Horizon Review, April 12, 2004 Repo Cruise

[karl&steph]

Let me preface all of my remarks by saying that I am not looking to start any fights on this board... What follows are the opinions of my wife and myself, nothing more. Let me further qualify our remarks by stating that we are in our late 20's with no kids, thus not fitting the typical "Celebrity" demographic. All that being said... here we go.

Embarkation:

No obvious problems. We were on board no more than an hour and a half after arriving at the pier in Tampa. Pleasant surprise awaited us at checkin, where we found that we had been upgraded from an inside cabin on deck 5 to an outside cabin on deck 9. That was fantastic, even if it was directly above the stage in the Zodiac Club. Could definitely hear the music, but that did not bother us at all. The photographers were courteous upon embarkation and we were greeted with champagne when we stepped aboard. Nice touch.

First Impression:

There was a peculiar smell on board. I can only describe it as bleach water mixed with broiling beef. Odd, I know. We've assumed that it's the leftover smell of the last cruisers after a rocky return to port. I won't go into any more detail there...

Cabin:

Deck 9 consists mostly of cabins with obstructed views from the lifeboats; however, the last two cabins on each side of the ship (stern) have unobstructed views of the ocean. We were in 9099 on the port side. Very spacious, with lots of storage space. Enough to swallow up 8 suitcases of clothing with drawer space left over. The bathrooms were clean, although we noticed on the first day a slight odor and heard other passengers remarking of mysterious odors at other times during the cruise. The samples of the seaweed wrap that we got from the AquaSpa made for adequate air fresheners in the cabin and bathroom.

The bed in this cabin was not as comfortable as the bed on the Carnival Destiny. Both were twins converted to a queen. On the Destiny, they had a special mattress pad that made the union seamless. Our bed on the Horizon had a hard ridge where the mattresses joined, and another couple had a valley where theirs joined. This being said, we both slept well enough, as the bed was otherwise very comfortable.

Public Areas:

We experienced no problems with "chair hogs" aboard this cruise, even with not getting up on sea days until after 9:00am. A little hint we can give is that there are lounges available on decks 12, 10, and 9 all the way aft and these areas get plenty of sunlight or shade and much less wind than the deck 12 chairs around the pool.

The pool was small and with any wave action on the ocean, there was excessive wave action in the pool. Bring your boogie board and have a blast! Speaking of wave action... I don't think this ship has stabilizers. You won't forget that you're 500 miles from land on the Horizon. Personally, I liked it... my wife (with Dramamine) liked it as well. We found it preferable to the larger ships (Carnival Destiny, our last cruise) where you don't know you're at sea unless you watch the waves go by.

The dining room (only one) was cozy but not cramped. Our wait staff (Kurt and Roy) were excellent, as was our Maitre'd (Haydon). The bars/clubs were never crowded, save the Rondesvouz Lounge, deck 7 amidships, where karaoke nights were held.

Being a cigar smoker, I was a little perturbed to be banished to the port side upper decks while cigarette smokers were allowed to smoke inside on the port side. Michael's Club, the library and the card room are all throwbacks to the golden age of cruising with wood paneling, rich carpeting and nice draperies. However, no drinks or food were allowed in the card room and Michael's Club (the former cigar bar) was hardly used. My favorite spot for a drink and relaxation was the America's Cup Club. The casino was small and full of smokers. The dealers in blackjack gave selflessly during the first half of the cruise and then took ruthlessly the second half.

Dining:

Okay, now...don't start shooting. There has been much talk about the quality of the food on Celebrity Cruiseships as a whole. My wife and I were overall underwhelmed by the food on this voyage. The ship has its shining moments, for sure, such as the sushi bar, the hamburgers at The Grill, and lobster night. We found the buffets to have an excess of cold salads, meats, and fruit and not very many choices for hot entrees.

Dinners typically consisted of a choice of four or five appetizers, three soups, two salads, five entrees (seafood, poultry, pasta, lamb/veal, and beef), and four to six desserts. Another hint: any night you can get a garden salad, salmon steak, chicken breast or sirloin steak if the other menu items aren't to your liking. Maybe we don't appreciate "fine cuisine," but a typical ordering misadventure was ordering a dish (for example, Grilled Italian Vegetables) and finding that it was a chilled eggplant. ( [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]) It was hard to get a steak cooked anything less than medium, and the sirloin and NY strip steaks served at our table had a considerable amount of gristle in them. Lambchops that were ordered one night were perhaps the best lamb I've ever eaten.

