Orca Spirit Adventures Whale Watching

We had an excursion from our cruise ship aboard the Orca Spirit II. The staff were very friendly as they walked us the 450 feet from our ship to the nearby waiting OSII. We were greeted by the naturalists and given a safety briefing. We had Ryan as our naturalist most of the time during our trip. Staff were good at making sure everyone was comfortable and even brought us free beverages to our seats. We saw two humpback whale pods and numerous seals sunning themselves nearby. We were happy to learn that the vessel had a photographer taking pictures and would email them to us afterward. We found the trip very enjoyable. Other reviews talk about not getting too close to the whales. This is not controlled by Orca Spirit Adventures and is to benefit the whales safety. We would definitely use Orca Spirit Adventures if we return to Victoria.

Me and my family had a great time during the tour. Our guide Amanda was really friendly and knowledgeable. Unfortunately we didn't see orcas but we saw a humpback whale and it was super exciting! It's nice to know that you're helping important conservation initiatives with the tour price. I loved that they send you pictures after the tour, so you can just relax and enjoy the experience. Oh and they also offered free cabs from our Hotel to the departure place.

Today my family had a wonderful whale watching journey with orca spirit. We have seen a few orca families. Additionally a naughty bold humpback whale swam very close to us and cross head of the boat, let us all scream for her. Huge thanks to crew and wish all visitors have a great time!

did we get lucky or was it just that OSA were good at their job in knowing where to look? Probably the second option! great staff on the boat and engaged really well with questions and general discussions about them, the environment and what we were seeing. we managed to see a whale and its calf and then a pod of (killer whales?) I think they were

What a trip! I don’t ever expect to have a better whale watching adventure. We spent two hours absolutely surrounded by humpbacks, so close we could hear them. The crew, including the two onboard naturalists Ryan and Jake, were fabulous. So knowledgeable and funny, and put up with my kid’s never ending questions. Coffee, tea, and hot chocolate were a bonus. Professional photos were emailed 48 hours after the trip with no sales pitch. Wonderful experience.

Really pleased with our experience. We were part of a cruise and booked through the cruise line. Our captain for the adventure, Gareth, did a spectacular job getting us out to see Orcas, despite limited sightings nearby. Very attentive to some of our unique needs. Choppy waters on the way home made for some challenging navigation/piloting, but he got the job done and we were thrilled with the experience. Highly recommend!

Fantastic experience! Amanda, Ryan, and the entire crew were so knowledgeable and helpful. We saw many humpback whales and it was a great experience.

Had a fantastic time, easy to book, communicate with and tour started on time. Our guide was great, informative, relaxed and fun and found us all the sea mammals we could ask for. The boat ride itself was a blast and we saw orca, humpback, sea lions and sea otter. Was very impressed and pleased with our booking and very glad friends recommended this tour company you to us.

They were excellent and the orca/killer whales and Humpback whales showed up today too. We booked through Norwegian Joy and it was worth it. They kept us out a little longer since killer whales showed up gave us a show. The humpback whales here learned from Alaska whales... they got into a feeding circle for the first time for this crew. Brought everyone JOY!! The whole crew from Orca Spirit II was great today.

I will let this photo do most of the talking, with regard to today's whale watching adventure; but I will add that our crew were all amazing. We ended up on the smaller boat, rather than the larger double-hulled vessel, but we still had a great time. What a great way to see a different perspective of this part of the world!

Despite the rain, an absolutely wonderful whale watching experience that we fully enjoyed. The ship's crew were funny, knowledgeable and helpful. We were able to see several humpbacks and an Orca as well as seals, sea lions and an eagle! And the included hot coffee and tea was appreciated on a wet, cool fall day. Would definitely recommend this tour.

I wish we would have saved our money and done something else. Obviously they cannot guarantee that you see whales but 300+ for a crapshoot is a little steep. That mistake is on us, but just wanted to give a heads up that the chances of seeing killer whales seems lucky at best. Save your money and do something else in Victoria.

