Melbourne Shore Excursion: Healesville Sanctuary and Puffing Billy Steam Train

Lot of fun. The train was historic and the staff went out of their way to assure your safety and enjoyment. The sanctuary is large, and their staff was also very helpful and informative. I would do this tour again!

We booked this shore excursion as ship couldn’t accommodate us on theirs. It was the best one we took. Kurt was great, everything was wonderful, we enjoyed it so much.

We were able to see wildlife sanctuary's all over NZ and Australia during our cruise and this was the best one. Don't miss the bird show. Train ride is about 20 min. get the right side if you can.

We had to call the company when we could not find the meeting place after leaving the ship. It was in front of the Hobson's Cafe not the entrance to the pier. Would have been nice to know in advance. Nice size group of 8. Steve was our guide and was interesting and did a good job. Puffing Billy was fun. The Healsville Sanctuary was a nice zoo but it would have been better if we had a little more guidance. Lunch was sausages and onions on the grill along with some salads. After lunch we had about 2.5 hours to wander the grounds. The down side of the trip was the failure of the air conditioning on the small van about 45 mins into the tour. Steve did his best at trying to fix it then trying to get us a replacement. In the end we ended up with a very hot ride back to town. We had time for a short tour of Melbourn but it had to be cut short due to the heat.

This was a great excursion all round. A small group, but that was okay. This being my first encounter with the wildlife of Australia especially when I first saw my first kangaroo what I thought was a kangaroo was actually a wallabee. I took a lot of picture of the wallabee. Our tour guide, Steve left the group to go explore the sanctuary on our own giving us direction where to go and what to look ,while he goes to prepare our barbecue lunch. While we walking we encounter the koalas in cage doing their own thing - sleeping, sitting on a branch, - great photo opportunities. Lunch consisted of sausage and bun and salad was good. We were then told to go see the Spirits in the Sky Bird Show, this was a great show, as we saw many species of birds that are here in Australia. Wow the birds showed off what each bird were known for. The show was very entertaining. Next it was the World of Platypus show. Another interesting show and I learned a lot of facts about the platypus. When we were done with the Healesville Sanctuary, we were driven to where the Puffing Billy Steam Train ride was. This was a fun ride and the scenery was great as we rode the train. I would recommend this excursion for those visiting Australia.

Great guide. Nice man. The only thing he needs is a little stool for older folks to step out of van.

The sanctuary was large and nice, with opportunity to feed a parrot and see a wombat up close. Best part was BBQ by our tour guide, Garth - yummy! The train was a non-event as it was very short and just seemed to go through people's back yards. It is open air, but does not go very fast to provide any cooling breezes. We got a bit of a tour through Melbourne too, which was nice.

The Healesville Sanctuary was fantastic, however, the train ride on Puffing Billy was so short and covered nothing interesting to see. Our driver/guide had limited knowledge of anything beyond the specific things included on the excursion and spent most of the driving portion being silent.

This was a fantastic day made all the more enjoyable by our guide Steve. Healesville Sanctuary was enjoyable and the BBQ lunch cooked by Steve a great experience. The train ride was fun and Steve then took us to feed Cockatoos which was a fun photo opportunity.

Our guide was 1 hour late picking us up but made up for it with an unscheduled stop at a bird place. Although we had "special reserved seating" we were all facing the wrong side of the train so missed many of the best views. Also, they failed to accommodate my special meal request.

We had a good time on this trip. If you ride on the train be sure to get on the right side. Our guide told us to ride on that side and he was correct. The Sanctuary was very nice and the only disappointment was the lunch because some wires got crossed and we didn't get the BBQ. He got us back to town early so we also got a tour of the city which was a nice plus. He had WIFI in the vehicle and I do wish that I had known ahead of time because I would have brought my IPAD.

This was a fantastic excursion. Our Bunyip tours guide was great!!. The Puffing Billy train was a lot of fun. Healesvile was amazing with lots of koalas and kangaroos. Our barbecue lunch was delicious.

Steve was a great tour guide. Great tour half the price of the ship

The attractions were simply OK. The train ride was very brief and the Sanctuary while good was overrated. The tour was poorly organized from the start with half the group not knowing where to meet the bus resulting in a 30 minute delayed start. It was difficult to hear the guide who provided very little information about Melbourne. To make things worse, he had problems navigating late afternoon traffic and we were late in arriving at the port.

The Healesville Sanctuary and the Puffing Billy Steam Train ride were great.
What was not great was the company setting this all up and providing transportation!!!
They are not visible at the ship dock!!!! My sister stayed on the phone with them for over 30min trying to connect with the driver. They seem very disorganized!!! No sign. They said - we are looking for you. How do they even know who we are????? And then the driver barely got us back in time before ship sailinglike 10min. He kept letting off passengers instead of taking us to our ship and then dropping them off. Not impressed!!!

A long, long day with a boring driver not a guide. Puffing billy is a waste of time. And the Sanctuary is a paltry excuse for a zoo.

Our guide was great, the sanctuary gave us an up close and personal look at

kangaroos.

One of the highlights of our vacation

Steve Andrew is a first class tour guide. He went out of his way to ensure that we saw as much as possible.
Puffing Billy Steam Train is fun and the scenery is beautiful.
But nothing can compare with the Sanctuary . Fantastic.
We have already commented that the only thing we were disappointed with is that you advised us to wait for our guide at 0830. So we were down at the port waiting from 0815 and he only arrived at 0930. That was after we spent almost $20 on phone calls (we have an overseas phone line) trying to locate someone in your company to determine what was happening. We almost gave up and went on another tour.

Lovely day in the Dandenongs. Puffing Billy train was a fun trip. Healesville had a great variety of animals