Princess Monterey Whale Watching — Attraction in Monterey

Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016 9am Cruise I have several complaints about the professional behavior of the captain and crew on-board and comments about paying extra for accessing the upper level. FIRST: Safety instructions were given out when I was standing in the boat by the railing outside the window. The CREW MEMBER did not bother to get my attention and gave out instructions about life jackets, etc. while I was out of earshot standing with my back to him. SECOND: The upper deck allowed for a higher vantage point but we were not allowed access to the front half/bow of the boat. After thinking about it I could understand it, we would be standing in front of the captain. Therefor there were chains on either side of the boat to keep passengers back, only the naturalist with her microphone was allowed up there. Most sightings occurred to the front of the boat so only the few passengers up by the chains got a good view, and then you had to guess which side to stand on. If the whale appeared on the left/port side and you were on the right....too bad for you. Forget about pictures, maybe you would see the whale between everyone else who was on the left side of the boat. You actually had a more likely chance of seeing a whale on the main deck because you had access to the bow of the boat. THIRD: When a humpback whale breached in front of the boat a man appeared in the bow, in front of the chains and he was taking pictures. I asked the naturalist "Are we allowed up front?". She replied "No", I asked "Who is that man?" It was THE CAPTAIN! He smiled and the naturalist also pulled out a camera and they both proceeded to take pictures. Now I have been on many boat tours and many African safaris with tour guides. I have never once had one leave their post, abandon the helm, so they could take pictures (on my dime). I am not paying good money for their recreation. The captain even had the nerve to say "Hey! Even I like to take pictures!" The naturalist commented to the captain that "When I have my camera out, he swims away, when I put my camera down, he breaches. Just like last time. Ha Ha." I believe MY COMFORT, SAFETY AND VIEWING EXPERIENCE SHOULD BE ALL THEY ARE CONCERNED ABOUT, THAT IS WHAT I AM PAYING THEM FOR, NOT SO THEY CAN GET BETTER PICTURES THAN ME. So yeah, I was thrilled to see the whale breach. But the behavior of the captain and his crew ruined the...

By far my worst whale watching experience - I go quite a few times every year either with private boats or public tours like this one. I wonder if it could be the usual captain was not duty today (Christmas day). Ticketing and boat crews were friendly but we suffered with a couple things: Boat ride: it was a very rough ride today - knowing how to drive boat as well as sailing myself, I felt I could even drive it better (we have some waves but it’s not crazily bad, and I definitely had way smoother ride in worse weather with smaller boats). My partner who usually did not need any motion sickness pills, did not enjoy his vip upper deck seat at all and had been vomiting during the whole trip and stayed downstairs - with about another 10+ people Sea animal sightings: the captain did not seem to know where the whales are, he did not find much animals other than the otters when we departed and a few tiny whales (pointed by another boat’s captain). I love nature and marine animals and had been going for tours from key west to outer banks to Maine, I could confidently say this is by far the tour with least animal sightings. Other passengers: we booked the tour per the recommendations from the hotel staff. However, I feel they either have a huge sale elsewhere or what, we were not surrounded by likeminded people as we always were in other tours. We were surrounded by quite rude people who were either vomiting while sitting in the middle of the seats or people who sneaked upstairs without paying but running around and blocking the views whenever the tour guide pointed anywhere - had never seen that before. Usually, the captain would make smaller smooth circles and let the passengers know that both sides would have the same views.

Look elsewhere or figure out what’s going on with their usual captains, or at least book with some cheaper website. Do not be like us - felt dumb and regretful after the ride as we both had to sit in the car and...

Save your money!!!! Total scam! I'm a local and my mom and I go whale watching fairly regularly. (About once a month). We went on Friday 4/7 for a 9am 3 hour trip. Usually we book with Monterey Bay Whale Watch, but they were booked as it was a holiday weekend with nice weather. This is the second time we've been disappointed with Princess. To start, the boat arrived late. They took us straight to Miss Landing, which took over an hour to get there because the boat was going so slow (I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt thinking that maybe they were respecting some sort of new speed limit because I have NEVER gone that slow for so long), where she said that there was "one, maybe two humpback whales" to check out. Cool! Except these whales were exhibiting their sleeping behaviors and completely inactive. We spent over an hour in the exact same spot watching sleeping whales. She gets back on the PA and I'm thinking "alright, we're ready to get our last looks and move on to try to find another group of whales." NOPE! She tells us that we're heading home and if we see anything else, good for us. They turn the boat around and BOOK IT back to the wharf debunking any of my previous speed limit ideas. Even if they would have said "let's go TRY to find something else", and we didn't, I would be less disappointed than I am about this trip. I get that the ocean is unpredictable, but this was a total joke and a scam. Call it what it is. A bay tour. That was NOT a whale watching experience. Even a family next to us told their kids that they "basically just paid a bunch of money to chill on a boat." Just sad. DO BETTER!!!!! Your customers DESERVE BETTER!!!! I will NEVER book with or recommend...