Cape May Whale & Dolphin Watching Research Center

Found a nice deal on groupon and came here with my parents.
The ride was nice, except my mom got seasick, good to know for the next trip. Luckily, one of the other passengers had the same problem, and had some extra medicine for it.
We saw a few dolphins, a TON of sting rays, but alas, we didn’t get to see even 1 whale, and that’s what I was really hoping to see. The captain did make the extra effort to go even further out to sea to increase the chance to see a whale, but no such luck.
I don’t know if I would come all the way out here, and spend the money and not see what I was hoping to see. Luckily, it was a groupon deal, and the staff was very pleasant, and overall the experience was nice.

Excellent. We went on a overcast day, saw whales and a huge pod of dolphins with babies. Will be doing this again, we were all treated wonderfully with personal attention from the staff so we wouldn’t miss anything.

Excellent whale watching experience! We found this place on Groupon offering $ 100 for four people and were very fortunate to see a humpback whale on this expedition and a group of dolphins. The staff on the boat is very knowledgeable and taught us a lot about marine life we came across on this trip, we saw a loggerhead turtle, bottlenose dolphons, a humpback whale, and a collection of shellfish and a horseshoe crab that they hooked up on the anchor. There is also an intern on board that is taking photos of the animals and identifying them for research purposes. Although they mentioned no food or drinks, they did not check my bag for water or food. If you plan to buy drinks there, I’d recommend getting the souvenir cup as it is $ 1 for refill. We spent three hours on the boat and it was plenty time for us to see everything without getting seasick.

Highly recommend trip! I went on the 6pm sunset cruise and we saw tons of dolphins! When dolphin pods were spotted the captain would slow and stop the boat to observe the dolphins. They would announce in which areas dolphins were surfacing so you didn’t miss a thing. Very beautiful sunset while riding. They played some fun music for everyone to enjoy on the way back. WELL worth the money

Staff were great; boat was fabulous and overall Great boat ride. We got to see a ton of Dolphins but no whales!!!

Best 3 hr trip– we saw so many Dolphins, birds, sting rays and a hammered head shark. My 3 yr old loves being able to touch different types of live crabs at the end. The presentation was exceptional. A great time.

What a fun trip! Melissa, the naturalist, was knowledgeable about the wildlife, history and landscape that make up Cape May. She pointed out birds, the coast guard training center and tons of dolphin pods. You should go on this cruise if you visit Cape May. I found Melissa’s history lesson fascinating, too! Great for kids!
The pizza/​hotdog included thing was kind of weird. An employee was handing out the food and limited it to one item per person. If you wanted a second slice of pizza or an additional hotdog you had to shamefully ask for it. Awkward.

I went on the 1:00 whale and dolphin watching tour today. I had a groupon for two tickets for $ 40.00. It was a wonderful day. While we did not see any whales today, we saw numerous dolphins. The narrator was very knowledgeable about sea life, and was very friendly and answered any questions the passengers had. Because it was after labor day, the boat was fairly empty and I was able to sit on the bow which gave a great view of in front of and both sides of the boat. At times it seemed like the dolphins where everywhere. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who would appreciate the sight of marine life in their natural habitat.

Reserved a sunset cruise over the phone. Super easy. Left on time. Staff was friendly and interacted with the passengers thought out. Only complaint was that they offered free pizza and hot dogs, but the soda and drinks were super expensive. Either bring cash for that or drink up before hand. Also crews works for tips they say, so if going to tip bring cash again. It was a very enjoyable time, I would do it again. Did see many dolphins on the trip.

Very well-​organized, professional tour. We actually saw a whale and a bunch of dolphins, despite what other reviews have described. So glad we decided to go with this company after reading some crazy stuff about other whale watching businesses in the area.
This review is mostly for the awesome, knowledgeable, polite, and incredibly friendly young women who staffed the boat. Even with the crippling, hellish (and unexpected) sea-​sickness that my boyfriend and I had, this place STILL gets 5 stars for how caring, tolerant, and strong-​stomached the staff was.
To those young women: thanks for taking care of us. We put all the cash we had in our pockets in the tip jar. Really lame to hear that most of your pay comes from tips! You guys deserve so much more for how hard you work and for having to deal with gross/​sad passengers like us. I hope your boss sees this and gives you paid sick days and lots of great ocean-​related perks. Thank you!!!
xxxoo

They have a deal on groupon but you must wait 48 hours before you can use it. Since we didn’t have too much time here in Cape May, we bought the Buy 1 get one half off from their website which came out to $ 62 for 2 people, a fair price.
There is another company with a similar deal on groupon but their boat was packed to the gills. My wife and I were quite appreciative of the fact that there weren’t too many people on our boat as that can get quite annoying.
I read a review from someone somewhere that they charge a ridiculous $ 5 for a souvenir water bottle and refills are $ 1. (I fancy myself a thrifty consumer). Fountain drinks are $ 3, hot dogs are $ 3, pizzas was $ 4. They state that no outside food/​drinks allowed on board but they didn’t really check your bags.
Word of caution: the crew doesn’t guarantee any sightings of marine wild life. However, we were fortunate enough to see a herd of 100 + dolphins and a whale during our trip. All in all our 3 hour tour was well worth it.

