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Shared Two-Hour Whale Watching Tours from Oceanside, CA

Shared Two-Hour Whale Watching Tours from Oceanside, CA

Overview

Your guide will tell you about the history of Oceanside, CA as you travel to see marine life. Your boat is equipped with dolphin and whale information, fun facts and photos of recent sightings. The tours are two hours and are great for families, couples, private parties and corporate events. For anyone and everyone who loves the ocean or the wildlife we may encounter, our adventure is perfect!

City: Carlsbad

Thu 26 Sep

Other dates

You can choose the date already on the booking website

Starting at $57.00

Make a reservation

Thu 26 Sep

Starting at $57.00

Make a reservation

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What's Included

Local guide and professional guide

Cruise

Additional Info

Wheelchair accessible
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
Suitable for all physical fitness levels
On board, you will find a snack and beverage cash only bar (additional expense)

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Traveler Photos

Reviews (536)

swttrish53

Jun 2021

This was so fun! I took my mom and daughter here and they didn’t stop smiling the entire time. We will be doing it again! You also can’t beat the price either. Was a pretty inexpensive way to connect with dolphins!

Response from Host

Jun 2021

We are so happy to hear you had a fun time with the dolphins! Thank you so much and we hope to see you again.

Guesswho8thecake

Jun 2021

I would not recommend this tour. Of the 24 guests on our excursion I counted 10 that were actively vomiting. I present this feedback to two audiences. First, to customers looking for a whale watching cruise to have a better understanding of what the experience is like to make informed decisions, and second, to the cruise operators to make improvements to things in their control. I have been on a handful of whale watching cruises and loved the others, and I have tempered expectations of what wildlife will actually be seen. I didn’t expect to actually see whales, despite the operators insistence that whales were plentiful. Every other local we spoke with told us whale season was done. I think their advertisements of what whales they “recently” saw takes some liberties. The cruise began on a vessel I would describe as a large pontoon boat with immensely uncomfortable seats, though I thought little of that, as I anticipated (and was mistaken) that most of the time I would be standing and roaming around looking at the wildlife. As we departed the harbor we passed by a buoy marker and the crew made one of the very few announcements they made the entire trip, to inform us that normally this marker is covered with sea lions, but because sea lions actually get sea sick when the waves are large, the sea lions are not on the marker today. This should have been a clear warning to everyone, that when the sea life, who live in the sea, get sea sick on a particular day, a sightseeing cruise may not be the best idea. This thought crossed my mind as the large pontoon boat steered directly into the waves, rose up, crashed down and repeated the process. My youngest child feared for his life and spend almost the entire two hour cruise clutched with his head embedded into an adults shoulder. So much for the $44 fee for that child (of which, there is no children’s discount at this time… despite a full boat apparently Covid is a good excuse to gouge passengers). With every crest of a wave and crash down into the valley between, water rushed over the bow. “If you sit in the front you may get some mist” was the warning the crew gave earlier to those daring enough to sit in the front 30% of the pontoon boat. A little mist seemed an understatement for those drenched in icy water and for the tsunami that flowed across the deck from the bow to the stern. I was one of the lucky ones, as all but my shoes were wet. At this point, my youngest child was convinced we were going to sink. While I whole heartedly believed we would not, or at least I comforted myself in knowing that there were life guards on the distant beach that hopefully had binoculars to witness a potential sinking and retrieve us from the frigid grips before hypothermia could set in, there were other adults on this voyage who agreed more with my youngest child than with my optimism. It felt like we had been at sea all day, only to check the time and find out it had been the longest 15 minutes of my life. Sometime in the first 30 minutes of this ride I noticed a woman scrambling to help another passenger. I will call her the Angel. I believed at first she was one of the crew members trying to help a passenger who succumbed to the rocking motion of the pontoon boat, but later I was reassured the Angel was another $44 paying guest. There was a delay between this first ill traveler and the second ill traveler, but after the second one there was a new ill traveler about every 5 minutes, and by ill traveler I mean actively vomiting. One was given a bucket that the Angel found behind the deserted concession stand (a tangent, every other cruise I have been on made a point to call out that there was concessions onboard and when it would be available, nothing was said on this ride), another went behind the concession counter to vomit into a waste basket there, another found a trash can on the deck, a few vomited over the side, a couple seemed to have found bags to vomit in, and one tried to use the bathroom to vomit in. Tried to use the bathroom I say because the door would not stay closed. The poor passenger looked to another, unrelated passenger, and asked if she could hold the door closed for her. Of course, I don’t know why she felt the need to be modest as many passengers were right out there in the public vomiting, but none the less. Most passengers were able to vomit into something, thankfully, except for one older child who, in the rush to the bucket, wasn’t able to hold it all back until reaching the bucket. The Angel did her best to check in with those nearest her, I think she was attending to 5-6 people, locating paper towels, gloves, and passing the waste baskets around to those that looked the nearest an eruption. Where was the crew during all of this? You