My wife and I meant to see our younger son in Sydney in Sept 2018, but he would be in a Gold Coast swordsmanship competition, and so we followed him. My wife was interested in whale watching which I found possible, only that the tour price ranged from AUD99 to AUD10 per person. As whale watching was our secondary objective, we postponed the booking until we have reunited with our son.
Upon arrival at our resort on Sept 22, 2018, I grabbed whale-watching brochures including one that guaranteed 100% success rate and contained an AUD20 discount coupon. Having ascertained our son's competition arrangement, we knew we could only do the last available boat tour on Sept, 23, 2018 at 14:30 from Surfers Paradise. It was priced at AUD99 online, without any discount.
The other option to get the discount would be for me to book over the counter (about 20 minutes walk from our resort) as early as 07:00 the following day. In order to manage the risk of missing our recreational tour, I researched further and found a substitute offer priced at AUD70. Although It did not guarantee 100% success rate, I doubted if whales would own allegiance to only one operator!
Having decided to take the risk, we learned from the confirmation details that the cheaper tickets were sold to us by an agent of the operator that guaranteed 100% success rate! So, following the heli-whale watching flight path and the good sense of sailors on board, we arrived at the whales' natural habitat. In their paradise, we saw whales blowing, surfacing, tail slapping and breaching out of the blue!