Discovery Whale Watch — Attraction in Monterey

Fantastic trip. I booked our trip months ago as a Christmas present to our teenage son. The crew were very courteous and helpful. We saw humpback whales and Risso's Dolphins. The water was very choppy, and I spent much of the trip being sick over the back rail, but the whale sightings were glorious, and the deck hand kindly brought me cups of water and checked on me. A few notes on expectations for a whale watching trip:

1. They can't control nature. If you are prone to seasickness like I am, (my dose of 'less-drowsy Dramamine' and acupressure wrist bands didn't help), you may want to call and talk to them earlier about booking around weather conditions. The early morning trip is typically smoother. They had to cancel our early trip (they gave us several weeks notice), and gave us the option of choosing another day. I stuck with the same day and chose to just go in the afternoon. I do wish I had booked an earlier time and just woken up early!

2. This is whale-watching, not a yacht. If you have mobility issues, I would advise not going. We had very rough waters and people were having difficulty letting go of the rail for just a moment to take pictures.

3. Know expectations. Many online photos are by professional photographers with zoom lenses. We were excited and thrilled with the whales we saw, but the iPhone photos don't do much justice. It was so exciting to see them! At several times, the humpbacks were off both directions of the boat, and we could choose which ones to watch.

If you wish to go whale-watching, Discovery Whale Watching is the company to go with. Every staff member we encountered was friendly and helpful. They did a great job of getting us out to the whales. I also appreciate that the reduced the duration of the trip ahead of time from 4 to 3 hours due to the rough water.

I definitely would like to go again during another season to see different types of whales. You never know what you might see, and at their prices, it is affordable enough that it needn't be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if you live in the area. This time I would book a morning time for smoother waters, and call more than 24 hours ahead to get a weather forecast and rebook if it looks like there will be...

This was an absolutely fantastic trip. The people at Discovery are the friendliest, most accommodating and helpful group we could have asked for; from checkin to safety briefing to on the boat to off the boat.

The boat, while not huge or fancy, was clean and offered plenty of seating space. The wind was low but the swell pretty big on the day we went and the boat handled it very nicely, thanks to the skill of the captain and his crew. It is a smaller boat, though, so if you're susceptible to motion sickness, remember your Dramamine. They boat provided coffee, hot tea and hot chocolate, complimentary, and it was very well received by the guests.

I was initially worried that the smaller boat would be less awesome than the much larger boats at the pier but, after finding the whales, we could see the bigger boats had people lined up, shoulder-to-shoulder from stern to bow vying for a space to see the amazing creatures. All the while, we were standing comfortably, hot chocolate in hand, with plenty of room and some amazing views. One whale surfaced directly under the boat, not 5 feet from where we stood; close enough to literally smell it's whale breath. ICK, but awesome!!

The 3-man crew on our boat was outstanding and very enthusiastic. You can really tell they enjoy their job and are passionate about the wildlife. No hesitation to ask how we were feeling or to answer any questions we had. When we had none, they added some great and colorful facts and commentary throughout the trip.

The return trip was super relaxing with everyone reveling in the moment; chatting and smiling.

All in all, we saw (from what the crew told us) a minimum of 10 individual humpback whales and hundreds of sea lions. The whales cruised the surface, dived with flukes in the air, lunged out of the water feeding and fully breached, launching out of the water several times off in the distance.

I would 100% take this trip again. Don't forget to tip the crew for their outstanding service...

We had a wonderful experience with Discovery Whale Watch. The Andrews (both captain and first mate) did a great job of finding several groups of humpback whales for us to watch. We were able to stay with one large pod, feeding with a group of sea lions, for a long time. Then we encountered a group of four friendly humpbacks that were clearly interested in doing some people watching. They approached within yards of our ship (so close that the captain had to cut the engines). They surfaced several times, apparently checking us out, and hung out with us for around 20 minutes. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. This is totally a bucket list experience! I would definitely advise taking the recommended Dramamine an hour before your trip to prevent motion sickness whether you think you need it or not. We did, and stayed well, while several of our fellow passengers were not quite so lucky. Andrew was a wealth of interesting information. He was friendly and professional and knew when to stop talking so we could just enjoy the moment as well. I would definitely recommend booking with Discovery Whale Watch! The only thing I would say to consider is if you know that you’re going to need or want to sit down for most or a lot of the trip, you might want to go with one of the larger boats that has more seating. I’m not sure if Discovery has bigger boats with more comfortable seating, but the boat we were on didn’t have enough seats for everyone on board (although it was not overcrowded at all), and the seats that were there were not padded, so might not be great for people who have back or hip issues. Standing most of the trip wasn’t a problem for us, and seemed to help with both having a good view of the whales and avoiding sea sickness, but if I were taking my less able-bodied parents out, I’d look for a ship with more comfortable seating guaranteed. Overall, it was an awesome experience! I highly recommend doing it if you have...