Last month Shae and I flew to Seattle to surprise one of our friends for his birthday. While we were there, the four of us went on a whale watching experience with Puget Sound Express which was simply awesome.
We got to see a huge transient super-pod of orcas which the captain of the boat said was the largest group he’s ever seen. It was so much fun getting to see them so relatively close by and not in captivity.
Before setting off, Captain Brian gave an orientation about whales and what we should be looking out for. He was really entertaining, so it’s worth paying attention to the session if for no other reason than that!
The boat ride out to the whales was a lot of fun too. The boat has a hydrofoil which lifts it out of the water; that reduces drag and increases the speed at which it travels. And it sure does travel fast.
You might notice Megan holding on to her sunglasses. That’s because of how fast we were traveling – Mark’s sunglasses had already blown off his face and into the water as we set off!
To give you a better idea of how fast the boat travels, here’s a quick video of some of the ride.
Despite it traveling at such high speed, it was an incredibly smooth ride out. I’m assuming that’s thanks to the hydrofoil as it meant it wasn’t bouncing on the waves.
Along the way we passed a few islands.
One of those was Protection Island which had huge numbers of seals lining the shore.
We had perfect weather the day we visited, although the wind from traveling at speed still made it a little chilly. To warm up a little we got some hot drinks from the café on board. If you get one of their mugs, you get unlimited refills on both the ride out and back.
We’d also pre-ordered their special Blueberry Buckle. It was a super-light blueberry cake with a coffee cake/crumble-type topping which was ridiculously delicious. If you go whale watching with Puget Sound Express, there’s a free booklet on board which has the recipe for blueberry buckle, so that’s worth the price of the whale watching trip all by itself!
It took something like 75 minutes to get out to the whales, a journey that seemed to pass pretty quickly. As soon as the boat slowed, we knew there was something up. Sure enough, there were some whales in the distance.
As mentioned earlier, this was a transient super-pod of orcas. Transients don’t stay in one place, traveling up and down the coast feeding on mammals. Resident orcas on the other hand stay inland and feed only on salmon.
Captain Brian kept the boat far enough away from the whales so as not to disturb their activity. Still, it felt plenty close enough at times and it was exciting seeing them in the wild.
We spent something like an hour gazing at the whales. It didn’t matter how many times they came up for air – it was just as exciting every time!
Here’s a video showing some of the whale activity.
It was sadly eventually time to head back to shore. I’d taken a couple of Dramamine to help combat seasickness, but that ended up making me drowsy on the way back and so I snoozed most of the way below deck. Shae on the other hand stayed up on deck to get some more photos on the way back, including some great ones of Mount Rainier.
Final Thoughts
We had an absolutely amazing time going whale watching with Puget Sound Express. Captain Brian was a lot of fun and all the other people working on the boat were incredibly friendly too.
Getting to see so many orcas was simply incredible. It wasn’t a cheap experience, but it was worth every penny and so we’d definitely recommend it if you visit Seattle.
Puget Sound Express Ticket Prices
When we took the trip in July 2021 it cost the following:
- Adults – $135 + tax
- Children (2-10) – $95 + tax
We also paid for parking, unlimited hot beverages and a piece of blueberry buckle each. That put the total cost at $686.14 for the four of us, so $171.54 per person.
This is the specific trip we took as Puget Sound Express offers a few different tours.
Tip
I’d highly recommend taking some Dramamine before setting off. It might not be necessary for the ride out to the whales itself as that was pretty smooth, but when you’re watching the whales the boat rocks with the waves. I took one before we left and was fine for the ride out. However, towards the end of the experience I started feeling seasick and took a second tablet. I was OK for the ride back, but slept most of the time (presumably due to the drowsiness caused by the Dramamine).
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