Now, I'll admit, I had my doubts about this place at first. For one, having to wake up at an ungodly hour of the morning to go with my sister to catch the 8:30 boat. I am NOT a morning person. By any stretch of the imagination. Second, them not informing us that we'd need to get in a different line to check in our Groupon (or whatever the technical term for it was). My initial thoughts on this matter? 'Company, I am disappoint.'
But soon we got going, and those negative thoughts disappeared. For one, the ride was incredibly smooth (or maybe it was just due to the relatively small waves that day). And the staff were very good about engaging the watchers with information about whales and the area to which we were sailing- even a sample of whale baleen and some whale teeth were passed around! Orcas, no offense, but your teeth look pretty freaking puny compared to a Sperm Whale's.
And then the highlight of our trip- THE WHALES. And not just the typical 'there's a whale twenty feet away from us' whales, oh no. There was a lot of fish, and these whales were hungry. There were about forty whales in the area, and my god did we get a good show from them. Every single type of feeding behavior was displayed- tail slapping, bubble-ring blowing, coming up to the surface and trailing along so you could see their baleen- we even had a whale breach right in front of the boat, which was pretty freaking epic. Poor tour guide didn't know where we should start looking- basically said to look anywhere!
Of course, I have to show some concern about the toddlers clambering all around. Those railings are put there for a reason, kiddies, and as refreshing as a dip in seawater would be I don't think anybody would look forward to fishing you out of there. But at least the staff managed to keep them relatively occupied, which was nice.
The trip back, of course, was relatively uneventful, so I occupied myself with filling out the survey they give you at the end of the tour (shows they care about what people think of it, which was nice to see), and getting a snack from the galley inside, which was apparently very well-stocked. And had enormous freaking pretzels for me to munch on. Heck yeah. The tour guide also said that it had been the best tour they'd had in twenty-some years of the company, so amen to that! Nice work, Cape Ann.
Oh, and the gift shop is pretty nice, for any of you who feel like grabbing a congratulatory whale plushie afterwards.
Seriously, I will recommend the ever-loving daylights out of this place. Staff are friendly, boat is clean, and you're pretty much guaranteed to see whales...what more could you ask for? read more