Zodiac Whale Watch- Ocean Riders or Cabo Expeditions

[cruisin'sz]

We are planning to do one of the zodiac whale watching tours while in Cabon on Radiance. Are we better doing it through the ship with Cabo Expeditions or with Johann and Sandra with Ocean Riders and why?

[SDPadreFan]

The zodiac boats are quite a bit different between the two companies. Cabo Expeditions has a more open floor plan (less available seating). I believe they have a bench or two. Within reason, this allows you to move around the boat a little. Obviously everyone can't be in one spot. On OceanRiders, they have two rows of saddle type seats. These work great and give you a certain degree of security when the boat is traveling at high speed. The sacrifice you make is you can't move around much. You will still be amazingly close to the whales, but not necessarily reach out and touch close although that is actually illegal based upon the Marine Mammals Protection Act. This is also a safety issue related to the protection of these magnificent creatures. I will not go out on a boat that purposely puts the whales in danger. Unfortunately this does happen.

 

We've been on OceanRiders and had a great time. We have since shifted to the catamarans for whale watching. Pez Gato is our favorite. I have some pictures of the OceanRiders boat in my whale watching photos. They are on the last page. Enlarge them to full size to get a better look.

 

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562535753iirWdb

 

The seating for OceanRiders can be problematic if you are really big (fat). I'm 6'3" and 270 so I fit, but another 30# and I might have been uncomfortable.

 

Obviously cost will be different. The ship is definitely more expensive. I think both companies will provide a great experience as will the catamarans. OceanRiders holds about 18 passengers, Cabo Expeditions - probably a few less.

[tallyho]

We used Ocean Riders zodiac whale watching excursion in Jan/Feb 2008 and had a wonderful time!! On the Cabo whale watching excursions, when one of the (many) boats spot whales, all the other boats in the area race to the location. It is an advantage to be in a fast boat. The zodiacs are VERY fast! We were always the first boat to the location of the whales. Our whale watching excursion was one of the most memorable things I have ever done!

 

If we go to Cabo again during whale season I will book with Ocean Riders above all others.

[SDPadreFan]

For the most part, I will agree with you that the zodiac's will get you to a location of a specific whale faster than the other boats. But I really didn't find speed to be an issue. There were so many whales around during our trip that we just found a mom and her juvenile and hung out with them the entire time. As a matter of fact, a lot of other boats hung out in the same area because there were so many whales. There was no racing around.

 

To further my point - because we were in Cabo for our annual timeshare visit, later in the week we took a sunset dinner cruise. There were so many whales still around, that it was actually a non-factor for many of the passengers. Only about half of the guests got really excited to see the whales. For the rest of us, we were more tuned into the onboard entertainment, etc. Seemed funny to not get excited about the whales but we had seen so many the previous day. Plus we could see them from our timeshare balcony every day.