I'll be on RCCL Monarch for the 4-day Baja cruise with my family and "slightly-60" parents. I'd like your advice on shore tours, esp. Ensenada. I have enough Spanish to get around in a taxi (incl Bufadora, which is the only thing that will probably interest my li'l one) but I wanted to send my parents on the wineries tour. Should I just stick with the ship tour (basically for the English) or can I get a wine tour with the local tour vendors (that gather on the pier, as I've experience on other cruises.) Has anyone done it that way before? And how about Catalina? Glass-bottom boat and/or semi-submerged boat and then a golf cart around the island? Is there really that much to see and worth it?

Catalina is easy to do on your own. Renting a golf cart is very much fun and the glass bottom boat is always entertaining.

Ensenada can be a bit more difficult. I had a group on a ship that I will leave unnamed and a woman and her daughter took off on their own, booked a local tour to La Bufadora and on their return to Ensenada were involved in a terrible auto accident that left them both in the hospital in Ensenada. The mother was in critical condition and the daughter wasn't much better off.

My suggestion would be to take the ship's tours if you are going outside of Ensenada itself. Otherwise, you can walk to just about everything in Enseada. Just my opinion.

Have a great cruise!

Tom