Willdra’s Hyperactive Carnival Horizon April 15-22 Cruise

[willdra]

Love the review, so glad I'm following because we are to old to try to go over seas. We do just find with the Caribbean. Thank you.

 

 

 

Thanks for reading along! You might get inspired to try the Med![emoji7][emoji7]

 

 

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[oncruisecontrol]

As always, really nice review. Great photos as always too!

[Kingisacruiser]

This review is hilarious. I️ can’t read this on the train (NY) and try to give my don’t mess with me or ask me to spare some change look. I’m laughing way too loud. If I️ weren’t the one laughing, I wouldn’t stand or sit next to me. So people are looking at me like “Don’t mess with me” or “Don’t ask me for spare change”

 

 

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[willdra]

This review is hilarious. I️ can’t read this on the train (NY) and try to give my don’t mess with me or ask me to spare some change look. I’m laughing way too loud. If I️ weren’t the one laughing, I wouldn’t stand or sit next to me. So people are looking at me like “Don’t mess with me” or “Don’t ask me for spare change”

 

 

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OMG I almost fell off of my treadmill when I read this!! [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] You should write reviews too!! 🤣🤣

 

 

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[willdra]

As always, really nice review. Great photos as always too!

 

 

 

Thanks and Thanks! [emoji1][emoji1]

 

 

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[willdra]

Our One and Only Sea Day

It was so good to wake up in the world of washcloths again. I am so adding them to my packing list from now on. Ain’t nobody got time to figure out what to use to wash their face. #neveragain We got up around 10 so we could get to brunch at a reasonable hour. It was dark and cloudy outside. Booooo! My face was clean tho!

 

 

There was no line to get into brunch, and we were seated in Nikolai’s section. Since this was our only Sea Day, we brought our drink tickets to redeem. We paid .32 VAT for my “free drink”. VAT is the devil.

 

 

 

 

Both of us had our usual Sea Day Brunch. It was leisurely and relaxed. Normally this is our first time exhaling and starting our vacation. Since we’d been on vacation for a week we were already in chill mode. It seemed extra nice. We ate and talked, then walked around until it was time for Lip Sync Battle. I enjoy it more when I see it from the beginning. As long as it wasn't freezing outside, I would catch it on the Lido. I missed the Golden Girls Trivia while we were at brunch, and I was disappointed cuz I was planning on clutching that one! Golden Girls is my jam.

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

I got the activity notification from the Hub App for LSB, so I went to request an elevator. It took longer to get one since it was Sea Day. I was pleasantly surprised when I got outside. It was actually really nice out. It was partly cloudy and around 67 degrees. It was cool in the shade and comfortable in the sun. W joined me on the Lido a few minutes after the battle began. We watched the battle, but it was...different. There was a Russian lady who didn't really know what it was about, which made it really funny. She did strange things with the microphone, and bless her heart, she was clueless. She kept putting it in her shirt. I don’t know where she was going with that move. Somebody please come get your Meemaw. The 2 finalists were selected, (there wasn't much to choose from) and we walked back up to Serenity. W found a clam shell and immediately fell asleep in it. How does he do that??

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

I went down to 1209 to get my bag. When I came back, I didn't want to wake him, so I sat close to him on a lounger. I closed my eyes for about an hour until I got the notification for Tea Time. I looked back and when I didn't see W, I sent him a chat message in the app. He replied that he was on his way to Tea Time, and for me to meet him there. He didn't see me in the lounger in front of him, so he went to eat. As usual.

