Monterey, California Cruise Port

I was utterly stupid! I didn’t take warm clothes on the whale watching excursion and froze. But I’m glad I went. I thought I’d only see sea otters. We saw two sea otters and A LOT of whales. There were some long stretches between seeing the whales. Just have to be patient. Another excursion worth the price.

This was a tender port and it was nice that the tender took us directly to the pier at the Old Fishermans Wharf. Lots of cute shops and incredible ocean front restaurants. We took a taxi to Cannery Row and spent a few hours tasting flights of wine and eating baked Brie at a Taste of Monterey. A very nice day.

We did not book any tours here and decide to walk into town. This is a tender port and one of the things I like best about Princess is that they use their life boats as tender boats. This not only lets the passengers see how big they really are, it makes sure they are working. If you are not in a hurry to get off the ship, go later and the wait time to catch the tender will be very short (if at all). There is a nice museum by the dock worth a visit. My DH says the Starbucks has fast wifi.

Tendered in early so we could have breakfast on the pier. Beautiful scenery and lots of clam chowder samples, lol. We just walked along the sea wall and enjoyed the surroundings.

We took a ship excursion to the Aquarium and the Carmel Mission. Both were entertaining. There is plenty of time to explore the Aquarium and the town of Monterey before boaring the bus and heading to the Mission. The drive to the mission is so scenic and the rugged shoreline you are traveling alongside is truly beautiful. We saw whales in the Bay which added to the fun.

Visited: Sep 17, 2017

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