We tried the casual dining boulevard (Coral Seas Cafe) one night for an alternate environment and were quite disappointed. Service was much less prompt and personal than in the dining room and the food left much to be desired. My wife ordered the lasagna bolognase, not knowing that this is a meat lasagna with little cheese or other filling. She called it a heap of taco meat with a noodle in it. I had to remind the waiter that I DID want the appetizer and soup with my salad and entree. There was a slight language barrier between the waiter and our table. It appears that the wait staff in this venue are main dining room waiters-in-training.

The breakfast buffet in the Coral Seas Cafe has a ton of choices, from fruit and smoked salmon to an assortment of pastries and rolls to the obligatory eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns...you know, the good stuff. The oatmeal was very good, especially with a spoonful of brown sugar on top. The omelet bar was a nice touch, although there were limited choices for fillers in the omelets each day. We tried the waffle bar on the next to the last day, and were sorry we hadn't tried it sooner. The waffle bar is located deck 11 aft (The Grill) outside. Don't miss it for breakfast! We weren't overly impressed with the coffee and feel the coffee on the Destiny was heads and shoulders above. It was hot, though...read add an ice cube if you want to drink it right away.

Overall, the food was generally bland. We understand that when one is cooking for 1,500 people, one has to appeal to the broadest audience. The pastas were unusually flavorless, expecially those with cream sauces.

The pizza was good, but it was better on Carnival. Salads were always fresh, but lacked low fat dressings, at least my waiter could not produce any.

Itenerary:

Perhaps the biggest disappointment and probably the root cause of most "negative" postings that will be seen regarding this cruise. The cruise line advertised the cruise as a 12 night Tampa-Norfolk Repositioning Cruise with 5 port calls. The schedule was to be as follows: Sea, sea, Cozumel 8-6, sea, sea, Curacao 8-6, Aruba 7-11, sea, St. Maarten 8-6, St. Thomas 7-4, sea, sea, Norfolk. Cozumel was shortened to 10-2, causing the cancellation of most shore excursions AND we had to tender in from the ship. St. Maarten was canceled outright and ST. Thomas was moved to the day for ST. Maarten giving us three sea days at the end of the cruise. No one, including the crew, was happy about this. The official "excuse" was offered in the form of a letter during embarkation: rough weather on the way back to Norfolk. Now, people, weathermen have a hard time predicting the weather tomorrow... I don't have a clue how they predicted it a month in advance (we found the ship was booked in St. Thomas for the day it was supposed to be in St. Maarten two weeks before the cruise). It would have been nice to have a bona fide reason for not stopping in St. Maarten, as we are all adults and understand that "things happen." But to be fed tripe about the "weather" is an affront to our better sensibilities. As it turns out, the three sea days reserved for "rough weather" were the three smoothest days on board. Thanks to several handheld GPS units, we determined that the ship averaged 16 kts between St. Thomas and Norfolk. Horizon is rated at 26 kts. We left St. Thomas at 6 pm instead of 4 pm, steamed at an average of 16 knots and still docked in Norfolk at five am or three hours early (I know as our room was above the stern thruster and there was quite a vibration when pulling up to or leaving a dock). Still no reason for why Cozumel was cut short. I can only imagine that with so many (9) ships in port that day, there weren't enough harbor pilots to go around.

Crew:

We were constantly reminded that we were on a "Repositioning Cruise" by the crew, as if to explain away any dissatisfaction we had with things on board. That being said, generally the staff was very polite and professional. We even were able to speak candidly with a number of "Celebrity Family Members" throughout the cruise to get the crew's take on other passengers and the cruise as a whole. I think the general concensus of the crew was that they were looking forward to the cruise being over and the start of the Bermuda run.

Stay tuned for Part II including Activities, AquaSpa review, Entertainemnt, Ports of Call, New Balcony on deck 10, Nightlife, Houmorous anecdotes, and our final thoughts.....

Karl and Steph

[moni]

karl&steph;
What a good and honest review.
Looking foreward to the rest of the story [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Holland America-Maasdam 2002
Celebrity-Summit 2003
Princess-Golden 2003
Celebrity-Horizon 2004

[tomml]

That was a good review. We were some of your fellow shipmates and agree

[toni1266]

I look forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks,

Toni

[Guest]

sorry to hear about some of your problems. Someone else also posted their disappointment about this particular cruise on the Horizon with details to be released very soon.

