My husband, sister, brother-in-law, niece (12yrs) and I did the 9AM whale watching tour with Discovery Whale Watch.
Everything about the trip was incredible. Yes, we did see a lot of animals. Sea otters, sunfish, sea lions, jellyfish, humpback whales, blue whales, and orcas (pod CA51)! Of course you never know which day what animal or how many you will see. I've whale watched before, but this was my first time seeing orcas.
There were people who got seasick on this trip. If you don't know if you will be sick or not I'd take something just in case. Luckily nobody in my group got seasick and we were able to enjoy the experience.
We were given educational information about what we were seeing during the trip. The speakers on the boat worked well and I was able to hear our guide the entire time from anywhere I went on the boat. The captain kept us nice and close (as close as allowed) to the animals which helped us get great shots.
The day of our trip was the same day as the Monterey Bay marathon. This made things difficult getting to the wharf and finding parking as most roads and parking areas were closed. Once we got parked it was difficult to find out how to get on the opposite side of the race. We called Discovery and they helped us locate parking that was reachable and held the boat so everyone would be able to make the trip. The boat ended up leaving 20 minutes late, but that was not Discovery's fault and I am grateful they waited for those of us who had difficulty getting to the boat on time.
The boat was not overly crowded and looking at some of the other boats on the water that were much fuller I was very grateful to have picked Discovery Whale Watch.