Princess Monterey Whale Watching Cruises

We saw blue whales!!!!

My guests and I were very pleased with our whale watch tour on the Monterey Bay on August 2, 2008. I was accompanied by my fieds from Quebec Province on the Eastern seacoast of Canada. We only saw one Humpback whale but were lucky to see an hour long performance due to the skill and prowess of the Princess Monterey captain. The captain was very diligent in his maneuvering of the ship to follow, at the safest distance, the spectacular show presented by the humpback whale. We were presented with both spouting and flipper maneuvers by the humpback. Truly, these are special creatures and deserve all the protection that mankind can give to them!!! Thank you for a lifelong memory!!! car

Well, you should be a Natl. Geographic enthisiast to enjoy this trip. On August 2, our friends group took the 10AM trip. The captain maintained the boat in a very good position and we had 3 or 4 amazing views of a Hump Back whale. Seriously I think we were lucky to even get that close to the whale. By the time we spotted the whale there are 3 boats already circling the whale and we are the 4th one. The weather was foggy and we were informed that the experience would be all too different and good in non foggy conditions. Through out our trip (about 7 or 8 miles in to the ocean) we spotted sea lions playing and following the boat. It would have been nice if we spooted dolphins or more whales.

We saw at least 7 humpback whales...one even breached and did some flipper-slapping for us! Also dolphins, and sea lions. The crew was friendly and knowledgeable.

I recently went on the Ecotour with my husband and teenage son and had an absolutely fantastic trip. When my oldest son decided to honeymoon in Monterey I bought them tickets for the ecotour. They also had a great time and was excited with all of the whale sightings they had!!!!!

As part of a three week touring holiday we booked the whalewatching trip on the Princess Monterey via the internet; it was really important that everything went smoothly as our schedule only allowed for one afternoon in Monterey. Great to arrive after a long drive to be greeted by helpful and cheerful staff who had all our booking details. The boat was in very good condition, clean and well staffed. Unfortunately the naturalist was unavailable that day but the captain gave lots of information about the bay and its wildlife. It was a breezy day so not a very calm sailing but we felt in good hands as we headed out to sea - we knew there had been whale sightings earlier that day but for a long time we didn't see anything. As he searched the waters the captain told us about whale behaviours and explained where he was going and why. We were eventually rewarded by several excellent views of hump back whales making this one of the best trips we have ever been on and a highlight of our USA holiday. Highly recommended!

REally good trip!

Great experience.

We had a great time. The captain did a fine job keeping in contact with other whale watching boats and taking us to productive spots. The spirit of cooperation between different whale watching charters regarding positioning of boats and sharing locations was very nice to observe. Our naturalist was very informative and exuberant and made it a lot of fun.

Just the right length (3 hours) to see the whales and the dolphins. Well organized, enough information during the trip to better understand what we were looking at.

Our family(2 adults, 3 kids) had a wonderful time and were thrilled to see humpback whales and dolphins. We saw the whales breeching several times, jump twice, and we even saw a mother and her calf. This was one of the highlights of our roadtrip from Michigan to San Francisco. We were very impressed with Katherine's knowledge of all the birds, dolphins, and whales, and it really helped us to know what we were looking at. I would not hesitate to recommend this company and would take another trip with them again in the future!

It was an awesome experience. My son and I thoroughly enjoyed this trip. We saw several hump back whales, dolphins, sea lions and sea otters. I highly recommend wearing several layers of clothes. Even in the middle of summer, it was really cold on the water. I recommend either not eating beforehand or taking some sea sick pills. I was slightly affected by some nausea, but never had to take a trip to the back of the boat, if you know what I mean! The crew was very informative, helpful and pleasant. It was well worth the cost.

We enjoyed the courtesy of the crew and the comfort of your boat, but we thought the naturalist describing the "action" was much too chatty. In my opinion, one needs more time to just see and even hear the whales without the running dialogue over a loudspeaker. Less talk. Also, I'm not sure if Calif. laws prohibit getting too close to the whales, but our east coast experiences with whale watching (Maine, Canada) provided many more opportunities to get much closer to the whales, allowing for more photo ops. This was our first opportunity to see humpback whales and it was relatively disappointing. Thank you for providing the opportunity for feedback.

We enjoyed this trip very much, as we saw some hump backs and some dolphins. We would like it if the boat could come a little closer to the whales so we could see better, as the crowds near the railings made it hard to see some times. Is it possible for people to go up one more level where the tour guide was? Thanks, Beverly Magida

Didn't realize that our time on the boat would mostly be spent getting to & from the whale watching area. It would have been good to know before hand approximately how much time would actually be spent out in the watching area. The Naturalist and the Sighting Board near the boarding area led us to believe that we'd see more whales than we did. We also expected the boat to get a bit closer to them. We realize that there are limits to how close boats can legally go. However, other boats that were out there seemed closer to them than our boat. We needed binoculars to get a good look. On the plus side, the Naturalist's enthusiasm was great and she seemed very knowledgeable. The boat was not too crowded. It would have been nice to have some seating in the stern area.