Samana Whale Watching Tour

[travel12]

Hello : Has anyone taken a whale watching tour in Samana with one of the local tour operators...in particular Victoria Marine?

 

We are on the Dawn March 2nd sailing. We had booked Norwegian's whale watching excursion. However after reading many negative reviews about this excursion we have cancelled. The main reason is the size of the boat Norwegian uses for the excursion... an open air powerboat.

 

Whale watching has been on my wish list for a long time. I am not ready however to get "drenched" and be surrounded by people " sick to their stomachs" . I have found that there are local whale watching tours available. One in particular is of interest for two reasons. (1) the boat used is a two deck cruiser that would be a lot more stable in choppy waters (2) the company is owned by a Canadian marine biologist who has spent the last twenty years in Samana.

 

Any comments would be welcome

[slotaddict]

I don;t think its Norwegians boat, it belongs to the tour company that Norwegian uses.

Quite frankly I would agree with you that I do not want to be on a small boat.

I would opt for the bigger one. Where would you have to go to get this other boat??

[slotaddict]

I don;t think its Norwegians boat, it belongs to the tour company that Norwegian uses.

Quite frankly I would agree with you that I do not want to be on a small boat.

I would opt for the bigger one. Where would you have to go to get this other boat??

[travel12]

From what I read you take the tender to the town dock and the tours are right there. The size of the boat appealed to me, and also the fact that the owner is Canadian, as we are. Apparently she has a great respect for the conservation of nature .

[travel12]

Let's see if I can get any more responses today

[Toyz711]

have you researched it on the port of call boards?

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

i try to whale watch when ever i can...but haven't there, yet.

[greeneg]

We were in Samana Bay on the Azamara Quest last month and we did see any number of what we were told were whale watching excurison boats go by the ship. The ones that we saw were all open power boats, I would guess in the 25-30' range, with several rows of seats accross. They really do move and appeared to throw up significant spray in any sort of seaway. Looked like fun to me.

 

From where we anchored ( Cayo Levanto) it appeared that access to the town was limited. This could have been something to do with Azamara or not; they did not offer a whale watching excursion and I did not see any information on the island about it. The boats that we saw did look to be pretty full.

 

We saw no whales from the ship, either entering or leaving the bay.

 

Good luck, whale watching is just awesome when it happens.

[Seago2]

OP: I am leaving for Cayo Levantado, among other places, just before you are. Our whale watching excursion was canceled: no whales. They are supposed to be there until March but apparently they have left. I have read really horrible reviews on all the boards I have checked and I am glad the decision is out of my hands!:eek:

[zqvol]

Hello : Has anyone taken a whale watching tour in Samana with one of the local tour operators...in particular Victoria Marine?

 

We are on the Dawn March 2nd sailing. We had booked Norwegian's whale watching excursion. However after reading many negative reviews about this excursion we have cancelled. The main reason is the size of the boat Norwegian uses for the excursion... an open air powerboat.

 

Whale watching has been on my wish list for a long time. I am not ready however to get "drenched" and be surrounded by people " sick to their stomachs" . I have found that there are local whale watching tours available. One in particular is of interest for two reasons. (1) the boat used is a two deck cruiser that would be a lot more stable in choppy waters (2) the company is owned by a Canadian marine biologist who has spent the last twenty years in Samana.

 

Any comments would be welcome

 

Travel12, come on over to the roll call boards and join us. We have a very active roll call and some of these questions are being talked about over there.

[CanadianTwosome]

We went whale watching in Cabo last month, and were in a Zodiac, which is an open air boat with a motor. I sat in the very front of the boat and we went really fast - I LOVED it!! I also stayed dry. They had us put our shoes in a bin on the dock (it was locked), in case our feet got wet, but even that didn't happen. We chose the Zodiac tour over a tour on a larger boat because the smaller crafts can get closer to the whales. We were so close, in fact, that when one of the whales surfaced and blew out his hole, we felt the spray! Our friends went on the bigger boat and were quite happy with their sightings as well.

 

I have not read any reviews of the whale watching excursions from Samana and can only tell you about our experience in Cabo, but I think as far as the boats themselves go, it should be fairly relevant. I just wanted to address the concerns about getting wet or seasick. Nobody in our boat was either. :)

[bluesea777]

We went on NCL's Whale watching excursion while docked in Dominica Dec 2006 and it was a sucess! They say they have 95% sucess. They have resident whales there as well and other whales that pass thru. We were on a catamaran that was very nicely laid out - people can move from one side to another, one end to another, and and are able to stand.

 

It's pity NCL has taken Dominica off their itineraries - it was one of our fave ports along with Grenada (another casualty).

[zqvol]

Hello : Has anyone taken a whale watching tour in Samana with one of the local tour operators...in particular Victoria Marine?

 

We are on the Dawn March 2nd sailing. We had booked Norwegian's whale watching excursion. However after reading many negative reviews about this excursion we have cancelled. The main reason is the size of the boat Norwegian uses for the excursion... an open air powerboat.

 

Whale watching has been on my wish list for a long time. I am not ready however to get "drenched" and be surrounded by people " sick to their stomachs" . I have found that there are local whale watching tours available. One in particular is of interest for two reasons. (1) the boat used is a two deck cruiser that would be a lot more stable in choppy waters (2) the company is owned by a Canadian marine biologist who has spent the last twenty years in Samana.

 

Any comments would be welcome

 

You need to take a look at their web site. They use a 50' boat. The fact that it is a two deck boat will tend to make it more unstable in rough waters (not to the point of turning over, but really rocky).

 

If it is rough, you will get wet and there will be people that are sick.

 

Keep in mid too that there are no guarantees that you will see any whales, whale watching is often a hit or miss proposition.

