Odyssey Whale Watch — Attraction in Portland

This review will cover not just the deep sea fishing service offered by Odyssey but the customer service as well.

First off, the fishing experience was horrible. Not because no one on the boat even got a bite, but because the lack of knowledge it seemed by those in charge. This was a deep sea ground fishing trip. To do this, you need to drop your line to the ocean ground, reel it up a few feet and jig the rod. It is a pretty simple concept, but still no guarantee to catch anything. However, on this trip, the crew brought us to a fishing ground that was 300 feet, yet only gave us rods with 100 feet of line. How do you ground fish if you can’t get your line to the ground? Needless to say, no one got even a nibble. Crew decides to move to the next spot, same issue. Again, the line does not reach ground and again not a nibble. 3 to 4 hours of fishing and not one bite points more toward a lack of knowledge than a “bad” fishing day. I have been on these trips and if done right, there is always some activity, never a shutout. For the cost of this trip, you would think they would understand the concept.

Now for the customer service portion. I went to the company’s website and emailed them directly my concern. I took the time to find out the best way to contact them to let them know of my complaint directly. Weeks went by with no response so I filed a complaint with the BBB on 9/1/16. I outlined the same concerns I tried to work directly with them on to no avail. Their response came back over 3 weeks later and did not address my issue, but tried to explain that they ignored my direct email because they say social media sites complaints have become a “thorny” issue. So their choice is to ignore customer complaints? Great customer service. They also assumed that I was unable to have a reasonable discussion so thank you for telling me what my temperament is. They continued on that they “explicitly” do not recommend these trips to pre-teen children (my son is 8). Funny how that wasn’t mentioned when they asked for my credit card payment. I have also reviewed their website and the only note I can find is one that says “great fun for entire family”. They finished with explaining about all the variables in these trips, which I already mentioned and understood. However, there was not one mention about my biggest concern of ground fishing in 300 feet of water with 100 feet of line. They went out of their way to avoid any pertinent discussion regarding my experience and made excuses unrelated to the trip or my concerns. At this point the BBB has closed the complaint because they have stopped responding to them as well. Is it a wonder they are not BBB Accredited? Deep sea fishing is a great adventure and one you should share with family and friends who enjoy fishing. If you do choose to use Odyssey, I hope that your trip and service is better than mine. I will however never use any of their...

My husband and I booked a whale watch for 6/2/21. We paid $110 for lower deck tickets to go on a 3.5-4 hour whale watching boat tour. As the website says parking was a little hard to find so we settled on the lot that was closes and ended up paying $8 and hour which was $40 total. When we got on the boat it was pretty packed and we had to stand at the back. It was a beautiful day so we were pretty hopeful. The website also stated to dress warm since there might be a 10-15 degree drop in temp once out on the water, it was more like a 30 degree drop once we go out on the water. This made the trip a bit uncomfortable even though we wore the correct clothes. We started the trip with the captain telling us about the history of the bay and that was pretty interesting. About an hour in we stopped to see some seals on the rocks by a light house. After that we didn’t see a single thing. The captain never even stopped the boat we just drove out and turned back around and he never said anything till we got back into the bay and he started tell us about more history of the lighthouses and the shore. It felt more like a local history tour than a whale watch. Once we got back to the dock the captain came over the load speaker and said “the animals we were trying to see must not have been there today” and told us to have a good day. The staff then greeted us at the back of the boat with a tip jar as we left. In total with the tour, the few snacks we ate because we were so bored and the parking we spend $155 total to freeze in a boat for 4 hours. Even the seals we saw weren’t unique to the tour they said they are always in that spot and seen quiet often. Over all it was a waste of our time, we drove an hour from our hotel because of the reviews of this specific tour and it was nothing but a dud. We weren’t offered a refund or even a partial refund or a voucher to possibly use in the future if we ever came back,...

We have been on several whale watching excursions on the west coast. After reading the reviews I was skeptical to say the least. I tried to get reservations with their competitor but they were full. Now I know why. Let me start by saying the boat was very clean and the staff was friendly. I asked a crew member if they had been seeing whales and they told me they cancelled 2 and three days prior due to not having enough passengers and the day before nothing. So that left me seeing the inevitable. They begin the cruise by saying they don’t use drones or sonar fish finders and depend on their spotters and the people on board. Needless to say we saw a couple of seals but that’s it. We saw a few things jump in the distance but they didn’t see them or slow down to look. So my advice. If you want a day on the ocean it’s fine. If you want to see marine wildlife stick to a company with better reviews that DOES use drones and sonar to find what they are looking for. Maybe they assume everyone is a tourist anyway and wouldnt come back no matter what, but read the reviews. If you can get the other company go for them. Can’t be any worse as far as finding animals. Their reviews seem...