Whale-watching cruise in Newport Beach, a coastal city in Southern California … Well, it wasn’t what we expected.
Last updated: July 12, 2025

Newport Beach Whale-Watching Cruise Fail?…
Newport Beach is a proud owner of Newport Harbor, the largest recreational harbor on the west coast. It offers a vast array of activities, such as boat rides, paddle-boarding, and wildlife watching. The city’s guests can choose adventures from Ocean Explorer Cruises to private sunset excursions.
We opted for a 2.5-hour whale-watching trip from Newport Beach. The description of the tour honestly stated that we may or may not see blue, gray, minke, finback, and humpback whales. From our 5-hour bay cruise in Alaska, we knew firsthand that there is no guarantee when it comes to wildlife.
The whale-watching adventure was a fiasco. True to the cruise description, only one whale waved at us with its fin from a far distance. All other attempts of the crew to find more whales failed. Instead, this whale-watching cruise turned into a bay area sightseeing trip.
Sightseeing Trip in Photos























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