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magic is really very simple, all you have to do is want something and then let yourselve have it {Disney Cruise Line Magic}

Saturday, February 07, 2026

Mike and I found ourselves suddenly with a week of time off work and very last minute decided to book a Disney Cruise for fun!

Somehow this was actually my first Disney cruise not working, and I was thrilled. We had booked the Magic back in March 2020 and it was cancelled due to Covid, so finally getting to reschedule it felt validating.

In order to get to the Magic, you have to first fly to Texas. The night before our flight we actually went to the Dr. Phillips Center to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for my birthday, which was soo good! The talent was incredible and the play was incredibly magical.

After our late night, we turned right around int an early morning. Our flight to Houston was uneventful, as you want it to be. We landed early and took the Galveston Limousine shuttle service to the Galveston cruise ship port. We were about 2 hours early for our boarding time, so we wandered around downtown Galveston Island. There was lots of little touristy shops, some old timey ice cream parlors, and was weirdly giving off New Orleans vibes. Also you gotta stop at SeaFoam coffee if you're there, cause their lattes are one of a kind!

It was finally time to board the ship, but the boarding process took forever.

We were starving by the time we boarded and immediately ran to Cabanas lunch buffet to stuff our faces with chicken fingers and fries.

Finally feeling human again, we headed to check out our interior stateroom. This whole ship is like a major flashback to the DCL Wonder Alaskan cruise we did this summer so we felt familiar with the layout. All that was missing was Amy and George crammed on my sofa.

After unpacking at our stateroom, we attended our mandatory muster drill, and headed up to the pool deck for the sail a way party (with a gyro snack obviously).

We had the late dining rotation, so our theater show was first. Tangled the musical was one of the first DCL shows I fell in love with, and I was beyond excited to finally get to see it live on stage, and it was absolutely wonderful. When the lanterns fill the theater during “At Last I See the Light”, I had tears streaming down my face over how beautiful it was. It was really amazing to see a dream finally come true.

It was a very tangled evening as we had dinner that night at the tangled restaurant- Rapunzel‘s Royal Table. Ruffians Hook Hand and Attila were surprising Rapunzel with a birthday celebration. This was my favorite character, musical dining experience I’ve had across all of the ships. There was a great mix of story, music, character, and meet and greet and just in general everyone was having a great time.

No celebration would be complete without a lantern festival at the end.

As you can see, the view from our table was amazing.... thankfully they spent a lot of time in throughout the whole restaurant.

This red thing below was the best thing I ate the whole time. It was a vegetarian ricotta pancake!

This man loves his cruise soups...

Also highly recommend ordering four desserts because everything was delicious and put us right to sleep.

Day 2 was Marvel Day at Sea! We woke up straight to several hero’s meet and greeting, the Avengers playlist on, and general fun vibes to be had.

This was definately the most characters I had seen on a ship out and about.

We did find a break for breakfast at Cabanas buffet for Mickey waffles.

And lunch was had poolside with places like Daisys Mediterranean Delights and the Pimento Cheese hamburger from Duck in Diner.

There was lots going on for a day at sea on this ship. We ran into some of the warriors of Wakanda recruiting some new warriors.

We also stopped by the avengers training initiative which was hilarious to watch little kids navigate the wind while throwing shields and shooting bow and arrows.

There was a Star Spangled Musical Review with a special guest star from Captain America.

We tried our hand again at Marvel trivia and did better than the time we tried on the Treasure, but still sadly did not win a coveted medal.

Later in the afternoon they had a costume parade, which was the most adorable thing ever. All the little Spider-Man’s jumping around doing their acrobatics onstage was so precious.

Mickey and the gang made a surprise appearance in their Marvel costumes too!

We were lucky to run into them on our way to the gym. Gyms on the ship are always just so much better when they are at the front with a view looking out into the water.

Before dinner we had a little hot tub time and then saw Mickey and friends again for Mickey and Minnie’s superhero celebration. We tested out our superhero moves against the wicked wind trying to topple us over while consuming pizza obviously.

While walking to dinner we noticed more heros in the lobby for unannounced photo moments.

Marvel dinner menu took place at Rapunzels for us, but the dining menu was named after your favorite hero’s.

Stand out of this meal for me was the handmade gnocchi.

Mikes favorite part of the meal (next to the soups) is always the table scraper though where the get rid of the crumb.

Instead of pirates night on this ship, they had Heros Unite! This show was incredible, and a marvelous way to end the heroic day. The Heros took on Red Skull and his drones, defeating him in a fireworks display!

Day 3 was port day! We landed in Progreso, Mexico early in the morning and had my favorite breakfast on the ship so far. I don’t often get to eat breakfast when I’m working so this is always a treat.