Experience of a lifetime. Ever since I was a kid, I fell in love with whales (especially Orcas!) and the ocean. It was always my dream to see some in real life! After months of comparing options, we finally decided on Orca Spirit Adventures and am so glad we did. Aside from the actual whales we saw, the overall experience was so much fun. A few highlights: The boat / experience: If you want to feel like you're really out in nature and feel the ocean breeze on your face - do it. The waters are a bit bumpy at times, but that's what made it fun :) It's cold but they give you giant space suits that double as floatation devices to keep you warm. So glad my mom and I opted for this instead of an enclosed boat with restrooms. Excellent tour guide! Our skipper/boatmaster Adrian, was extremely knowledgeable and made the 3 hour excursion so much fun! He was an absolute blast and pointed out so many interesting facts along the way about the islands, the area, Orca whales in general, and the specific pod we got to see. You can tell he really cares about what he does, and wants to give everyone the best experience. The whales - obviously the highlight of the show! We were a lucky group that got to see a pod of transient Orca whales post-meal, so they were quite active. We got to see them breaching, playing around, and just existing. While the breaching and other acrobats were a bonus, I honestly would have been satisfied just to see them swim and come up for air every once in a while. Truly a breathtaking experience to see such beautiful creatures with your naked eye. Highly recommend if you get the chance - this was one of the most memorable experiences in my life. Even if we didn't see whales, the overall boat excursion and side-tours we got to see on the way back (we stopped by a few islands to see seals/wildlife/sheep) were worth it. To be on open seas with your face catching the sea breeze is one of the best pleasures of life. All in all, would absolutely go again, and recommend this for anyone who's not afraid of a little boat speed, waves, and adventure.

Had an awful time and saw only one humpback whale. Choose another excursion! Save your money....and your back! We booked this tour a year in advance while on the Celebrity Soltice. In the Celebrity App, the excursion is called "Destination Highlight: Zodiac Whale Watching & Wildlife Tour." We arrived at the pier and we're told to put on survival suits you would see on deadliest catch. They keep you warm, protect you from wave splashes, and float if you go overboard. Wear waterprood hiking boots to help keep your feet dry. About five minutes into the trip the waves/surf turned from a great sooth ride into a lot of bounces across the water. We saw a humpback whale for a few minutes, but the surf was so bad and spray from it into all of us in the Zodiac boat kept us from seeing much. Sunglasses are needed, but quickly get salt water on then making them useless. If you need glasses...same thing....useless. After we saw the humpback, the captain said we'd go to a new area that was less choppy to look for more. Three hours later....nothing. Great views of the area, but no whales. Then we had to go back to the ship...wow was the surf by rhat point awful. It turned cold and took 30 min to get back. The surf was so rough, I had to brace my back against the seat to lesson the impact of each wave. Others were bent over in pain. The boats were nice, the captain was nice and knowledge, but this was probably the biggest waste of money and worst excursion of the six cruises I've been on over the years. It was probably one of the most expensive excursions I've ever done as well. If you want to go whale watching, find a tour with a larger boat that is more smooth, has a bathroom, and hopefully can find whales.

It was me and my husbands anniversary and we were with our friends to book a Zodiac boat tour at 10am in October. The weather was just beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. We were picked up by their free shuttle at 9:25 and easily dropped at the pier. After signing our life way and filling out the forms with Brendan, we were introduced to our guide and set up with our mandatory suits. They were also life vests that would help keep us warm in the +13 degree weather so we were grateful. Our guide helped get us on the Zodiac boat, filling us in on the do's and dont's of what we should expect. I think because it was such a beautiful day, we were just so happy to be on the calm water....and ready to take in the fresh air, and fresh prospective of Victoria. I'll let you know right away that we didn't see any whales or orcas, but we really did enjoy the trip. Would I have felt the same on a cold, rainy day....probably not! But Sept/Oct offer a lot of great days for doing the tour. All in all we did see River otters, a young, playful family of 3. A California Sea Lion heading south, a lot of seals and several species of birds. So the pictures were great! And we learned some B.C. history along the way. For example, I had never heard of an Island called 'Darcy' which was where the leper colony was sent to in the late 1800's-early 1900's, now a historical site. We also saw other islands and bird sanctuaries that I never knew existed. Also, because we didn't see whales, we were given life time passes to go on standby for the tour again. Which we will definitely take advantage of...and hopefully this time, see some whales!

