Whale Watching - Sunday February 19th
 

Anyone interested in joining me on a Whale Watching excursion in the near future? We would leave from Long Beach at either Noon or 3 and we could also throw in a visit to the Aquarium and dinner on Pine or at The Pike.

The Whales are already migrating and one excursion today saw 12 Greys off the coast.

Cost is $20 for adults ($10 for kids) and the cruise last 2-3 hours.

I'm looking at Feb 4th, Feb 12th, Feb 18th or Feb 19th.

Any takers?

Hah, CP and I were just talking about this. Here's a vote for the 18th or 19th.

YES!!!! I have a couple friends who'd want to go and I've been dying to go. Put me on the list. Any of those days suit me for now.

I vote for the weekend of the 18th or 19th, the 19th would be better. The kid bowls on Saturday's

I can't do the 4th, but other dates would be swell.

I've been burned before on whale watching cruises (um, where are the whales?), but I'm willing to give it another shot.

I'm going to set the date as Sunday, February 19th and work out the time details and extracircullar activities later.

Woo hoo! I've never seen a whale before, except Sea World. :)

Wait, I've seen you speak with Lisa P. on more than one occasion.

Them's dangerous waters ye be fishing in mate. :eek:

OMG! Leave that one alone! Not even I am allowing myself to me a bitch with that subject any longer. It's time to move on! We have bigger whales to search for.


Edit: No. That didn't come out right at all.

I give up on being a nice person. It just doesn't seem to work at all!

these are wayyy bigger than the average Orca. To me its very strange to be cruising along side something as big as the boat youre on knowing is actually an intelligent living thing.

its quite an experience. I highly recommend it

I'd like to come, too. :)

More Information about Whale Watching!

The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific also offers Whale Watching tours that also includes entrance to the Aquarium. The Aquarium currently has an exhibition about Whales, so it might be nice to do both.

The cost of the Aquarium Boat Tour which includes Aquarium Admission is $34.95.

If we did things separately the cost would be $20 for Whale Watching (a slightly shorter boat tour) and somewhere around $17 for Aquarium entrance.

I think my preference is to go with the Aquarium boat trip and visit to the facility but if the costs seem prohibitive then we can go with the other boat tour for $20 and leave the aquarium for a later option.

Let me know your preferences.

BTW, The Yard House is nearby and I have a $50 gift card for my participation in the boob walk and would happily throw that in the pot to pay for drinks afterwards.

I'm for the Aquarium/Whale-Watch combo. My experience at whale watching demonstrates that you could end up with a rather pleasant, but whaleless, boat ride. At least the Aquarium part has some guaranteed aqua life sighting.

I just went to the Aquarium but I'd do that again. I'm flexible!

We're certainly game for both.

The combo sounds good.

Margaret Cho says that lesbians love whale watching. (It has something to do with the blowholes.) :D

I'll write that into my tentative calendar, sounds like fun!

Love to go, but, aw damn, I won't be there yet. :(

Have a drink on me :cheers:
Donna

Hey NA, do you have a contact point so I can research the child price, if any?

Just looked at the website. There are group rates for groups of 10 or more. We should look into that.

2006 Season
Saturdays in January

Saturdays and some Sundays in February|

Saturdays and Sundays
in March
12:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
(meet in front of the Aquarium 15 minutes prior to departure)COST$34.95/adult or senior
$20/child
(includes Aquarium admission)

Member Price
$28.00/adult or senior
$16.00/child
AGES3+ years

No group rate for whale watching.

Oh poop. Fine.

We can make adcance reservations if we'd like - although they haven't sold out any tours yet. But, we would have to all pay in advance. Something to think about in the next week or so.

It's been a while since I've been whale watching, visited Long Beach, or met up with people from LoT, so I would love to attend! :)

It's on my calendar and I'm totally looking forward to going!

That is Ken's birthday, and we were looking for something to do that day. I'll talk to him tonight and see if he's interested and order the tickets this coming weekend. :)

I'm floating this back up to the top...
so whats the scoop?

Can we buy our tickets and go to the aquarium first? And after if we like I assume...
Should we buy tickets online... blah blah... should I send NA some moola?

Yes, please, what she said.

OK. Here's the scoop.

Dial (562) 951-1630 and Press 0

Ask to but tickets for the February 19th Whale Watching Excursion
You can pay for them in advance to assure you have a ticket. Because it is a holiday weekend, I recommend doing this.

Your ticket gains you admission to the Aquarium which you can visit first or go after the cruise. I plan on visiting afterwards then going over to The Yard House for some nosh by the bay.

We will meet at 11:30 at the AQUARIUM ENTRANCE and then proceed to the boat. Please be there no later than 11:45.

See you there!!!!!!

Yay, just called, easy as can be. Just remember to leave yourself some extra time to pick up your tickets from will call too.

Yeah well, with a two hour drive ahead of me, I'll have a nice buffer of time. My son and I will more than likely be there when the aquarium opens.
We'll need food before the boat.

Ken and I can't make it. With the onslaught of daily increasing vet bills, we just can't take on any more expense for a little while. :(

I'm so sorry you won't be able to join us, but I sure hope Magick is going to be OK.

If you happen to get someone on the phone who say they are NOT doing Whale Watching on Sunday's anymore, kindly tell them they are full of sh!t and need to check with their manager because they ARE doing it, it is on their calendar and a few of us have tickets alread. TYVM.