 

AC and V were already there when we arrived at Tea Time, so we sat with them. We saw our dinner server Mirjana and she hooked us up by bringing the whole dessert cart to our table. We chose quickly cuz we were kinda monopolizing her time. The Tea Time desserts were the Peach Crumble, Chocolate Cake, Scone, Coffee Macarons, Orange Cake, and a Fruit Tart. I wanted to purchase one of the better teas, but no one ever brought the box to our table. We loved everything that we had on our plates. The servers were very nice. They even went to find something special for a lady at our table who couldn't eat gluten.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

I wanted to catch Seafood Shack today to cop a lobster roll, so after we gobbled up the desserts,we went to the Lido. W went to go iron his shirt for dinner, which was at a good time, because no one was in the laundry room. I got to Seafood Shack and waited for about 10-15 minutes. There were only two employees back there, and they let me know it would be a minute. I was patient, since I could see they were making an order. I was asked for my order, and I requested the lobster roll. The server immediately told me that he just made his last one. Hmmmmm. What does that even mean? Last one for the day,month, year, ever? Aren't you at least gonna act like you’re going to check? Wait. What? I was confused, and I just managed an "Excuse me?" To which he replied "No, we don't have any more ready, we will have to cook more, and that will take too long". Again, I was perplexed, since it only takes like 5-7 minutes to cook lobster, and ummmm that's what they do here. Right? Plus they have those buzzers that they give you when it's going to be awhile. We had a short staring session, then I just walked away. With no lobster roll. Insert sad violin music here. I could've been really mean and said some really unpleasant words, however I refrained. Being mean makes you age faster than avocados, buttermilk, and banana peels, and I wanted zero parts of that! So I left, and went to Guy’s instead. #BoyBye

I saw AC and V at a table when I came back from Guy’s, and I sat with them until W was finished ironing.

 

 

 

[willdra]

We chilled in the cabin until it was time to get ready for dinner. Dinner comes super early when you have 6 o'clock seating. This was the first Elegant Evening, and we were looking forward to it. On the plus side, I didn't have to keep W waiting while I dug in the shoe pile. Since we had to watch our luggage weight, I only packed 4 pairs of shoes and 1 pair of flip flops.

 

For my appetizer I had something different this time. I tried the Tart with Braised Kale Blackened Pork Tenderloin. I liked it a lot, and I’m glad I ventured out. For my entrée of course I had lobster. All was right with the world again. My dessert was the Malted Chocolate Hazelnut Cake. It is soooo good! For show time the song was Uptown Funk which was entertaining.

 

 

 

[willdra]

Tart with Braised Kale Blackened Pork Tenderloin

 

Fried Oyster

 

 

 

[willdra]

I mentioned before that there were some "glitches" with our servers. On the first night, one of the servers brought W a side of ketchup. Now W would rather eat stir fried dirt than ketchup, so he politely said he didn't order it (after turning up his nose a little). The server she said she thought he asked for ketchup. Yeah no. Never. The next night, I asked for a Carnival Cosmopolitan. Mirjana thought I said Spicy Chipotle Pineapple Martini. How? That’s like 11 more words! When the server brought it, I said “I'm sorry, I didn't order that”. So he took it back and fixed it. When he brought the Cosmo, it was pretty much ALL VODKA. I wasn't mad tho, let’s just go with it. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

 

 

 

After dinner we went back to the cabin to change, then we went to the Motown Trivia Party. Mike is hilarious and I loved his version. It’s always fun to see the Cruise Directors interpretation of this party. He rocked the heck outta that blonde afro wig too! DJ Jazze is a great DJ, and they work well together. We danced and sang to all of the songs, and we enjoyed the extra competition at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to the cabin after the party, and finished off the Chocolate Covered Strawberries while we read. We got our clothes and supplies out for the next day, then turned in.

 

The Chocolate Covered Strawberry Gift

 

Before I fell asleep, I said a prayer thanking God that when the cook at the Seafood Shack basically refused to take my money for a lobster roll, I didn't punch him in the throat, end up in cruise ship jail, and bring shame upon my family name. Hey these prayers are working after all!! Yeah!!

[nybumpkin]

IThe next night, I asked for a Carnival Cosmopolitan. Mirjana thought I said Spicy Chipotle Pineapple Martini. How? That’s like 11 more words! When the server brought it, I said “I'm sorry, I didn't order that”. So he took it back and fixed it.

