Disney Cruise Line maps 117 San Diego sailings through spring 2028, with a maiden call at Fuerte Amador

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Disney Cruise Line has published its full San Diego schedule: 117 sailings on the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic, running from September 21, 2026 to a voyage that docks May 4, 2028. The list covers 3-night Ensenada runs, 7-night Mexican Riviera itineraries that reach Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán, 30 Halloween on the High Seas dates and 17 Very Merrytime dates, plus two 14-night Panama Canal crossings to Galveston. The November 2027 crossing makes the line's first ever call at Fuerte Amador, the port for Panama City.

Disney Cruise Line maps 117 San Diego sailings through spring 2028, with a maiden call at Fuerte Amador

Disney Cruise Line has laid out every sailing it plans to run from San Diego between late September 2026 and the spring of 2028, and the list comes to 117 departures. They are split between the Disney Wonder and the Disney Magic, they run from three nights down to Ensenada to a pair of 14-night one-way crossings of the Panama Canal, and buried in the longest two is a genuine first for the line: in November 2027 a Disney ship will make its maiden call at Fuerte Amador, the port that serves Panama City.

A family of four stands between Chip and Dale on a cruise ship deck, smiling at the camera with the ocean and sky in the background.
A family of four stands between Chip and Dale on a cruise ship deck, smiling at the camera with the ocean and sky in the background. Photo: disneyparksblog.com
Pluto and Mickey Mouse in a white captain cap and blue jacket waving beside a red ship funnel with Mickey-shaped vents, a curved tube slide passing overhead
Pluto and Mickey Mouse, in a captain cap and jacket, wave from an open deck beside a red funnel with Mickey-shaped vents, a curved tube slide running above them.

What a San Diego sailing actually visits

San Diego is the line's west coast home port, and the geography does most of the work from there. Nearly every itinerary on the list turns south for Ensenada, the largest city in Baja California and the closest foreign port to the pier, home to the La Bufadora marine geyser and the Plaza Cívica. Many of them also swing north-west first for Catalina Island, about 22 miles off the southern California coast, where the call centres on Avalon, the round Catalina Casino building on the headland, and the island's resident bison, descended from animals left behind by a film production in the 1920s.

Aerial view of Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island, packed with moored white boats, with a hillside town and a large round building on the headland
Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island, with hundreds of moored boats and the round Catalina Casino building standing on the headland.

Go longer and the map keeps stretching south. Five and six nights reach Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja peninsula. Seven nights add the Mexican mainland, which means Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán. Fourteen nights leave the Pacific altogether.

Key Details

Three and four nights, the long-weekend end of the schedule

This is where most of the calendar sits. There are 37 three-night sailings and 41 four-night sailings, which between them account for two thirds of everything Disney is running out of San Diego. The three-night version comes in two shapes: a straight run down to Ensenada and back, and one that squeezes Catalina Island in as well. The Catalina variant is by far the rarer of the two, with only three dates on the whole list, all in early 2027 on January 15, January 29 and March 26.

Route map of the southern California and Baja coast with San Diego and Ensenada marked and an arrow curving between the two
The Disney route map for the 3-night Baja cruise, a short hop from San Diego down to Ensenada and back.
Route map with Catalina Island, San Diego and Ensenada marked and curved lines connecting all three
The other 3-night option, with Catalina Island added to the north-west and Ensenada to the south.

The soonest departures on the whole list sit here. A four-night Ensenada sailing leaves September 21, 2026 on the Disney Magic, and a three-night Halloween on the High Seas run follows on September 28.

Blue and white painted stone steps and low walls on a clifftop terrace overlooking the Pacific
Blue-washed stone steps and walls on a clifftop terrace above the Pacific at Ensenada, the Baja port nearly every one of these sailings calls at.

The four-night version buys an extra day at sea for the same ports, and it is the only length with a real run of 2028 dates: twelve Catalina and Ensenada departures between January 10 and April 24, 2028, plus a single Ensenada-only sailing on February 7.

Route map of California and Baja with San Diego and Ensenada marked and an arrow looping between them
The 4-night Ensenada map covers the same two points as the 3-night, with a day at sea added.
Route map showing a loop from San Diego out to Catalina Island and down to Ensenada before returning
The 4-night Catalina route, drawn as a loop out to the island, down to Ensenada and back to San Diego.

Five and six nights, where Cabo San Lucas joins the map

Fifteen five-night sailings are on the list, and they split in two. Seven of them stay in Baja waters for Catalina Island and Ensenada, including the New Year sailing that leaves December 29, 2026 and comes home January 3, 2027. The other eight push south to Cabo San Lucas, which on this schedule is the shortest itinerary that reaches the tip of the peninsula.

