mketting

It’s just $5 each for the message option with the Hub App. I would suggest all getting it. Worked very well on our recent trip. Every once in awhile it would freeze up but just close and then reopen the app.

Yes I was told by a crew member to push the floor choice for each member of our group. When we started doing that noticed difference in the elevators that arrived.

On day 3 of June 5 Horizon cruise these stickers were being placed on chairs with items and no person.

Just off 8 day Horizon cruise.

Have read and then also heard a lot of complaining about the new elevator system on board the Vista and Horizon. My take is that If used correctly it works Fine.

The very best example was when we did self disembarking at the end of the cruise. In the past when we have tried to get off the ship with our luggage it had been a nightmare to get elevator to fit ourselves and our luggage. With this system we waited a bit but when elevator arrived it had room for all of us and our luggage instead of being full of people already and took us right to the floor we needed.

How to Use:

When you walk up to the elevator choose the floor you are wanting to go to. Tap the button once for each person in the group that needs to get on elevator. In other words if there are 4 of you on Deck 3 and you want to go to deck 9, tap the screen toactivate it, then tap floor 9 option 4 times. A letter will appear each time to tell you Which elevator to board.

*be patient. Since you are not able to see where the elevators are you have no sense of how long until your designated elevator arrives. This adds to sense of longer waiting time but when it arrives it will take you to where you want to go. If it is a really busy time your wait will be longer. Just like any other ship.

*do not get impatient and just hop on the next elevator to arrive if it’s not the letter you were directed to. This is one reason why the elevators are full sometimes when they stop to pick people up, and the system then doesn’t work correctly.

*again push the button for each person in the group. That is the only way the elevator knows there could be 7 people all waiting for same floor. If you punch it just once an elevator may stop that doesnt have room for all.

It’s not perfect but it does work.

leaving on Horizon Monday with 3 teens and tidbit you care to share. I picked this ship because it was brand new

We had 2 , 15 year olds and a 19 year old in the group. They all really enjoyed it. The 15 year olds did not do any of the club stuff that was available. Definitely did see other kids coming and going from the clubs who appeared to be having a good time.

I agree with the OP but also think that there are “vibes” to particular cruise lines, often self-labeled, that would help someone know if it might be for them. Carnival is the Funship. Princess is come back new. RC is bragworthy moments. These are all “tags” from each cruise lines’ advertising and speak strongly to what each line is promoting/targeting for their clientele.

 

I love posters who are optimistic and can simply enjoy a vacation. But I also like to know what to expect.

 

I am really looking forward to a European River cruise next year with my DH and boys who will be 15 and 21 - it will be new and different but I am sure we will enjoy it tremendously.

 

 

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Agree. Plan and Know what to "expect" and then be flexible and enjoy it. Don't go on Disney Cruise and be annoyed that there are so many kids, don't go on a lesser expensive cruise or older ship and expect it to have all the "thrills" of a new bigger ship or perks of the costly trip. If you go on ship with 4,000 plus people expect it just may be crowded at times and know you may not to get to do everything you want at just the time you wanted to.

Comparisons are inevitable and helpful but enjoy the trip you are on in the moment.

leaving on carnival horizon this week but disheartening reviews?? since you just got off can you offer any tidbit

I too read a lot of negative reviews about the Vista and Horizon before our trip. So much so that I stopped reading reviews. If you take a look, I just did a post "Every Cruise is different, Enjoy instead of Spending Time Complaining".

The group we had on this trip has been on a lot of cruises, I think between us has someone has been on most every major cruise line, including Viking River Cruises. We all really enjoyed our week on the Horizon. Ages ranged from 10-72.

Our trip had 4 Sea Days Scheduled and ended up with a 5th due to an unexpected medical evacuation. Before going I was really worried about so many Sea Days as we enjoy visiting the ports. However, even with the extra Sea Day this was a great trip.

