Saturday, April 09, 2016

San Diego Whale Watching

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San Diego Skyline
( the first scenery you will see as you leave San Diego Bay to the middle of the ocean )
It has been an annual event for us to explore the Pacific Ocean from San Diego via Hornblower Cruise or H&M Landing. Last Christmas Holidays, we took a three-hour whale watching cruise, the earliest we had so far of the season. We took advantage of the promo we saw that gave 50% discount to San Diego Zoological Society's members. From $35, we only paid $17.50 for a 3-hour whale watching cruise. Since the past four or five years that we had been whale watching every winter, we had never paid full price. Sometimes, we get discounted tickets from Gold Star. There were times we were able to save with a coupon from travelocity, which allowed us to save more than 50%. Aside from booking flights and hotels, travelocity also has connections in booking cruises and trains. Knowing that there are many deals we can find online, we never purchased tickets directly from the ticket booth but always purchased them online at much discounted prices.
Gray Whale
Whale watching in San Diego usually starts from December to April. Over 15,000 gray whales migrate thousands of miles from the chilly Alaskan seas to the warm breeding lagoons of Baja California, Mexico. Aside from gray whales, other whales we would sometimes see are humpback whales, blue whales, and in rare occasions, orcas.

So that I will not overload you with pictures, for a change, here is a slideshow I made of our 3-hr whale watching cruise sometime last Christmas holidays.

The dolphins are always an added bonus to the whale watching tour and it seems they are always the first ones you will see in the cruise. In fact, the whale watching cruises are guaranteed whale watching trips, if no whales or insignificant showmanship from whales are sighted, everyone in the cruise gets another free ticket for another whale watching cruise that will expire in a year. If whales are more solitary, and the boat could not get near them following federal law on whale watching, the dolphins on the hand always have a whale of a good time following the boat. They seem to rejoice always whenever there is a boat, and they love to ride the bow wave.
Dolphins Enjoying the Bow Wave
There are several companies that offer whale watching tours and excursions for up-close viewing of the whales. Because of these competition from various whale watching tour companies, coupons are not hard to find. We do not subscribe to any newspaper company because we can access newspaper online for free, therefore, we scout for coupons not on newspaper anymore but using sites that shares their coupon finds online. I oftentimes would go to Frugal Dad to check out coupons which are not limited to cruises only but to almost all other needs. We however are not really crazy about coupons, we only use it if we really have to use it. Otherwise, if there is no need, despite it is a steal, we hold off from spending unnecessary things and collect junk at home. But whale watching, is one of those priceless memories, that we use the coupon every year! For every year, is different, and special!
Sunset Back To Shore


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10 comments:

  1. have a great weekend Beth! signing off for the CNY break. not sure if i can blog during the long weekend. Happy lunar new year to you and Khai! Enjoy hiking. :)

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  2. Whale watching looks like a lot of fun. My fear of deep water might keep me from something like that though.

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  3. Very cool, I would love to go on one of these whale watching trips. Very cool photos and slideshow. And WOW, the sunset is a gorgeous end to your day. Have a great weekend!

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  4. How awesome to go on a whale watching cruise and for a good price too. Your picture slide show is fantastic!

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  5. what a great sight to behold. Someday I will go back to SD and will stay a little longer than before to appreciate your beautiful town.

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  6. Wow, you got your money's worth! Really nice photos and a beautiful sunset to close out the day! I sometimes wonder if people will go away empty-handed and not see any wildlife, but it is good to know they can come back for another tour.

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  7. I dind't know you could go whale watching in San Diego. Must be a great experience.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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  8. I am in love with your last shot!
    whale-watching is such a fantastic thing, I have done it twice: in iceland and in New Zealand...however sometimes I wish I could meet whales onw ater by accident, very spontaniously+unexpected:-) they are such magic creatures...last year in Mayotte island (the southern most island of the comores) I saw a baby whale jumping...of course was so quick, then I photographed it with my eyes+memory only:-))

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  9. Thanks for stopping by my blog the other day. I'm trying to make a come back to blogsphere. Just looking at your images and I realize how much I miss them. Love the dolphin shot.

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  10. Those whales are so fabulous! I get sea sick so I don't enjoy whale watching. I usually have to dope myself up with Dramamine before I can get onboard.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH!!