Mexico: Disney cruises to return to Baja; Carnival to revisit Mazatlan

Suddenly Mexico has returned as a hot cruise destination. Disney Cruise Line comes back to the West Coast for Baja cruises from San Diego in fall 2015. Also, Carnival Cruise Lines resumes its seven-day itineraries to Mazatlan starting in October.

Disney pulled out of Los Angeles at the end of 2012 and sent the Disney Wonder to Miami for the first time. Now the ship returns not to L.A. but to San Diego for six cruises to Baja in 2015.

Five-night cruises will stop at Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas and depart Oct. 4, 11 and 18, 2015. The line also will offer a three-night cruise that leaves Oct. 1, 2015, and two-night weekend getaways Oct. 9 and 16, 2015.

Prices start at $404 per person for two-night cruises, $435 per person for three-night cruises and $625 per person for five-night cruises, based on double occupancy.

The news coincides with Carnival Cruise Line’s announcement of its return to Mazatlan. The Carnival Miracle will resume weeklong itineraries with stops at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and a full day at Mazatlan.

“The inclusion of Mazatlan, or the ‘Pearl of the Pacific,’ in major cruise line offerings is a major achievement for the destination and we are thrilled to have Carnival back,” Frank Cordova, secretary of tourism for the region, told Marinelink.com.

Other seven-day itineraries on Carnival feature a stop in Cabo and two days in Puerto Vallarta for diving or visiting the beach. Prices start at $519 to $549 per person based on double occupancy.

Major cruise lines had dropped Mazatlan as a destination in 2010 because of crime at the port. Since then, Holland-America Line was the first to send its Veendam to the city last year, and Norwegian Cruise Line and Azamara Club Cruises quickly followed.

A state-by-state travel warning for Mexico issued by the U.S. State Department remains in effect and was updated Jan. 9. Americans have been told to be careful when traveling in Mazatlan “particularly late at night and in the early morning.”