Whale-Watching Cruise in Newport Beach in Photos

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 | Roads and Destinations — *Whale watching cruise in Newport Beach*

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.