Sydney to Beijing on Regent Seven Seas Voyager: A World Cruise Segment

From 23 February to 20 March 2011, Ben Hall joined the Sydney-to-Beijing segment of Regent Seven Seas Voyager's World Cruise, a 25-day voyage by way of the Queensland coast, the Top End, Bali, Manila, Taipei and Seoul. These are his despatches from the voyage.

A night sail-out from Sydney

Sailing out of Sydney Harbour on a cruise ship is one of those things you have to do at least once in your life, and we had the spectacle of the city by night for this one. The 11pm departure meant the harbour was relatively free of maritime traffic, and it was a surreal experience gliding under the Harbour Bridge from our berth at Wharf 5.

Then it was the Opera House and the twinkly lights of the inner eastern suburbs before heading out through Sydney Heads to begin this cruise properly. Thankfully it was a slow sail-out so everyone could take it all in, and it took the best part of an hour to get out into open ocean.

This was segment three of the Regent Seven Seas Voyager World Cruise, from Sydney to Beijing over 25 days: Brisbane, then Townsville, Cairns, Thursday Island, Darwin, Bali, Sandakan in Borneo, Manila, Keelung for Taipei, Incheon for Seoul, and finally Tianjin for Beijing.

Brisbane and Australia Zoo

Our first port of call was Brisbane, and we were expecting it to be in a real mess after the devastating floods of January. How wrong we were. Thanks to the massive volunteer effort that followed, when tens of thousands of people pitched in and helped clean up, it looked like business as usual in Brisbane and there was very little sign of flood damage any more.

Because of what had happened we thought Brissie would be a bit of a no-go zone, so we picked a ship's tour to Australia Zoo at Beerwah on the Sunshine Coast. It was made famous by "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and his family now runs the place. It's a fun joint and pretty commercial, clearly aimed at kids and foreign tourists, but there are some interesting animals, both Australian and non-Australian. And in typical Steve Irwin style, the presentations and performances are all done with a bit of an over-the-top, ocker-enthusiastic tone, and you get the feeling that's exactly how Irwin would have liked it.

Then it was a late sail-out and up through the Great Barrier Reef.

The Whitsundays, Townsville and Cairns

The Whitsundays have been described as one of the world's most beautiful island groups, and we were fortunate enough to cruise past on the Voyager close enough to appreciate this slice of heaven. The 74 islands that make up the Whitsundays are a real water lovers' paradise, and you can still get a feel for what all the fuss is about from the deck of a cruise ship.

We didn't actually stop there, as our next port of call was Townsville, the unofficial capital of North Queensland. It was a short day, from 10am to 6pm, and we passed on the ship's tours and headed for Magnetic Island on one of the local jet cats. This is a tropical island with a difference, in that people actually live here and there is a strong sense of community. It has nice beaches and lots of good walking trails through bushland, and this is where you get to see koalas in the wild, as they're quite well protected. We didn't see any this time, but we know they're there.

Cairns followed the next day, a laid-back tropical city with tons of things to do. One of the highlights of stopping here is a ship's tour to the outer reef with its fantastic snorkelling, but as we'd done this before, we opted to hire a car and head into Kuranda and the Atherton Tablelands.

Thursday Island, and the ship herself

After a sea day came Thursday Island, right at the top of Cape York, and it's such a sleepy little place that you could almost count it as a sea day as well. It did give us our first blue-sky day, though, and Voyager looked her best at anchor off the island before the rain clouds closed in again.

So far everything on board had been as expected and perhaps even a little better than we'd experienced on previous Regent cruises. The last time we were on the Voyager was in the Med in 2007, and she was looking a little tired and in need of TLC, which isn't really surprising given the beating these ships take, especially on the quick turnarounds in Europe.

Voyager was looking really good these days. All the public areas had had a big makeover, and she had the look and feel of a new ship, with a nice balance of traditional styling and contemporary modern. We were in a penthouse suite at the back of the ship and it was immaculate, and from what we saw it was pretty much the same throughout the ship.

Probably the biggest difference was the service levels all round. Regent were always good at this and they seemed to have improved on a lot of levels. They'd built a fully fledged café called Coffee Connection on Deck 5, with fully trained baristas who know their stuff, and other guests were commenting on how, just a few years earlier, it had been difficult getting a good coffee on board.

Other things also stood out. One night a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary were booked into the French-inspired restaurant Signatures, and they were escorted to dinner by a phalanx of butlers and given a bunch of red roses for good measure. Of course this is an all-inclusive cruise, covering drinks including wines and spirits and gratuities, and they've even thrown in most shore excursions, which really sets Regent apart. We booked tours in most ports and they were included, though there are a few which carry a charge, and they're usually the expensive ones.