What a waste of our small window in B.C. Victoria. Came through a cruise ship so we only had 5 hours here. Excursion said 3.5 hours for orca watching. By the time we got on the boat, we were half an hour in, arrived at 7pm and back to shore at 9:30 No orcas! We spent one full hour chasing one humpback whale that is always in this area. They even named it. We were on orca spirit 2. But no orcas! Paid $159 per person, and they didn't even attempt to even see an orca. All we saw was one humpback whale, and a few sea lions on a light house. Tourist trap for sure! The boat is so uneven as well, if you stick to one side, you ought to move around to catch the end of a flipper. The boat itself tosses alot of smoke into the air and in your face. The crewmembers were informative on whales but lack information regarding to what we're doing. Waste of time! Verry inefficient use of our time when we were looking for orcas and unprofessional when a guest of about 13yrs at max showed interest of piloting and let him steer the boat. Very rocky and oh so disappointed, would rather explore downtown Victoria since I can see humpback whales back in SoCal..

Sept 12 2014 My husband and I were on board the norwegian jewel after searching and reading many reviews we decided to not book thru the ship and take a zodiac at 5 pm with orca spirit adventures. I will say that it was the absolute best thing that we did the whole week. Our captain Matt was very knowledgeable and maneuver the Zodiac perfectly. We were lucky enough to see a Super pod just 10 minutes after leaving the bay. It was absolutely amazing! Do this you will not regret it! Zodiac is the way to go! The whales were so close you could hear them breath all around you. More than 70 Orcas were part of this superpod composed by 3 resident pods. The experience of a lifetime just a couple of minutes walking off the cruise dock. It gets chilly so do wear extra layers. I wished I had gloves and boots cause at the end of my trip I could not feel my fingers or toes.

I booked a reservation with Orca Spirit a few days before arriving in Victoria. The weather was a bit iffy but the rain held off. We enjoyed our 3 hour tour in the zodiac boat ride. These zodiacs are not like the ones in Hawaii-they are quite sturdy and the seats are comfortable. The employee in the store recommended I keep my jacket on underneath the crazy red suits you have to wear but I didn't think I would need it. Even if it's semi-warm out, it's quite cool on the water when moving at high speeds so dress appropriately! I even used a hat for awhile. The tour guide was good at finding things for us and drove us by Race Rocks to check out the Stellar sea lions and the harbor seals which were cute. The tour guide heard on the radio that a kayaker had spotted some orcas so we headed to that area and were lucky enough to run into J-pod and saw about 10 orcas. We followed at a distance (you have to stay 100m away) for about 30 minutes or so and it was a great experience. FYI, they cannot accept tips.

My husband and I were very frustrated with our whale watching tour! It has always been a huge wish of mine to see orcas, which is why we booked this tour! They guaranteed whale sightings! We were on the water for over three hours and did not see a single whale. We spent the entire time with the captain just trolling around searching. We were the first tour on the water for the day and we were told they don't send out anyone earlier to scout. It would be nice if they did, because then they would know where the pods were that morning and we wouldn't have to spend our entire session searching. I heard the later afternoon tours did see whales because they were able to use the past morning tours to know where they were that day. I feel that we got the short end of the stick. The MOST frustrating thing is that they guarantee you to see whales, but that really means is if you don't see them in your tour, you can get on another tour. We were traveling from Texas and could not hop on another one. We would have liked to have our money reimbursed but it wasn't an option. Overall, it was a a very disappointing day. I do wish someone would be kind enough to reimburse us as we wasted so much of our time just to leave upset.

Sara and Sheena were amazing guides, and they were very knowledgeable . The tour was great. We saw many whales on the tour.

