Whale Watching help

[oceanxbreeze89]

Hi! My family of 5 will be on the Carnival Victory arriving to Dominica on Tuesday July 13th from 10am-6pm. We would love to do the Dolphin and Whale Watching excursion through Carnival but they have a max weight limit (250lbs) and 3/5 people in my family are over that limit. Do you know what tour company that they use? Also, I have been looking at other tour companies and Anchorage and Castle Comfort only does tours on Weds and Sun...do you think that they will do other tours for the cruise ship passengers? I have also heard great things about Capt Jerry on IslandStyle Fishing...what are your experiences with him? Good or Bad? Thanks in advance. This my family's first cruise and we are really excited about it.

 

Helen

[oceanxbreeze89]

Anyone?

[thecruisers723]

We went with Island Style Fishing and Captain Jerry on Jan. 5th while in Dominica during our Carnival Victory cruise. We were never asked our weight. There were 7 people on our boat and 2 of them were over 250 lbs. His boat holds 12 people and from what I've read, there are never that many on the tour. It was an awesome tour for us because we saw over 30 whales that day. We watched a couple dozen of them in one spot for over an hour and a half. It was incredible. They were breaching, diving,rolling and everything. Seeing that many is the exception and not the rule though. But they do see whales around 90% or more of the time if I remember correctly. I know they did see them the day before ours and the day before that. Just not as many. I highly recommend Captain Jerry & Island Style fishing. He knows his whales and you learn a whole lot about them while you're with him. He even scooped some whale skin out of the water after one of the whales breached (yes, we were that close) and I held it on my finger for a picture. It was pretty wild.

[oceanxbreeze89]

Thank you for responding! This is what the carnival cruise website says for the excursion:

 

"Cruise Dominica’s scenic West Coast in search of deep diving whales and playful dolphins. On this excursion you will:

 

•Listen to a safety briefing.

•Head out into the ocean, stopping intermittently to listen for the “clicking” of sperm whales and the “whistling” of dolphins with the use of a hydrophone.

•Learn about cetaceans, their identification, behavior, feeding habits, and much more.

•See sperm whales, pilot whales, pseudo orcas, and humpbacks as you cruise along and watch for bottlenose, pantropical, spinner and Fraser’s dolphins frolicking in the wake of your vessel.

Note: Complimentary fruit juice and rum punch included. Maximum age is 70 years; maximum weight is 250 lbs. Pregnant women and guests with heart conditions are not permitted on this excursion. Wildlife sightings are frequent; however, they cannot be guaranteed.''

 

I have been in contact with Anchorage and they are happy to take us. They said that their main whale watching season is Oct-May but during the summer months they said that seeing a whale is probably 85% which is still a high percentage so my family is not worried. I will send out a e-mail to Capt Jerry to get a quote. I appreciate your response!

 

Helen

[thecruisers723]

For a long time, we were the only ones interested in booking with Island Style Fishing and they needed a minimum of 4 people to do the tour. For some reason, the Carnival Victory wasn't offering a whale watching tour on our cruise. So I contacted Anchorage. But the only tour they had going was at 9:00 and we didn't get into Dominica until 10:00. But they were very nice and tried to find us another vendor who could take us, but they didn't have any luck. About a week before our cruise, we received an email from Island Style Fishing letting us know that they'd received 2 more bookings and we could do the tour. While on the tour, the Anchorage boat was next to us most of the time as Captain Jerry called them on the radio after we found the whales and they joined us in that spot. Their boat was very large. That could be good and bad. Good in that it probably didn't rock and roll as much as ours did since the waters were choppy that day. And bad because there was probably not one spot you could stand on a boat that big and get a 360 degree view to have the best views of the whales regardless of where they were popping up. One thing that was really good about our tour was being right next to Captain Jerry the whole time and getting to hear all his stories and learn so much from him as he knew so much about the whales. But you do have to climb the ladder to get up to the top with Captain Jerry. But I did it, no problem and I'm a full sized 45 year old woman. So I'm sure that it's fine for most people that don't have physical restrictions. It was a great view being up that high looking down on them. Bottom line is, both boats saw the same whales at the same time. And I'm sure every passenger on both boats were thrilled with their experience. Based on my emails with Anchorage, they were going to charge $57 each and Island Style Fishing charged $50 each. Not a significant difference. But the savings would buy a couple of beers on the ship or a souvenir at one of the stands on the side of the road as you walk back to the ship in Dominica.

[maxs mom]

We've also been with Captain Jerry of Island Style Fishing recently (just after Christmas). I highly recommend going with captain Jerry. When you call for reservations, just ask about the weight limit just to be sure. The boat is small and it gets pretty rocky when you leave the channel, but I didn't have any problems. We had great views of the whales and we got really close. Our day in Dominica was one of the highlights of our latest cruise! Here are some pictures:

 

This is the Proud Mary:

 

 

This is Captain Jerry:

 

 

The ride up top:

 

 

A couple of the whales:

 

 

[thecruisers723]

Nice & close picture of the whale. Was that a Sperm Whale? Is it easy to get the picture to show up in your post like that? I'm getting ready to post my full review on the boards and would like to throw in a few pictures without them just being the small attachments that I do know how to put on the posts.

[maxs mom]

Nice & close picture of the whale. Was that a Sperm Whale? Is it easy to get the picture to show up in your post like that? I'm getting ready to post my full review on the boards and would like to throw in a few pictures without them just being the small attachments that I do know how to put on the posts.

 

 

Yes.....we were in a pod of sperm whales.

For the pictures......upload your pictures to Photobucket, then you can copy and post them on the message board. If I can do it....anybody can!!

[oceanxbreeze89]

Thank You so much for the responses! I will let my family know about the options and get back to you with our decision. Does anyone have a picture of Anchorage's 2 catamarans? Thanks!

[katbat2]

Not one to post negative reviews but felt I needed to let it be known that we too had booked with IslandStyleFishing for a Jan 19 tour, we were on the Carnival Victory. I received an email from Capt Jerry to meet @ 10:45 at the Hotel dock that you could see from the ship. We arrived @ 10:30, no Capt Jerry, the girl in the Dive shop told us he went to look for people. He never came back, we waited until 11:45. The girl came out from the Dive shop talking to Capt Jerry on the phone, he said we had the time wrong, but I had my email with me of confirmation time. He didn't apologize, just offered to take us that afternoon, which we didn't have enough time to do and be back on the ship in time. We watched from our balcony as he came back to the dock and unloaded. We figured he got extra people and didn't want anymore, but we had paid a 20% deposit upfront. We were disappointed as this was my gift to my husband for his birthday. Would have appreciated at least I'm sorry but instead he didn't even give a reason for leaving us behind when we were earlier than the time he told us to meet. I'm glad at least someone from the Victory got to go (did he tell you the same time as us?) but thought I should warn others it could be hit or miss with him.

[milokitty]

Katbat2,

We were on that whale watching trip with IslandStyleFishing. The email we got didn't have a specific time to meet, but I responded back that we'd head over to the boat as soon as we docked. We got there around 10:15 or so and I think we left around 10:30. The boat was very full (it had about 16 people on it), which he said was very unusual. I'm not sure if they had previous reservations or not. I'm sorry there was confusion.

[RJHeller]

His whale watching excursions must be better than his fishing excursions...He offered warm water and punch, no food, yet ate in front of us all. Was not social at all...One of the worst excursions I have ever been on. Hope you have better luck than we did!