Princess Monterey Whale Watching Cruises

my family and I had a wondeful time, the staff was experienced and friendly! It was a great way to spend time with the family

This was a company group event and everyone in our group was very pleased.

This sounded fun, but in reality, it was disappointing. The crew of 2 seemed knowledgeable and were friendly and approachable, but actual sightings are going to depend on a lot of luck. We were taken to an area where there were sightings, and we (and those on another boat) were able to see several spouts. I imagined that we'd actually see the animals, but that wasn't the case. We chose this company based on price, and had no complaints. Others have written reminding potential customers to take motion sickness pills - this saved me that unfortunate discomfort! I would only do this again if there was overwhelming evidence that there were lots of whales and dolphins around, and that they were actually being seen.

We took this tour thinking it would be alot different than what we ended up with. We hit huge swells that sent kids and adults flying and losing their footing. People were throwing up everywhere and we ended up seeing the top of one whale for five seconds...and one dolphin on the way back in. So we basically had a 3 hour rollercoaster ride throwing us back and forth. It was our first night out since we had our baby a year ago so we were highly disappointed.

Like nothing I have ever done or seen. We saw killer whales basically dancing for us. They jumped out of the water, swam upside down, showed off their tails. It was awesome. We also saw grey whales spouting and I even saw a jelly fish float by the boat. Would recommend to any and everyone. you will enjoy. Don't forget to take a motion sickness pill if you need it. dress in layers if you go during the winter spring it gets cooooooold!

This was a disappointing trip. We were told that 99% of the times whales came up to the ship and you could see them. The only thing we saw was the water spout out in the distance. If it had not been that we saw some dolphins, it would have been a complete waste of money.

Do not waste your time and money on this trip. There were 13 people on our trip, the weather was terrible (raining), and the seas were very high. We saw one school of dolphins swimming, and after riding out further in very high seas, we stopped. Our "whale watching" consisted on seeing three spouts of water about 300 yards off that we were told were whales blowing water. We never saw any part of a whale. We stayed parked for about 1/2 hour, then returned to port in very rough seas again. At least 1/2 of the people on this trip were sick from the seas. This was a terrible waste of time and money. Such a shame because many people I know have experienced great whale watching trips.

Thankfully, this wasn't Disney nor Sea World. It's clear that these folks are are very aligned with Monterey Bay Aquarium outlook on ocean tourism.

We sailed on a calm day and were still rocked around the bay and ocean quite a bit. It was good for adults but I would definitely caution against bringing young kids. My kids are 11 and 9 and both of them got rather seasick. If bringing kids, definitely give them motion sickness pills before launching. Besides my son, only one other adult passenger threw up. When we got out into the open ocean, we could see the gray whales coming up to breathe and saw their tail fin when they moved around but it was quite difficult to see. Wished I had brought my binoculars. On our way back, we got a really good look at some dolphins hunting in the bay and that was absolutely awesome. My kids enjoyed that but they didn't see much of the whales. I'm a pilot and I'm used to being bounced around in the air but I'd say that I'd rather experience turbulence in the air any day rather than at sea ... it took quite some concentration to keep from getting seasick. Also, wear waterproof jackets and protect your camera ... as the boat moves, the sea water does get on board and on you. If you get your camera wet, make sure to wipe it down thoroughly or I've been told that it will rust. The people who manage this experience is totally knowledgeable and very helpful when my son got sick. Very nice folks! So, take some motion sickness pills (non-drowsy), dress appropriately, check weather and go on a relatively fair weather day ... also, the morning tour is calmer than the afternoon one.

While we did see a few whales spouting but the true highlight of the trip was "running" with a herd of dolphin. It was the most amazing experience, literally hundreds of dolphin flying through the air and water along side our ship. We'll never forget it!