Jubilee 1991 Solar Eclipse
Century FO 1996 E Carib
Mercury FO 1998 W Carib
Galaxy SS 2000 Alaska IP
Infinity FV 2002 S Carib
Horizon HS 3/05 W Carib

[rebeljohn]

Karl & Steph..........Sorry to hear about the port cancellations. We experienced the same problems aboard our HAL cruise last November.
My wife and I experienced our best cruise ever aboard her just three weeks ago. Look forward to your other comments.

REBELJOHN
Constitution '89 Meridian '90
Norway '91 Celebration '93
Zenith 11/01 Sensation 5/02
Century 11/02 Atlantica 03/03
Zaandam 11/03 Horizon 4/04

[CaribbeanBound]

I too appreciate the thoroughness of the review and await the "rest of the story".

[woodofpine]

I've a friend considering Horizon. The big C is pulling ranks in a big way - interesting. Beats the Danno Horizon
club Pavlaver anyday.

[karl&steph]

Horizon 12 Night Tampa to Norfolk Repositioning Cruise Review -- Part Two (Hang in there it's long)

Activities:

Activities on board catered to the more mature audience (no hairy chest contests, although the "King of the Horizon" contest came close) and seemed to be clustered from about 9am-2pm and then from about 7pm-11pm. There wasn't a whole lot going on between 2 and 6 except port talks, jewelry and spa sales pitches and a bingo game around 3:30. I don't play the Snowball Bingo so that wasn't an option.

There were several guest lecturers on board and I heard mixed reviews about them. I didn't go to any so I will reserve my judgement on them. I did hear that the comedian (whose act I heard was funny from several people) was an accomplished photographer in his own right and gave several good lectures on digital photography.

The pool was left largely activity free except for short lived trivia contests and the band, Exodus, who played twice daily poolside. There were other activities that occurred such as the aforementioned "King of the Horizon" and several "Battle of the Sexes" contests but the Carnival Cruise Lines poolside daily beach bash did not exist on this cruise. All this meant that one could actually read or nap poolside if one wanted to and these were both favorite pastimes of the passengers. The pool itself was marked at 5'6" deep but at 6'1" I could only touch bottom at one end when the water was sloshing out at the other end. I wish I had a website upon which to post pictures of this because at times it really was amazing. More on this in the funny anecdotes below.

Announcements were kept at a bare minimum with a daily, and largely uninformative, briefing by the Captain. This daily briefing consisted of the sky condition, wind speed, temperature and sea state for those who did not posses their five senses, the depth of the ocean at the current position for those thinking of pearl diving over the side, and the distance to the next port for those thinking of swimming for it. After the first few days, I tuned them completely out. Carnival uses their intercom system as a verbatim transcript of their daily activities list while Celebrity sometimes announced activities starting at 1 o'clock at 1:10 (ok, this only happened once that I heard on our last sea day, but it did happen and those at our table chuckled).

"Sports" onboard consist of two shuffleboard areas on deck 8 and three Ping-Pong tables, a netted golf ball driving area and a dart board on deck 9.

AquaSpa:

I have to admit that I am without my better half at the moment who had a seaweed wrap and a full body massage with mini-facial so I cannot offer any info on those treatments except to say that my wife broke out in a rash from the seaweed (she'll probably hit me for saying that... [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]). She said it felt good, but she can add her $0.02 worth on this later.

We did try the Rissole (I can barely say it and have no idea how to spell it) room which consisted of a wet sauna and several mud treatments and body lotions. Celebrity has a unique way of keeping this "couples" treatment from becoming x-rated and that is by setting the sauna at broil and shutting the door. I am from a little country town called Suffolk, Virginia and summers here are 95 degrees with 75 percent humidity so I figured I could handle a sauna. I even drank most of the pitcher of water in the cabin before I went just in case. When the steam came on and the door shut, I had eerie visions of all of the crabs, shrimp and lobsters I've ever eaten dancing around in little chefs hats with bibs on and laughing at us. We huddled in one corner, away from the steam vent (darn thing heated up the tile floor so much you couldn't stand on that side of the room) and tried to get through the face, front and back mud treatments before we died but were unable to complete the treatment. We washed off enough of the mud to not ruin their towels and then bolted. I was dizzy and disoriented and had to drink several cups of water from the water cooler in the spa proper. My wife wasn't in much better shape. That was the one evening I was glad it was sprinkling on deck as I went outside in my shorts and draped myself over the railing and cooled off. I can't believe anyone would pay to be shut in a sweatbox but there we were. Live, thankfully, and learn.

