After having simply the best and most wonderful time exploring Cabo San Lucas the previous day, it was finally our last full day at sea onboard the beautiful Disney Magic on our fourteen night Panama Canal cruise before our final port of call in Ensenada. I woke up just before 8:00am, which with the recent time changes on our long journey north towards San Diego in California, was the latest I had slept in on the entire cruise. It really felt so good to get a little extra rest, so I ran up to Deck 9 to grab us both a cup of tea along with a Pineapple Danish to enjoy while sitting in bed as we slowly woke up and got ready for the rest of our day on the ship.

A little while later, we left our stateroom to head to breakfast, but before grabbing some food, we walked a lap around Deck 4. The one thing that was immediately noticeable as soon as we stepped outside was just how much cooler it had become over the last few days, and so many people around the ship were now wearing hoodies and warmer layers that they had brought with them and had not needed at all until now. The temperature had dropped to around 20 degrees Celsius, which felt surprisingly cold after the sweltering heat and humidity that we had experienced as we had sailed towards South America and through the Panama Canal.

As we walked back inside, we saw that Cinderella was out on Deck 4 of the Lobby Atrium at 9:30am, so we stopped for a quick photo and a chat with her before making our way up to Cabanas for breakfast. We also noticed that a long line was already forming outside the D Lounge for the final Anyone Can Cook of the cruise which was due to start at 10:30am, where our Cruise Director David and Hotel Director Tim would be competing against each other in a Battle of the Chefs.

It was very quiet when we arrived in Cabanas so there were many empty tables to choose from. As I had only had it once so far on this sailing, I decided to order the Plant Based Scramble with Vegetables, Plant Based Sausage Patties and Hashbrowns again, along with a Raspberry Danish to eat while I waited for my food to be prepared. It was also at this exact time that we both realised that we had not heard Margaritaville playing at all in Cabanas during this cruise – we usually hear it so many times that we now always associate that song with Cabanas itself.

Once we finished our breakfast, we walked back to our stateroom, but as it was still being serviced at this time, we headed down to Deck 4 where the line for Anyone Can Cook had grown even longer and was almost back to the Aft elevators – I think it was definitely one of the most popular events of the entire cruise. However, we continued on to the Lobby Atrium where we met Rapunzel and talked about visiting her restaurant again that evening to watch the floating lanterns, before I stopped by Mickey’s Mainsail to get a keyring that I had been looking at for the entire cruise and had finally decided to buy.

As it seemed that most of the ship was at Anyone Can Cook, and as there were no events taking place in the Soul Cat Lounge at this time, I took advantage of how quiet it was to have a proper look around at all of the details in this area. On our last cruise on the Disney Magic back in 2021, this space was called the Promenade Lounge which did feel a little bit dated, so this sailing was our very first time seeing it since it was reimagined during the ship’s last dry dock in 2023.

The Soul Cat Lounge is inspired by the Pixar movie Soul and is designed to look like the iconic Half Note Lounge jazz club from the film. One of the very first details that you can see when entering the lounge is Joe Gardner’s hat and jacket hanging on a coat stand next to the stage and the piano. Above the bar, you can also find a photograph of the legendary Dorothea Williams along with her saxophone and a small statue of 22.

On the walls of the Soul Cat Lounge, you can also see the actual posters that feature at various points during the movie along with many album covers and records on display as well.

One thing that I had never watched on any of my previous cruises was Jack-Jack’s Diaper Dash – which was due to start in the Lobby Atrium at 11:15am – mainly because I have absolutely zero interest in watching other people’s children. However, on this particular cruise, I decided that I needed to watch for a few minutes just to answer the question of how they were going to do a baby race on a ship with no crawling babies given that the minimum age for a Panama Canal or Transatlantic cruise is one year old, alongside the fact that this sailing was predominantly adults only.

As I walked back towards a now very busy and crowded Lobby Atrium, I could already hear the increasingly desperate announcements asking for any babies to come forward, as there were only a handful of very young children on the entire ship and all of them could already walk. The host even resorted to asking for any other children and “anything from adorable to non-adorable” and when that also yielded no takers, they quickly expanded the definition and suddenly Jack-Jack’s Diaper Dash was thrown open to all ages – from teenagers to parents and grandparents – in a brand new quest to find the fastest crawler on board, regardless of age.

It was absolutely hilarious to watch and pure chaos in the best way possible. Most of the teenagers and grown ups ended up disqualified for false starts or dramatically diving face first over the finish line. It wasn’t the classic baby race that was planned, but watching fully grown adults frantically crawling across the Atrium floor was far more entertaining than babies could ever be.

