Newburyport Whale Watch

Super surprised that there are only 2 reviews for Newburyport Whale Watch since we were told by the staff that the company has been at the dock for well over 15 years. I had a Groupon and thought the booking process was rather unorganized. I called to switch a reservation to the following week and the guy couldn’t locate the original reservation. He said there were two books and it may have been on the other one. Nevertheless, it was an easy switch and he didn’t give me much grief (nor direction either).
The municipal lot is located near the Black Cow café and the check in shack/​dock is hidden behind the trees on the other side. There is no signage, story is the town won’t allow it. We boarded the boat with about 30 other folks and it was well below capacity. There are two levels though only part of the top section is open for non VIP guests. The low turnout meant that everyone had ample space to shift sides depending on where the whales made their appearance.
We were lucky and saw 5 different species (a first for the season according to the staff)! The captain spent ample time each time we spotted a whale to ensure everyone got their shots. There was also a woman narrating our encounters and I thought she did a great job of keeping us informed without making our ears hurt. Contrary to other reviews, the bathrooms on board were very clean (may have been because we were the 8am group). I did notice that the girl who was manning the food station was handling food and money and cleaning without wearing gloves/​washing her hands though I do give her props for doing it all correctly and efficiently.
In all, a spectacular day with a great group of folks!

Great trip, wonderful sightings.
Great discount on tickets with Groupon deal, it was well worth the price.
It was a beautiful day, the boat was fairly full but not over crowded & left only a few minutes late (due to older people needing assistance in boarding). The staff was attentive & nice enough, nothing special. The food was mediocre at best but fairly priced & what you would expect from a trip like this. .
After about an hour out into the Maine waters, we ran into a breaching Minke whale. The woman narrating the tour was ecstatic to see it, then we saw the same whale breach at least 5 or 6 more times, create a bubble net (something the tour guide said was very uncommon for Minkes), swim in tandem with first one then another Minke and by end of tour, we had seen what must have been at least 9 separate Minkes & a nursery school of Porpoises. The tour guide repeatedly made statements about how rare it was to see such behavior in these whales, the breaching as well as the group swim.
I cant say that anything about the crew or boat stood out as particularly good or bad. The boat appeared to be clean enough, but I did not use the bathroom, so have no idea to its cleanliness.
I cant say that I would have even thought to write a review, had it not been for the magnificent & rare sightings of whales behaving in ways photographers dream of capturing. I got some great shots as well as memories of these beautiful whales.
The boat stayed out a little past its intended time, since the whales were being so cooperative & the entire crew seemed hesitant to leave while Sockeye (a fairly well known whale in the area) was putting on such a good show, but we tore ourselves away from the show & halfway back to port we ran into a school of porpoises that although they soon fled from prying eyes, hung around long enough for us to see they had babies with them, which was an added treat!
*~Eli

Seven of us decided to try out the Newburyport Whale Watch because I saw a Travelzoo deal for their boat. It was a great experience and value. We were out on the water for close to four hours and even saw a whale very close to our boat! We were able to get some great pictures. The boat wasn’t overcrowded either, like some whale watches can be, so it was easy to move around as the whale moved to different sides of the boat. I also liked the variety of food options onboard — very unexpected for a whale watch. We had brought snacks, but they probably weren’t necessary.
My only suggestion for them is that they might want to give more warnings about the trip being potentially rocky. We saw a few people getting sick over the sides of the boat or in trash cans. I certainly don’t blame the whale watch team as they were very attentive, but I think if people had been warned to get sick over the sides of the boat sooner (as opposed to in trash cans indoors) that might have been helpful. I do take into account though the fact that customers prone to seasickness should probably take some medication before the trip (that’s what I did and was relatively fine).
Overall definitely worth checking out! Newburyport is a nice little area to walk around in after, too.