Carnival Firenze - Baja Getaway: Catalina & Ensenada

The sea day on this loop comes last, and it is not there to cover distance: Ensenada is a short coastal hop from Long Beach and Catalina is closer still, so the fourth day exists to make a four-night product out of two stops a ship could do in two. That is the whole logic of the itinerary. Catalina is a tender call and Ensenada is the foreign stop the cabotage rules require, both covered in the port notes above; what matters for planning is that this is the cheapest way to do these two ports in the catalog, well under Navigator of the Seas' four-night version of the same pair and a fraction of Disney Wonder's five-night Baja and Catalina run from San Diego. One route thread from 2025 is worth knowing for that comparison: Navigator sails from San Pedro across the harbor, not from Long Beach, which is Carnival's terminal alone, and a poster who had been given the Royal Caribbean cruise as a birthday present nearly turned up at the wrong pier.

What posters who sailed this exact product report is mostly about expectations against the fare. A November 2025 family review of the four-night Baja run found the buffet weak and the crew less engaged than on an older Carnival ship, and the most-upvoted reply did not dispute the food but pointed out that at the sale fares these sailings go for, a few days off the coast is a steal; the original poster, who had paid a normal balcony rate for three, said that was exactly why the bar had been higher. A June 2024 sailor on the same loop split the difference: buffet poor, breakfast fine, Guy's Burger most days, no complaint about the ship as a place to sit in a clamshell and read. Across the 2024 and 2025 threads the short Carnival Baja sailings are described more than once as party cruises, and Ensenada is called a poor stop by two posters who had done it on other ships, with La Bufadora the one excursion anyone spoke up for; the Top 10 Tour there was judged not worth it by a 2025 reviewer. Catalina gets warmer words from Los Angeles locals, one of whom warned that the small boats crossing to the island can have a rough ride, although a prospective solo cruiser wondered whether an island that close to home really counts as a cruise stop.

Against the rest of the Long Beach menu this is the entry-level product, and the threads keep steering people up from it. In a 2024 thread where a couple in their twenties weighed a five-day Firenze Baja sailing against Bliss and Navigator, more than one reply said to take a seven-day to Cabo, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta instead if the days could be found, and a Los Angeles local in another thread called the short Cabo and Ensenada runs merely ok next to the week-long loop. On this ship that means the seven-night Mexican Riviera sibling, which runs only a little more per person; Panorama's six-night with an overnight in Cabo is the middle option. On the exact four-night Catalina and Ensenada pairing, the one direct comparison in the archive, a family choosing between Firenze and Navigator for their grandparents, drew a reply favoring Navigator for its renovated public rooms and a more varied show lineup, though Firenze is much the newer hull. The sailing suits people within driving distance of Long Beach who want a long weekend at sea for less than a week-long fare and are not much bothered by where the ship stops; it does not suit anyone booking for Cabo, which this loop never reaches, or anyone who wants the ports to be the point.