Mommy Maddie Blog

Cruising from Houston with Teens: What Worked (and What Didn’t) Part 2 – Post Cruise

• 🏙️Downtown Houston
• 🛍️Galleria
• 🍔In & Out Burger
• 🚤 Kemah Boardwalk
• 🦞 Crazy Alan’s Swamp Shack
• 📅 March, 2026
• 🌎 Houston & Galveston, Texas, United States

Houston

Before the cruise, we were able to spend two nights in Houston and explore a bit. We went to the Galleria, which is a humungous mall. I think it may be the largest mall in North America or in the United States. It even has a skating rink there’s almost 3 different malls in one they have a great wide selection of high-end stores as well as regular stores, different food options. There’s even a gotcha pond store that we went to spent a lot of money on little trinkets there was great gelato place Amorino, Gelato au Naturale) we went to SKIMS and Gentle Monster is really cool close to Galleria in the water wall so when we parked at Galleria, we just walked down to the waterfall for a photo walk. It’s quite cheesy, but also pretty majestic. You just don’t expect to see such a nice monument like that. It’s also an ice cream space it would’ve been much better if it wasn’t so cold but we took our photos and went back. We also went to have Tex-Mex with my cousin directed at this place recommended this place called the Original Ninfa’s. We had their platters since there were so many of us. The boys had chicken quesadillas and a taco set. I also had a sangria which was really yummy.

We also were looking at going somewhere else, but the boys were really tired after the mall that we didn’t do anything some other things that I had all my list but didn’t get to was the putting place as well as a escape room taping and a VR escape place I also had Ant originally wanted to go to a A. a place that my cousin had recommended but instead we had dinner with my friends. We were also staying at the hotel and we had a pretty intense feast. Only thing is the food took a while since there’s so many of us so we didn’t really get to do anything afterwards.

My cousin and I also went to Nordstrom Rack. There wasn’t a whole lot for me to get the makeup selection was OK, but there were many things on sale. I’m also trying to do a dope purchase any clothes for this year after my good friend Becca had recommended it before.

En Route to Galveston

Before we headed to the port, we also made time to go to In-N-Out for her since the boys and Dean hasn’t tried it before it was OK. The burgers were really affordable, but we’re true Shake shack people luckily for me they had a liquor store in the same plaza as In-N-Out Burger so I went to a liquor store called Twin Liquors, which was perfect because they had a annual wine sale going on that day so I was able to pick up four bottles of wine for $50. Dollars that included a bottle opener that I needed for the cruise. The gentleman in the store was also there sommalier, so he was really efficient at telling me which ones to get knowing that I was in a time crunch picking up the wines here saved us a trip to target as Dean was getting a little bit antsy about making our way to the port and catching up with our friends

We also made a quick stop at Buc-ee’s after everybody’s recommendations. It was intense to see how many gas pumps there were. It was also really interesting. Seeing a hiring sign up at the entrance. It had a whole list of how much they would pay per position looks like Bucky‘s pays very well and love that it’s such a staple in Texas. We did a quick tour around Buckys and picked up some beef jerky. My boys really liked the Korean one. We also picked up the chips which were a little too crunchy for our taste. We generally like Miss Vicky’s or Lays but these were nice fresh chips. We also enjoyed looking at the tortilla making machine had I known there was such a variety of food. We would’ve come here instead of In-N-Out Burger because they had brisket sandwich sandwiches, and other really yummy smelling food.

Post Cruise – Galveston to Kemah

Galveston Port Parking was great! Make sure to look for discount codes before your cruise – if you remember to sign up for their emails, they offer TONS of discounts! We had no problems getting to/from the parking lot and they even had shuttles to get you to the ship (you can likely walk it depending how much luggage you have!)

Galveston target was also a good stop for us. We headed into there before heading over to Keema boardwalk just because we had time to kill before chemo boardwalk opened. The target was pretty big we roamed around for a little bit. The kids aren’t really into anything anymore, but I remember always making a pitstop at target to buy Chase trains and random toys for Ethan. They’re not even really into junk food anymore either so we just walked around. I killed some time and then got back into the car to go home. Go up to Kemah boardwalk.

Kemah Boardwalk

We went to Kehah boardwalk which was also amazing. We went here first as it was opened at 11 we went to walked around a little bit. We looked at the rides. The boys were really keen on doing any of them. They look really fun though it was about seven dollars per ride or $30 for a whole day pass maybe 35 we just walked around a bed. There’s a nice variety of shops and restaurants different rides and wasn’t busy when we went when you were there on a Sunday so I imagine people were still doing breakfast or maybe church before heading out for the day.

Crazy Alan’s Shrimp Shack

LOVED This place!
The vibe totally fits the name! We didn’t know what to expect but when I learned it was the start of crayfish season on a quick pitstop en route to the airport from a cruise in Galveston, I knew we had to pop in and I’m so glad we did!

Our server was adorable and so friendly, seeing as it was our first time she walked us through the options and the combos! We settled on a 5lb crayfish with 1lb of shrimp and my 16yr inhaled it! He doesn’t even like getting his hands dirty w/chicken wings but was all in with this! We also tried the smash burgers and a vanilla milkshake and everything was great!

We got there around 12ish and got seats no problem, but the time we left the place was packed and the live music was in full effect! Would definitely recommend!

Houston Airport

Houston airport is incredible. Probably one of the nicer airports I’ve been to although I guess it’s a little bit different other airports I’ve been to I’ve never had as much time to really explore. We were getting super nervous because of the TSA reports of people having to wait in line for 4 to 8 hours even with pre-check so we we got there early and was pleasantly surprised that all the terminals are connected after securities so even though we went to terminal a to get through pre-check we were able to go to terminal CEND and explore around if you have time to stay at IAH or the Houston airport there are tons of things to eat and do there was lots of shops, including a Lego shop with an adorable Lego astronaut. You can also pick from a wide variety of foods like Jamba Juice and different sitdown restaurants there’s a lot of Asian restaurants restaurant sushi everything you can think of. It’s just nice to get your steps in as well before a long fight.