On July 19, 2019, I had the pleasure of embarking on a whale watching tour and had a close-up encounter with Scratch the Humpback whale with Orca Spirit Adventures in Victoria, BC. The whale had been seen circling the area, and we had a few far away shots with our cameras. Then, right before it was time to head back to the docks in Victoria, Scratchy came much closer to say hello! It was a beautiful day with mostly clear skies and calm water. It was the only whale we saw, but the awesomeness of the experience was a once-in-a-decade close up that very few people get to see on a whale watching tour. Thank you to our guides did a wonderful job and Captain Jeremy had us in the right place, peacefully sitting and patiently waiting, to experience this beautiful interaction. Thank you Orca Spirit Adventures in Victoria! The history, preservation, knowledge, and friendliness of the guides would have been well worth the trip, even before this stunning sighting. Very enjoyable!

My wife and I totally enjoyed ourselves on the Orca Spirit cruise. Weather was a little rainy but the experience was fabulous. We followed a transient Orca pod of 7 for well over a nautical mile and also saw a pair of humpback whales and numerous seals and beautiful scenery. Rachel and Captain Bill were extremely knowledgeable and friendly and were also willing to give local information about where to eat and have fun! A quote from my wife "I almost want to go right back out!" A quote from me "There's no reason why we can't!"

Our guide Ed was great! Enthusiastic and knowledgeable. He didn't want to end our trip without seeing whales so we pushed on (an extra 45 minutes) and there they were! Lots of orcas, quite the show! Very happy with the zodiac tour. Even if the whales hadn't shown themselves... the ride alone was fun! Felt safe the entire time even through the rough waves.

The waters were very calm when we went on our tour on Monday. The zodiac was very comfortable to ride in, perhaps because the waters were so flat. If you are up for it, I highly recommend that you take the zodiac instead of the covered boat. It allows you to smell and feel the ocean air, and get closer to the animals. The life-jacket suits which Orca Spirit provided were comfortable and seemingly clean. The suits helped keep us warm on a very chilly and rainy day. The marine tour guides in the area freely share information with one another, which I like. For this reason, I was told that the 1 p.m. tour is ideal because the morning tours will bring back information regarding where the animals are located. Our guide, Rodrigo, was very friendly and committed to making sure that we had an excellent experience. We did not spot wildlife (other than birds) for over an hour. Reportedly, it was a slow afternoon for all marine tours in the area. Rodrigo took a risk and headed far out west in the waters. His instinct was spot on because we eventually came upon a family of five transient Orcas (killer whales). Because our guide was the one who had discovered the whales, we were able to spend a good forty plus minutes alone with the whales before six or so other boats arrived and gathered around to view Rodrigo's amazing discovery. During that initial forty minutes alone with the Orcas, we could see them very well and hear their breathing. Rodrigo shared very interesting and helpful information regarding transient Orcas in general, and his observations regarding this family in particular. Rodrigo concluded that one of the more sluggish of the five animals might be ill. Our tour concluded with spottings of numerous seal lions and seals, and a blue heron. I highly recommend this tour for those who really want to get a sense of the marine life in the area.

Awful awful awful. Don't be fooled by the four other reviews or pictures. This company is a tourist rip off. The boats are large ferry size vessels jam packed with over 100 people. You wont see any wildlife as no animal would come near this giant noisy polluting collossus. This trip is total hell narrated by perhaps the most boring human being alive. When whales didn't appear they literally took us to view houses from the water. I posted actual photos if the level of excitement you can expect on this "adventure"

