| Rating |
Date Attended [v] |
Reviewer |
Gender |
Age |
Where From? |
Group Type? |
|
The good and the bad.
|
| Tue, Apr 3, 07 10:00 AM |
jthawkins |
Female |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| Our marine biologist was humorous and informative and got our trip off to a great start. We were only 20 minutes into the trip when we saw a couple of glimpses of a humpback whale. That was exciting, but the sighting was so brief that videotaping or taking pictures was impossible. We then cruised around for almost an hour before a quick sighting of a gray whale. This also was very brief and a blink of an eye or if you were on the wrong side of the boat, the experience would have been lost. Out of probably 50 passengers, there were 5 or 6 who got seasick. These passengers spent most of the trip on the back of the boat, looking pretty green and missing all the sightings. My teenage daughter thoroughly enjoyed the trip and got great views of the whale sights. My teenage son was one of the ones who were sick and missed all the sightings. My husband and I felt alittle queasy, and got a glimpse of the humbback. We were there in April, so sightings were not very numerous anyway. If I were to do it again, it would have to be peak season for seeing the whales. |
|
Didn't see any whales
|
| Mon, Apr 2, 07 10:00 AM |
dgical831 |
Unspecified |
20-29 |
Local |
Couple on a Date |
| Didn't get to see any whales but we did get to see lots of dolphins. |
|
A great experience!!
|
| Mon, Apr 2, 07 10:00 AM |
brgoddardnc |
Male |
40-49 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| One of our goals in coming to Monterey was to go on a whale watching cruise and hopefully see a whale - this has been a long time dream for my wife.
Benji (the owner), CAPT Leon and Katherine (marine biologist) were all incredible. Benji was very personable, professional and enthusiastic. CAPT Leon was the consummate professional in his handling of the Princess Monterey. Katherine was incredible exuberant and knowledgeable about the local marine environment (if you go listen closely to her introduction and see if you catch the reference to "whale cheetos" - she definitely has a sense of humor).
We ended up going three times in the week we were in Monterey and enjoyed each trip immensely. The Princess Monterey is well equipped, maintained and it's size allows it to handle sea states that smaller vessels cannot. And, yes, we saw whales (humpback, gray and orca) as well as a group of about 2,000 dolphins.
I would enthusiastically recommend this group to anyone. The only caveat is, as with any whale watching cruise, you may or may not see a whale up close. As one of the marine biologists explained think of it as "dropping in" on the whales - you never know what they may be doing. |
|
|
No whales!
|
| Sun, Apr 1, 07 10:00 AM |
naco187 |
Male |
20-29 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| I enjoyed the ride but i was disappointed because i did not to see any whales. Oh well, maybe next time i'll have better luck. |
|
total rip off.. both zerve and princess monterey
|
| Sat, Mar 31, 07 1:00 PM |
vpulipati |
Male |
30-39 |
Local |
Family Without Children |
| We used Zerve to buy tickets for whale watching in Monterey (Princess Monterey Whale Watching). When we booked the tickets, Zerve showed "sold out" for the timings we actually preferred so we booked on the next available boat (in the afternoon). When we arrived at the pier, we were shocked to learn that the actual ticket prices were cheaper than what we paid on Zerve. Besides, they were offering an extra $5 discount per ticket at the pier because there were hardly any people on the boat. They were trying to sell very hard, checking with each and everyone passing by with the discount flyers. We asked them if they would give us the discount because we didn't get any online. Not only their response was "NO", they were rude with "don't care" attitude.
Despite delaying the boat by 30 min waiting for more people, the boat was less than 20% full. This was end of March and the season for whale watching was just starting. I really doubt the other trips that day were sold out. They probably have cut-off time to buy online after which they just say "sold out".
Now to the worse part- the boat went for about 20 min into the ocean and turned back towards the shore. They said they got a hotline message that 2 whales were spotted behind, so they turned back. They drove back almost half the distance, and circled around in the same area for about 15 min. There was one whale, but it never really popped above the water. We only saw a gush of its breathing out.. just one gush! Nothing seen for another 10 min. We thought they would go back into the ocean, but they actually drove back to the shore which was just 10 min away from there. They said "sorry folks, that's all you get to see sometimes". I know you are never guaranteed of seeing whales, but we felt that they did not try enough. I had done whale watching couple of times before and both the times they took us well into the ocean and we saw whales really good. One time we saw dolfins as well.. hundreds of them! I think if you go far enough the chances of seeing something are high.
Basically our trip pretty much sucked, and the experiences with both Zerve and Pricess Monterey were awful. I guess online booking was a bad idea for whale watching. We could've saved about $8 per person if we went and bought directly at the pier.
|
|
|
We had a Whale of a time!
|
| Sat, Mar 31, 07 10:00 AM |
aydrian |
Female |
30-39 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family With Children |
| Amazing time! The tour guide was entertaining and very knowledgeable. I would recommend this company to everyone. |
|
|
Awesome experience!!!!
|
| Sat, Mar 31, 07 10:00 AM |
143sizz |
Male |
20-29 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Family Without Children |
| I have never been on a boat before so I was a little nervous going out to sea but I had an amazing time. We got to see a lot of marine life including whales, dolphins, birds, sea lions and more. We took some great pictures. Even though I got a little sea sick because Ive never been on the ocean before I still loved it. It was an amazing experience I'll never forget. |
|
|
Large Boat, Lots of Whales
|
| Fri, Mar 30, 07 1:00 PM |
Brandy933 |
Male |
40-49 |
Unspecified |
Unspecified |
| Great |
|
|
An ok experience
|
| Thu, Mar 29, 07 1:00 PM |
kpgenius05 |
Male |
20-29 |
Domestic Tourist(s) |
Couple on a Date |
| Boat was nice but you can save $5 and get a better deal by not purchasing tickets ahead of time (purchase tickets at the boat...not online). Also, if you do book on-line don't count on starting your whale trip at the designated time (we left 45 minutes late). We did see whales (March of 2007) but never came very close at all to any of them. I understand there are government regulations but making efforts to get a little closer than like two football feilds away would have been nice. |
|
|
Enthusiastic crew, great viewing of marine life
|
| Mon, Mar 26, 07 10:00 AM |
Klapholz |
Female |
50-59 |
Combination |
Family Without Children |
| Smooth sailing, comfortable boat, we saw about 10 grey whales, sea lions, otters & birds, including a few albatrosses. Very enthusiastic informative naturalist (Catherine) and friendly crew. Good choice for adults and children. |
