Victoria whale watching from balcony?

[tweakes]

We are taking a five night cruise LA to Vancouver with a stop in Victoria. We have never been to Victoria and was wondering if there was a semi-decent chance of seeing any orcas from the ship itself? We booked a last minute deal which got us a balcony for $200 pp so paying $100-$125 pp on a three hour whale watching tour seems excessive since there are so many other things to do in Victoria.

 

Would we have any chance of seeing the whales (obviously from a further distance) on the route from our balcony or should we just bite the bullet and do the tour? Thanks for your advice!

[sitraveler]

Bite the bullet. Virtually no chance to see whales from cruiseship.

[no fuss travel]

If the ship is in the right place at the right time, yes you will see orcas. Their are several local pods that hang around the inside passage near Victoria.

 

Now as far as the tours go, you are not guaranteed to see whales. If you don't see the whales they give you a rain check for the next time you are in Victoria to take the tour again to see whales. There are now new restrictions on how close the tour boats can be to the whales, sometimes you are very luck and the whales come very close and other times you are not. The tour boats are not allowed to have their motors in gear close to the whales.

 

Your call on this one. I would say, if you see the whales while aboard the ship, don't bother with the whale tour. Also, check once you on shore, you may be able to book one more reasonable than you can book with the ship tours.

[tweakes]

Thanks for your suggestions... I'll take them into consideration, and maybe we'll decide based on how well (err...bad) we do in the casino before we get there. :)

[Lulubelle45]

On some rare occasions they have been seen at the breakwater where the ships are docked. Also they have been spotted between Victoria and Vancouver by the ferries. That being said, I've been on 2 whale tours and saw none. I did see the most amazing group of dolphins/porpoises off the coast of California on the Vancouver to LA cruise. There are no guarantees either way.

 

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[Lulubelle45]

If the ship is in the right place at the right time, yes you will see orcas. Their are several local pods that hang around the inside passage near Victoria.

 

Now as far as the tours go, you are not guaranteed to see whales. If you don't see the whales they give you a rain check for the next time you are in Victoria to take the tour again

 

 

Unfortunately this (rain checks) isn't true for all the tours.

 

 

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[Kartgv]

your chances of seeing orcas are much better on a tour that is specifically designed to find and spot them than it is on the cruise ship. If you were to see them from the cruise ship, it would be simply be a day of spectacular good luck; the ship would have to be in the right place at the right time, you'd have to be on the right side of the ship, looking at exactly the right spot. If you go on a tour, I'd say you have a better than 50/50 chance - after all, that's their business and they do everything in their power to see that they make their customers happy. They track the pods and have spotters who will tell you exactly where to look. We've done the tours twice: once we had spectacular sightings, when we got within the allowable range, they approached us and basically surrounded the boat. The other time, we saw no orcas, but did see other whales and thousands of seals (sea lions? - can never remember which) - spectacular scenery much closer than you'll get with the cruise ship. I think the tours are well worth the moneyl

Edited May 10, 2014 by Kartgv

[Levanah]

This is a tough one. I have no idea about the tour operators in Victoria. We live in the northwest and have taken over 10 excursions to see whales from Eclipse Charters from Orcas Island and have seen orcas on every outing. It is spectacular and breathtaking. I've seen whales breaching and swimming right under the boat. We've seen young whales and the oldest in the resident pods. I think we have seen nearly every behavior we could and have been educated by the naturalists who accompany on board. I could easily go another 10 times.

 

When we have been out, we've been easily in sight of the Canadian tour boats so we were all looking at the same whales. Will you see whales if you book? There are obviously no guarantees. For me, I would take the chance. If you see whales, you will never forget the experience. If not, you will have a fun day out on the water seeing the beauty of the northwest.

 

Do your homework on the various companies and make your decision.

 

We will also be in Victoria and Vancouver next week disembarking off the Sun. It would be spectacular to see orcas off the ship when we are in the neighborhood. I'm not counting on it but it could happen.

 

Good luck :)

[Levanah]

One more thing -- the tour operators work together in a network that spots where the pods are. Then, they communicate with each other letting each other know where the pods are currently. This helps everyone to experience a sighting. You might ask your tour operator if they work in this manner with the network.

 

This makes me want to take a trip north to take another trip out on the Eclipse...

[no fuss travel]

Some cruise ship passengers have been lucky enough to see orcas in the harbour in Vancouver. It is the luck of the draw.

 

We quite often during the summer months see whales as we are sailing on the ferries between the mainland and Swartz Bay.

 

On our last Alaska cruise, we saw bald headed eagles soaring because we were standing outside at the right spot at the right time. We pointed them out to several American passengers so they could enjoy them. Again, we see them quite often at our summer place, so we recognize them easier than some others would. Most of our Orca whale sitings last summer were in August. It just depends on where the pods are at what time.

[krev]

You likely have a slim chance but we've had a couple of very close and amazing encounters with Orcas so you never know. The "Prince of Whales" charter is one of the best known here, check them out.

 

 

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