I'm not sure how you mix up those orders either, but the Spicy Chipotle is my second-favorite Carnival drink, right behind the Fun Ship Special. I haven't yet started a cruise without one... or two... or, one time, three... Fun Ship Specials.;)

 

I'm enjoying your review. We sailed Vista in the Med two years ago, and I'm still mad at myself that we didn't spend time in Barcelona after the cruise.

[E@syPe@zy]

So do you think the Seafood Shack was getting ready to close and that's what they meant about not having enough time?? It seems like they would tell you if that was the case. So Odd!?!

I do so love a Carnival Cosmo! And they "will" knock you on your keister pretty quick too!

[Tracyjj0]

Absolutely loving your review, especially as we were on this cruise too! :D

 

The only downside of reading someone else's review, is seeing things we missed along the way. I completely forgot that, as there was only one sea day, it would be our only chance to catch Tea Time in the MDR. The Motown Trivia with Mike sounds fab too (we were at dinner then). We love Mike Pack :hearteyes: cruised with him last year on Breeze during Hurricane Harvey - wow that man never slept!

 

Thank you so much for sharing and looking forward to the rest :)

[TracyESQ]

I love your review! It's so funny and detailed and your pictures are great. We're sailing on the Horizon in just over a month so I'm simultaneously reading this one and your Vista review to prepare.

[pacruise804]

Yay, another Wildra review!

My son plays Magic The Gathering with some friends, but I haven't really explored it yet.

Great pictures, great writing - can't wait to read the rest!

We were staying in Paris

To get away from your parents

You look so proud standing there with a frown and a cigarette, posting pictures of yourself on the internet **Paris-The Chainsmokers**

(This song has absolutely nothing to do with anything, it was just stuck in my head the whole time we were in Paris!)

Welcome to Willdra’s Hyperactive Carnival Horizon April 15-22 Cruise Review!

 

TLDR Version (Too Long Didn’t Read): We had a great time, loved the Horizon, and we would do it all over again, twice if we could!

 

P.S. Horizon pictures will follow the Paris portion.

 

Still here? Sweet!!!

 

My husband W and I took this journey as a part of a group cruise that our daughter (A) and her fiancé (Z) take every year. We've sailed with their group before, and we were thrilled that it worked out for us to join them again, especially on the brand new Horizon. It all started out as just the cruise with maybe a couple of days at the end in Barcelona. Somewhere along the way, it morphed into a pre-cruise stay in Paris, then the Horizon Cruise, followed by a post-cruise piece of Barcelona, and a short after party in Paris. Too much? Yep, that's why it's Hyperactive!

 

So A and Z play a super nerdy card game, that you've prolly never heard of, called Magic the Gathering. They also belong to a "Magic Cruise Group" on FB, which is a group of peeps who sail together annually, to play….Magic the Gathering. Woooohooooo!!! This is actually the group's 10th cruise together, so it's become a tradition for them. I’ve never played MTG before, since you have to be smart, and you know, remember things. #toohard

W has played tho and he seems to enjoy it. When he wins. Which isn't that often.

 

After over a year of agonizing, waiting, and planning (I did all of the planning, everyone else just waited), travel day finally arrived! I had an all-day meeting on travel day, so I technically “worked” until 4 (worked=sat in my seat daydreaming and faking attentiveness, which I’m great at).

 

My friend AC, and her friend V, were joining us this time too. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:15 pm. We drove over to AC’s, which is closer to the airport, at around 6:15, to leave our car. Then my brother picked us all up and took us to Hartsfield-Jackson International. It would prolly cost an arm, leg, and 3 baby teeth to park our car somewhere for the 15 days that we would be gone, so we were blessed to have other options.

