Expedition cruise to Baja, Mexico, is a game changer, and a little pricey

My Base Camp Baja trip, the Lindblad Expeditions cruise in alliance with National Geographic Expeditions, was aboard the National Geographic Sea Bird, a vessel that dates to 1982. It’s 164 feet long (by comparison, Royal Caribbean’s new Symphony of the Seas is 1,188 feet) , carries only 62 passengers (6,680 for the Symphony) and has none of the bells and whistles of large cruise ships— no pools or late-night buffets or even TVs in the staterooms. The cabins are spartan, and none is larger than 120 square feet. The ship was built so long ago that it has no balconies, but my cabin, on the second of three decks, opened to an outside hallway and had two windows. It also had a small but comfy bed. The combination toilet-shower stall was so tight that when I opened the bathroom door, it slammed into the bed. But creature comforts aren’t the attraction of an adventure cruise. “You lack the amenities,” said fellow passenger Randy Malcolm of San Diego, “but you get to see places you’d never see any other way.”