Princess Monterey Whale Watching Cruises

Whale watching with Princess Monterey Whale Watching was great. I went expecting to see a few whale backs and a couple tails. But instead, I saw at least a dozen, including a whale that jumped fully out of the water and twisted in mid-air close to the boat. It was incredible. I was very surprised and impressed. As for service, it was great the entire time. Staff on-shore were very polite and friendly, and were good at giving clear instructions and safety information regarding the trip. The trip was also fully narrated which I thought made the trip even more worthwhile. I was not disappointed the entire time. But if you're going on the morning trip, remember to wear a lot of layers! It's soooo cold. And bring a lot of film for yoru camera.

It turned out to be a rather windy and cold day (4 to 5 foot swells) for late March. The weather was clear for this 12 o'clock trip. If one lives outside of Monterey, one has to make a commitment some days in advance, not knowing the weather conditions. I found it hard to stand up and take decent pictures because of the rocking boat, although some people seemed to be more successful. Good thing I took Dramamine beforehand! We saw a tremendous number of dolphins but no whale. The captain indicated that he saw one or two whale water spouts, but I believe that was wishful thinking. Maybe some day I will try this again under calmer conditions.

The whale watching was non-existent. However, the worst part was the fact the captain took the boat to extremely rough seas with no explanation or narration. After one hour, at least ten people on the boat became quite sick. The captain ignored this and continued in rough seas only exaserbating the situation. In a futile attempt to find the phantom whales, the captain extended the length of the trip by one hour to three and one half hours even though he was aware of the situation with at least half of his passengers being quite sick. Bottom line; my wife and I have never been as sick we experienced on this trip and we are not novice sailors. Plus no whales were sighted. If I hadn't been as sick as I was, I would have demanded my money back.

Our guide was really great. Funny and knowledgable. She had lots of enthusiasm and mounds of experience. Our captain didn't really go as close to the whales as we'd want him to, another boat was much closer everytime.

Great view of whales, great guides and tons of fun.

The three hour whale watching trip was amazing!!! The crew took us close enough that we could see a group of killer whales hunting sea lions..

Princess Monterey is a great boat with excellent crew. The boat is clean and modern. The crew is polite and helpful.

Although I understand these are wild animals, I would have thought they could have followed the whales better than they did. Still was interesting.

This was a GREAT date with so many exciting sightings! The staff was so friendly and really helped to make the event a special one. The crew is very determined to find whales which made it so exciting. The one thing I feel should be advised more about it sea sickness... Although the crew is so sweet and is constantly checking on people and cleaning up after everyone, it is so easy to get sea sick while the boat is idling for long periods of time. TAKE YOUR DRAMAMINE PEOPLE!!! About half way through the trip, people had to stop watching the whales and head to the back of the boat where all of the sick people go... icky! I think there should be many more warnings to everyone about how common this is each trip. All that aside, this really was a great experience with a very knowledgeable crew. We had a really great time

The boat's facilities are fine, and the crew is really nice. The speaker gave good information on both whales, other animals and the local area. The weather was really rough and everybody was offered to get a refund instead of going out. That is good service.

We saw a humpback after about 45 minutes. It did not come very close, but it didn't matter- to see it dive and the tail fluke come up was amazing! We were very fortunate to see 2 blue whales at the very end of our cruise, too! I would definitely recommend this to anyone- it was a unique and awesome experience! Do make sure you take Dramamine, though.

This was the highlight of our entire trip. We will never forget what a wonderful time we had. We saw humpback whales, dolphins, and sought to find several elusive killer whales. The boat ride was fantastic: we got water in our face and enjoyed the waves! Plus, our guide was just as excited as we were! She was informative and fun. Don't miss this day cruise!

My husband and I enjoyed seeing our first whales. It is definitely a new experience and they are unique creatures. The only thing my husband and I were disappointed in was that once we found the 3 whales we stayed there for the next hour watching those 3 whales, never leaving to find other whales. I guess we expected to search for different groups of whales. We did see a group of dolphins on our way back to shore. That was nice as well. Unfortunately I did get sick (I think because we stayed in one spot rocking back and forth for an hour as I felt comfortable whenever we were moving). The staff was very helpful though with everyone that was sick.

We decided to get out of SF for the weekend and headed to Monterey. The whale watching tour was one of the highlights of our trip! Not only was the staff extremely friendly and informative but we saw a pod of whales and a basking shark on our tour! Highly reccomended way to spend 3 hours. . .

Very friendly staff. All our needs were met from the time we boarded the boat till we returned. Very nice day we left around 10 am and returned around 1:30 pm . The whales came around the boat about 11 am or so. We got so close if we reached over we could have touched them. There were two out of a group of about 6 in the area. they were under and alongside the boat. It was the most amazing trip. The Marine Biologist was very informing. The 25 or so persons on the boat all were able to get up close and personal. I would recommend Princess Monterey Whale Watching Cruise to all and I have. Don Palm Desert Ca.