The Character Dance Party was due to take place at 12:30pm, so after sitting down for a few minutes on Deck 4, I walked up to Deck 10 to get us both a cup of tea – we definitely needed more caffeine as the tiredness from the last two weeks was starting to catch up with us again – before heading back down to Deck 4 to grab a spot ready for it to start.

During this time, Captain Robert made his final midday sea day announcement to let us know that we were currently 35 nautical miles off the Mexican coastline. He also shared that since Galveston, we had sailed a total of 4528 nautical miles with 356 of them being since we had left Cabo San Lucas the previous afternoon. We still had 103 nautical miles left until we arrived in Ensenada and the grand total for our entire cruise from Galveston to San Diego would come to 4987 nautical miles – and if you ever wonder exactly how I remember all of these numbers, I quickly write everything down in my phone the moment I hear it.

The Character Dance Party began with the Cha Cha Slide (what else?) and Shimmering Seas before Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Goofy, Pluto, Donald and Daisy arrived and danced to Let’s Groove, Live to Party, Push It to the Limit, Zero to Hero, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Makes Me Wanna Move, Footloose and When Can I See You Again.

It was then time for lunch at Cabanas and I was so excited because the speciality of the day was finally Indian Corner which is always one of my absolute favourite days on any Disney cruise, as I have had some truly incredible dishes over the years which I still think about to this day. However, my excitement was short lived as the only non-meat offerings were a dry biryani and some boring chickpeas, which honestly made me want to cry.

At this point, I was so fed up with the food onboard and this was easily the poorest lunch offering I had ever seen in Cabanas. The food on this sailing was the worst I have experienced across our sixteen cruises and it really felt like a bit of an insult that the standard vegetarian options were basically mac and cheese, green beans, fries and mashed potato almost every single day. There was absolutely zero thought given to any menu variety or repetition on such a long cruise and having only one plant based offering that had to be specially ordered really is not good enough when it should be a standard option without having to ask. Cabanas on this cruise was like night and day compared to Marceline Market on the Disney Wish and Disney Treasure, where the numerous vegetarian friendly dishes always left me completely spoilt for choice. The last time we sailed from Texas, I also noticed that the food was very meat-heavy with very little thought given to any other options and this experience confirmed that I will probably never book to sail from Galveston again because of it.

It had been a long cruise – our longest to date – and I was so bored and fed up with eating the exact same things every day (which was normally an Impossible Burger or Hot Dog, given how bad the pizza was on the Disney Magic) and it was at this point, I was more than ready to get off the ship just to find a meal with a little bit of variety.

After getting yet another burger from the Duck-In Diner, there was thankfully at least one saving grace as my favourite Strawberry Panna Cotta was on the dessert station in Cabanas that day, which we enjoyed alongside some fresh pineapple from Daisy’s De-Lites and took back to our verandah to eat.

At this point, I honestly think that I was suffering from a little bit of cruise fatigue as I was so ready to get off the ship. Please do not think I am ungrateful for the experience as I absolutely loved this cruise and know how lucky I was to be on it. However, after almost two weeks onboard, I was really starting to crave somewhere new to go, something different to do as well as being able to sleep in a room that did not rattle.

I absolutely adore the Disney Magic (this was my fourth sailing on her), but after thirteen days on the ship, you naturally find yourself visiting the exact same spaces over and over again and it can feel a little bit like Groundhog Day. Having sailed on the newer Disney Dream, Disney Fantasy, Disney Wish and Disney Treasure in the last few years, I really think I was missing having more options of different places onboard to go, and the repetitive food situation certainly was not helping matters at all.

I really did not expect that I would ever feel like this as I love sailing on longer cruises, so it came as a little bit of a shock but it is also a completely normal reaction after thirteen days of seeing the same walls every single day. The reality of a long cruise is that you can love the ship, love the cruise and be incredibly grateful for this amazing experience that you have absolutely loved, while still finding yourself looking forward to getting off the ship and having somewhere different to explore and a complete change of scenery – and these two feelings can happily exist together at the same time and that is perfectly okay.

As there was nothing that we wanted to do for the next few hours and as it was still a little bit cold outside, we decided to try and get the majority of our packing done which thankfully did not take long at all. Doing this meant that we would now not have to rush around on the final day of the cruise, leaving us free to take our time in Ensenada as well as relax ahead of our dinner reservation at Palo and enjoy every minute of our final evening onboard.

We also wanted to meet some characters that afternoon so at 3:15pm, we walked down to Deck 5 to see Donald, followed by Chip and Dale on Deck 4 at 3:45pm and Mickey on Deck 5 who was out at the exact same time.