Route map with a loop from San Diego to Catalina Island and Ensenada drawn over the southern California and Baja coast
The 5-night Baja map, running out to Catalina Island and down to Ensenada.
Route map with long curved lines running from San Diego past Ensenada all the way south to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of the Baja peninsula
The 5-night Mexican Riviera map reaches much further south, past Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas.
A rock arch and jagged stone outcrops rising from turquoise water under a clear sky
The rock arch at Land's End in Cabo San Lucas, seen from the water.

Six nights is the rarest length here, with just seven departures across the entire schedule. The trade is three full days at sea for the same pair of ports, which makes it the itinerary for guests sailing for the ship rather than the shore: the dining rotation, the deck parties and the stage shows get the run of the week.

Route map with two long arcs running from San Diego and Ensenada down to Cabo San Lucas
The 6-night map keeps only Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas, with the extra nights spent at sea.
Aerial view of a Disney Cruise Line ship with two red and black funnels sailing across open ocean at sunset
The Disney Wonder under way at sunset with open water on every side, which is how half of a 6-night sailing is spent.

Seven nights adds Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán

Fifteen seven-night sailings run on four different routings, and they are the only ones that reach the Mexican mainland. Eleven take Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta. Two swap Puerto Vallarta for Mazatlán. One December 2027 sailing takes Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán together, and the voyage that crosses into the new year, leaving December 26, 2027, visits Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta only.

Disney attaches one warning to these that is worth reading twice: the direction the ship travels around the route varies by date, so two sailings with identical port lists can visit them in opposite order. Check the day-by-day before booking flights or excursions around a particular port day.

Route map with dashed lines running from San Diego and Ensenada south to Cabo San Lucas and across to Mazatlan on the Mexican mainland
A 7-night routing, reaching across to Mazatlán on the Mexican mainland.
Four people standing on rocks at the base of a tall jungle waterfall, with another person wading in the pool below
A jungle waterfall near Puerto Vallarta, one of the two mainland ports the 7-night sailings add.

Thirty Halloween sailings and seventeen Very Merrytime dates

The seasonal overlays are spread across the lengths rather than parked on one itinerary. Halloween on the High Seas covers 30 sailings, running from September 28 to October 30 in 2026 and from September 25 to October 31 in 2027, and it turns up on everything from a three-night Ensenada run to a seven-night Mexican Riviera cruise. Very Merrytime covers 17, from November 9 to December 22 in 2026 and from November 12 to December 26 in 2027.

Disney California Sailings San Diego Family with Chip and Dale
Disney California Sailings San Diego Family with Chip and Dale Photo: disneyparksblog.com

Seasonal windows on this schedule

The schedule also names the Disney Magic on 19 of the 117 dates, and every one of them falls in September, October or November of 2026 or 2027. That is the tell for how the two ships share the port: the Magic is on the west coast for the autumn, and it leaves by way of the canal.

Two Panama Canal crossings, and a maiden call at Fuerte Amador

The two 14-night sailings are one-way repositioning cruises on the Disney Magic, and they are the most interesting thing on the list. Both leave San Diego in early November, on November 6, 2026 and November 4, 2027. Both call at Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta on the way down, both transit the Panama Canal and call at Cartagena in Colombia, and both finish at Galveston, Texas rather than turning round for California.

Route map running from San Diego down the Mexican coast to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, through the Panama Canal, on to Cartagena and George Town, and ending at Galveston in Texas
The 14-night eastbound crossing, from San Diego through the Panama Canal to Cartagena, George Town and Galveston.

The difference between the two is a single port, and it is the headline for anyone who collects them. The 2026 crossing stops at George Town on Grand Cayman. The 2027 crossing drops George Town and instead makes Disney Cruise Line's first ever call at Fuerte Amador, the cruise port that serves Panama City, on the Pacific side of the canal before the ship transits it.

Aerial view of a domed stone church tower with clock faces rising above red tiled roofs of an old city quarter, with a bay and a causeway behind
A domed church tower above the tiled roofs of old Panama City, with the bay behind it. Fuerte Amador is the cruise port that serves the city.

The first sailing leaves September 21, and the last one docks May 4, 2028

This is a schedule, not a sale, so the one thing the list does not carry is a price. Fares, stateroom availability and any Halloween or Very Merrytime pricing sit on Disney booking pages. On a calendar that runs into 2028 the shorter sailings are the ones that move first: 78 of the 117 departures are three or four nights, and those are the dates that repeat weekend after weekend through the winter and spring.

Disney Cruise San Diego Sailings Itineraries
Disney Cruise San Diego Sailings Itineraries Photo: disneyparksblog.com

For anyone weighing a first Disney sailing without a flight to Florida, the practical read is that San Diego now has a near-continuous calendar through spring 2028, with the two canal crossings as the once-a-year outlier. The 2027 crossing is the one to watch, because a maiden call is something a ship only does once.

Originally reported by disneyparksblog.com on . GenieGrove rewrote this story; the original reporting is theirs.