The tour was great! The crew was very knowledgeable of the local marine life. We spotted several pods of dolphin as well as viewing 3 different whales! Not just spouting from the blowhole, but one seemed to be putting on a show just for us! All the while the crew sharing their knowledge with us. For such a young crew they were all extremely professional, courteous and knowledgeable. Definitely must try this group if you’re looking into whale/​dolphin watching!

Although we didn’t see as many whales and dolphins as I’d hoped, it’s still money well spent. The staff is EXTREMELY friendly and welcoming. They’re warm and they seem to genuinely want to answer your questions and explains what’s happening. Melissa was very helpful and she explained things about the area, as well as the dolphins. Kathy was on the PA and she told us just enough. She could’ve just talked on and on and bored us, but she gave enough information to keep us interested, but not too much to put us to sleep!
The boat was a perfect size — we were easily able to go to the different sides. There are two levels, and I would recommend standing at the upper level. There are also seats and they’re evenly spread out around the boat.
As for the dolphins, we didn’t see one dolphin jump up and do fancy tricks, but that’s not what we came for… we saw pods swimming and a few were in the wake of the boat. We didn’t see a single humpback whale. They did say they saw them the day before, but we came knowing that there weren’t a lot of whale sightings.
They did offer food, and they had complimentary apple juice, coffee, and donuts.
If you do decide to come, come early, though, as you can get the best seats. You also get better parking and can leave faster when the trip is over.
We did the 9:30 time, and the weather was perfect. It was slightly windy and the sun wasn’t too high. Beginning of August is a great time to go!
Overall, I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone who’d like to see dolphins and have a very nice trip out on a boat!

Money well spent. You won’t be disappointed. One of the best aspects of the trip was the staff! You will love learning form them because they love what they do. They also give back to charity. Have fun!

My father in law loves two kinds of cruises… those that involve gambling, and those that involve marine life. So when he started drafting family members to go with him for a whale watch during our week at ocean city, when my kids all wanted go go, well, like a runaway locomotive, I’m just along for the ride. He had actually reserved space on the whale watcher cruise, but amidst telling me to turn in the wrong spot and yelling at me for trying to navigate to the correct location, we found this ship ready load… so endeth the chaos, thankfully. So, a few observations, if I may…
1. score dolphins 100, whales 0. I imagine this is a frequent ending. Dolphins frolicked around the boat for as long as we leta them, but then the last 90 minutes were ho hum. Maybe bring a poker set along next time!
2. The happy collegiate narrator was pretty well informed, but seemed to run short on script at times. «if you look over there, you might see some water!» In the words of depeche mode, «words are very unnecessary. …they can only do harm». Wow, never thought I’d quote depeche mode in a Unilocal review!
3. Food, drinks, and souvenir accoutrements are available, and they ask you not to byo foodstuffs. However, if the ships a rocking, don’t come a gorging… as one unfortunate passenger sitting nearby discovered. Quesadillas, I believe.
4. School groups may show up, as one did for our 1 pm voyage. 58 or so 7^th graders and adults. Well-​behaved little darlings, overall. Plus, the staff set up educational stations that any kid could go visit, so the please touch tanks were bonus entertainment.
5. Tip the staff. they cleaned up the spilled quesadillas, for Pete’s sake.
6. Parking is a silly fiasco… cars are parked in two lines upon arrival, and hence, upon return, no one can leave until the cars in front go. kind of like a formula one standing start, but these cars sport AAA stickers, conversion vans, and that guy who has to, after three hours on a boat, pick now to buy that shirt that says” blubbers and better lovers”. We are all at his mercy.
In all, it was a decent day out, costing 180 for three adults and five kids. And, when the whales are nowhere to be seen, the rhythmic rocking of the boat-​and the cry of seagulls, and sun on your face– can induce a wonderful atmosphere for a mid afternoon nap. Or, so I’m told.

This was such a wonderful experience for my family. The captain and his crew were extremely knowledgeable and answered any questions we had. Melissa was the intern working on our tour and she was outstanding. We saw many dolphins, fish, birds and other land marks on our trip. We went on the dinner cruise it was fine for a quick snack, eat before hand because its just hotdogs and or pizza. You can also purchase drinks on the boat alcoholic ones too. Buying our groupon saved us almost 50% off so look for those before you book.

9:30 am didn’t have too many kids. The parking situation is a little dicey (you can’t leave when you want but have to wait for everyone else to pull out).
They tell you to arrive half an hour early, yet they leave late.
The guide gives good patter and doesn’t shut up about the intern taking a zillion pictures.
We didn’t see Whales but did see Dolphins.
It’s a long ride. Bring a jacket.
Even though the guide gets paid a lovely wage and benefits, they still rattle the tip cup in your face on the way out.

