Experience of a lifetime - Crew all excellent: Derek and Jake talking to us upstairs, Ryan and Jeremy in the wheelhouse. Quite quickly after getting out into open water two humpbacks approached the boat, one a male called Merlin, and an unknown companion. They swam around and underneath the boat for over 30 minutes. The crew’s obvious excitement and delight made us realise that this wasn’t a normal occurrence. Both whales brought their heads out of the water on numerous occasions. Other boats were around, but only after more than half an hour with us did the whales move away. So did we then, and headed to Race Rocks and beyond, where we saw harbour seals, California sea lions, and Steller sea lions. Then turned round to come back to Victoria. A humbling and exhilarating experience. Very glad we did it and we highly recommend Orca Spirit. Thanks again to our brilliant crew, and apologies for only just posting this review now. (This was early September)

Amazing experience - OMG! We could not have had a better weather day and naturalist. Megan is very enthusiastic and entertaining. We started off seeing 3 female Orcas which were a mom and 2 daughters. They were really fun to watch and came pretty close so we could get a good view. Then we saw a male a few hundred meters away and it was the brother of the girls. He actually surfaced less than 10 meters from our bow. Scared everyone. He also caught some serious air when he breached completely out of the water. Amazing show. Then we caught up with some humpback whales and we were surrounded by at least seven of them. Many of them came to the surface with jaws wide open to catch krill. One of them had 3 or 4 episodes of tail slapping that had to have lasted over 2 minutes each. To top it off we passed a pod of porpoises on the way back to the dock. I’m calling her Megan Miracle because she showed us so much in such a short time. Best experience ever!

Great hump back whale sitings - We stopped on multiple areas and saw whales in each spot. Two actually jumped out of the water! C and L

Great Day Out - We lucked out with a beautiful day and 65-degree temperatures. The boat was comfortable and Captain Bill came over and answered our questions and pointed out some highlights. The running commentary up top by Megan was top-notch, from pointing out how hydrodynamic Orcas are to what all the sea creatures eat and their habits. She was also the official photographer and we can download all her photos, which is a nice touch. Another thing I loved, and this was a main reason I chose Orca Spirit Adventures, is that they will pay for a cab to and from the boat if you're staying in downtown Victoria. All in all, a great day and it went way too fast.

Worthwhile experience - Everyone that work there was super friendly and helpful, also knowledgeable. We had a great time as a family and individually too. It was a very memorable time. Thank you to everyone that was there

Graceful - We had a great trip got to see about six humpback whales we missed them jump out of the water twice we were only able to capture the splash overall it was very exciting trying to find them locate them and to get pictures

A great whale watching tour! - Our trip was awesome, the crew of Megan, Marissa and Ryan did a great job of finding wildlife and engaging everyone on the vessel, including the kids. They were also able to provide a ton of info about the wildlife we saw. And they provided a ton of hot coffee and tea for this cool and damp west coast day;)

We enjoyed it very much and will recommend to others! - They did a wonderful job of finding whales and maintaining space for them. The whales actually came towards us and blew right near the boat. So funny we didn't expect the smell. Great experience! Only recommendation would be a few less people on board. Often hard to see around folks.

Worth the trip - We booked this as a day trip from Vancouver with Harbour Air, flying in a seaplane. The walk from the airport terminal to the Orca office and departure pier is 1.5km and takes about 20/25 minutes we only had 30 minutes from landing to leaving so was a bit tight and we walked at a pace. The tour was well organised, lovely sunny day and calm seas, it didn’t take long to see humpbacks but unlike other trips done off California the whales didn’t /don’t fully breach out of the water, our guide said they only do this when showing off to mate, they are here to feed, saw plenty of tails in the air. No Orca or dolphins but never less a great trip out with very knowledgeable crew.

Not Enough Deck Space - The crew was friendly, knowledgeable and informative and worked very hard to insure there were many whales and sea lions to view. They were considerate of the animals and other vessels. The boat seemed a little shabby and there wasn’t the outside viewing areas that I thought would be available to all passengers. The first 10 passengers claimed the 10 seats on top and then didn’t relinquish them, so the rest of the 30+ passengers stood crowded at the back in a small area or inside. We all paid the same price - either those seats should cost more, or the passengers need to rotate - they won’t if they aren’t told to. This company had two larger vessels that would have allowed more outside viewing room, but they were able to fit our number on the small boat, so took that one out. I think I would book a trip with a boat having more deck room available next time.