After booking, we will send you a confirmation email with the details of your trip. The day before your departure we will confirm the time you should arrive for check in.

On arrival at Sunreef, you will be asked to obtain a boarding pass from our check in desk and ensure all the names on your booking are correct. We will then direct you on where to queue for boarding.

Departure will commence and we will give all our guests a thorough briefing of the vessel as we leave the Mooloolaba River. This trip out of the river will take approximately 15 minutes.

When we’re out on the ocean, we will begin to search for whales using our sight. We will teach you all how to do this and what to look for, and if you’re the first person to sight a whale on the trip, we might have a special little prize for you!

As we will be on the open ocean, there is a chance we could see any marine life! It’s not unusual to see dolphins, rays, turtles, jellyfish, and other animals on our trip as well as the humpback whales.

When we spot the whales, we will go up to a safe distance away from the animal (see our guidelines here) and observe their behaviours.

Sometimes they will be curious enough to come right up to us, they may even swim underneath Whale One. Sometimes they may be displaying logging behaviour or diving under the surface more. Sometimes they could swim away and we would have to find other whales to watch.

However, the most extravagant is when we are able to the range of amazing surface behaviours that humpback whales often display. Humpback whales have been noted by scientists to be the whale species that displays the highest amount of surface activity.

No matter what these animals are doing, we endeavour to make your whale watching experience informative and a day to remember for everyone.

Food and drink:

As we will be on the water from 2.5 to 4 hours, we will ensure you are well looked after – we have light food, snacks, soft drinks and alcohol available (alcohol after 10am). Sorry, no hot drinks available for purchase on board.

Eligibility requirements to board the Whale One vessel for Whale Watching:

Children under 14 years old must be accompanied by an adult at all times. If you are pregnant, we unfortunately cannot take you on this tour. Unfortunately, there is no wheelchair access available on any of our vessels. We are truly sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.

We’re sorry, no drones are permitted on board.

Seasickness: 

This is in open water and we suggest you consider seasickness tablets to minimize the risk of seasickness affecting your trip. We will not issue any rebookings or refunds for being seasick.

Parking:

You can find a parking map of The Wharf Mooloolaba here.

Booking & Trip Confirmations:

Please make sure you are monitoring your emails and text messages.

We will send you 1) A booking confirmation after you finalise your booking and payment for your whale watching tour; and 2) a trip confirmation the afternoon before the day of your booking.

The trip confirmation will depend on the sea conditions. We monitor the swell height and wind speed very closely and will get the most accurate reports of the next day’s conditions by around 3:30 pm. If you do not receive a trip confirmation by 4 pm the day before your booking, please contact us.

We would absolutely love to spend every day of whale season whale watching however unfortunately on some days, nature has a different plan for us. This being said, if we ever have to cancel or reschedule due to poor sea conditions we do this strictly for our customers safety.*

 

We ask that all our customers please note that although sometimes the weather looks fine on the beach, it does not always give an accurate representation of what the conditions offshore are.

 

* If we have to cancel the trip due to the sea conditions, we will either rebook you for another day, or refund you.

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