Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari — Attraction in Waitematā

Our tour in mid Nov was cancelled due to weather conditions out at sea. I fully understand that this tour is dependent on weather conditions and am not in the least upset at the cancellation per se. What was upsetting, however, is the lack of communication from the company. We only found out the tour was cancelled when no staff appeared at 10 minutes before the tour time (which was the time instructed to us to report at) and we called the number on the board there to make sure we were at the right place. The staff on the line informed us of the cancellation and claimed they had tried to contact us the day before to no avail. We accepted the explanation then, but the thing is, within the next 15 min, more couples/groups/families came approaching us since they were all actually waiting around too, and could see our shocked and disappointed look after getting off the phone, as we stood right beside the Auckland Whale & Dolphin Safari signboard and boat. One by one, they started to say they were all there for the same 10.30am tour, and was wondering what was happening after they saw us on the phone. They were all equally shocked to hear us state that it has been cancelled, and ALL of them stated they never received any communication about any cancellation (obviously, since they all turned up for it). In total there were at least 5 other groups affected, and uninformed. Even if the weather conditions were only known that morning itself, even some communication on that same morning would be better than none, as that would have allowed us to make new plans for our day ahead earlier. Mind you, as tourists, we only had that one precious full day in Auckland but because of the lack of communication from this company, after we got over the shock of the non-communication, and after relating the story of the phone call to 5 other parties there, by the time we researched for our replacement activity, it was nearly noon and half a day was gone. We honestly felt like the company didn’t respect their customers’ time, and also we almost felt like we were their information centre there because obviously it wasn’t just us who were affected and we were practically the ones who broke the news of the cancellation to each and every party (such an easy way out for the company eh, all they had to do was to confirm the news when each party called in to verify what they heard from us). Yes we were refunded the tour cost, but honestly, do better next time in your communication with your customers, in this day and age of instant emails, wifi...

I definitely don't recommend you this company. The crew, boat and our cruise was nice but the customer post-service was insufficient and their terms about sighting guarantee are inapplicable for most of the foreigner tourists. I usually don't give a negative rating, but now I had to do exception. I understand that the weather cannot be influenced, but their guarantee is promoted, therefore I would like to notify other travelers about its conditions before theirs experiences. During our watching was bad weather, therefore cruise was shortened and we didn’t see a whale, therefore the crew offered us after cruise a complimentary voucher, that is enable to use only for any following cruise with this company, only in Auckland and only based on verification by the same ID (non-transferable). We explained our situation, that we are only 3 weeks in NZ, and only limited time in Auckland due to our already planned and paid activities in other places. We were able to take only morning cruises, however these were not held during March. Even voucher has no expiry it is unlikely that we will be able visit NZ due to the our very high travel expense. Then we explained the same situation to the customer support and ask for possibility of money refund and revocation of the voucher. There we got confirmation that refund was put through their system now and we will have it all processed on next business day. Based on this confirmation we paid other cruise. Although few days later we got a message that refund is not possible to process due to their terms and conditions, that it was a mistake. Simply we will never be able to use their voucher and we had to spend extra money for whale watching with different company. It is not standard refund policy, I would like to recommend other NZ company (e.g. in Kaikoura), where is money refund guaranteed. Nevertheless we really enjoyed the lovely New Zealand and nice people and...

We had to take the tour twice as during our first trip we only seen some fins in the distance but not whales or dolphins. We received a voucher and came back the very next day (after booking with them in advance) to take the tour again and this time we hit the jackpot! About 10min into the trip we saw our first dolphins and not the last ones for the day. during the day the crew tells a lot about the work they do and the ocean biology in the bay as well about the mammals. It was always interesting and worthwhile listening to the team. Later that day we met two mire groups of dolphins which came really close and took a really good look at us. In the, I assume last 15 min, right before we headed back to the marina, one of the guides spotted a multi species feeding. Some birds, dolphins amd whales where hunting together and there were at least 6 whales and a lot of dolphins around, which we could watch and there was so much going on i did not know where to look first! The team even expended the trip around 40mins for us, as they were also stunned to watch this spectacle! Amazing experience and once in a lifetime.

Only downside i had on both days, the boat always felt really crowded and the best spots to see the animals were always occupied by the people who did not gave a horse shit about anyone else, they always pushed to the front. The crew even tried to make them make room for others by asking them nicely via PA, which of course did not work.

Im not sure if all trips are that fully packed or if we were just unlucky in the week, as earlier that week one trip was cancelled and our first trip did not happen to find any dolphins or whales, so it might came all together. But still it...