whale watching in St Lucia

Hi,

We will be on the March 4th Serenade sailing and would love to see some whales. I see the excursion that the ship offers and understand that the tour operator will not take a cruise ship passenger on his longer excursion which includes some snorkeling time due to his agreement with the cruise line. Can anyone recommend someone else who will make more of a day of it? I know that there is not much hope of combining both but my husband and son are divers and if we could combine whale watching with a dive it would be perfect.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in Advance!

Dee

I would think your best bet is to book separately, but then again if you book a diving tour and there are whales out there you're going to see them. I doubt you'll find a combined whale watching and diving. If you think about it, the whales aren't in any one area, so if you do diving and the boat takes you to spot X, on the way if there are any whales you're going to see them, I'm sure the boat captain would stop etc. just as if it were specifically a whale watching tour. Sometimes most companies will charge one price for diving and one for the non-divers, snorkelers, boat riders, etc.

So perhaps just find a nice diving company, sorry I can't help in that but if you check the boards I'm sure something will come up. Have fun, I love St. Lucia.

Dee,

Can you tell me if you went whale watching and how it was? We're on the Serenade in December and would appreciate any information.

Thanks!

Linda

I'm sorry we didn't try. We couldn't find anyone who would combine the whale watching with the diving so we opted for the dive trip. Unfortunately that didn't come off either. Let me know if you try because we absolutely loved the Serenade and the itinerary and will probably book the same cruise next year and seeing whales is on my must do list.

Enjoy your cruise. The captain is wonderful. He really goes out of his way to add to your cruise experience.

Just a note. Find out which NIGHT you pass Montserrat. The captain will take the ship past during your at sea day and you will be able to see the island but people who were watching the night when we passed the island on the way out saw the volcano glowing and said it was really something.

Thanks for the tip! We'll be out on deck watching for that :D

Linda

We are just back from 14 days on the Sea Princess and did a whale watch in St Lucia...and did it last year while on the Sun Princess.

It was the highlight of both of our cruises. Chris Hackshaw and his Hackshaw Charters http://www.hackshaws.com/index1.htm is the fantastic. You can see some of my photos and one of my videos on his sight.

Two weeks ago, within 35 minutes of getting on his "Lady Hack" we had seen at least 100 whales and dolphins. We do a customized charter (there were 8 of us on a 53ft boat with 3 crew for 45$pp)...about 7 hours which includes watching, snorkelling/swimming at a remote beach and lunch at JJ's in Marigot Bay. If you email him, tell him "marc from Canada" sent you.

Questions?

marc

Thanks Marc!

I think you just helped me solve the dillema of what to do on St. Lucia this winter! Did you fish also?

-Emily

no, we did not fish, but one of his other boats did a whale watch in the morning (they came by to see some of the whales we had around us) and they went fishing in the afternoon.......heard them on the VHF radio as they were fighting a marlin.

Today I just sent Chris Hackshaw some of my recent pics and videos...he said he would have them up on his website soon.

marc