There is a man's and woman's dry sauna (free, but didn't try them), six or seven tread mills, a couple of seated and reclining bikes, a few rowing machines, dumbbells and a Nautilus type machine in the workout room along with exercise balls and mats. Treadmills have sign-up sheets but I never saw them all filled up on this cruise. The ship offered several exercise classes (some for a fee) throughout the cruise but we didn't go.

Entertainment:

There were three production shows onboard with the Celebrity Singers and Dancers consisting of a "music through the ages" type show, "Jump Jive and Rock & Roll" and a Broadway tribute show. There was a pianist onboard as well as a comedian, magician and juggler/comedian. We had late seating for dinner and the thing that really bugged me was that sometimes our show was at 7:00 pm and sometimes it was at 10:30 pm. Being someone who generally turns off my brain on the gangway, this was WAY to complicated for me to figure out and we ended up missing half the shows. We missed both of the comedian's shows, the pianist, Jump Jive and Rock and Roll and the Broadway show. We also missed an encore performance with the magician and comedian/juggler that was cobbled together during the cruise, much to John Howell's, the Cruise Director, credit.

The Palladium Show Lounge is easily large enough to seat half the passengers at a time if people are not afraid to "get to know" their neighbors. Seating in the balcony consisted of two, maybe three rows, along the sides and back of the auditorium. This auditorium is not equipped with stadium seating either so head bobbing was necessary to see everything that was going on. We tried to counter this by sitting in the balcony but the height of the railings made viewing the stage from the first row difficult whether on the port or starboard side of the auditorium.

Ports of Call"

Tampa - Embarkation was a breeze here and much better tan at Miami (I think) as the terminal is right on a major commercial street, not within the "port" area itself. Had dinner at the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City and was not disappointed.

Cozumel - Wow, didn't know there were that many cruise ships in the Caribbean. The day we were there were three Carnival ships in port, one other Celebrity ship, a ship from the My line, a NCL ship, two RCCL ships and a Disney ship in port. Figure 2,000 people per ship and ten ships, that's 20,000 tourists descending on the island over a 12 hour period. I don't know the population of the island but I think the locals were close to being outnumbered. Lucky for them the Mexican Navy and their 50 foot patrol boat was there to maintain control over the island or it may have gone the way of Puerto Rico [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]. Our initial itinerary called for a 9 hour stop but we only had from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm. As if that wasn't bad enough news, we TENDERED. The locals did impress two of the ferries to Cancun into service to serve as tenders and this greatly speeded up the process (400 passengers each as opposed to using 150 person lifeboats) but the first tender (ours) didn't reach the pier until 10:30 am. We were able to walk around for 3 hours and caught the 1:30 tender (next to last) back to the ship. Wasn't really there long enough to form an opinion but it probably was a lot like Cozumel... [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] I'll post back on this thread sometime in the future if I ever get back there and actually get more than a block inland.

Curacao

We were the ONLY ship in port that day and no one seemed to have told the merchants we were coming. My wife and I got a whole lot of startled looks by shop keepers when we told them we were off of the [I]Horizon[/I]. The people were very friendly and we learned that there is an effective and fairly efficient public bus transportation network on the island. The main bus terminal is right near the floating market and big round building across the floating bridge from the cruise ship pier. From here, you can catch busses to anywhere on the island for between $1 and $4 US per person each way. This is much better than the taxis which are upwards of $12 per person each way. If you speak a little Spanish, or just don't know any better, try them. Their destinations are on little cardboard signs in the windshield. All busses return to the main bus terminal so this is a cheap way to take an island tour as well. Williamstad is a very pretty city but the shopping is not want it is in St. Thomas. My wife and I rode a bus to The Bike Shop, a.k.a. the Harley Davidson dealer on Curacao, [url="http://www.thebikeshop.nl"]www.thebikeshop.nl[/url] and bought T-shirts. For any riders reading this, the people were just the nicest people you'd expect to meet at a bike shop.

Aruba

We rented a Jeep Wrangler at the pier from American for $75 US and split it with another couple from the ship. Thus, we created our own 8-hour 4-wheel drive Jeep safari tour (sound familiar?) for $35.00 per person (including lunch, a case of Amstel Bright beer, and gas upon return of the Jeep); a savings of $60.00 per person off of the Ship tour prices. My wife, who doesn't drink beer, was our designated driver for the tour.

