Nikki Lynn

Review of San Juan Safaris-Whale Watchin...

Unfortunately we did not have a pleasant experienc...

Unfortunately we did not have a pleasant experience at all. We ordered tickets thinking that we would be gone from 12-3 that day while on our 4 day vacation but found out that it was actually an all day trip just to get from Seattle. We had to drive an hour and a half just to get to the ferry and then the ferry ride was an hour to get to San Juan Islands. The lady I spoke with said that we had to be at the ferry at 8:45 in the morning even though our tickets weren't until noon. After we arrived on the island, we checked in just to find out that we still had 2 hours before we would board the boat. We had far too much down time in my opinion, I couldnt imagine doing all of this with children. When we finally boarded the boat we drove an hour in the blistering cold wind and did not see a single animal other than birds. It was miserable. The cabin was far too small for everyone to get shelter from the cold and even though we had dressed in winter clothes, our faces were numb and the boat was so loud you couldnt talk to one another. After about an hour we stopped to look at some sea lions for about 3 minutes. Not that they weren't cool to look at, they were just sitting on a rock as you would see at a zoo. We continued to drive out to open water and after sitting in the freezing cold for over an hour, we finally saw what was described as a juvenile whale. It was so quick and you were only able to see a very small part of his tail or fin and then it was gone again under water for at least another 4 minutes. At this point I was starting to realize that we were not going to see anything like the website or reviews had said. After stalking this same whale for about an hour, the team began to drive back to shore. Once again it was frigid cold so we were lucky enough to grab a seat in the cabin, which was wide open so definitely not "warm" by any means. As we sat there shivering I looked around the boat just to see that everyone else was just as miserable. There were more than 5 people SLEEPING! Yes, people were so incredibly bored and cold that they were bundled up sleeping on the boat. I find that quite ridiculous for some thing that was considered to be a "life changing experience." When we arrived back to the dock, the tour guide said to all of us "I know some of you had your heart set on seeing orcas, but werent the sea lions so much fun to watch!?" As if we all went out there with super high expectations for no reason. Actually, during the breifing in the beginning the tour guides told us that they had the highest population of killer whales in the world so maybe thats why.... I understand that we as humans cannot control nature, I get that. But the fact that out of the 3 hours that we spent on that miserably cold boat and the 5 hours of traveling just to get to and from the San Juan Islands I really would have liked to see much much more than one small whale from a distance. I was so disappointed. In fact, after I was informed about all of the traveling just to get to the tour I asked to cancel because I realized that this was going to consume our entire day and cost a lot more than anticipated because of the extra travel, but they denied me and said that I could not get a refund because it was shorter than 48 hours notice. I did this as a suprise to my fiance and I worked overtime to be able to afford it. When everything was said and done I was so visibly upset I wanted to cry. So much disappointment. So much wasted time, money and energy for nothing. We ended up missing out on time we could have spent with our family to freeze our butts off and stare at each other in silence for 3 hours. I thought that maybe they should not have tours in late September-early October because the animals arent as active but apparently they are "active" all the time according to the website. My advice to anyone who is on a week or less vacation to Seattle or surrounding areas, dont waste your time or money. There are so many cool things that we ended up missing out on because we were unable to cancel. Not worth it at all.