Carnival Horizon 4 Day to Bermuda Review 7/19/18

[CruiseAdict218]

Carnival Horizon 4 Day to Bermuda July 19, 2018 to July 23, 2018

Hi Everyone, this will be a review of our recent trip on the new Carnival Horizon, it was only a 4 day so we were limited in what we did, but we tried our best to explore the ship, since this was our first time on a new Carnival ship, having myself previously sailed on the Triumph, Sunshine & Victory; with also a few cruises on Princess as well. Any questions I will try my best to answer them.

 

I wrote what current movies are playing in the threaters but I do have all 4 FunTimes if you have any specific questions regarding that.

 

We booked this trip for my niece's 16th birthday, and with a new ship coming to our homeport we couldn't pass up trying it out. We also traveled with my mother, her sister, mom's best friend and my niece's best friend.

 

Embarkation: We arrive a head of our scheduled time, we had between 11:00am - 12:00pm (Split between two cabins), but it was a breeze, once you check in at the desk to get your boarding pass stamped, you move through security which again very easy, and then you wait for your Zone to be called to board. I think within a hour we were called to get on board (They accidentally called too many Zones as once, lol).

 

After boarding we made our way up to the Lido Marketplace for lunch, which all was good, I like the expanded sandwich menu (They had BLTs! but man do they but a lot of lettuce on them).

 

Lido deck: I have to say, the layout of the Horizon's lido was different than say the Sunshine/Triumph class, for obvious reason but one of the things we noticed was the deck furniture which on the upper levels was basically Serenity-styled chairs which were so comfy and was a popular spot for the movies.

 

Cabins: I stayed with my Aunt in 8393, while the other 4 were in 8356, both interior cabins but they had a less enjoyable experience with there cabin but more on that later on. The storage space seemed very lacking, you get 3 shelves off the corner of one counter, two little cabinets between the beds, and a closet that's split between one side being able to hang your clothes, with the other giving you shelving space and 3 draws. We made it work, as well as the rest of the family in their cabin of 4 but I feel like for a longer cruise you would be limited but that is just my opinion, since everyone packs and organizes in their own way. We missed our cabin stewarts the first day but we met them the next night and his team were great no complaints, A/C was good and the fridge was working good as well.

 

Now for the other cabin, they did not have the same experience, they never met their cabin stewarts and when they did, they didn't do what they wanted whether it was extra towels, kinda giving a little kick back, no idea why. Another issue they had was the fridge wasn't working correctly so they never got to use theirs. Also first few nights the A/C wasn't working and my niece ended up getting very sick in the middle of the night, and they had to come clean the cabin (I won't go into detail I'm sure you can imagine but my mother called the desk and within minutes a man came up to clean up the sheets and they said he was extremely nice and very helpful so shout out to him.

 

Elevators: Those took some getting use to since they were the new concept, a lot of people were confused at first, but I think they eventually got the hang of it, the wait times for them seemed to be a bit longer in my opinion, I'm not sure if this is better than say the traditional setup but I give Carnival props for trying something different.

 

Guy's Burger's: Always great, no complaints, wanted to try the new BBQ place which we saw when boarding but sadly did not have enough time.

 

Ship Time v. Actual Time?: Weirdly enough Carnival didn't mention anything about clocks going forward a hour unless we all missed it completely but this threw us off the entire cruise because we couldn't figure out what time was correct so basically we got back to the ship from Bermuda a hour early and woke up a hour earlier the following days, not a big deal but reminders would have been great.

 

Bermuda: This was our 3rd time here and since we were short on time we just went to Horseshoe Bay Beach, which was great but since it was a Saturday very crowded. Afterward we went shopping before getting back on the ship.

 

** If you ever happen to go to Bermuda, if you need a van service to take you somewhere, ask for the driver named Socks, you will not regret it, she is the best driver and she remembered us from our Sunshine cruise almost two years before!

 

MDR: We only ate here for dinner (Sorry specialty restaurant fans no comment on any of those), food was great no complaints other than I wish they had more options, but I am a picky eater so can't win them all. Lobster was on the menu, formal night which was Day 2 and Baked Alaska was on the last night. Our dinning staff were excellent as well.

 

The FunShops / Cherry On Top: My mom ordered a cake for my niece to celebrate her birthday in the MDR for formal night, I forget what exactly she ordered but they ended up messing it up, but my mom ended up getting a refund.

 

The Funshop is split in two on both sides with different Carnival Merch and smaller, Cigarettes/Alcohol have their own spot. I believe as read before, they don't have any toiletries in the shops, not sure why they did this but I would hope they would change that.

 

Entertainment/Ship Activities: Second Sea Day was when me, my niece and her friend were able to try out the ship activities that are limited to the Vista Class.