The internet was painfully slow at times, because most of the World Cruisers on board were Seven Seas Society members, which means unlimited internet. They were online a lot, and that slows the satellite bandwidth down to a crawl.

Darwin's jumping crocodiles

After Thursday Island it was another sea day and then Darwin, and we chose a ship's tour, which are complimentary on Regent. It was the Jumping Crocodiles tour, which involved a one-hour bus ride out to the Adelaide River to see the famous reptiles in action. We were a bit late getting away, as torrential rain hampered efforts to get off Voyager, as happens in this part of the world at this time of year, but we arrived with plenty of time up our sleeve all the same, and thankfully the weather improved.

This was a one-hour tour on the river and we got up close and personal with five of the crocs. The first was the head honcho on the river, Bogart. He's the only male in this area, and at just over 5.5 metres and weighing in at 900kg, Bogart has little trouble convincing rival males to stay away from his patch.

He knew the drill and cruised right up to the boat, and this was the biggest croc I've ever seen in the wild. His head alone was massive, and he stuck around for about five minutes and seemed to enjoy showing off his powerful jaws. As I was taking photos of him, one thought kept running through my head: "don't fall in whatever you do."

The other four crocs were all smaller females, and they were actually better jumpers than Bogart, probably because he's just too big to launch himself out of the water. It was a great way to see saltwater crocodiles in their natural environment, and there was a lot of bird-spotting to be done as well, with white-bellied sea eagles and black kites all along the river.

Bali by bicycle

I'm hurtling down the steep hill gathering speed, and a sharp turn comes at me a little too quickly. As I brake into the corner, it occurs to me that I really don't want to end up in a Balinese hospital. I make the corner safely and then ride the brakes the rest of the way. This was the end of a Bali bicycle tour which took us into the local villages behind Padang Bai, and among their people.

Our guide was a local farmer called Tomato (don't know why), and he showed us a slice of Balinese life far removed from the tourist image of five-star hotels and backpacker joints down at Kuta. The ride in and out of Padang Bai is a challenge, but the reward is an authentic snapshot of what life is really like for the locals.

We visited a couple of temples and found out just how important these are to the Balinese people, who are mostly Hindu, and along the way we rode through traditional villages as parents nursed young babies and school kids in immaculate uniforms walked home from school.

I stopped to take a photo of a village street and a young mum and her little son wandered out to say hi, and before long the whole family was out as well: husband, grandma, aunties and a few more kids, and they seemed to regard us all with some humour.

Missing Sandakan, and an unscheduled night in Manila

Unfortunately we had to miss Sandakan. We were late leaving Bali, which meant we missed our window of opportunity at high tide to enter the port, and so we missed the orang-utans at Sepilok. The upside was an overnight in Manila, and the Filipino crew got to spend more time with their families. The crew work so hard that very few people complained about missing Sandakan, which is a good thing.

We had a butler, as we were in a penthouse suite, and Bejoy told us he and his crew of Indian butlers were out on the town in Manila. Look out, Manila!

There were some very happy crew around. We took off for a day tour out of Manila on a Regent shore excursion, and on the way out there were lots of crew partners with small children, all waiting eagerly for their mum or dad to get off work and catch up with them.

A large percentage of the crew are from the Philippines, and our steward Victor flew his wife and one of his three daughters in from Cebu. Like all the other crew from this part of the world, he was very excited to see them again, and then very sad to say farewell the next day.

While the Philippines crew were off doing their family things, we headed out to Villa Escudero, about 100km out of Manila. It's not every day you get to have lunch sitting in the middle of a river with your feet in a freshwater stream, and this was one of the highlights of the day. Villa Escudero is an original plantation with a long history and is now basically a tourist theme park, with an interesting museum of knick-knacks showing the history and collections of the original families who lived here.

Lunch was a buffet of traditional Philippines food, and one of the dishes was buffalo curry, which is tough but tasty. The seats are built into the river floor under the man-made waterfall, which also drives the hydro-electric plant on the Villa. There are a few cultural dance shows performed by the descendants of the original settlers, and it's a fun day out.

They also do buffalo rides, but be careful if you're sitting right behind one. When they want to go, they don't give any warning, and I saw one lady get a soaking and she was not very happy!

