Baja Cruise- 4 night vs 5 night

[dolewhipdreams]

I'm trying to decide on a Baja cruise out of San Diego for Spring 2019 and I can use some help. It's just my DH and I and will be our second trip with DCL. The first was a 4 night Bahamas trip on the Dream. I'm excited to sail on the Wonder, especially since it's somewhat recent refurbs.

We also are using the Baja cruise as an opportunity to visit Disneyland, so there has to be time for that.

The first major question is 4 night or 5 night? With the 4 night, I have the following rough plan:
Day 1- Hollywood/LA
Day 2&3- Disneyland
Day 4- San Diego
Day 5-9- Cruise

My DH and I have both been to LA separately but never together and we are excited to potentially go at the same time.

The major drawback of the 4 night is that it only has the one stop at Cabo. The 5 night has a second stop at Ensenada. Has anyone gone on the 5 night who can speak to the value of this stop? With the 5 night we would cut out the day in LA.

My other big question is about the weather- can anyone comment on if the weather is remarkably different in March vs April vs May?

Another option I'm playing around with is seeing if there's a California coast cruise in 2019. As far as I can see, it would happen in about May as the Wonder makes its way north for the Alaskan cruises for the summer. The itineraries haven't been released yet so that's speculation. I would imagine we would do something like:
Day 1&2- Disneyland
Day 3- San Diego
Day 4-9- Cruise
Day 10-Vancouver

Anybody have any thoughts about which cruise is best?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I wouldn't move up to the 5 night just for Ensenada.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

I have done Mexican Riviera cruises on a different cruise line, but not with Disney. The cruises my family would do would normally be the 7-night that stops at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. The only reason why we would do that cruise so many times is we used to live in the LA area, it was easy to get on a boat in the LA area, and Cabo San Lucas is one of our favorite ports of call.

Now, you want an opinion on Ensenada. One cruise we had a change of itinerary due to a storm heading towards one of our ports of call. So, they decided to add Ensenada. My family and I decided to not get off the ship due to some issues (more safety reasons in the area). Ensenada really didn't look that appealing from the boat, so we were fine with staying on the ship.

I always vote for the longer cruise, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do a 5-night just to visit Ensenada.

Disneyland is fabulous though!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I have done Mexican Riviera cruises on a different cruise line, but not with Disney. The cruises my family would do would normally be the 7-night that stops at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. The only reason why we would do that cruise so many times is we used to live in the LA area, it was easy to get on a boat in the LA area, and Cabo San Lucas is one of our favorite ports of call.

Now, you want an opinion on Ensenada. One cruise we had a change of itinerary due to a storm heading towards one of our ports of call. So, they decided to add Ensenada. My family and I decided to not get off the ship due to some issues (more safety reasons in the area). Ensenada really didn't look that appealing from the boat, so we were fine with staying on the ship.

I always vote for the longer cruise, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do a 5-night just to visit Ensenada.

Disneyland is fabulous though!

I actually just read your comments on another post about Ensenada so I was wondering if you would chime in! I think it comes down to essentially do we want another day on the ship or another day on the shore. And that's going to be the tough question. Is there enough to do on the Wonder for three full days at sea? I know it's smaller than the Dream so I don't know if it offers as much to do. There's also the money. It's about $500 cheaper to do the 4 night so that 5th night has to really be worth it.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

I actually just read your comments on another post about Ensenada so I was wondering if you would chime in! I think it comes down to essentially do we want another day on the ship or another day on the shore. And that's going to be the tough question. Is there enough to do on the Wonder for three full days at sea? I know it's smaller than the Dream so I don't know if it offers as much to do. There's also the money. It's about $500 cheaper to do the 4 night so that 5th night has to really be worth it.

I have stayed on the Magic while it was docked in Nassau before. I know it's not Ensenada, but a similar ship. It was literally one of the best days I have spent on a Disney ship. That is because a lot of people get off the ship so you feel like you have the ship to yourself. I saved a lot of my spa amenities for that day. I was able to catch a movie with not a lot of people. The only drawback really is that there isn't a lot of events with the cruise staff.

Now, I don't know how many people would stay on the ship in Ensenada. It might be a cruise-to-cruise scenario.

I was on the Wonder in November, and it is still my favorite Disney ship. Even if I am not a huge fan of some of their remodeled areas, Tiana's Place was amazing! I loved that Dining Room a lot.