Whale Watching Trip on Monterey Bay

Crew on the Velocity is great and knows where the whales are. Started out from the harbor seeing Sea Otters and Sea Lions. On the way out to open waters, we saw dolphins, schools of jelly fish and then spotted our first whale - a Magnificent Blue Whale! After following it for a while, we moved on further out and came across a bunch of Humpback's that kept us busy on the other end of the shutter. Great pictures of flukes, mouth- fulls of krill and full body shots right next to our vessel. Lastly, got some good shots of a Black Footed Albutros. Would definintely whale watch again with this experienced crew.

Friendly, informative and helpful crew. Reasonably priced food and snacks on sale. We were lucky enough to see a Blue Whale and several Humpback Whales, the latter coming very close to the boat. In part this accounts for the five star rating we've given and this I guess could have been different, however I've told it as it was for us on the day. Would highly recommend this trip for any family with kids, this has been a highlight of our trip to California.

We recently moved to the area, so the cruise with our Chicago friends introduced us all to Whale Watching on Monterey Bay. The two crew members were extremely helpful and gave lots of great information. The sea was really rolling, so one of our party was slightly sea-sick. Aside from that and the thick marine layer, we loved the cruise. We were in the middle of several groups of humback whales and were amazed at the size of the animals.

We had an amazing excursion! The crew is friendly, highly skilled, and very knowledgable about marine life. We had multiple sightings of a variety of dolphin species as well as numerous humpback whales, including a friendly group that circled the boat for some time. I would highly recommend this group to anyone! We fully intend to book again when we return to the area!!

This tour is definitely worth it! The day we went, we spent 4 hours out on the water and saw quite a few humpback whales, a whole lot of dolphins, and some sea lions out in the waters. There were friendly humpbacks that circled really close to the boat for nearly an hour! They were so close we got sprayed multiple times. Some dolphins also swam alongside our ship. I didn't realize how close we would get to the animals! We got some amazing photos. And the guides were amazing and helpful. I definitely recommend this trip, and can't wait to go again - maybe next time I'll get to see the humpbacks breaching!

First we watched at sea lions and then we went further into the ocean, maybe 20 minutes with the boat, before we saw the first two whales. We stayed with them for some time and then decided to look for other, more active whales... We have seen two other pairs of whales and at the end a group of four whales, which was quite active.... It was fun! It's cold out there and very windy, take a jacket, even in the summer!

I write my revieuw in dutch: We hebben genoten; Om zo van dichtbij de walvissen in de oceaan te zien was geweldig! Wat voel je je dan klein wanneer je die enorme beesten ziet. De kapitein en zijn crew gaan op een respectvolle manier om met de mensen aan boord maar ook met de walvissen! Ze geven een uitgebreide uitleg over wat je ziet! Wij zouden graag nog eens met ze mee gaan.

I have gone fishing before with a group of people but never seen the whale go by us. With this Whale watching trip, we were very excited to see the whale in action for the first time. They are amazing animals. Perhaps next year, we will go again and hopefully see the humpack whale. The narration helped a lot in understanding some of the sea life and most especially the whale life. Thank you Stagnaro's team for the tour. We loved it.

Thanks to the Stagnaro family and staff for the wonderful service you provided and continue to provide, and A SUPER THANKS for an experience of a lifetime! A special thanks for Mike in the gally for wonderful hot chocolate and the kind words about my special needs children. We lucked out and were able to see several Humpacks feeding on Krill, Risso's dolphins, harbor porpoises, sea otters, sea lions and either a sunfish or a shark. I would go back and do this again! I've posted my pics to facebook and have had a lot of positive comments and people saying they will add this trip as a must do.

This was a stand out highlight of our three weeks around Santa Cruz - amazingly close up to the whales and very interesting and helpful commentary.