whale watching in dominica - anyone done it?

[travelbugs2]

We will be in Dominica in Feb. and are interested in whale watching. What company do you recommend. Is it safe to book it on our own, i.e., not through Carnival?

[Welovetokruze]

My wife and I used the Noordams tour operator last March and we saw a grown female and her baby, the guys on the boat knew their stuff, we enjoyed the tour and would recommend it. In afact, we are going on the same cruise thie March.

[chapdaddy]

My wife and I did it in 06 while on the Sun Princess and loved it. Saw several whales and the boat crew was very knowledgeable. We booked through Princess and the tour operator was Anchorage Tours.

[Lsimon]

We did the "Whale & Dolphin Safari" tour, booked on board through Celebrity Galaxy on 2-20-07

 

We had a great time. We saw a large school (maybe hundreds) of Fraser Dolphins - the Captain actually got very excited on this as he says it was a very rare sighting - he said these dolphins migrate from one area to another among the islands, so they are not necessarily seen in one area on a regular basis.

 

We also saw several sperm whales. The Captain found these using the underwater direction microphones on the ship (can't remember the name of this equipment) and followed them until they submerged. He aid they would resurface around 30 to 50 minuites later - usually 45 minutes so we waited for them, and they came back up right at 45 minuites for another great viewing.

 

He did say we were very lucky and that some days they have little or no sightings and don't guarantee any sightings.

 

We have some pictures on our photo site - click here and be sure to continue through the photos to the second page of thumbnail's for some nice whale pictures.

[canadagal]

Just returned from a Hal cruise in Feb. We booked through the ship's excursion and the tour operator was also Anchorage Tours. They are really great and mostly scientists studying the whales. We saw several whales the day we went out. Their boat is large and it does have a canopy for shade and onboard washroom, if that's important to you. For the second half of the tour we anchored offshore at the Champagne Reef for some of the best snorkeling we've experienced in a long time. I'd go with them again in a hearbeat. A really enjoyable day and worth every penny.

[tindiver]

We'll be on HAL Noordam in April:D. The whale watch tours sound great. About how far from shore are you? Is there any chance of seeing whales from the cruise ship coming into or leaving port?

Tom

[Lsimon]

We were not too far ( a couple, or a few, miles) from the docked ship.

 

But I think it would be highly unlikely to see whales from the ship while it was pulling in or leaving.

[whale-watcher]

We were not too far ( a couple, or a few, miles) from the docked ship.

 

But I think it would be highly unlikely to see whales from the ship while it was pulling in or leaving.

We scanned with high powere binoculars from the time it was light until we pulled into port and did not spot so much as a single spout; fortunately we also signed up for the whale watching excursion throught the ship...and had fantastic looks at numerous sperm whales as they lounged at the surface VERY close to the boat. It was amazing!

 

Another reason to take this excursion: the government of Dominica recently voted with Japan in favor of restarting commercial whaling, but hopefully the growing ecotourism and whale watching industries will help to show this nation that the whales are worth MUCH more alive than dead!