While we have been on incredible charters in the past with Cape Ann over the years, this was actually the worst experience that we have ever had. We went out on 7/15/22 on the 1:30 pm trip. We brought with us family, (a 22 yr old that is slightly mentally challenged, and his mother), that had never been whale watching. They were both pretty excited, as were we. We talked up Cape Ann up to them quite a bit. We also traveled 7 hrs to get there.
We felt very let down by this experience with Cape Ann this time. The naturalists/ naturalists in training, that usually walk around the boat explaining the whales, and showing the various exhibits they have, did not do that this time. It would have been nice for them to explain things like that to the kids on board/ as well as the mentally challenged adults on board, (which there were quite a few that looked to be high functioning). I know our 22 yr old has the mind of a of a 12 year old, and would have been so excited to learn more about what he was seeing.
The port-a-potties outside of where you check in were completely disgusting, also something we have not experienced with this company before.
And last but not least, the boat was completely full in their words, which Is great for their business. However, their definition of completely full seemed to be pretty overcrowded in our eyes. Excessive is a better word.
Good luck trying to get a glimpse of anything that they happen to see. If you canāt make it to the side of the boat that they are seeing whales on quick enough, you will not be lucky enough to see anything at all. While they do try to make sure that both sides of the boat gets an opportunity to see by turning the boat, the people from the side that saw it first, quickly make their way to the other side as well, and are very pushy in getting a spot to see. If youāre sitting down on the bench on the outer of the boat, you wonāt see anything. Obviously not the boats fault that people today have become so pushy and rude, but it would have been nice if they had made an announcement about common courtesy.
They did however make an announcement about mentally challenged people being on the boat, and that parents should speak to their children about any questions that they had regarding people being different than they were.