Taipei, and the battle of the National Palace Museum

We landed in the Taiwanese port of Keelung, which serves the capital Taipei, and were on a full-day tour to the city. There were three busloads of Regent guests doing this tour and another two doing a half-day version, split up across the various sights to avoid congestion, and when we landed at the National Palace Museum there were another 15 or so tourist buses, and it made for a pretty chaotic first stop in Taipei.

The crowds pressing in to see the ancient artefacts meant we quickly learned to stand our ground and adopt a kind of blocking procedure to avoid being shoved out of the way. It was an annoying but amusing way to see Taiwan's most famous tourist attraction, which holds one of the best collections of Chinese antiquities in the world.

Also included in this tour was a call at the Martyrs' Shrine for the Changing of the Guard, a buffet lunch at the Grand Hotel, the beautiful Lungshan Temple, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and a quick photo stop at Taipei 101, then the world's second-tallest building.

A busy old day, but a good way to see Taipei. Steaming toward Incheon in South Korea, we hit some pretty rough seas overnight, which kept a lot of people quiet.

Seoul in the shadow of the Japan earthquake

There were a lot of nervous people around as events in Japan unfolded after the earthquake and tsunami, given our close proximity in South Korea. The Captain, Gianmario Sanguineti, made a special announcement to assure everyone on board that the situation was being monitored closely and that the safety of everyone on board was his top priority. That meant we made our scheduled port of call at Incheon, the gateway to Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

It's pretty chilly up here at this time of year. Overnight the temperature was just below zero and the forecast was for a maximum of 8C, and we opted for a Regent shore excursion, the Grand Tour of Seoul, one of the complimentary excursions included in the fare.

It was an eight-and-a-half-hour outing with all the highlights of the city, including the National Museum, Insadong Antique Street, Namdaemun Market and perhaps the highlight of the day, the Changing of the Guard at Deoksugung Palace. This has been going on since 1996 and was introduced after thorough historical research to find out exactly how it was carried out.

The ceremony lasts for 30 minutes and is held in front of Daehanmun Gate at Deoksugung Palace. As it begins, the changing of the guards commences, replete with traditional musical instruments, and a password is exchanged for verification. An eight-minute guard ceremony ensues, followed by a seven-minute change ceremony, and finally a patrol that completes the ceremony. The procedure takes a dramatic turn when 18 guards in six official positions beat a drum and bellow some orders.

The Royal Guard-Changing Ceremony is a great opportunity to experience a rare South Korean traditional scene. Be sure to bring a camera. The guards' splendid costumes, with their brilliant colours, are pretty amazing and a photographer's dream.

It was a long day but well worth the effort, even with the cold weather, and this excursion covers off all the best the city has to offer.

Everyone was following the situation in Japan, and it was heartbreaking to watch events unfold over there. At least there had been some good-news stories, with two people pulled from the rubble as I wrote this. We sailed for our last stop, Tianjin for Beijing, hoping more people would be found alive.

Beijing: the Great Wall and the Forbidden City

The last stop on this Sydney–Beijing leg of the World Cruise ended up being the highlight of the whole trip, and that's down to the shore excursion to the imperial city of Beijing. Every shore excursion we picked was included in the FUSE (Free Unlimited Shore Excursions) program, and while they were all really good, this one was outstanding.

It showcased the Great Wall of China, outside Beijing, and the weather was looking threatening as we set out for one of the world's great engineering marvels. We only had just over an hour at the Great Wall, and thankfully the rain held off until about 10 minutes before our scheduled departure.

We got lucky, and by the time we arrived at the next big sightseeing destination, the Forbidden City, the sky had cleared and we had one of those rare deep-blue-sky days in Beijing, which added to the grandeur of the best-preserved imperial palace in China. It was the same when we walked through the world's largest city square, Tiananmen Square, which is bordered by the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.

It was a great way to finish a pretty awesome cruise, and then came the hard part: leaving the Voyager behind and heading home. Nobody to make our beds for us, nobody to cook for us and pamper us, and nobody to do the washing up. Oh well, all good things must come to an end.

More on UTM: Cruising Asia on Regent's Seven Seas Voyager · Regent Seven Seas Voyager · Regent's Seven Seas Voyager: The Ship · The Suite on Regent's Voyager

If a single day at the Great Wall and the Forbidden City leaves you wanting far more of Beijing than one shore excursion allows, Pack Ya Bags arranges tours and itineraries on the ground there for travellers from Australia and New Zealand. Tell us what you'd like to see at info@packyabags.com

Editor's note. This article brings together UTM's original Regent Seven Seas Voyager Sydney to Beijing despatches, first published as a series, into a single piece. Consolidated and fact-checked on 21 September 2026.