First Carnival Cruise, Horizon TA

[mugtech]

We have cruised 10 cruises on NCL, 3 on RCI and 1 Princess cruise. Currently back on board after Vigo, Spain, looking at 6 sea days, Halifax, sea day, NYC.

Horizon is a beautiful new ship, some of my favorite aspects are smart elevators, a great library, Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana, comedy club, Sky Sports Bar.

Most ships are very similar across all the cruise lines, the differences seem minor. I found Princess to be at the bottom on most aspects on board. Their food and entertainment were lowest of the 4 we have cruised, nothing special. NCL and RCI are a notch above what we have seen on Carnival so far.

I miss the progressive trivia available on the longer NCL and RCI cruises. I have no yet heard about any Cruise Next program on Carnival, as I recently saved $300 with the program on RCI

We now cruise for itinerary, and this cruise leaving Barcelona on 5/9 was a great find for us and 1,000 other cruisers on the RCI Mariner of the Seas going from Dubai to Barcelona and then the Barcelona to Miami leg was canceled. We have enjoyed this itinerary, too bad it will probably not be repeated by Horizon. We would book Carnival and the Horizon again based on our first 6 days, but it would depend on the itinerary.

[firefly333]

To me its a trade off on the next cruise on RCL, as I also own stock and its no longer combinable with the next cruise credit ... usually about equal.

 

Carnival supposedly offers a small discount AFTER you get home, within the following 2 weeks, but Ive never received the offer that was actually a discount. At least Carnival still lets you combine OBC offers unlike RCL.

[mugtech]

Jeffrey Munks is the early hours pianist in Piano Bar 88, and my favorite of all the cruises I have been on. He plays a few Elton John and Billy Joel songs, but offers a wide variety of other music I never heard before plus a few he wrote. Would advise hearing him at least once, very relaxed atmosphere.

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.