Five nights on
the Mexican Riviera
Two months after we finished our Panama Canal crossing on NCL Joy, we got back on the same ship. We weren't planning to — the Joy just happened to be doing a short Mexican Riviera run out of Los Angeles in February, the timing worked, the price was right, and we wanted to see what a familiar ship felt like on a totally different itinerary. Five nights, three Mexican ports, sunshine in the middle of winter. We loved it so much we now recommend it to almost every California-based client looking for a quick cruise.
Here's the journal.
The trip at a glance
- Ship
- NCL Joy (same ship we did Panama on — felt like coming home)
- Length
- 5 nights · round-trip from Los Angeles
- Route
- LA → Cabo San Lucas → Mazatlán → Puerto Vallarta → LA
- Best for
- West-Coast travelers who want a short escape with real port time. Families. First cruises. Mid-winter sanity breaks.
- Season
- October–April. We sailed in February — warm water, peak whale-watching season, perfect timing.
- Spend
- From around $1,100/person all-in for an inside cabin; $1,800+ for a balcony
The same ship, different feeling —
One of the underrated truths of cruising: the same ship feels completely different on a different itinerary. On Panama, the Joy was a slow vessel — long sea days, a contemplative pace, everyone settling in for two weeks. On the Mexican Riviera, the same Joy was a kinetic ship — sun deck full at 8am, kids cannonballing into the pool, a different shore excursion every morning. The boat hadn't changed. The trip's tempo had. If you've sailed a ship and want to try it again at a different speed, the short Mexican itineraries are a great way.
Five days isn't long enough for a cruise to settle in. Then again, sometimes you don't need a cruise to settle in — you just need it to take you somewhere warm. — Greg, on the way home
The three ports —
Cabo San Lucas. Cabo is a tender port (no dock big enough for the Joy), which means a longer process to get ashore but a more dramatic arrival — the ship sits in the bay and you take a small boat past Land's End and the famous arch. We took an Eco-snorkel boat tour out to the arch and Pelican Rock and would do it again. Lunch downtown, a few souvenir shops, back to the ship by 4.
Mazatlán. The underrated stop on this itinerary. Mazatlán's historic centro is one of the best-preserved colonial neighborhoods on the Pacific coast — pastel buildings, plazas, an oceanfront promenade. Take a pulmonia (open-air taxi) to the old town, walk for a couple of hours, eat lunch at a real Mexican restaurant. We had ceviche we still think about.
Puerto Vallarta. The most touristy of the three, and the most polished. Take a water taxi south to the smaller beach towns (Yelapa, Mismaloya) for a real Pacific beach day, or stay closer to town and walk the malecón. The old church in centro is worth the visit.
See all 27 photos from this trip →
What we'd do differently —
1. Take the 7-night version if your schedule allows. The 5-night runs almost everything together — Cabo on day two, three port days in a row, no sea-day breathing room. The 7-night itineraries add a relaxed sea day in the middle and it makes a real difference.
2. Skip the ship's bus excursions in Mazatlán. A pulmonia is $20 and twice as fun. Same in Puerto Vallarta — a taxi or a water taxi gets you more for less.
3. Whale-watching add-on if you can. February is humpback season in Baja. Cabo and PV both run small-boat whale-watching trips. We didn't book one this time and have regretted it every February since.
Want to go? —
NCL, Princess, and Carnival all run year-round Mexican Riviera cruises from Los Angeles, San Diego, and Long Beach. 5-night, 7-night, and 10-night options. This is the trip we recommend most often to West Coast clients who want sunshine without a long flight.
Read the other Mexican Riviera trips: February 2022 on Carnival Panorama (7 nights) · December 2019 on Carnival Miracle
Or the same ship through Panama: Through the canal, into the warm (NCL Joy, December 2022)