Does anybody have any recommendations for tour operators for a day cruise (nature) on Milford Sound. I cannot decide between Redboats or Real Journey Tours?

We went on Red Boats and it was fine. Our first choice was Mitre Peak, but they were full.
Liz

We enjoyed our tour with Mitre Peak. The boat is much smaller than Real Journeys which meant less people to get around for the views. It was also nice because the smaller boat was unable to get closers to the seals and waterfalls.

oops meant to say that it was "able" to get close

We took the Red Boat cruise because Real Journeys seemed to cater to the tour bus crowd.

However, Real Journeys does operate a Nature Cruise (MV Friendship) which only holds 40 people.

http://www.realjourneys.co.nz/Main/DaytimeCruises/

Mitre Peak has a smiliar cruise with a a max of 60 passengers.

www.mitrepeak.com/

Red Boat also offers an Encounter Nature Cruise on The Lady Bowen, which they claim is "the most comfortable and luxurious small boat in Milford Sound".

http://www.redboats.co.nz/Milford-So...ady+Bowen.aspx

We did Redboats and also added on the stop at the Underwater Observatory. It was pretty cool.

I've booked the Real Journey cruise, not the one that caters to the masses but the small boat nature cruise on the MV Friendship with a maximum of 40 people. They were offering a good discount if you booked two cruises. We also booked the Earnslaw Steam Ship Cruise, it's a 1 hr cruise, thought that would be quite a nice thing to do before dinner.

turnjac-
consider modifying your Earnslaw cruise to the Walter Peak farm tour (which includes the cruise)
It was one of our favorite experiences in NZ.
Liz

We took an afternoon "nature" cruise on Milford Sound with Real Journeys on the Milford Wanderer, which also does the overnight cruises. It was a lovely boat with a lots of character and no tour groups, at least when we were on it.

http://www.realjourneys.co.nz/Main/OvernightCruises/

We also took the underwater observatory option. The boat drops you off there - it's interesting but I felt we didn't get long enough. You then leave on the next available boat, so our last 20 minutes was on a Real Journeys, huge modern catermaran full of coach trippers.

We are undecided about whether to do a day trip on Milford Sound or Doubtful Sound. Unlikely that we'll splurge for the overnighter on Doubtful. We are thinking of doing one of the smaller boat cruises later in the day to avoid the tour groups. Is there any hope of getting on a boat without a reservation in late February? This way we could hopefully pick a day when it's not raining. We prebooked the Franklin Gordon River trip in Tassie, it bucketed down the whole trip and the cabin of the cat was chock full of tour bus travellers. They'd have to pay me to do that again - it was miserable!

We had no problem this month just turning up at Milford Sound and had our pick of cruises - I don't know if this is still the case in February. You can book in Te Anau, so you could check the day before if the weather is favourable. We did the overnight Doubtful Sound cruise too - if you account for the fact that the price includes a nights accommodation, a good evening meal and breakfast, it doesn't seem that bad. We had a double en-suite cabin (there are cheaper quad shared ones) and the meals on board were very good - it is a fantastic experience.