Ontario, Canada - Fall is almost here - and Holland America Line wants to take your mind off of the change in the weather that's coming for both autumn and winter.

On the West Coast, Holland America is sending its 1,916-guest Westerdam on a series of 13 week-long cruises to the Mexican Riviera from San Diego. The first of these starts in Vancouver on October 18: a special 11-day cruise that stops in Santa Barbara, Calif. and San Diego before heading to Mexico for a week.

Departing between October and February 2017, Westerdam's regular week-long cruises depart on Saturdays from San Diego. The airport (which has direct flights to Vancouver and Toronto Pearson with Air Canada, and Calgary and Vancouver via WestJet) is literally five minutes away from the cruise piers, and the city's historic Gaslamp District is also a stone's throw away.

Westerdam is doing what I call the "classic" Mexican Riviera run, with a total of three days at sea (one southbound, two northbound) and calls on Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta. The latter is particularly impressive, with its tree-covered mountains and rolling hills, and its expansive seafront promenade known as The Malecón.

Mazatlán and Cabo San Lucas can hold their own, too. Cabo offers up the quintessential "day at the beach," while you can zip along Mazatlán in an open-air pulmonia (a sort of souped-up golf cart unique to the city) and indulge in shopping and history in the city's old town and newer, more tourist-oriented Golden Zone, or Zona Dorada.

One of Holland America's Vista Class ships, Westerdam is a real winner in my books. Like her sisters Zuiderdam, Oosterdam and Noordam, she's got glass elevators running up the outside of the ship; a number of colorful bars and lounges; a three-story atrium topped with a Waterford crystal sculpture; and one of the most soothing spas at sea, complete with a hydrotherapy pool and heated ceramic thermal loungers that face floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ocean.

It's the first time in years that Holland America has put one of its Vista class ships in the region. For West Coasters, this is the ultimate affordable fall cruise getaway.