No, be nice, but they are doing the cruise on Sunday the 19th. It's just that some people don't seem to know it. They were very nice about it but I did have to insist on a check.

Oh, and the phones are only open until 5:30 pm, so be sure and call during the day.

Ok, zapppop and I are in, baby!

Whales, ahoy.


Tattoo party afterwards!!

I wish I could do whale watching. It sounds like so much fun. But I get seasick, baby!
I got queasy on the Queen Mary. And that sucker's in cement.
:( :)

must.resist.homo.joke.

So anyone who has registered already,
did they happen to say if they were getting close to capacity?

I called to get our tickets today, and lo and behold, they dont take Discover card. :eek:
Not a horrific thing until you consider that its the only credit card I have.

But, I was wise, or not wise, and had asked to make sure they took it before I asked about the Sunday event. SO... they no longer had any interest in speaking to me.

Let me know if you want me to get tix for you. I'd be happy to do that so you can be assured of getting onboard.

If you can think of a way where I can pick them up without you there... that would be lovely!

thoughts?

(and you still owe me a pm answer)

Okay, so I have heard its going to rain.
Will the boat still go -go?

What yer be wimps? We Pirates don't go a-blubbering at a bit-o-squall.

Who have you heard it's going to rain from?

If it be our clever prognosticators of meteorology, the news media weather forecasters ... then you might as well have asked your cat.

The only way they know what the weather is going to be like for the next five minutes is by sticking their heads out the window. They cannot possibly be relied upon to predict Sunday's weather on Friday.


(BTW, I have stuck my head out the window right now, and it's raining in Century City)

Actually, I did consult the cat. She looked at me, and went back to sleep.
I took that to mean that I should consult the handy weather predictor on the Disneyland website. Which also predicted rain.

Right now, weather.com says the forecast for Sunday, Feb. 19 in Long Beach, CA is:
--59 degrees F High
--Showers
--Precip: 50% chance

Like iSm says, sources for predicated weather are not always reliable, even weather.com

As of today, I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend Sunday--bad weather or rain won't scare me away--but I may have to travel to Arizona this weekend for work-related duties. I hope not. :(

Can we purchase upon arrival? I ask only because I have a friend who wants to go but isn't sure she's gonna make it.

The rain actually makes it easier to spot them. The umbrellas the whales carry are quite large and often gaily colored....


Have a great time everyone and don't forget to post us some photos..

Give the aquarium a call and see if they still have openings.

Thanks GD. I totally overslept this morning! Looks like I'm not even going to make it. :(

oh? Like this?


I'm sure we'll all get our albums up soon.

Pics!
http://photobucket.com/albums/v254/c...le%20Swanking/

We have no pics of whales - hard to get a pic of that. We have a movie that didn't turn out well. Believe us, we saw some spouting, and the whale beneath, for a few seconds each time :)

Heheh, no whales in those pics .... but there is the frightful Lobster Man, devoring a crab.

Great photos CP! Makes me wish I'd been there!
Thanks for posting them!:snap:

Thanks for the photos! I love the lorikeets. :)

Bravo! A nice bright sunny day, just what I needed to see back here in Ice-Block-East.

Thanks.

The crab looks delicious. Where did you eat?

Oh, that was straight from the tank in the Aquarium of the Pacific exhibit. The crab, that is. Lobster Man came from the sea.


(the group was supposed to dine at The Yardhouse, but something about large groups having to wait over an hour for a table caused a change in venue)

Great pics- thanks, CP!

How cold was it? (Most of) you all were wearing more gear than I wear when it's subzero. ;)

In the sun, not so cold, but leaning out over the railing trying to catch sight of whales, away from the ship's pilot house which acted as a wind shlter, it was darn cold. Plus, we were expecting rain, so we were all equipped for it. Which of course guanranteed bright sunny skies.

Like GD says, the windchill was killer on the boat. As one of the pics shows, I was wearing just a t-shirt and the one jacket.

It was chilly.
I did the wimpy mom thing, and didnt want to carry my coat and my sons coat all day... so I had a sweatshirt... period.

when on the edge of the boat, I felt like when you go outside in the snow, with wind, and wonder why you didnt wear a hood, gloves, or a scarf but you move on.
And your nose, cheeks, and hands are very cold.
Thankfully, it was a nice sunny day, so once you moved out of the 'draft' you warmed right up.

OMG! I had my other jacket sitting on the bench the entire time! You could've nabbed it!:(

I just kept telling myself it wasnt snowing. :P
And really, as evidenced by the trip, I was well into child mode, not adult social butterfly mode, so I wasnt really obsessing about my temp, I just wanted him to make it though the ride.

Truly awesome photos!!!!

I love the lorikeet playing with Jen. That's so awesome! :snap:

And, I can see that iSm had some fun dining on the "slow learners" at the aquarium. ;)

That bird just loved my bag. I took the bag off my back and he still clung to it. I rotated the bag and he walked around it. I had to physically pull him off and shake him away, and then he came back to check out my bag some more! I had him on my hand for a bit, where he really enjoyed pinching me with his beak. Painful yet amusing :)

Here are my few pics.

http://photos.xenarchy.com/thumbnails.php?album=35

I have a video as well, but it's just a water spout and no whale body, I I didn't work to post it.

Yeah, I got one of those too. Highly uninteresting.