 

When we got to the airport, the first thing we noticed was how many bags AC had. Not only did she have one over sized, overweight check in, but she had the audacity to have 2 AND 2 carry-ons. She was basically carrying around the weight of a medium sized human in luggage. Oh and I forgot to mention that when we got there, she handed me a gift bag containing a big heavy loaf of banana bread that she’d baked that morning, accompanied by a chunk of cheese! Banana Bread. And. Cheese. Now don't get me wrong. Normally, I would've done the Electric Slide at the sight of the cheese, but we were going to France, where we would have access to some of the most exquisite bread and cheese known to man, so she packs her own to carry??? In this bag???? Nice. Well, the way my luggage is setup, I have zero room for this! So I carry it in my hand. I look like I don’t have the good sense that God gave a groundhog, but ok it made her happy. This trip is already starting out weird, or normal for us, depending on how you look at it.

 

 

We were flying on British Airways to Heathrow, then from Heathrow to Paris. We'd purchased round trip tickets from ATL to CDG for around $500 total per person. Then we chose another round trip from CDG to BCN. For this we paid $150 per person. Kayak.com and skyscanner.com were my BFF’s for reals. I high key stalked them for months to get good deals, and it really paid off!

 

After AC forked over her extra baggage fare (which was almost as much as her airfare), we went to security. There was no line in security, but I still managed to impede progress by pushing all of the trays containing my crap on the floor. Everything went flying because the tables were uneven, I wasn’t really looking, and I was just trying to get through. Passports, shoes, Chapstick, dental floss, and some embarrassing personal items, all spilled on the floor. Aye Dios Mio! AC and I scrambled to pick everything up quickly to stave off any further shame. W was long gone. He wanted no parts of my foolishness. Can’t blame him. I would've left me too.

 

When we got past the security incident we ate some overpriced mediocre food, and started the slow wait to board. W went to check the rate to purchase Euros from Travelex while we were waiting, and he liked what he saw, so he got our Euros there. We had the option of getting them from our bank at a better rate beforehand, but we didn't cuz that was too much like right, so we started looking when we got to the airport.

 

Eventually people started lining up because that’s what people do, but we sat and waited for the official boarding call. Welp the announcement was soon made that we would NOT be boarding yet due to a malfunctioning door. I guess you kinda need the door to close securely on the plane in order to have a safe flight. Who would've thought? We were told that the next announcement would be in 20 minutes. No problem. After about 18 minutes people started lining up again but we were told that the technician needed another 15 minutes to fix the door. Groans ensued from the line as it dispersed. Again. We got the real boarding announcement promptly 15 minutes after that. We all got up, but I guess people were skeptical now because the line didn't really form again, and we ended up first in our Zone.

The plane was a large 777 and W and I had a middle row of 4 seats to ourselves. Score!

W and I all ready to go!! He's so happy he's not driving!

 

 

Since we were behind schedule leaving we were concerned about making our connection at Heathrow. Turns out the Captain had a nice tailwind that got us back on track. We didn't have a ton of time to spare, but we would be ok. After a long uneventful flight, where the door closed, and didn't blow off, our plane basically landed in an airplane parking lot at Heathrow. In order to get to the terminal, we had to debark down some stairs then hop on a bus. The bus was packed full, and it was a long way to the terminal. A.Long.Way! I was glad that my bladder wasn’t tripping, cuz we would've had a “situation” if it was.

 

While we were in the air, I received a text from British Airways saying that they would check our carry-ons for free, but we had to go to a specific location to drop them off. Once we got to the airport, nothing made sense. Nothing. We had to ask to find out where we needed to go. I must say tho, everyone that we spoke with was very nice. I was sorta disappointed that I didn't see Harry Potter in the few minutes that I spent in London. I was really looking for him too. Bummer. Maybe next time.

 

We waited 15-20 minutes in the waiting area, and it was time to board again. I had plans to eat some of AC’s banana bread since I brought it all this way, but I fell asleep as soon as I fastened my seatbelt. I woke up when we started to land in Paris, and W nudged me saying he could see the Eiffel Tower. The flight was so quick that the flight attendants didn't even finish food service. We got there in about an hour and a half. Deplaning was quicker this time and soon we were claiming our baggage. We were also supposed to meet AC’s friend V at CDG since she got there before us. She was in another terminal tho, so AC went to hook up with her, and we told her we would see them at the hotel. Paris was calling me, and I had to answer ASAP!

