Royal Princess - Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles

The triangle runs down the coast and then skips straight home: one sea day to reach Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta on consecutive days, then two sea days for the long haul back from Banderas Bay to San Pedro. That front-loads the ports and hands the back half of the week to the ship, on a run posters describe as cold at both ends in winter: replies in 2020 and 2022 put the Los Angeles sea days around 50°F while the Mexican ports sat in the low 80s, with humpbacks sighted from the ship between Los Angeles and Vallarta and whale-watching boats out of Cabo running from December. Royal Princess has also run a ten-night version of this from San Francisco that adds Manzanillo, and two of the archive's threads are about that sailing rather than this one.

The Royal Princess threads here are friendlier than the ship page's cons would predict. A January 2026 family review called the week wonderful with no big complaints and logged the logistics: the San Pedro terminal lot at about $161 for the week, a night at the DoubleTree beforehand, corridors narrow enough that a folding stroller beats a full-size one. A 2020 Christmas review from a 22-year-old travelling with his grandmother chose the ship as the best deal within driving distance, found embarkation painless with OceanReady, and noted Carnival Panorama and a Holland America ship alongside in all three ports. The dissent arrives in replies. On the 2026 thread, one poster called a May 2025 Royal Princess sailing the worst main-dining service they had had, every night, and contrasted it with two trouble-free Discovery Princess sailings; another had cancelled a booked Royal sailing after a bad Alaska week (45 minutes for a first elevator, no priority for Elite status) and switched to Norwegian Jade from San Diego. A 2025 excursion thread was told Viator listed more Mexican Riviera tours than the ship did, and cheaper.

Three separate 2025 threads weighed Royal Princess against Norwegian Bliss, Nieuw Amsterdam, Navigator of the Seas and Carnival Panorama at near-identical balcony fares and never crowned it. What tipped people toward Princess was the Plus package, the laid-back pace and the Los Angeles departure; what tipped them away was Holland America's food and quiet (from San Diego) and Carnival's price, roughly half, though replies said Panorama still feels cheaper than a Princess or Royal Caribbean ship. One reply dismissed Mazatlán as a throw-away stop and preferred any routing that reaches La Paz or Loreto, which in the catalog means Carnival Panorama's eight-night variant. Against the ship's own sailings this is the cheapest week Royal Princess sells; against the route it sits mid-pack, below Bliss, Encore, Navigator and Virgin's Brilliant Lady on the same three ports, above Panorama, and noticeably above Discovery Princess, a newer sister that runs the identical loop for less. It fits Southern Californians who can drive to San Pedro, want the classic three ports in a week, and prefer Princess's quiet to Norwegian's go-karts; it is the wrong pick for anyone who wants the newest Princess hardware, since Discovery does the same loop for less, or who has already done Mazatlán and would rather see La Paz.