We were overall quite disappointed with our stay on Wilson Island. After months of planning and getting excited over the very positive reviews, our expectations were quite high for this experience. The day started with lots of travel between the flight to Gladstone, then the 2.5 hour ferry to Heron, followed by a 3+ hour wait on Heron, and finally a 45 minute ferry to Wilson.
While we were forced to wait for several hours on Heron Island (supposedly for the tide to lower, though on the return they said they needed it to be high tide, so we were quite dubious of this reasoning), we tried some of the very expensive, very bad food. It was quite disappointing that for the all inclusive and expensive experience we purchased, we were stuck waiting on Heron and lunch was not included while we had to wait. When it was finally time to head to the boat that would take us to Wilson, we were told we would have to wait another half an hour, again supposedly for the tide, though tides should be extremely predictable, so this did not make much sense. Finally, when we got on the boat we discovered that some of our bags did not make it during the transfer, so the staff had to run back and get them. It would have been quite disastrous had we not noticed and mentioned it.
Once we finally got to Wilson things were a bit smoother and we made the best of the time we had there, the island itself was absolutely beautiful and peaceful and it was incredible to see the turtles laying their eggs. We were a little disappointed by the lack of privacy that the actual tents have, as they are quite close together and the patios are visible to each other, but it overall ended up being okay.
One thing we wish we would have been let known about ahead of time, is that all meals are served at a large table with all the other guests. While this is not necessarily a dealbreaker, it would have been nice to know this ahead of time, as I was not expecting to have all my meals with all the other couples each and every day. That said, breakfast, lunch, and dinner each day was beautifully presented and quite delicious. Although, again, we were disappointed by the happy hour platter. Every day it was simply a cheese plate with the same exact content. When we had done research on Wilson Island, we had seen advertisements of "seafood platters" and were excited for this, but ultimately disappointed that this was seemingly false advertising.
In terms of the service, the staff on Wilson Island were very helpful, professional, kind and lovely to chat with. We found the staff on Heron Island during our brief period to be very unprofessional.
Overall, we ended up having an okay experience, but for the cost, travel time, and coordination required to make this happen during out trip, we would not necessarily do it again, nor recommend it to others.