Here are issues I heard/read about and my comments:

Despite what some have said the ship did not feel crowded at all to us. The only time crowds were an "issue" was right after an evening shown in the comedy club, Limelight Lounge. The hall was very crowded then as people were exiting the lounge and others were already outside in line to go to the next show. Once you got a few feet away though the crowd thinned right out.

We enjoyed sunning on a side deck, on Deck 11 and swimming in the aft pool every Sea Day. The pool was always busy but never overcrowded. There was always room to swim a bit, sit on the edge or lounge in the shallow area to cool off. The same appeared to be true of the main pool, busy, but not bursting at the seems.

The lines for the waterslides were also never more than 15 minutes or so anytime we wanted to use them, particularly as the week progressed.

We all did the skyride. I would say the waits varied between 15-40 minutes throughout the week. It was super fun and worth the waits. The same was true for the ropes course. You could actually do one trip around or several trips around the ropes course for each time you went up. Just make sure you have closed toed shoes on as you cannot do either with flip flops or sandals of any kind.

Dining Time: We initially had My Time Dining and were wait listed for early. I emailed the MaitreD the week before sailing and requested Early Seating. We were given a 5:30 time slot in the Meridian Dining Room (anytime dining room). This worked great for us. I did see the line for people who had My Time dining on Deck 5. The line was very long before it would open up but once it started it moved super quick. So if you are doing that don't bother getting there super early to just stand in line and wait.

No table cloths... No the dining rooms were not as fancy as we have seen on other ships and there were only tablecloths on Elegant nights . I like the look of the tablecloths but not having them made no difference to our dinner experience.

Elevators: This seems to be a big issue. Honestly once you get used to them its no big deal. For each person in your group tap the floor you want to go to. The hard part was you did not have a sense of how long you would have to wait because you cannot see where the elevators are, you just know what elevator you are supposed to get on. I think that makes the wait feel longer. But overall the system was fine. When disembarking at end of the trip from Deck 9 it was great! We hit the button 7 times because we had 4 people plus suitcases. It took a few minutes but eventually a completely empty elevator appeared and took us right to Deck 5 to get off the ship. We have been on cruises before where we did self disembark with our luggage and it was a nightmare trying to get an elevator to leave the ship. No system is perfect but if used correctly this was better than old way.

Food: We did some different things this trip. We had breakfast every day in the Meridian instead of up on Lido and really enjoyed this more relaxed start to the day. We did not eat a lot from the buffet because we all really loved Guys Burgers and Blue Cantina for lunch most days. Both were AWESOME. Food at the buffet looked fine. Ice Cream all day was great, there were a few times the machine was down but it always got fixed. In the late evenings there were less food options than past cruises and the line for pizza was often 30 minutes or longer. Meal portions at dinner perhaps were smaller but we enjoy getting a couple of appetizers and sometimes 2 desserts so with that the portions were good. Most nights we all found things we wanted to have and they were good.

Room Steward: We had a balcony room with 4 people. Steward asked if we wanted our room serviced in the morning or evening but you did have the option to choose both. We just choose morning. Unlike past cruises the bunk was left down all week and the couch was left as a bed and not turned back into a couch every day. I liked it better on past trips when the room was completely reset every day but again this was not a huge deal, just different.

Cleanliness- We thought the ship was very clean overall. The only thing I did notice however compared to other cruises was at times it did seem that they were behind getting tables cleared off up on Lido and getting dishes cleared form the hallways that people put out after room service.

Activities: My son did a lot of trivia and we also did Dance lessons. We enjoyed several movies on Lido deck and 2 movies in the Imax theater. We went to a few shows/activities in the Liquid Lounge. We always sat in the balcony and as others have said the design of the room isn't great due to pillars blocking. In the evening people had a lot of choices for different bars/lounges to hang out in. We played a little in the Casino. I wouldn't say it appeared smoky most of the time but those with more sensitive noses did not like the smell.

We all had a good time. Any questions please ask.

To activate the app, once you are onboard the ship, you enter your Portfolio number found on you sail away card. One logged in, Each person then can choose add the Chat feature. $5 is then billed to the attached account.