What a beautiful day for whale watching which also happened to be a special husband's 33rd birthday! I booked a tour with Orca Spirit a week ago and asked them not to call the house in order to keep it a birthday secret from my husband. They were very good about working with me over email. I chose Orca Spirit as they have a very stable, covered boat with an inside seating area, and my husband is not the most comfortable on the open water, so I thought this would be better than a Zodiac. I was very pleased when we boarded the vessel to find a very clean washroom, complimentary hot chocolate, coffee, and tea as well as a very comfortable and spacious boat with upper uncovered, lower covered, and lower indoor cabins. My husband and I chose to sit in the outdoor but covered lower section of the deck. We were VERY fortunate as we saw a humpback whale playing with two sealions about 10 minutes into our trip! Orca Spirit had two naturalists on board who were very imformative and told us that this was a very rare occurance in these waters. We watched for about 20 minutes before moving on to the east where we found all three resident Orca pods. We had some very close sightings and the privledge of being "checked out" by one of the older female whales who changed her direction just to get a look at us. The tour lasted about 3 hours and was very comfortable through out. I have been on two other whale watching tours in Victoria and can say that this is one of the best I have experienced!

Amazing, terrific, experience. Up close encounters of several Orca whale pods with knowledgable marine biologists on board. They knew where to locate and view these beautiful animals in their natural environment.

The naturalist was wonderful, and very informative. The bummer was we saw no orcas, very disappointing. It was my husbands birthday and we were planning to see orcas. I called other whale watches and they confirmed they had seem them on the same day as our tour with Orca Spirit. We booked another whale watching tour for the following day with a different agency, and saw lots of orcas! I know all the tours, talk to each other, and they all go out to the same spots where the whales are, not sure why Orca Spirit went in a different direction than where the orcas were. They will tell you that the whales move around, which of course they do, but all the whale watches generally know what area they are in, if they choose to go in the direction where they are. We did see humpbacks on the Orca Spirit, and some are satisfied with that, but for us it was orcas all the way we were looking for....

They took us out to see some orcas, but they do not tell you ahead of time they are not allowed to get closer than 200 yards of the animals, so they may be hard to see if you are not paying very close attention. I did have a telephoto lens on my camera, and once I set it to take multiple pictures with each shutter squeeze, I did get some nice shots of whales. The crew was very knowledgeable and friendly. Would I do it again? I don't know. We did see whales, but they were far away.

Excellent tour. Great this'll for older folks. You can sit inside or outside. The guides really did a great job in making you feel welcome. They were very experienced and had lots of knowledge. I really like that they take photos for you and they are accessible after the tour for free. One lady was seasick and one of the guides spent her time with her helping her.

Very bad experience, we wasted our money and the only four hours we had in Victoria on this " Orca tour". We saw no whales at all. No Orcas and no Humpbacks. We only got to see ONE sea lion. At the end they took us on a "city cruise tour", but it was night and there was no more light, we couldn't see anything! Not recommendable at all!

They show up late with a broken boat that can not get up to speed and take us out to the ORCAS, come back an hour late, they say nothing to the guests as to what/why/how come/ "we have your money,tough" was the feeling I left with, tourist I was, trapped I felt. Boat was large and clean. Nice bathrooms. Crew nice. Maybe YELP has not reached VICTORIA yet. This kind of service will not last when,IF, it does. Just use another company when in the area.

Great while watching experience! Captain Mark and crew were wonderful. We saw a baby orca breach for us! Truly memorable time on the water!

I did this trip as a tour excursion from a cruise ship. I really wanted to see Orcas and had been excited about the prospect of seeing them. To begin with the crew was really positive about recent sightings and how extensive their network of fishing boats and other tour boats was, but as time went by with no sightings of anything, it became obvious that the Orcas were not cooperating that day. These are wild creatures and don't appear on demand. We did see a Minke whale which the crew tried to build up as super exciting, but everyone had obviously come for the Orcas. I realize that the crew can't make them appear if they were not there, but it would have been nice if they could have kept us a little more informed, even if it was to say "hey guys, we're talking to the other whale watchers and fishing boats and the whales are just not here today". Instead we seemed to spend ages looking for this elusive Minke whale which just felt incredibly frustrating as I felt we should be looking for Orcas. I assume they did this as they knew the Orcas were not around, but wish they had been a little more open. They need to work on their communication around no sightings. Maybe it doesn't happen very often. The boat was nice and clean, but you couldn't always hear what was happening. I am sure that this would be a wonderful trip when the Orcas are there.