Tom Stieghorst
Cruise ships have been going to Ensenada, Mexico, since the Love Boat days, mainly because it is so close to turn-around ports in Los Angeles/Long Beach and San Diego.
Planners can put together a 3-day itinerary with a day at sea, or rope in Catalina Island for a 4-day trip.
A popular excursion is to visit a winery or two in the Guadelupe Valley. Other than that, it's shops, restaurants and a La Bufadora, a spouting blowhole along the rocky coast.
It's not surprising that many cruisers stay on the ship and take a stationary day at sea in Ensenada, especially if they've been before.
So Carnival Cruise Line's plan to build a more exciting shoreside experience there is a welcome development.
"We can't say enough about how really important this investment is for us," said Carnival's point man on the project, Carlos Torres de Navarra, vice president of Strategic & Commercial Port Development. "We can't survive on homeports and we can't just survive with our ships. We need destinations."
"From our perspective, it was very important that we improve the product," Torres de Navarra said.
He told an audience at the opening of Carnival's expanded terminal in Long Beach that locals in Ensenada have done a good job improving the food experience there and making it clean and safe.
"But one of the things that's always been missing about Ensenada is that shoreside experience," Torres de Navarra said. "And that's the focus we have in Ensenada, that we're going to be creating an off-the-ship experience that will hopefully grow demand not only for our 3- and 4-day product but also for other itineraries we may create as part of a new Ensenada experience."
While the details will only come later, Carnival president Christine Duffy said the improvements will include both an indoor and outdoor component.
Torres de Navarra said the Pacific is still too cold in Ensenada to develop much of a beach attraction there. But expect something along the lines of what Carnival Corp. built at Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic, or its $50 million Grand Turk Cruise Center in the Turks & Caicos Islands.
By 2020 when the Ensenada project is scheduled to open, Carnival hopes to be carrying upwards of 750,000 passengers a year from Long Beach. And Torres de Navarra strongly hinted that it won't be the only brand calling on Ensenada.
"We're doing this on behalf of all brands at Carnival Corp. This is an investment for the future for Carnival Corp., for Ensenada and for the industry," he said.