 

When we were ready to leave, I ordered the Uber to the hotel. It was so easy! Almost as soon as I hit confirm, he appeared. Our driver was very nice too. He brought our bags all the way into the hotel, and made sure we got checked in ok. We were staying at Hotel Scarlett which is a fairly new, but small boutique hotel located in the Belleville area.

 

Here are some pictures of Hotel Scarlett. The rooms are smaller than American Hotel rooms. I guess the French are so tiny, that they don’t need much space. Must be nice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pacruise804]

A and Z got back around 12:30 from hanging with their MTG crew. They stopped by our room, and we filled them in on our wackiness, then we made our plan to leave early the next day. There was a protest planned in downtown Barcelona, and Carnival sent us an email stating that we needed to keep it moving in order to get to the port on time.

 

Before I went to sleep, I thanked God that at least we didn't get chased by a hunchback at Notre Dame. I don’t know what would've been the outcome of that!

 

 

 

 

This reminded me of a cruise ship bathroom

 

 

All of these pics remind me of a ship cabin.

 

Enjoying the review!

[pacruise804]

 

 

Love this picture of the two of you:hearteyes: I like the hair twists too:)

 

I haven't read much about napping yet on this review like some of your others (although friends who travel have said European trips are for culture and exploring and Caribbean are for naps;)). I did want to thank you though for mentioning it in previous reviews. I often try to squeeze too many activities in and wind up more stressed and tired by the end of the vacation then I was going in. Last cruise I followed your lead and napped most days - it was glorious. We were ready to get back home to family, but felt very relaxed. Hoping for the same again this fall.

 

Thanks again for all you put in your reviews!

[kmmtravel10]

After reading your review today ... I had to stop at Starbucks for banana nut bread ... loving your review

 

 

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[GenXGirl]

Love your review!

 

Wow, Magic; that’s a blast from the past! I think I still have my decks from 1995 (the last time I played).

 

 

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[willdra]

Cagliari Sardinia

We woke up at 7 so that we could eat and meet our tour in the Liquid Lounge at 9. We opted for breakfast on the Lido. We wanted to see the city and check the weather. This was our first time eating in the Horizon Lido for breakfast, and I must say that I LOVE the way it’s setup. They have the hot foods in the middle. The bread and pastries are on the sides, and the cold foods are on the sides as well. The square configuration in the center really eliminated lines. You could jump in and out and not have to wait an eternity because someone up front wanted something specific. We grabbed our collection of carbs and found a table. Since we were ahead of schedule, we took our time at breakfast. It was 57 degrees and windy, so we had to go back to get our jackets before our tour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[willdra]

We went up to the Liquid Lounge to meet our tour. It only took about 15 minutes for them to call our group. The guides led us down to Deck 0 and off the ship pretty fast. Our shuttle was parked up front waiting. All of the shuttles were lined up neatly and prominently marked, so it wasn't confusing or hard to find.

 

 

 

[willdra]

We had a very sweet tour guide who gave us a good history on the bus ride. As we were driving through the port, the bus stopped suddenly, and almost tossed the tour guide out of the window! She didn't miss a beat either, she simply said “I’m so sorry we almost killed a man, now if you look to the left, you will see a park”. Wow!! Italy is on some OG Savagery! They can almost kill you, but keep talking about the scenery as if you didn't just come within hand shaking distance of Jesus! OAN, I would hate to be the one who has to clean that guy’s underpants!

 

After that ordeal, the guide told us that you couldn't walk out of the port, you had to take the free shuttle out and back. I sent A and Z a message to let them know, since they were going out with their MTG friends on their own. They researched and found a restaurant that offered wine and cheese tasting along with their meal, and they were excited about it. I told them what to do and where to go cuz I couldn't let them take that struggle walk.

 

Here are some pictures that we took along the way.

 

 

 

 

[willdra]