City Cruises San Diego: Whale and Dolphin Watching Adventure
Description
Enjoy the best sightseeing on the San Diego Bay—with a professionally narrated tour provided by The San Diego Natural History Museum of San Diego's whale-watching hot spots. Join us on the water as we search for Gray Whales (winter), Blue Whales (Summer), Minke Whales, Fin Whales, dolphins, sea lions, marine birds and much more! As we cruise, we’ll see up-close views of the bay's wildlife as well as iconic landmarks from a new perspective. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to capture all the sights in photos and video. If some type of whale is not sighted on your whale watching cruise, you will receive a pass good to return for a Whale Watching Cruise or Harbor Cruise from City Cruises San Diego. NOTE: The whale watching vessel cruises in the open ocean. Our yacht is the most comfortable yacht in San Diego, due to stabilizers that greatly reduce the yacht's motion.
Tour Options
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- There are Personal Floatation Devices on board for all guests, as per Coast Guard requirements. You do not need to wear life vest or the provided PFD's during the course of this cruise. However, if you would prefer to have children wear the PFD's during the course of the cruise, please advise so at the time of booking in the Special Requirements box.
- Please let us know if you require a wheelchair accessible cruise so that we can confirm that your requested cruise date has wheelchair accessible departures.
- Please arrive at the meeting point 30 minutes prior to departure.
Reviews(144)
What an amazing experience with City Cruises Whale Watching! Appreciated the informative narration from the captain and The NAT’s naturalist aboard sharing knowledge about the SD marine life and Grey Whale migration! We were fortunate to cruise along two adult greys going south towards the lagoons in Mexico. Thank you to the City Crew and Natural History Museum (NAT) naturalists for enriching our journey!
Thank you, Catherine! We're thrilled to hear you had such an amazing experience on our whale watching tour. It's great to know you enjoyed the informative narration and got to see the grey whales in action. We appreciate your kind words and hope to welcome you aboard again soon!
Loved the ease of the tour- including the seating and even how to order food. We saw a bunch of dolphins and a whale as well. Just a beautiful day on the water!
Thanks for the wonderful feedback, Stacy! We're thrilled to hear you enjoyed the ease of the tour and had such a fantastic experience with dolphins and a whale. It sounds like a perfect day on the water! We hope to welcome you back soon for more adventures.
Avoid this company at all costs. Our group got initially canceled the afternoon before a morning cruise. The email said to call to reschedule. Once a live person was finally, mercifully reached, he said we’d have to book on the website. The website tells you to call the phone number. We did get the live person to rebook us for a day later. We arrived and checked in for our trip. We paid the $30 parking fee. 6 minutes before we were scheduled to depart, they canceled on us again. 6 minutes. I spoke to the lady at the desk (Emily) who gave me her boss’s email (Katelynn) after she said her boss wasn’t answering her phone or responding to texts. I’ve emailed her maybe 6 times since and have had no response. Bad company. Worse communication. Avoid.
Hello codyo937! Thank you for notifying us regarding this situation. We’re incredibly sorry to hear about your experience and would like to investigate the situation further. To connect with a team member, please contact us at 800-459-8105 or chat with us on https://www.cityexperiences.com/. Thank you for your time, and we hope to hear from you to resolve this issue soon.
My family and I visited San Diego from Phoenix, AZ this past week and had a jammed packed trip. We have two young boys, 5 & 3 years old and we wanted to do something that we all could enjoy and whale watching was at the top of the list. We had an amazing experience with this tour. The staff was extremely friendly and the boat was clean and easy to navigate even with little kids. We enjoyed sitting on the top and taking in the sites and ocean smell as we cruised the San Diego Bay and our to sea. My boys loved watching the sea lions sitting on the docks and the dolphins that swam right besides our boat. Of course we saw whales and other sea life on the trip. We look forward to doing another tour next time we visit. I would HIGHLY recommend this tour operator!
Thanks, Edward! We're thrilled you and your family had such a fantastic time whale watching. It’s great to hear the kids enjoyed the sea lions and dolphins. We can’t wait to welcome you back for another adventure on your next visit!
Had a great experience! Captain Rick was wonderful at finding whales that we could view. The Fin Whales came up close to the boat and we were able to stay and see them for a good amount of time. Fully enjoyed it and we will do it again.
Amazingly fun! So many dolphins and sea lions. It was a foggy day and the crew stayed upbeat and positive. In the end, we saw whales and more dolphins. The captain was excellent ♥️
Jamie, we’re thrilled to hear you had an amazing time! Our team loves sharing these experiences, rain or shine. Seeing dolphins, sea lions, and whales makes it all worthwhile. Thank you for your kind words about our crew and captain! We hope to welcome you aboard again soon.
Even though we didn’t see a whale, it was a great adventure on the water. Saw several groups of multiple kinds of dolphins. Staff and volunteers were very friendly and knowledgeable and greatly enhanced the experience. I would go again tomorrow!!
We received texts and emails from this place saying the look forward to seeing us at the 9am tour Sunday August 18th. We left a hour early and the ride there said 11 minutes according to google maps. We were 4 minutes from the destination downtown San Diego and there was a marathon that day! The streets were blocked off every where! We tried calling the company which the only phone it went to was th viator number. We had no direct communication to this company! They had all my information and could have reached out to me letting me know there was a marathon that was happening and couldn't take the directions the map was telling us to go and gave us a different route to get there! What business would do this? I'm sure most people who go on these tours are not from the area and would have no idea that a huge event was happening and would effect the way to get there! I'm wondering if this business really exists! Absolutely no communication! So needless to say they took my money! And I still can't get a hold of this so called company!!! I would never recommend this to anyone! Just plain terrible!
We did the cruise and was not disappointed! We saw what we were promised! Dolphins swimming and jumping along the boat, just like at Sea World, and a mama & baby Blue Whale! She surfaced 4 times and showed her tail . Captain and crew were great! Great narration of San Diego!!! A must
Hi Toni, thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience with us! We are thrilled to hear that you enjoyed the cruise and that you were able to see such amazing marine life. We are grateful for your kind words and hope to welcome you back soon!
Visited: 19/06/2023 We took a chance on doing this excursion on our GoCity Pass as we had researched and found there weren't due to be any around this time of year. We were blown away! Sea lions on the way out and back into harbour. We had a humpback whale jump 26 times, we had 2 different species of dolphins surround us in the hundreds, and about 7 blue whales including a mother and calf. We actually cried it was so beautiful, and there were so many that the volunteers gave up counting them . We are so happy we took the chance on going anyway, as it was really worth the visit out, and made our entire trip in San Diego the most memorable. Plenty of food and drinks on board, the staff were super friendly and as excited as the passengers. Always take something warm to wear as it gets cold out at sea despite our glorious sunshine. Would 100% recommend this tour. We wish we could give it more than 5 stars.
