Whale Watching Trip on Monterey Bay

The best $50 I spent in two weeks in Santa Cruz. The ride was a little rocky, but actually that was kind of fun, for almost everybody. We saw a terrific show once the mom and baby were spotted several miles into the bay. The baby was flying around like a circus act. Mom breached a few times as well, and it is truly jaw-dropping to see how enourmous and graceful they are. I read in the paper that this year has been very good for the whale watching so I decided this was the time to go, and it was a very good decision.

We got more than we paid for. I'll do it again and again and again!!

Stagnaro's Team was very personable and welcoming, and they were geniunely interested in making the trip a memorable experience. We lucked out, the weather was great and we saw some amazing humpback whales, complete with tail slapping and breaching. We definitely recommend a trip with this Team.

The information material about the different wales could be improved. The crew was informative and friendly.

I took my kids (my wife gets sea sick and stayed home) whale watching on 7/13/10. The crew gets very high marks for finding and giving us time to watch the marine life. The trip was scheduled for 3-4 hours and we used all four watching the animals (Blue and Humpback whales, otters, sea lions, and dolphins). I would have given a perfect score if the boat was a little less crowded - we had a full load. Great trip, good crew, comfortable boat. Recommended!

You've not lived till you've been sprayed by a humpback whale surfacing less than 10 feet from you.

Our scheduled 3 hour trip was extended to 5 hours because even the crew could not believe the sightings; a 4 to 5 hundred member pod of three different types of dolphins that swam with our boat, another eschelon of a fourth type of dolphin, dozens of whales--about 75% humpback whales and 25% blue whales--unbelievable--at times we had panoramic views of these whales with their blow holes spouting all around us--not a bad seat on the boat--one humpback whale was very friendly entertaining us by spouting water on us and displaying himself right next to the boat by rolling in the water, raising his head out of the water to look at us and waving his fins--you had to be there to believe it.

This was the best of the three whale watching tours I've taken. The whales were far off, but the crew extended the trip to make for good watching! Everyone was very friendly, and the trip was quite the success. Great place!

The crew was well organized. We saw a large number of humpbacks and other marine life. Make sure you time your trip for the season. The crew can not control the habits or the sightings....with that said the crew was most informative and worked hard to make sure we had good vantage points when we did see the whales. The outing is advertised as 3-4 hours. I suspect 3 hours when no whales are in sight and 4 hours when they are. We spent 4.75 hours on the boat...tells me the crew is looking after our experience and not worried about being paid by the hour.

I liked the trip. I saw lots of very active humpback whales. I took more than 300 great pictures. I wish we would have spent more time with the whales rather than chasing a blue whale. I did see more whales do more interesting things on this trip than any other I've taken, It was easy to book and a good value.