What are some great wildlife things you’ve seen from a cruise ship?

[CruisinginWonderland]

Being a recent cruise addict convert, but life long ocean lover,  I’m fascinated with any sea wildlife. Anything super exciting?

 

The flying fish are fun. I’d watch dolphins ALL day. 

 

The coolest thing we saw though, was pulling into Cabo, we saw a school of 5 or 6 manta rays swimming right along with us for a minute & then go on their way. 

[Linsuesue]

We saw a pod of Orcas in Alaska. It was a magnificent sight!

[jbethel11]

52 minutes ago, CruisinginWonderland said:

Being a recent cruise addict convert, but life long ocean lover,  I’m fascinated with any sea wildlife. Anything super exciting?

 

The flying fish are fun. I’d watch dolphins ALL day. 

 

The coolest thing we saw though, was pulling into Cabo, we saw a school of 5 or 6 manta rays swimming right along with us for a minute & then go on their way. 

Flying Fish on the Sunshine!

[lasekeye]

The best site was on an Alaska Cruise last month.  A baby porpoise swam away from the pod to play in the small mid-ship wake, directly below our balcony.  The water was so clear we could see all the details of his markings, even the stripes on his face.  He wasn’t there for very long, as the rest of his pod wasn’t very close to the ship, but it was amazing to see.

[jmcancruise]

Flying fish many times, dolphins in Galveston and manatee in Port Canaveral.  We also saw a shark swimming alongside the pier in St. Kitts as we were walking back to the ship.

[pe4all]

Dolphins, flying fish, whales and seals in Alaska, sharks, pelicans diving into the water and coming up with fish.  The coolest thing (even cooler than the whales imho) was last January when we were sitting on our balcony ion the Conquest while in Grand Turk.  A water spout formed about 100 yards away from the ship, and came right towards the ship!  Ended up dissipating around 40 yards from the ship, but it was magnificent to watch (and scary also - thought it was a tornado at first).  Got some great video of it forming and moving towards us and then disappearing.

[naxer]

Coming back from Alaska, we saw a pod of orcas.  I had my binoculars.  It lasted about 10 or 15 minutes as they started off starboard, crossed the ship's wake, and kept on going on the port side.  

[CruisinginWonderland]

2 hours ago, pe4all said:

Dolphins, flying fish, whales and seals in Alaska, sharks, pelicans diving into the water and coming up with fish.  The coolest thing (even cooler than the whales imho) was last January when we were sitting on our balcony ion the Conquest while in Grand Turk.  A water spout formed about 100 yards away from the ship, and came right towards the ship!  Ended up dissipating around 40 yards from the ship, but it was magnificent to watch (and scary also - thought it was a tornado at first).  Got some great video of it forming and moving towards us and then disappearing.

 

That would be pretty crazy!

[CruisinginWonderland]

1 hour ago, naxer said:

Coming back from Alaska, we saw a pod of orcas.  I had my binoculars.  It lasted about 10 or 15 minutes as they started off starboard, crossed the ship's wake, and kept on going on the port side.  

 

Thats so cool!

[Roscoe13]

Many grey whales!  Just off Cabo.  Just eating breakfast on the lido and about every 2 to 3 minutes there would be a blow right off the water surface and then usually followed by a whale tail splash.  Awesome.

[evandbob]

We saw wave after wave of dolphins approaching the ship as we were having dinner at the Cucina on a TA (NCL Epic) - lasted about 5 minutes.

 

Saw 3 whales from my balcony while docked in St Croix!  They were just on the other side of the pier!

 

We have seen more marine life on our land vacations than on cruises however.

[Shaded Lady]

6 hours ago, pe4all said:

A water spout formed about 100 yards away from the ship, and came right towards the ship!  Ended up dissipating around 40 yards from the ship, but it was magnificent to watch (and scary also - thought it was a tornado at first).  Got some great video of it forming and moving towards us and then disappearing.