First stop, (after the supermarket for local meat, cheese, chips, bread, and of course, beer) was Baby Beach. I was skeptical about Baby beach after reading that it is the best beach and the you must go there, blah blah blah, because I equated that with an overcrowded Disneyfied beach. The opposite couldn't have been more true. We spread out under a shady mangrove tree with blue and brown lizards darting about and enjoyed the MAGNIFICENT beach. Yes, believe the hype and if you're going to Aruba, GO THERE. Palm and Eagle Beaches are pretty and do have white sand and palm trees but they don't have any coral and not as many fish as Baby Beach. GO TO BABY BEACH.

From Baby Beach it was off to tour the eastern part of the island which is full of cactus, donkeys, goats (some of the ugliest I've ever seen) and lizards. I enjoyed it as I am an outdoorsie type of person. WARNING: There are no real roads on the southeastern part of the island so don't go past Baby Beach is you have a bad back, neck, or are sensitive to jostling around. We saw the National Park, the sand dunes, some caves, Natural Bridge and California Lighthouse before returning the Jeep. My wife was an excellent 4-wheel driver as we didn't get stuck, a flat, flip, or hit anything, although the tour operators for some of the 4-wheel ATV tours will get someone killed by leading their tours at high rates of speed around blind corners in the desert. We almost ran over some of these knuckleheads.

Dinner at the Green Iguana consisted of Iguanachos (Nachos with beans, pico de gallo, salsa, sour cream, cheese, etc) and a dish of keshi jeana. Keshi jeana is a hollowed out gouda cheese wheel filled with chicken, raisins, beans, and spices then baked and was AWESOME!

Sint. Maarten / St. Martin

CANCELLED - You tell me what it's like.

St. Thomas

Took the Turtle Cove Sailing and Snorkeling Adventure tour from the ship ($56 US each, I think) and had a BLAST. We sailed on the Doubloon, a steel two-masted gaff-rigged schooner with a crew of three; Captain Jim, Bones, and Mango. My wife was smitten with Mango and Bones was hilarious. The emergency evacuation plan consisted of "What do you do if you see us (the crew) putting on life jackets and jumping over the side? That's right, follow us. Find some water and head for it, that's where we'll be. I don't know who came up with the 'crew goes down with the ship' but it wasn't this crew or this ship." We were told that Mango was mixing the drinks, Banana Benders, Pain Killers, and Rum Punch, and was a U.S. Coast Guard approved bartender. (Wow, there's taps it must be 2200 hours; yep it is) We swam with green sea turtles at Buck Island and then drank our way back into port.

Charlotte Amalie was a bustling place to visit but my wife and I weren't really in a shopping mood. I know, go all the way to St. Thomas, one of the best places to shop in the Caribbean and not feel like shopping; we're worthless. We ate at the Greenhouse restaurant and were ill later that night. We had tacos in Mexico from a hole in the wall, cold sandwiches and conch in Curacao from another hole in the wall, keshi jeana and more local cold cuts in Aruba and the one US possession we eat in we get sick from. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

New Balcony on Deck 10

It is on the starboard side, third from the last cabin aft and looks to be about 10' x 5' with a teak railing. It looked barely big enough for the small table and two upright chairs that were on it. The balcony we had on the Destiny had a table and two reclining chairs with space to lay down on the deck as well. They will also be tucked up under the overhang that runs along deck 11 in the pool area so there may not be a lot of sunlight getting to them unless they get rid of those overhangs. If they do, you'll have people sitting around the pool looking right down on top of you though....

Humorous Happenings

I had a hard time getting the layout of the ship down pat even with being onboard for 12 days. The Starlight Restaurant sits squarely amidships and straddles Horizon from beam to beam on deck 7. To get from the forward part of the ship to the aft part of the ship on deck 7 you must go over or under the restaurant. The Rendezvous Lounge, Liquor Store, Art Gallery, Martini Bar, and Photo Gallery are on Deck 7 along with the main entrance to the Palladium Lounge. Deck 8 is almost entirely public with the Casino Royale, Piano Bar, Zodiac Club, and Mall. Several times I heard passengers arguing with one another about how to get from point A to point B and several times I found myself taking the wrong stairway as well. There is no true Promenade Deck or Promenade on the Horizon so keep your deck plan handy.

My wife is repulsed by bugs, snails being no exception. We ate at a table for six with four Canadians who all loved escargot and ordered it as an appetizer. My wife squirmed as they ate and made several comments about how she'd never eat snails. In Curacao, I ordered conch and shared it with my wife. She loved it and ate several forkfuls. It was only a few days later that I told her what conch was. I won't go any further but suffice to say I was not her favorite person that night.