Were were here with a group of 4 on Saturday afternoon and did the whale and dolphin 3 hour tour. We saw a lot of dolphins about 15 minutes into our trip. There were a lot around our boat but they were quick so it is difficult to get a good picture of them. We saw dolphins for maybe 15 minutes and then continued on with our tour and traveled further out to sea. We never saw any whales or anymore dolphins for the remainder of the last 2 ½ hours of the trip. Our boat was not too packed.
There is a snack bar that sells hot dogs, pizza, chips, soda, bottled water, beer, wine, bloody mary’s and OJ with vodka. The pizza is $ 5 and is Celeste (the individual frozen pizzas that you can buy for $ 1 at the store). There is a sign stating that you cannot bring food or drinks onto the boat but I wish that I did as they did not check bags and employees were not very attentive to the passengers. Bottled water was $ 2/​bottle so I went with bloody mary’s instead at $ 5. The bloody mary was not great but certainly not bad either considering it was a $ 5 mixed drink on a family boat being made by a male that looked to be about 13 years old.
There were a bunch of sick people on board which was a total buzz kill. The last 2 hours ended up being kind of depressing as there were no whales or dolphins but a bunch of ill looking people on board. I was surprised at how many people got sick because I am usually the wuss in any group and I thought the ocean was rather calm. They sell chewable dramamine for $ 2 on board and at the ticket counter, but a lot of people must not have noticed. My friend Sarah F ended up buying dramamine for a couple ill people at the snack bar on board. You would think someone working on the vessel would walk around the boat and let sick looking people know about dramamine or make an announcement about it.
Unlike other Unilocal reviews, the children on board our ship were amazingly well behaved, especially considering how long the boat ride was and how young some of these kids are. I give kudos to the parents of these children and hope I can get my kids to behave so well on a long boat ride.
If you really want to see dolphins in the wild, then the living social and groupon offers are a good deal, but I would recommend the 2 hour tour vs. the 3 hour tour since it sounds like you most likely won’t see any whales. And bring a little sweater or coat. It was about 81 degrees F on Saturday afternoon and went from sunny to partly cloudy. I was warm when we were docked but did get chilly outside once we were out to sea.

I wholeheartedly agree with the review by Lisa!
The tour was fine (We even lucked out on a day when there was a Right Whale in the area.) What annoyed me was waiting on the very warm boat for people who were not at the dock on time. The parking situation is a bit ludicrous. Worst is the total lack of supervision of any youngsters on the boat. Kids ages 4 – 10 running up and down all over the boat, playing, I kid you not, hide and go-​freaking-​seek. That was 30 minutes.
Awesome.
Then there is a youngster (3 or 4 at the most), who perched himself on top of the rail of the side of the boat while we were moving at top speed to a new location. Feet dangling over the edge! I watched him for a few moments, looking for any parent. No one in sight. I had to go into full teacher voice and ask him to put his feet on the deck. I got a dirty look, but at least I slept well that night.
Nice tour, helpful naturalists, they need a few more hands on deck to keep some order and maybe operate a clock. Not sure I’d try them again,

This year, we went on the sunset dolphin cruise for the second time ($ 30/​ticket, although we got Groupons for $ 15/​ticket). The boat left at 6pm, and when we got there around 5:35, ¾ of the people had already gotten there. When we got on the boat, most of the seats on top were taken up by families. However, it was kind of ridiculous– each row fits about 3 – 4 people, and there were 2 families who had 3 people total and spread out over 2 rows. When we tried to sit at the end of the rows, they got mad at us, even though the seats were empty. Umm sorry it’s not your boat, if a seat is empty, then it makes sense that someone else would sit there when the boat is almost full. After we finally settled in, it was ridiculously hot for the first 15 minutes of the cruise, but by the time the sun started going down, it was the perfect temperature and even got a bit cool. The sunset was beautiful as well. We actually saw lots of dolphins, including a nursery full of dolphin babies, which was pretty awesome. I also learned some new things from the tour, about both dolphins and Cape May in general. Two thumbs up for the tour part of the cruise and the dolphin sightings.
The main reason this dropped a star from last year: the fellow customers were unfriendly and borderline rude. On top of that, just about every family on the boat had multiple kids, and the parents would just ignore them. I saw a billion examples of horrible parenting. If you want to hear a 5-​year old screaming «I DON’T SEE ANY DOLPHINS» on repeat for 10 minutes while running around, with her mom yelling «SIT DOWN» every 2 minutes but not ever bothering to get up and get her kid, then this is your dream cruise. Note to parents: this is a fairly long cruise with information about Cape May, dolphins, and the ocean. If your child is unable to quietly sit for 90 minutes and listen, then the 20 – 30 minutes total spent looking for/​looking at dolphins probably isn’t worth the aggravation for you and for the people around you.
I’m not sure if we’ll do the cruise again next year. It’s a shame because we love being out on the water, and the dolphin sightings are so much fun. But I’m not sure it was worth the hassle of dealing with the other people on the boat and their 500 kids. Maybe it would be worth it to do a «no kids» sunset cruise once a week?