Next up was the amazing Daisy on Deck 5 at 4:15pm who was both a little bit flustered and slightly embarrassed when I showed her the photo of Donald’s butt – the very photo Donald had insisted that I take the previous day with the strict promise that I would show it to her! We then finished off our character run by meeting Minnie on Deck 4 a few minutes later before bumping into Princess Tiana who was out walking around near Preludes.

We then got changed and headed straight up to Deck 9, where we first stopped to get a hot drink and found that the drink station had been completely obliterated yet again by whoever onboard was stealing all of the tea bags, which was another minor irritation that was starting to wear a little thin so I simply decided to treat myself to an Oat Latte from Cove Cafe instead.

What surprised us the most, however, was that the Quiet Cove was completely empty and the entire deck felt like a total ghost town. We were usually by the pool around this time on most days and even though it was normally much quieter in the late afternoon, there was literally not another person in sight which was so strange.

The upside to this was that we had the entire Quiet Cove pool and the hot tubs all to ourselves for the next few hours which was the most blissful and relaxing feeling in the world. It is moments like this that make me completely fall in love with cruising all over again. There really is no better feeling than sitting in a warm hot tub in the cool and fresh air, in total peace and quiet while watching the ocean drift by. It is definitely one of my ultimate happy places.

Just after 7:00pm and as the sun was starting to set, we left the Quiet Cove and took a slow walk around Deck 10 before heading back down to our stateroom for a shower and to get ready for the evening ahead.

Once we were dressed, we made our way down to Deck 3 for our final dinner at Rapunzel’s Royal Table at 8:15pm, where the Royal Revelers were already up on stage playing music as everyone arrived and took their seats ready for the evening ahead.

I began my meal with some of the amazing pretzel bread before ordering the Isle of Corona Shrimp (without the pancetta) to start, followed by the Baked Spinach, Zucchini, Eggplant and Ricotta Filled Potato Crepe for my main course – I was not sure if I would like this or not, but I truly enjoyed every single mouthful and it was definitely one of the best things I ate during the entire cruise. To finish my dinner, I had my favourite Lemon Raspberry Mousse Bombe which I have to get on every single cruise that we take as I love it so much.

Instead of Hook Hand and Vladimir who we met on our first night at Rapunzel’s Royal Table, our host for the evening was Sir Reginald Edward who was also known as Red. He welcomed everyone to the restaurant before explaining that it was a very special night as not only was it the anniversary of Princess Rapunzel returning home, it was also her birthday as well as the annual lantern festival so there were so many joyous occasions that we all needed to celebrate.

Rapunzel arrived soon afterwards wearing her beautiful new dress, though she quickly pointed out that there was still someone important missing, which was Flynn. She started to sing Life After Happily Ever After before Flynn finally arrived and they then finished the song together before walking around the restaurant to chat with all the guests.

Flynn then explained that the reason he was late to the celebration was because he had been busy making a lantern as a present for Rapunzel, which he said was the perfect lantern for the perfect princess. They then sang I See the Light as the servers walked around the restaurant holding floating lanterns, which was such a perfect sight to see, however I did not take any photos of the lanterns this time as I just wanted to sit back and watch it all happen and enjoy every moment.

To finish off the evening, it was time for the Kingdom Dance with Rapunzel and Flynn leading everyone around the dining room. I even got dragged up to join in by our server Timur, which was so much fun and such a wonderful way to finish off such a great night for our final rotational dinner onboard.

And as always when leaving Rapunzel’s Royal Table, one of my favourite things to do is to find the three hidden Pascals that can be found around the restaurant.

There was a second Broadway Music Trivia of the cruise taking place at 9:45pm in Fathoms, which we were not sure we would make in time after dinner, but we managed to get there with a few minutes to spare. It was thankfully a completely different set of questions from the previous evening where we had won, but this time around we ended up scoring 17/20 and coming in second place to the very team who had lost to us the night before – and for the three questions that we got wrong, we honestly had absolutely zero idea of what the correct answers were.

After leaving Fathoms, we took the elevator up to Deck 9 to make ourselves a Camomile Tea (there was thankfully a few tea bags still sitting there) before walking back down to our stateroom, where we were greeted by our tip envelopes which is honestly one of the saddest sights you can ever see when on a Disney Cruise, as this is when you truly know that your time onboard is almost over.

It was so strange to think that after almost two weeks, our long awaited cruise was almost over with only one day left onboard the Disney Magic. In the morning we would finally be arriving in our final port of call and we were both really excited to get off the ship in Ensenada and explore somewhere completely new.

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