One afternoon I was enjoying watching the wave pool, er pool, send geysers of water skyward at each end occasionally drenching a hapless napping shipmate from deck 12. After enjoying this for ten minutes or so, I decided to head to the Americas Cup Club on deck 11 to read my book. I had to descend a flight of stairs, turn the corner, walk ten paces and go inside a door. These stairs deposited me beside the pool where, after taking no more than three or four steps, I was drenched by a wave from the pool reaffirming that God does, in fact, have a sense of humor. This time it was a crew member who had followed me down the stairs after watching me enjoy the spectacle who was laughing.

Final Thoughts.....

Overall, I'd rate this cruise as a 6.5 out of 10. The fact that the itinerary changed so drastically has a lot to do with this. We did receive quite an upgrade in our cabin, had an officer dine with us one night, and everyone got a $100 per stateroom credit for the itinerary trouble. I think that the majority of the crew was looking beyond this cruise to their Bermuda run and saw this cruise as a necessary evil in getting to that change of scenery. The crew was not impolite and service was very good, but hving talked candidly with a dozen different crew members from an officer down to the assistant waiter, there was an underlying current of "grinning and bearing" this cruise. I can only imagine what the service must be like this week on the inagural run from Norfolk to Bermuda. The crew seemed to have a spring in their step this past Friday as we were pulling into Norfolk on Saturday morning.

For a 14 year old smaller ship, Horizon is holding up remarkably well. The layout is somewhat confusing, and I am somewhat dense, so the combination proved to be a formidable obstacle during the voyage. The saving grace of Horizon is her size so you can't get TOO lost on her.

The food was not what I had expected, but after cruising the boards for the past siz months, my expectations were sky high. I managed to gain ten pounds during the cruise so there was plenty of good things, just not a lot of great things, to eat.

Would we cruise on Celebrity again? Probably not right away. I feel a little bit like Baby Bear because for us, Carnival was too flashy, Celebrity was too sedate so we're still looking for the cruise line that feels "Just Right".

Is this review biased, of course it is! We offer our opinions freely for what they're worth and welcome alternative opinions of this or any other Celebrity sailing.

If anyone has specific questions, we'll be happy to try and answer them.

Karl and Steph

[toni1266]

great review, my parents were on this sailing as well. They said it was a much older crowd. We live in Virginia Beach so we are neighbors. I hope you and your wife find your perfect cruise. I know it's out there somewhere. Maybe one day in the near future we'll get more ships to sail from Norfolk.

Toni

[Danno]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by woodofpine:
Beats the Danno Horizon
club Pavlaver anyday.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Never mind...this doesn't deserve any comment.

[This message was edited by Danno on 04-28-04 at 02:55 PM.]

[tuggers]

I'm sorry that your first X cruise did not live up to the hype. I was on the Horizon 10/31/03 and 3/1/04 and had a fabulous time. Food was wonderful! I had such a good time I went on the Zenith 4/11! In that month between trips they had come
up with the thing where it was hard to get rare or med rare meat. And the bleach cleaning had begun due to some gastro sickness going around hence the weird smell. The Zenith is also a little slower pace than the Horizon, the casino closes earlier, etc. and I didn't think the CD was as good. I had a very good time on the Zenith but it had more to do with the people I met, many through CC, and did things with, than the cruise or ship itself.
I hope that you find your perfect cruise. You might want to try one of the bigger X ships like the Infinity. For some reason I get the impression they are a little more 'jumpin'.
Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, sorry you missed your port. We missed Jamaica, mon, and all we got were free drinks!

Until the Zenith! Second X Cruise In Two Months!
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2004;4;11;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

[Danno]

I have never done a re-po cruise but in conversation with people who have vastly more cruise days in than I, they all comment that these cruises are quite different from a standard cruise experience. If I'm correct the pricing reflects this.

Twelve day, between seasons, repositioning, schools in, and you were surprised at the average age of the pax...??

Do the research, it can head off a lot of disappointment. That being said I am sorry it didn't work out for the best. I'm sure you work hard for your money and don't have as much time off as you would like (certainly the case with me). Everyone deserves their vacations to be all they expected. Hope all you future cruises are more than you expect!!