Before sailing on the new Carnival Horizon I was reading posts and reviews on both the Vista and the Horizon to get ready for our family trip. I was seeing so many negative things I decided to stop reading them.

This was my 11th cruise. I have cruised on Disney (6 times), Royal Caribbean (3) and Carnival (1). My parents were also on this vacation and they have done even more cruising including these ships, Princess, Holland America, Norwegian and 3 Viking River Cruises.

We all had a great week on the Horizon. There we many, many things that we loved and there were also a few things that we didn't. However, instead of spending the vacation comparing it to past trips, or lamenting things it didn't offer or that we thought should be different, we just enjoyed what that ship and what it had to offer.

I'm not suggesting that some people don't on occasion have really bad experiences on their cruises but I have definitely decided that your personal approach has a big impact on your experience and enjoyment.

My family enjoyed the Dive in Theater several nights while sailing on the Horizon out of NYC. The first few evenings it was a little cool up on deck in the evening. The towel hut, became a Blanket Hut in the evening and you could present your card and check out blankets to use while watched the movie. Loved it!

My family, just sailed on the Carnival Horizon. There were 11 of us ages 10-72. We all got the App prior to sailing and as we arrived on board activated it via the ships WiFi. There is no cost for basic use of the App. Most of the group then also got the additional chat option for $5 each (cost for the entire week of use).

We all used the App to see the daily ship activities. From day 1 you could see the schedules for every day of the cruise. This made it so much easier to check what was going on at any time around the ship and not have to carry the paper ship schedule around. You also had the option to click on the activity to note you were interested in participating. When you did that it saved it in the App and placed it in your personal "planner" for the week. In addition, the rest of the people in our group could all see what things the others were interested in doing.

The Chat portion however was just the best. It was awesome to be able easily to let others in the group know where we were and what we were doing. The Horizon is a big ship but the app made it easy to keep in contact with each other, make plans and find one another any time we wanted to.

Another good feature was that your Pixels photos were also able to be seen on the app. You could purchase the photos right through the app or go to the pixels studio if you wanted to see them on a bigger screen.

Also included was your account information. I really liked this feature as well. With 4 people charging on our account it was helpful to keep track of how much we were spending each day.

My sister got the social Wifi plan added on and found it worked well for what they wanted. Anyone in their family cold use it but just one person at a time. If her daughter wanted to use it she would log out and her daughter would then login. They were able to see/use Facebook, and other social sites. She could see and receive emails but was not able to respond with this level of plan.

We were not able to go to Grand Turk due to a medical evacuation. We had planned a snorkeling excursion for that day with an outside company. I activated the higher level plan for 24 hours, cost $25, so that I could email them and tell them we would not be coming in and then also look for some options for a snorkel excursion in Puerto Rico as we had not planned anything for that stop. I was able to send and receive emails and search safari etc. during that time period. (A few days later I went to Guest Services and asked if by chance they would consider removing that charge since I only had to use it due to the port cancellation. Without any issue she removed the charge :)

Every once in awhile the app would freeze up but we found if you simply swiped up and close the app and then reopened it, it was fine again.

Overall a great new addition to cruising experience.

Thanks for link

My family has 3 balcony cabins in a row booked. Does anyone know if the wall between the balconies can be opened?

anyone

Does anyone have the email for the Horizon Maitre D. I read that it is Ken Byrne but I do not know the specific email.

Would you happen to know the email for the MaitreD for the Upcoming Horizon?

I have emailed MaitreD's on 3 different ships with a request for a booth for two. I received a reply back only one time, but the requests were granted each time. I too email on the 2nd day of the previous cruise with the request.

 

I know some people think it's wrong to "bother" the MaitreD ahead of time and insist that you should wait until you get onboard to make the request. I don't see that logic - the MD will be spending time working on seating arrangements anyway while on the previous cruise - why wouldn't it be easier to handle any requests then?