a single ginger biscuit, lunch a cheap wrap with no alternate dietary options, afternoon tea a sad fragment of sausage roll??

There are aspects of the experience I did appreciate, credit where credit is due. Pick-up n drop-off transfers at our accommodation were efficient + friendly. Captain Pete elicited a chuckle here n there with laconic humour. The one female member of crew seemed genuinely invested in the wellbeing of the guests, to be commended. Location for snorkelling very pretty. Staff, while lacking in attentiveness for much of the day, were relatively efficient in producing drinks when ordered.

As a visitor to the Whitsundays, I wish I'd been presented with accurate info on the experience beforehand so I could make a more informed decision about how best to use my very limited time. Had I known the experience would be of low standard received, I'd have booked elsewhere. The way it's marketed at present is, in my opinion, unscrupulous and designed to induce maximum people to book without then actually delivering on its...

A barefoot snorkelling and sailing adventure except there was no sailing barely any snorkelling and the one thing you really needed was your shoes. This was the worst tour I have ever attended. The captain was obnoxious, treated his deck hand like dirt and ran the tour like a military drill. Below are all the reasons why the Providence tour should be avoided at ALL COSTS! The first red flag occurred at check in, arriving at 7:00am for a 7:30am departure we asked the captain if we could grab a coffee from the nearby café (less than 10m from where we assembled). We were rudely told that ‘if you try and get a coffee if will take 40 minutes and everyone will be late’. We went to the café anyway; it took 5 min…. We were then herded on to a rather small vessel, there would have been at least 30 people on the boat so we were forced to sit skin to skin all the way around (no covid restrictions here apparently). Shortly after 8:00 we finally departed for our snorkel, we had to motor out as there was no breeze, the deck hand Elliot was lovely and made everyone instant coffee and got everyone sorted with stinger suits. The captain made no comments on what was around us I got the impression he didn’t really know. We arrived to what we through was our first snorkelling spot to find a very depressing scene. It was a coral graveyard with only a few colonies here or there we suspected this was the beginner dive of the day because after (what felt like) 40 min we were told to return to the boat and may way. This was the only snorkel of the tour! I understand that the reef was not like it use to be but why they chose that spot is hard to fathom. Next stop, the look out at Hill Inlet. Don’t believe the captain who will claim you don’t need shoes, YOU NEED SHOES! The walk was over a km long up hill in sharp gravel that was so hot several guests were forced to abort. We made do by shuffling the entire way back on our towels. One couple were in so much pain the deck hand had to give the gentlemen his shoes so he could carry his girlfriend back down. Back on the boat for lunch, a plain chicken and lettuce wrap and time for a nice cold beer. However, don’t have more than 3 otherwise the captain will cut you off. We learned latter the sunset tour departed as we return and suspect the Captain did not want to have to restock the bar. That was the whole tour, on the return trip a nice breeze picked up but for some reason we still powered under motor the entire way back. Not only were no sails put up, but neither was any shades. Guests were huddled under towels to avoid the harsh afternoon sun but several requests to put up the overhead shade were ignored. Eventually a few guests were fed up enough to erect the shade themselves, against the captain’s orders. This tour was so bad the only fun we had was bonding with our fellow guests over how bad it was. The one star goes to Elliot the deckhand who was the only redeeming feature of this tour. Elliot if you are reading this RUN AWAY! No one deserves to be...

Unfortunately a real sour point on our honeymoon.

The weather was quite poor with it raining for most of the 1st half of the trip, including the stop on the beach. We expected the trip to be scrubbed due to the forecast weather but they decided to go ahead regardless. While I don't blame them for the weather, it definitely didn't help the trip.

The trip started with the staff showing up late. Then we received a lackluster safety briefing. Due to the rain we were offered rain jackets, however they smelled as if they had never been washed.

Due to the weather, the ship was rocking significantly. I have no doubts that the crew and boat are capable of handling weather much worse, but with the ship at capacity there wasn't much to hold on to for some of the larger swings. While the ship is rocking you're being served coffee/tea and a soggy cake, all while still trying to hold on.

When we got to the island, they have a small dinghy to bring you over. Due to the waves the dinghy and the boat were being thrown about quite a bit and the captain is pushing everyone to move faster while providing no assistance. Again, the rain basically spoiled the entire island experience. Swimming wasn't an option since no stinger suits were offered for this part and it was in stinger season (Other tourists from other boats all had suits).

After returning to the ship, once again rushed off the dinghy and being told to stop messing around when I slipped due to the waves, we head off to the snorkelling area. We were served soggy wraps for lunch. Again, the waves rocking the boat around, we were given the stinger suits and told to put them on before we got to the snorkelling spot. My wife's suit had seen better days as it had many tears in it. After seeing the state of the rain jackets and stinger suit, we elected to not chance the snorkelling equipment. It didn't look to be much fun according to the other guests as they said they were being corralled quite tightly by the captain in the dinghy. On the trip back in we were served a slice of fruit and the option for the bar.

To top things off, I wrote a quick review several weeks ago on their site with a one star rating. Suspiciously, it has still yet to appear. The Sailing Whitsunday customer service staff has been extremely helpful and offered to reach out to the owner of Providence V with my concerns. After several weeks of requests from the customer service staff, the captain finally responded dismissively saying that everything was fine and our concerns weren't valid.

Weather happens, but our experience was so disappointing and to have it topped off with such a careless response was extremely frustrating. This coming from an experience that advertises "no minimum age" and "family friendly". Perhaps when the weather is great this trip is amazing, but the staff missed a real chance to step up here and left us feeling our money was much better...