Dan

CenturyX1,GalaxyX2,HorizonX5,VolendamX1,

Zenith to Bermuda Oct/04
Century to E.Caribbean Feb/05
email mrtnb(at)efni(dot)com

[Danno]

sorry...double post

[mcmarya]

I'm really sorry that your cruise was not that terrific. On our 3/9 Horizon cruise everything seemed to run like a well-oiled machine--of course, this was an itinerary that they had done numerous times. The only complaint we could come up with was that the hot tub was not very hot and the pool and hot tub closed too early. Oh, and my husband's bed was too hard but they provided a foam pad that solved that problem. It sounds like the crew does not adapt to a change in itinerary very well. And, it sounds like Celebrity did not consider this repositioning cruise to be very important

[richsea]

Thanks for the candid & entertaining review.

I have just a few thoughts/suggestions for you: I think that the timing of your cruise affected your experience. I would say that if you took Horizon to Bermuda in July or August you would find a younger, more lively crowd ( but with more children). This is true of most cruise lines during the summer.

If you're looking for a cruise experience somewhere between Carnival & Celebrity, you might want to try Royal Caribbean, especially the Voyager class ships.

It sounds like you made the most of the things that you enjoyed & were able to have a sense of humor about the things that you did not enjoy. Great attitude!

Hope you find that your next cruise is THE cruise for you, whichever line you choose.

Meridian Bermuda 1996
Century E Caribbean 1997
Century W Caribbean 1998
Zenith Bermuda 1999
Galaxy So Caribbean 2000
Galaxy So Caribbean 2001
Zenith Bermuda 2002
Mercury W Caribbean 2002
Constellation S Caribbean 2003
Infinity Hawaii 2004

[Logic]

Just A Quick Note:

While On A Beach In St. Thomas I Found A Daily Paper From The Celebrity CENTURY Ship Laying On Bench So I Looked It Over Hoping To See Much Better Activities Compared To The HORRORIZON 4/12/04 Cruise.....But They All Seemed The Same...BORING. Im 54 So Not Quite Ready 4 The Boneyard But No Partier Either So I Dont Think It Was Timing! I'd Suggest Princess To Karl & Steph If Carnival Was Too Flashy. I Enjoyed All My Cruises With Both These Lines & Carnival Does Have A Great Variety For All Ages In Their Activity Planing.

Ok So It Wasnt So Short! LoL

Bottomline.....I'd Rate The Ship A 2 Outta 100 & Will Not Sail With Celebrity Again. I'd Feed My Cat Better Food & I Dont Even Own A Cat!

Carnival Ecstasy 1998
Carnival Paradise 2001
Star Princess 2002
Carnival Legend 2003


[img]http://www.seaescapes.com/cruiselines/images/CEL_Horizon.jpg[/img]
Countdown To Celebrity Horizon
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=9400d3&cdt=2004;4;12;16;30;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

[Danno]

Bye bye now.....

Dan

CenturyX1,GalaxyX2,HorizonX5,VolendamX1,

Zenith to Bermuda Oct/04
Century to E.Caribbean Feb/05

**email mrtnb(at)efni(dot)com

[Lois R]

Logic, Sorry you found the cruise boring. I guess that is why there are so many choices of cruiselines.
I have been on 3 Celebrity cruises in the last 11 months and will be going again in September.
I suppose boring to one person is active to another. I am one of those cruisers who doesn't have to "be doing something" all the time.
As for the food, another area where we all have different tastes.
Isn't your analogy a bit harsh? I know, we all have our own opinions....so I guess my question is moot.

Dan..don't leave...I know you love the Horizon[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] and I plan on having a wonderful time...I PROMISE [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:
[url="http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising"]http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising[/url]

[donnaw]

Very good review and I get the impression that you still enjoyed your vacation which is the most important part!

Tuggers, Welcome back! Did you stick to your resolve of keeping the bar bill down this time? Mercury next? Almost have HIM talked into it but I think he has to get in trouble first.

Funny story on the wave pool (yes, I have pictures to prove it). Friends of ours were sitting at the bar when an elderly woman walked up to an officer standing close by and asked him if he was an officer of the ship. He said yes and she proceeded to tell him that it was time to shut that thing off since people were getting wet!

Usually a bit more lively if you stay 7 days and under on the larger ships or try RCI or Princess's larger ships since the smaller ones also seem to draw an older crowd.

Horizon's First Balcony 3/04

[url="http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=125594606"]http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=125594606[/url]

Donna

Cruise Total: 8 Dawn Princess 12/8/01, Dawn Princess 8/19/02, Celebrity Century - 1/04/03, Carnival Fascination 5/2/03 Celebrity Horizon 3/1/04

[CaribbeanBound]

Karl and Steph:
Thank you.

