Whale Watching in Vancouver with Prince of Whales
If you ever find yourself visiting Vancouver, Canada, I really recommend to do a whale watching tour.
A whale watching tour a great way to see the city of Vancouver from the water, explore the waters and the marine life just off the coast. Prince of Whales Whale Watching apparently has a 95% success rate in seeing whales on your tour and even offer a "Sighting Guarantee". This means if for some reason you don't see whales on your tour, you'll be able to keep going back until you do!
Orca Whales surfacing during our whale watching tour with Prince of Whales Whale Watching
Check In:
I experienced this whale watching tour during the pandemic, which strict Covid protocols were put into place and enforced. I felt very safe and even took my 85 year old Grandmother along with me. You are currently required to wear masks for the entire duration of the tour (even if you are outside on the decks). Social distancing is also maintained onboard.
It is strongly recommended that you arrive and check in for your whale watching tour at least 30 minutes prior to your tour time. This is to make sure that you are present for the initial briefing and sign the release form if you weren't able to online beforehand.
Prince of Whales Whale & Marine Wildlife Adventures in Vancouver is located on beautiful Granville Island. I highly suggest making a day trip out of your stay on Granville Island, either grabbing some snacks and exploring the Granville Public Market before or after your whale watching tour. We made sure we grabbed some Lee's Donuts for the trip!
Make sure you grab some snacks at the world famous Granville Island Public Market
The Equipment:
Prince of Whales Whale Watching tours in Vancouver use catamarans that seat 95 people, however they are equipped with many more seats than that for optimal comfort for indoor and outdoor viewing. During the pandemic they are not running at full capacity and are currently running at only half capacity, around 50 guests maximum. On our tour there were only 37 people.
Onboard Experience:
Onboard Prince of Whales catamaran ships, you'll find a comfortable indoor seating area (some seats have tables which is perfect to enjoy your picnic lunch or snacks) with a snack bar (they were serving complementary tea, coffee, hot chocolate and bottled water) and plenty of outdoor seating areas, including right on the bow (at the front of the ship). They also provided sea life colouring pages and crayons for kids I noticed, which was a great touch to keep kids occupied as we sailed out to where the whales were reported to have been seen. There were also two, very clean bathrooms onboard available for use. Make sure you check out my YouTube video for images of the ship and the onboard experience!
On our whale watching tour we had four naturalists and a photographer who were very knowledgeable. Guides made their rounds to everyone and had personal chats about what we were on the search for during our tour. They also had lots of different visuals to explain what we were looking for, how to identify whales, a map of our area to point out our location and did a great job educating all ages on our local marine life here in the Vancouver area. They even had a map that they were updating live with what we had seen and the locations we saw them in the Straight of Georgia which is also known as the Salish Sea.
The guides also had some stories of how some of the whales got their names, I'll never forget how "Stanley" got his. Let's hope one day he returns to the Burrard Inlet to give the Canucks a shot at winning the Stanley Cup haha! The guides take photos of the whales and use markings on their tails and backs to identify which whales we are viewing with their catalog of images.
Overall Whale Watching Tour Experience:
Both my Grandmother and I had an amazing time. We saw two pods of Orca Whales, Harbour Seals and Stellar Sea Lions. The first pod we were able to get very close as they surfaced near the ship, the captain turned off the engines and it was just amazing to see them and hear their breath as they surfaced. The second pod or Killer Whales we saw were living up to their name. They were on the hunt. They were actively thrashing around, jumping out of the water and aggressively diving.
"Stanley" a popular male Killer Whale
Orca Whales are very social creatures, here are two with their noses out of the sea and one on its side with the fin showing
Such a great day, viewing the Orcas with the snow capped North Shore mountains in the distance
I highly suggest this whale watching tour if you're visiting Vancouver as a day tour before or after your Alaska cruise, or even if you're a local looking to do something special.
Prince of Whales Whale & Marine Wildlife Adventures also has a location in Victoria, so if you're visiting Victoria on a cruise you can book a whale watching tour there as well.
If you're interested in seeing the experience, I created a YouTube video (going to be released on Sunday, May 30th) on my whale watching experience with Prince of Whales.
Disclaimer: I did receive this experience as a gift from Prince of Whales Whale & Marine Wildlife Adventures in partnership with Tourism Vancouver. I was not required to write a blog post, YouTube video, social media posts or give a positive review in return. This is my own positive experience that I wanted to highlight. As always, all thoughts, opinions and images are my own. I only team up with products and brands that I love and think you’ll like as well! Thanks so much for supporting the brands that support Wanderlust Journey.
