Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching Dana Point — Attraction in Dana Point

Went on 11/5 at 10am with my mom who is visiting from out of state, and unfortunately didn’t see any wild life. We were given vouchers for a free tour, with the exception of a small “gas” fee. The problem is that the voucher was only good for Tuesdays, and my mother wouldn’t be here next Tuesday. I spoke to the manager and he made an exception for us to come back any day and wrote his signature on our tickets. We went to eat next door and found out we could actually use the tickets same day, so we went back to the counter and the manager wasn’t there anymore. I approached the young blonde girl working the front and told her about our exception, her bosses signatures, and explained if we don’t see anything again we’d like to be able to have the same deal (to come back any day) she sarcastically says that whales are migrating and that they can’t control the wild life. I know you can’t control wild animals, I never implied your company could. I reminded her that we didn’t see dolphins, whales, or anything for that matter. She then says verbatim “Like I said, your ticket is only good for Tuesdays” so I followed up with “like I said, your manager told us we can come back any day and that’s why he signed our tickets” she got ruder and told me I never told her why the signatures were on my tickets. My mom and fiance both looked at me with disbelief because I had been explaining that the whole time, but she chose not to listen and instead was incredibly snarky. Standing my ground I told her that I had already explained that to her, and she rolls her eyes and says “yeah sure just come back if you don’t see anything, I’ll sign them myself” thank god we got to see dolphins on our ride because I did not want to speak to her again after that. I wish I could say this was the only run-in with bad staff but unfortunately the “marine biologists” or whatever they proclaim themselves as were not any better. They did not say a word to us on the first trip, while we saw absolutely nothing. An announcement would’ve been nice, or at least a small piece of education about the nonexistent wild life. Radio silence. The captain told us to enjoy the ride, and then told us to accept our free vouchers. The same crew was on board for the next ride we took, and the crowd leaving the boat said they came up on a pod of hundreds of dolphins! We were so excited to get rid of the bad taste in our mouths from earlier. As we got on the boat I spoke to the older blonde woman who “guided” our last tour and asked about the dolphins. Her response? “The dolphins are 9 miles out and I don’t think we’re gonna be able to take the ship out that far to see them” and walked away. Are you kidding me? That felt like a punch in the gut. These girls must be related because they certainly act alike! I sat down and was on my phone trying to pass the time because my mood was instantly killed. I even started crying! I just wanted to make my mom happy because I don’t get to see her very often and this is something neither of us have ever done before. I can say the reason for 2 stars relies mainly on the fact we got to see that pod of hundreds of dolphins, so in the end your staff is horrible but the nature you profit off of makes up for it. I hope you guys implement a training course on how to be decent...

I got two tickets for my mom and her partner for her birthday to go whale and dolphin watching. My mom has lived near the Dana Point harbor for almost 40 years and had NEVER been whale watching! At the same time, It had just happened that our entire family has just gone through the absolute heart wrenching loss of losing our most cherished family member, our sweet doggy to a devastating illness. My mom has been so severely depressed that she confessed to me that she didn’t feel like going on the whale watching tour, because she was mourning too much. I reminded her that nothing made our precious doggy more happy then when we as a family went on happy new adventures together, and to please go in honor of her. This made my mom pull herself together, and she went on the trip. She felt compelled to bring a small beautiful bouquet of flowers in honor of our precious dog to dedicate to the ocean while on the boat. I warned her that this whale watching company would probably not allow her to toss the flowers off the boat, and that she should not get upset if their policy doesn’t allow it. She could go to Doheny afterwards and dedicate the flowers to the ocean at the beach. She decided to ask the front desk gentleman if she could bring the flowers to on the boat, and he asked her to leave them with him so he Could consult with his manager. Well, their empathy and customer service was so wonderful, as they wanted to honor my mom’s wishes and granted her permission to take the flowers and dedicate them as she wished. They went on the trip, and swarms of dolphins, including baby dolphins blissfully swam right next to the boat and they saw two whales as well. My mom was extremely moved as dolphins and whales make us all feel that they are very altruistic and extraordinarily intelligent and magical. She sent the flowers off with blessings for our departed honorary doggy with the joy of dolphins and whales. My mom and her partner were absolutely moved and delighted by the whole experience, and were grateful to the customer service for making it so meaningful. We are grateful and would recommend this whale watching tour to everyone! My mom who lived here for 40 years finally got to enjoy this marvelous experience, and also now has a very meaningful and treasured memory which will help her grieving process for our loss. Five stars all the way, enjoy the bliss and wonder of the...

Two stars because the captain on Reel fun ,Chad, was super nice. Wyatt and Eric on the other hand were as rude as could be both seemed as if they hated their jobs. Took this trip for my husband's birthday because we are both in love with the sport. My husband spent years working on sport fishing boats and never have I been on one where the only fish being caught were on the trolling rods. We spent well over half the trip moving getting told to drop our line in for less than 5 minutes at a time. I'd say the boat was understaffed. Wouldn't recommend this company at all. We watched the fish count for about a month before booking and kept watching until the night before. Now looking at the fish count it's most definitely a padded number. I had a party of 3 cost $320 and of my party I was the only one to catch anything. 4 calico bass only one was to size. The guys with me didn't catch anything. About an hour before time was up a group of about 15 men were just sitting there complaining about their experience as well. On the website it says they go anywhere from a mile to 12 miles out. We went out far enough to have a nice swim back to shore ( pictured). Here's the deal, when we go out on trips we TIP (anywhere between $100-$200), I didn't even tip this crew, they are in the business of customer service. If the business was making people feel like a burden I would have tipped double what...