 

What ever choice you make have a good time.

[Imabelvr]

We took the whale watching excursion @ Samana on 1/29/08 - SMALL boat, very bumpy and WET ride. DH got soaked - and it was a cool, overcast day. Not too much fun honestly. Poor gentleman in the back of the boat was "SICK" and I do mean "SICK"!

 

We felt like the boat we were in - and the other small boats in the general area of the water, were more or less chasing the whales. We "managed" to see 2 whales, but only as they swam in the water.

 

If you have a choice of going on the NCL tour versus a different excursion I'd probably opt for NOT going w/ NCL on this particular trip.

 

We did whale watching in Alaska and it was awesome, amazing and breath-taking. It was done in a totally different manner though.

 

Good luck!

[heid5]

We were in Samana last Tuesday. We did a whale watch tour with a local operator. I had made email arrangements with Phipps Marine ahead of time, but he did not wait for us to tender in. They left without us. When you get to the dock, there will be plenty of people trying to sell you a tour of some kind. The local that cornered us took us to the marina to see the boat that they would use. It was a large 2 deck boat. (Make sure you know what boat that you are being taken in before you pay any money) We were a group of 8 people. ( They wanted 50.00 for the tour-- we settled on 40.00 each including the 3.00 government entrance fee) We waited for them to bring 4 more people and departed. The water in the basin between the ship and the dock was not too rough. When we got to the bay area where the whales were to be, the water was considerably rougher. Two people on the ship got sick. One woman fell and bruised here hip. We saw whales in the distance as we chased to the areas of the sightings, After about 1 hour we were ready to go back. Just before we left the area, we had 3 whales breach very close to the boat. It was memorable. Made the rough ride worth the effort.

[whale-watcher]

Different countries have entirely different regulations when it comes to whale watching...we have been on tours in Mexico that involved whale "chasing", and it is not pleasant!

[lee2006]

I have contacted the operator the OP mentioned twice now and have received no reply so they don't instill alot of confidence in me.

However another compay mentioned Phipps Marine (Samanawhales.com) are very prompt with email replies. They said that they would wait for tenders and charge $35.00 with a money back guarantee if you do not see Whales. Mind you not much help if they are not true to their word and do not wait for you!!

 

Lee

[Ottawa Lynne]

Dh and I did the whale watching through NCL last week and it was awesome. In fact it was my favourite activity.

 

There was never a time where I didn't feel safe. The captain of our boat was excellent as was the tour guide. The waves were about 12 feet high which isn't NCL's fault. A few people got sick which was too bad. We took gravol (in the U.S. I believe it's called Dramamine) and were fine. We did get wet but that's part of the adventure.

 

We talked to one of they guys who got sick and he said it was worth it given what we saw.

 

Truthfullly I wouldn't want to be on a two story boat in those waves.

 

We saw a few whales swimming and watched them breath through their blow holes. Then after a while we saw two whales jump and flip their tails at us - it was amazing.

 

I'm not sure I would trust just anyone to take me out in the ocean like that. I was glad to rely on NCL's recommendation.

[DJ Dale]

From what I understand the whales are moving north earlier this year than usual. I've heard of some of the upcoming whale watching tours to be cancelled.

[saltmom1]

Whale watching is not regulated in other countries the way it is in the U.S. The same whales we see in the Gulf of Maine in the summer are the same whales that winter in Samana. Many expect whale watching to be like a National Geographic show. The whales only spend about 10 percent of their time at the surface. The principle reason for being in Samana is mating and calving. The whales then leave between March and May to head north to their feeding ground.

[Vyhanek]

I've been on the whale watching excursions thru private operators in Samana. All I have to say is in probably 15 years of regular cruising this has been the absolute best excursion ever! It's a once in a lifetime experience.

 

The coves that they take you to are calm, really calm. It's not like the open choppy waters of New England or California whale watching. It's calm, peaceful, quiet. You are close enough to shore. It's so calm you can hear the whales as they breach sometimes.

 

The laws don't allow these operators to get anywhere near close enough for you to get wet. I can't remember how far away the boats have to be but it's a couple hundred feet.

 

It's so unbelievably interesting! I think we must have seen 15-20 whales in our 2 hour excursion. Momma whales, baby whales, breaching whales, all over! These whales come back to this same general area every year since ancient times. The whales come at the same time every year, in the same general coves. The whales come to Samana to give birth and raise their young. When they get a little older then they make the migration back to cooler waters. They say that in the caves deep in Samana there are ancient cave drawings showing the whales. This is how they know the whales have been migrating here for so long.

 

When we did this excursion I would say there were probably 6 or 8 other tour boats doing the exact same thing. You don't feel right on top of the other boats, it's not that small of an area. I was happy to be on a smaller boat, I liked that the tour guides just turned off the motors and talked to us and chatted with us answering all these whale related questions. On the bigger boats I'm sure they didn't get that same attention or ability to question them about the whales. Do you want a mass market experience or do you want it smaller boat with more attention. That's your choice.

 

It's an excursion not to be missed! That and visiting Tortola if you have that option. These are once in a lifetime experiences!

[SteveLT]

There are a few local Licensed Tour Operators from the Town of Samana who owns many boats ( usually Motor Catamaran of 35 foot ) and will take you Whale Watching in Samana Bay.

 

These Tour Operators are :

1) Marivanna Tours

2) Cayenas del Mar

3) Moto Marina Club

 

All of them have Websites and are easy to find. Just google them.You can see their prices online and what's included in their tour.

And they all seem to have NO MINIMUM as number of guests.

 

The Whales in Samana are Beautiful, Enjoy Them While they are Here.

( January 15 to March 15 - Every Year )

 

STEEVE

Tour Guide in Samana Peninsula