City Cruises San Diego Whale Watching & Harbor Tours

"This is the Hornblower cruise - new name. The Captain knew how to find the whales. San Diego Natural History Museum staff onboard to assist. Clean boat, friendly staff, food & drinks available. Boat offers benches and table seating, unlike another operator with only fixed benches. Highly recommend!"

"Lovely boat, but “whale watching” isn’t a good name- especially as the volunteers said orcas will keep the whales away, or rare in the area for a while. One of the docents said they had not seen one since Christmas. I should have noticed no postings of sightings since then on their website. We saw a small part of a back of a whale for 4 minutes or so from fairly far away with spouting but no fin or tail or anything. Not one photo from any of us sadly. Then, the captain abruptly said that was it as “we saw one”, so we went back to shore. Other boats were staying around the whale longer so probably saw much more of it. It was disappointing to leave right as we saw one after hours on board. Maybe go for the afternoon trip so they aren’t in an hurry to return to dock? It felt like the guarantee to give you another trip motivated the captain to find a whale, point to it and return to shore feeling victorious. Most of the people on board didn’t feel that way. One guy edited his sticker to say “I think I saw a whale today”. Earlier, we saw a very small pod of dolphins for a few minutes but they swam low in the water and couldn’t see them much either. I just think that if you call it a nice boat trip that may see animals from afar that it would be more honest. I definitely feel the photos on the website are misleading as is the name."

"The whale watching journey was so magical. Even living here, I just didn’t realize that I could whale watch 10 minutes from home. The San Diego Natural History Museum Volunteers were amazing to listen to their whale knowledge and ask any questions I had. I saw a rare minke whale. If you see a minke and try to misspell it as minky, you could end up sending kinky whale (don’t be like me). All this to say, take the tour. Don’t buy from the company, but do a City Pass for San Diego from AAA starting at $82 for two experiences. This covered whale watching and the zoo which I also reviewed. Get the most for your money!"

"Friendly and informative crew. It was a history lesson as well as an AMAZING whale watch. We loved the ease of ordering cocktails and snacks. We saw 3 whales, a HUGE pod of dolphins and even saw Air Force One at the base. Sea Lions are everywhere in the harbor. I would definitely do another trip the next time we are in town!"

"Did the 2 hour boat ride with my fam. First half was the north side the second the south! Food and drinks are available and restrooms are really clean. Do recommend dressing warm because it's really windy on the boat. Captains commentary was funny and knowledgeable.. learned alot about ships and landmarks along the bay"