We signed up for the DCL excursion to Uxmal, the Mayan ruins quite last minute for our port day in Mexico. Our tour guide Jorge was super great, informative, and helpful during our tour. We were given a brown sack lunch of ham and cheese sandwhich, granola bar, and banana and a water bottle before boarding the air conditioned coach bus. The trip was about 90 minutes but rather comfortable and our tour guide gave us some Mexican candies to try.

It was a balmy 78 degrees outside but quite warm in the sun. I can’t imagine doing this tour with it being any hotter.

The ruins were spectacular and so detailed. We saw some of the temples, the homes, the recreational stadium pitch, and most importantly, all the iguanas.

Our guide was great, and made sure we thanked the Leprechauns before allowing us to enter sacred ground.

We took our time exploring the ruins and really enjoyed taking in the culture.

The stairs everywhere were so steep you could not even see them til you were right over the edge.

This was a really cool place to visit, and I loved getting to see my favorite explorer Mike in action again.

When we got back to the port we still had some time to wander around Progreso before all ashore. This port has the longest pier and it would take forever to walk down into the city, so you have to take a bus. We didn’t really want to take the time to do this so instead we wandered at the port shops for a minute and enjoyed some free wifi.

For lunch we hopped back on the ship and had some poolside bites. My favorite on this ship was dipping my fries in the chili mayo from the Shawarma stand.

And it’s actually mandatory that you have to have a poolside ice cream each day too. This cruise we had flavors like chocolate and vanilla and chocolate mixed with blueberry, mango, or strawberry.

After another quick hot tub session we got dressed up in our fine attire and headed to the Walt Disney Theater to see another long awaited, Twice Charmed, a twist on Cinderella’s tale. I’ve wanted to see this show for quite some time because it was on I had a common audition song from but had never actually seen in person.

The show was absolute perfection. It was the classic timeless magic with lots of beautiful songs, and I loved it.

In between show time and dinner time we’d usually find some live music to listen to in the lounges which were some of my favorite times.

Dinner our third night was at Lumiere dining room. This was the more formal option an had our favorite, French onion soup!

Shrimp and a shirley temple, yep she is in cruise mode.

After dinner we actually stayed awake enough to do something game shows. These were super fun.

Day 4 was our final cruise day, and it was another day at sea. We woke up in the morning with the ship rocking quite a bit, but we headed up to the breakfast buffet and it’s a good thing we did cause it was Churro Mickey Waffle day!

I popped a Dramamine and we jumped in our pre-reserved lines to meet the princesses. We had lovely conversations about Valentine’s Day plans and all our temporary tattoos Mike and I had covered ourselves in from a door gift someone left us.

It was time for a sunny hot tub dip. Most of the pools were closed due to the rocking waves but the adults only pool was open and we laughed at Mike in the wave pool.

Somehow on this ship we never took advantage of the included room service! I’m honestly shocked at this but we were busy finding yummy food elsewhere. For our day at sea lunch, we went to Rapunzels Royal Table once again. The turkey burger with fresh mozzarella, peppers, and onions with homemade rosemary chips was a big highlight!

The ship was still pretty rocky all morning, which was tough for a sea day when all the pools shut. They were playing Zootopia 2 in the Walt Disney Theater, so we grabbed our popcorn and got cuddled up for the film.

It didn’t feel like there was much going on during this day at sea, but we enjoyed relaxing, watching movies, reading books, going to the gym, and making crafts.

Finally by about 5pm the waves subsided and we had a lot smoother waters. This was just in time for the theater show of the night, Disney Dreams! We saw this show on the Wonder but there were a few variations on it.

For our final dinner, we had Animators Palate, which was the perfect way to end. The restaurant came to life with animated drawings, turning the black and white venue into a whirlpool of color. Sorcerer Mickey even made an appearance!

Highlight of this meal was the Halloumi parcel.

We said farewell to our dining team that joined us every night as we rotated through the restaurants and headed to the atrium to say goodbye to everyone else.

Goodbye Disney Magic! You were marvelous and I am so happy to finally check you off my bucket list!

Our flight back to Orlando was at 8pm, so after we took our shuttle back to Houston, we had some time to explore. This was not a super walkable city, so we had to rely on pubic transportation, whilst lugging our luggage around. We took the public 102 bus downtown to Kolache Factory, which is a Czech pastry filled with sweet or savory fillings, and popular in Texas.

We tried the barbecue pork and the sausage and cheese. Both were surprisingly more delicious than I thought it would be. There is a whole underground world in Houston with shopping and restaurants so if you’re visiting, make sure you visit underneath.

We walked through Tranquility park and Sam Houston Park to reach Buffalo Bayou Park. The park was beautiful, giving off very New York in the Fall vibes.

Lugging our suitcases around the city though...not super fun.

After some chill time at the park, we walked to the 85 bus to take it to lunch at Pizzitola BBQ. I had looked up bbq places in the area with history and good looking food, and this place didn’t disappoint. The hospitality from the owner and wait staff was one of a kind as they brought us samples of some of their favorites from the menu to try. The brisket and banana pudding were both so tasty.