A water spout IS a tornado, just over water, not on land! I lived close to the water in the Tampa Bay area and we used to see them quite often, but usually from a safe distance. Once, a water spout formed over the bay and moved onshore over downtown St Petersburg and actually caused some minor damage (nowhere near us, we just saw it on the news).

 

And I'm with you pe4all- I'd have been scared out of my mind watching it come toward the ship!

 

[shipgeeks]

Thank you for a good post!  You've brought back lots of happy memories....

Docked in Barbados, we looked out from the buffet and saw a 7-foot manta ray.  DH mentioned it to a young boy nearby; he got so excited.  He ran to his parents' table, "Mom, Dad, there's a big manta ray just below us!"  The bored reply: "Tommy, stop telling lies."  Back and forth a few times; the parents never did believe him nor take a look.

In a RC ship buffet, right at the bow, we saw hundreds (truly) of flying fish.  Mentioned it to one of the young, new, Chinese servers.  He became so excited he called all his colleagues over to watch.  Love that enthusiasm.

Our very best was during the approach to Gibraltar, after many days at sea.  We spent hours on Deck 14, glued to the rail. DH spotted a sawfish, many giant sunfish, and myriads of sea creatures.  If they looked big from 140 feet up...….

[tandemcruzr]

Watching flying fish from our Cove balcony. Also watching the Boobie birds fishing from our Cove.

[Butterbean1000]

Flying fish, turtles, dolphins, rays, sea gulls and other sea birds. 

[cathyz]

Dolphins and lots of whales off Cabo.

[Sea Raven]

Lots of flying fish of course, dolphins, sea turtles, rays, manatees (at Port Canaveral), pelicans, and some really cool frigate birds in the harbor at San Juan.

[marci4tony]

On a cruise to Alaska, saw a huge griz from my balcony as we went down Tracy arm. 

[daisymay1960]

(Humpback  whale in Alaska, sea otters again in Alaska .Orca's  jumping in the wake of the ship while sailing inside passage to Vancouver

 

Then of of course the bears should off the ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sea Hag]

Back in 1991, we saw the total eclipse of the sun from the Jubilee. When the eclipse was over, and the sun was fully back out, a bunch of dolphins started jumping up into the air near the ship. It looked like they were trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

 

Another year, another ship, on the way to Alaska, we watched mile after mile of little jellyfish as the ship went by.

[CruisinginWonderland]

4 hours ago, marci4tony said:

On a cruise to Alaska, saw a huge griz from my balcony as we went down Tracy arm. 

 

How cool!

[CruisinginWonderland]

1 hour ago, Sea Hag said:

Back in 1991, we saw the total eclipse of the sun from the Jubilee. When the eclipse was over, and the sun was fully back out, a bunch of dolphins started jumping up into the air near the ship. It looked like they were trying to figure out what the heck was going on.

 

Another year, another ship, on the way to Alaska, we watched mile after mile of little jellyfish as the ship went by.

 

Wow! Those both sound so amazing sights! 

[GUT2407]

I have seen, Whales, Turtles, Sharks, Flying fish, Birds of just about every variety, penguins but I think the coolest was a huge pod of dolphins, diving under the bow, coming out the other side, tail walking, breaching, seemed like they were showing off, it was spectacular, and they stayed along side for about an hour showing us how it was done.

[CruisinginWonderland]

3 hours ago, daisymay1960 said:

(Humpback  whale in Alaska, sea otters again in Alaska .Orca's  jumping in the wake of the ship while sailing inside passage to Vancouver

 

Then of of course the bears should off the ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alaska & Canada are on our bucket list! I’m sure the sights of wildlife and landscapes are just incredible.

[CruisinginWonderland]

2 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

I have seen, Whales, Turtles, Sharks, Flying fish, Birds of just about every variety, penguins but I think the coolest was a huge pod of dolphins, diving under the bow, coming out the other side, tail walking, breaching, seemed like they were showing off, it was spectacular, and they stayed along side for about an hour showing us how it was done.

 

Dolphins are just the best always.