I had arrived to Friday Harbor early morning to find a morning tour. It was my fault I waited until last minute but it was last minute decision to go to San Juan and I wanted to try to see orcas! It was on my bucket list. I know mother nature is unpredictable and I understand there was a chance I would not see them, but a few things happened before that just made the day start off on the wrong foot. It shows on google maps that they are open 6 am everyday and actually they did not open until 7:50 am. If the time is not correct they need to contact google to correct it. I went into the store at that time and asked the girl at the counter if there was a morning sailing. She gave me a dirty look and said that no that all their tours started at 1 pm. I asked her if there was anyone else in town that I could contact since really wanted to try in the morning, she said no that most everyone leaves at 1 pm so I left and was going to call a few other places that opened at 8 am and 9 am. I had not realized at the time that I had called the night before and left a message, so not 5 minutes after I left I get a call from them telling me they have space for 10 am. When I walk in and see the same girl that said there was no space she said she did not know there was space when she had spoken to me 10 minutes before. I asked about orcas and they said that yes there was a very good chance and they had put on a show the day before. So I decided to put the earlier interaction behind me. I was excited again but midway through I started to get discouraged. It seemed that were very focused on humpback whales since we would stay in a spot when we spotted a humpback and lingered a bit too long for my taste. I had seen humpbacks in the past, and this one was nothing special since the two that we spotted just would go in and out a few times. I was a bit suspicious when we would spotted the whale, it would surface briefly and then go back down, they can go down for about 10 minutes at a time, we did this 3-4 times, you can do the math, we lingered too long! It felt like they were buying time since they knew there were no orcas. Even the other folks on the ship started to ask about seeing orcas after we saw another humpback come up and we were waiting and getting impatient. Like I said I know it is unpredictable but I think the whole morning interaction left a sour taste and not seeing an orca made it worse. Not sure if that vessel is the best for long distances and maybe a bit more guidance for those not from the area can help. Try Maya Legacy - later I spoke to a local person and she was excited about going on a tour with them for the 3rd time. She said they were knowledgeable of the area and the photography was great! Wish I had known that before I booked with them.
Response from Host
Jun 2017
Hi Janine,
Thanks for your review and letting us know we did not meet your expectations. As the owner of San Juan Safaris, we do not guarantee whale sightings but we do guarantee you will have a great experience and it sounds like we failed in your case.
In the future I would ask you to please contact the owners or manager on site to express your disappointment and we are always happy to meet your expectations whether that is a refund, or free pass for a future trip. As you can see from our ratings, we have only 2 āterribleā and 322 āexcellentā reviews, so I hope that demonstrates to you that your experience was an anomaly and that we want to make it right.
To your specific trip. We do not guarantee sightings of specific species. Iām sorry you were disappointed to see Humpback Whales. Sometimes there is only one species around, and not seeing Orcas has nothing to do with the amount of research and effort that goes into every trip. There simply were no Orcas within range of our boat, arguably the fastest and therefore vessel with the most range from the San Juan Islands. You mentioned in your review to āTry Mayas Legacyā. Since you did not see Orcas I recognize you are disappointed, but that does not mean another company does a better job. As a matter of fact I had the same conversation with Mayas Legacy guests 3 days ago who did not see Orcas on Mayas Legacy on Sunday but saw them on our boat Monday night. Itās all up to chance, and we cannot control wildlife sightings. My colleagues at Mayas do a great job, as do we at San Juan Safaris. Sometimes our boats donāt see Orcas. How we communicate with our guests those chances and doing the best job we can is what we do. We can only do the best job that we can, be honest with our customers, and make the best effort to educate about ecosystem and species conservation.
I hope after youāve heard this explanation youāll contact me and give us another opportunity to show you Orcas in the wild.
Thanks for your consideration, and I look forward to speaking with you.
Sincerely,
Brian Goodremont
San Juan Safaris
Owner | Captain