might guess helping the passengers that the Angel could not reach, but you would be wrong. I think he was in the pilot house sometimes, other times he was standing towards the bow with his arms crossed looking fiercely across the open ocean, as if in a standoff with each crashing wave, daring the ocean to get the best of him. I thought perhaps he was unaware of those falling ill around him, but at one point he must have decided his standoff with the sea was getting too much, as he moved behind the concession stand counter, and in the process, he had to finagle himself through the congregating pukers, and even told them they needed to move so he could get to his new perch. Was he moving to find something to mitigate the growing mass of sick around him? Perhaps find more bags? Paper towels? A ginger ale? No. He did nothing. The Angel had to repeatedly ask for an empty cup so that she could offer sips of her own bottle of water to those in need. The crew member, whether he truly could not hear and understand the Angel over the retching around him, or through shear neglect for humanity, he offered nothing and it was left to the Angel to find what she thought would be helpful. I overheard two captives, er, I mean passengers, ask how many people need to be throwing up for the pontoon to turn back to the harbor, and I heard this crew members reply, “this is just part of being on the water.” This may have been the longest two hour period of my life, capstoned by the crew member offering a coupon for a free drink with the purchase of a meal, which, I’m certain there must have been at least one person who dizzily wobbled off that pontoon boat thinking the best thing for them now is a big meal and a free alcoholic beverage, but it was not I. I could have overlooked much of it. It isn’t the pontoon operators fault that the sea was rough, that people threw up, and that we saw no whales (I think I may have seen dolphins, but I wasn’t sure if it was that or flying emesis), but there is a lot that the operators need to work on to help prevent and deal with situations like these. • $44 for an off season whale watching cruise seemed really overpriced. I guess we decided to pay for convenience of location rather than travel to a cheaper location. In hindsight, knowing it wasn’t whale season anymore, and so many other reasons, $44 feels like a rip off. Especially since they currently offer no child discount. I understand Covid has been hard. This was a stretch for us to pay, for many families that price is just too high. • There is a no canceling, no refunds policy, and pre-purchase is required. If we had been told that the waves would make this a questionable day to attempt this, we would have canceled it. • The boat itself has very uncomfortable seating. • The bathroom door would not stay closed. • Concessions, even in the remote chance anyone actually could have put something into their mouth, were advertised online, but not really available on board. • The crew was beyond oblivious to the discomfort of the passengers. At a minimum, offer some vomit bags to people. I expected when people started falling ill that the crew would have a little packet to hand out with some ginger chews or gum, a small bottle of water or ginger ale, a plastic vomit bag, and perhaps have available (to purchase even) some wrist bands, sun glasses, Dramamine, or what not. I looked to the crew to be the experts of the ocean and offer suggestions to help, even if only for a placebo effect. • When you reach a limit of, say 25-30% of your passengers actively vomiting, cut the tour short, and even if you won’t, at least acknowledge the illness on the pontoon, a simple “let me make sure the captain is aware for you,” would have felt so much better to everyone rather than being told, essentially, that we signed up for this. • Fix the bathroom door. • Acknowledge how horrible the trip was. I don’t expect an apology, and I didn’t expect reparations, but I did expect the crew to acknowledge how difficult that trip was and then offer some suggestions to recuperate. With the attitude of the crew and operators I was left believing that the experience I had was normal, and of course, if that is the case I would recommend no one ever go on this cruise. • While I didn’t expect free tickets out of this, I know that many times this operator gives out free tickets when a whale was not seen, but I’m guessing because of Covid the owners don’t want to risk losing any potential penny, but it would have been a nice gesture at least given there was so much vomiting. • Do not offer a coupon for a free drink with the purchase of a meal to people actively vomiting. • I see in many reviews in the past the loud music was a complaint. I’m happy to report there was no loud music. That would have been awful. But, I did expect narration and there was none, except to tell us the sea lions are not out because they could get sea sick, and to point out the dolphins. Tell us about the area, about the town, the pier, the history of the region, of California a little. The Spanish, the missions, the gold rush and how all that impacted the development, the coastline, and the wildlife. For crying out loud, tell us about the whales, even if we don’t see them, tell us about the different kinds, how they are different, why they travel through, where they come from, where they go, whale hunting, whale preservation- something, anything would have been nice to get our minds off vomiting, make the two hours pass quicker, and make us feel like our $44 per person actually paid for some value.

Response from Host

Jun 2021

We apologize that our Whale Watching trip did not satisfy your expectations. We set a high standard for our trips and are truly sorry to hear that standard was not met in your interaction with our business. While the weather can be a factor on some trips , occasionally it may get a little rougher after we leave the dock and on the rare occurrence when that happens we are unable to offer any remedy such as sea sick pills after we have left the dock. Sometimes we do offer ginger tablets and I will make sure that we have plenty of those on board. Thanks again for your feedback

Robert_K

May 2021

What a wonderful cruise. Saw hundreds of dolphin pods. Hump back whales. It was a great enjoyable day. Thank you so much to the crew