Victoria Excursion Hub -- Questions

[Italy52]

We will be on the Crown Princess in July with a lengthy ( 9AM-10 PM) stop in Victoria.  The ship doesn't really offer a whale watching or orca excursion that we are interested in doing.  When we dock in Victoria, is there an excursion hub or booths that will sell excursions to the general public?

[cruiseryyc]

There are plenty of whale watching tours leaving from the Inner Harbour, suggest you check to see if any do a pick up at the cruise port.  Also suggest you pre-book one.

 

https://www.tourismvictoria.com/see-do/whale-watching

 

[martincath]

I'd prebook to be sure of getting a seat at the time you want - while that's a lovely long day, since there are undoubtedly other things you will want to do as well life will be smoother if you can schedule all the ticket-y stuff!

 

Mostly trips fall around 9am (too early), then depending how many boats each operator has in the water they might offer ~1pm and ~5pm departures on the same boat(s), with additional in-between times if they stagger their fleet. Aside from the very first boats out, every captain of every boat all day will already know where they need to go - no faffing around looking!

 

Your party may have restrictions who you can go with, e.g. the zodiacs don't take pregnant women/folks with bad backs/small kids and if you are doing it ad hoc then there may well not be enough seats left for all of you on the same boat on the day. If folks are picky about having covered decks, or everyone wants to wear a polar bear suit and feel the wind on an open zodiac, you're further reducing possible options - now that tourism is returning to normal whaleboats are filling, even last season I went out with my mum and her friend who were visiting and there were three boats departing, none with more than a handful of seats free, in mid-September!