Question: you said the Paladium Lounge did not have stadium seating. Is that to say there is no slope to the room?

[karl&steph]

The slope of the room depends on the pitch of the ship... [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Seriously, There was a gradual slope to the room but it was only one or two percent I'd guess. I didn't have my inclinometer with me this time [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]. It reminded me of the movie theaters built in the mid 80's in terms of "slope" except the seats in front didn't lay back. The stage was also quite elevated from the seats in the first few rows, so much so that we decided to watch a cooking demonstration from the balcony as we couldn't even see the table on stage from the front row. I wasn't expecting the Hollywood Bowl.

I make a habit (or try to) of making the best out of all situations. I knew what the demographic was prior to embarkation so I was not surpassed by that and that didn't bother me. As for activities for the "younger" crowd, they did have a Caribbean theme night up on deck with the activities staff leading dancing and that looked like a lot of fun but my wife had retired to bed early and so I contented myself with watching the others. Incidentally that was one of the rougher nights in the pool and it was amusing watching the crew chase mangos and pineapples around the deck in rubber boots [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif[/img]. They had a country line dancing night as well but I didn't make it out on deck for that.

I can entertain myself with watching drying paint if I have to and after not having a vacation in five years, the ship could have anchored or drifted in the Gulf of Mexico for twelve days and I would have made do. I had plenty of books to read, (no walkman; I knew I forgot something) and a healthy stash of spirituous liquors that had stowed themselves away in my checked baggage. History is so much more interesting when being interpreted by Jim Beam.

Danno, I appreciate your enthusiasm for the cruise and I have actually been telling people that on another run with another itinerary, the ship would probably be great. On this voyage, the port cancellations had the effect of creating an undercurrent of discontent in both the crew and the passengers that was heightened by the first two days at sea which were generally rougher than the rest of the cruise. Sick, unhappy passengers on a cruise ship could probably have been a worthy test for Job and the crew handled themselves remarkably well. I know that every cruise on every ship of every cruise line is different. On the cruise I would rate as a perfect ten the person in the cabin next to me could rate it at the perfect 0. In my comments I have tried to give credit where credit is due and besides the food and the itinerary, have no problems with the rest of the cruise. I cannot thank Celebrity enough for the sushi bar!

Karl

[tuggers]

Hey Donna! I don't know what happened! I didn't have one, not one Chocolate Martini after dinner (had lots of other martinis before dinner) and not only was my bill about the same, I gained more weight! Go figure. The only thing that really bugged me was not being able to get med rare beef. Well, I got it, but it was a very big hassle. Hope that goes away before I sail again. I'm booked on
14 night Panama Canal on the
Infinity in October, Zenith 14 night in November, Horizon 11 night in January and 11 night Zenith in March. That should keep me busy! Might make the Horizon a back to back, not sure yet. And tell your DH I'm using the heck out of that shareholders benefit!
Only downside to going so much is I practically got strip searched by customs because I had been out of the country twice in 30 days. That was a pain.

Until the Zenith! Second X Cruise In Two Months!
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2004;4;11;16;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

[tomml]

Hi Folks,

All in all I agree with alot of the comments regarding this particular cruise. My wife contracted the Norwalk virus on the fourth day. She was isolated to our stateroom for 72 hours. I was in isolation for 24. It was unfortubnate but things happen. She was very unhappy about missing some shore days. However, at the later part of the cruise, she was happy that she went. We both enjoyed the relaxation. I was dreading the long sea period, but it was really relaxing. I would have prefered to have a continuous movie theater like on a Princess cruise I was on, but each person has different desires. This cruise met my objective of relaxation. Waking up in Norfolk on Saturday was great. I was home in 15 minutes after a quick debarkation. If I can answer any questions, please feel free to ask.

[Danno]

Karl...well thought out, good review. I don't have any issues with your opinions. You came over to X. You tried it with an open mind. You're moving on...much as I did after my first HAL cruise.

Logic...nice of you to drop by and make it clear to those of us who have cruised this line repeatedly, that we don't know good from bad. Enjoy your cruises on Carnival...you would seem to be a good fit for one another.

Dan

CenturyX1,GalaxyX2,HorizonX5,VolendamX1,

Zenith to Bermuda Oct/04
Century to E.Caribbean Feb/05

**email mrtnb(at)efni(dot)com