 

Sky Ride: Do not get leave the ship without trying this, the three of us all love it, you get some great views of not only the ship but seeing the water from high up was really nice. Do plan accordingly because we were going to do it the first sea day but once the line builds it can take up to 1 hour before you get the front of the line, I believe its open 9am-5pm on Sea Days so shoot for 8:15-8:30.

 

Waterslides: We did the bigger red/white one which we loved.

 

IMAX/Thrill Threater: While we did not do the IMAX part ($12.95 per person incase your wondering) we did the Thrill Threater part which is broken down into three different levels, the first being for kids, second PG13 and the last 17+, it's basically 3 short clips from different movies lumped together and while you watch in 3D you also feel simulation like water, touch all that. The duration was 15 minutes but it give you a good thrill so do try that out ($5.50 per person).

 

Carnival Seaside Threater: Few different movies, Day 1 had Daddy's Home 2 and Pitch Perfect 3. Day 2 had Star Wars, The Last Jedi, Black Panther & 12 Strong. Day 3 had Peter Rabbit & Coco. Day 4 had Jumanji playing.

 

IMAX: Incredibles 2, Momma Mia: Here We Go Again and a few nature movies.

 

Cloud 9 Spa: I treated myself to a Elemis Deep Tissue message, totally worth the money, she gave me a lot of helpful advice for managing stress, which was a plus. One thing to note, if you prebook online, you still get charged for the service but then you get credited back to your account whatever amount you prebooked, little bizarre if you ask me.

 

Locker-room was a lot smaller than say on the Victory, 1 small sauna instead of a full steam room and sauna.

 

Luggage Tags & Disembarkation: Another new? concept found on the Horizon was how they do disembarkation. Luggage tags aren't delivered to your stateroom rather in one of the areas just before the lido in a long hallway from the elevators, the tags are tucked in a corner on a stand and you select what you want, I think they were put there around 12:00-12:15 on the last sea day.

 

The actual process itself took a lot longer than any other cruise we have been on, but we got an announcement at 7am that overnight we had to divert off course, so that someone could be airlifted off the ship, which delayed everything by 1 hour. We got the impression people were going down before their zone which is why it probably took a lot longer as well. We got off around 10-10:30, Customs is a breeze as well.

 

Tip: If you grab one of the porters to take your luggage, they will bring you to the front of the line and once they check your idea your good to go, unless you have to declare a large amount of something or items worth more than $400 in total?

 

Cruise Director: Chris Williams, otherwise known as The Flying Scotsman, we didn't really notice him at first but as the cruise went on we saw him more and more and he did a good job of entertaining knew how to keep the party going. (Emma is still our favorite).

 

 

 

Another new to Carnival?: The White Night Party, or as they call it Electric White Night, we did not know this was a thing until we were on board, we did go to it but not dressed in white, I do wish we got a memo about this a head of time but no a big deal.

 

Final Thoughts: A side from the little things as mention above, nothing stopped us from enjoying this cruise, she was a wonderful ship that I would recommend at least trying once. I myself would probably try out the other classes before returning to the Vista-Class. I hope this review was helpful for you when deciding on book a cruise on her and like I said I will answer anything to the best of my ability, hope I covered what I wanted to say.

 

Now I look forward to our next cruise which will be back to Princess on the Royal Princess, and then next year we will be cruising on the Triumph when she returns to NYC with her rumored Sunshine upgrades, cannot wait to sail on my first ship again!

[Joebucks]

Thanks for the review! I'd love to squeeze in one of these cruises soon. Didn't expect to hear about lobster on a 4 day cruise. Good to know!

[CruiseAdict218]

Thanks for the review! I'd love to squeeze in one of these cruises soon. Didn't expect to hear about lobster on a 4 day cruise. Good to know!

 

You're welcome, and I meant to sail lobster tail, rather than lobster sorry for the confusion.

[Bhern05]

Is Chris the CD that does his own magic show?

[Ladyintheheights]

What was for dinner in MDR on last night, besides the baked Alaska? I had made reservations for Bonsai Teppanyaki

on the last night.

because we are celebrating a birthday. I have seriously considered cancelling since I read somewhere it feels like being in a fishbowl, people walking by are just looking in.

[CruiseAdict218]

What was for dinner in MDR on last night, besides the baked Alaska? I had made reservations for Bonsai Teppanyaki

on the last night.

because we are celebrating a birthday. I have seriously considered cancelling since I read somewhere it feels like being in a fishbowl, people walking by are just looking in.

 

Beef Wellington, I can’t remember the other options, but they also have the usual fixed items like grilled chicken, flat iron steak (My personal favorite), and you can also get a few select items from the steakhouse for a $20 fee.

[nicole9s]

Thanks for your review. The room steward your family had sounds like the guy we had on our trip in May (cabin 8370).

 

I am dying to book the August Bermuda cruise for my son and me, but I don't think DH is keen on the idea, lol.

 

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

[Ladyintheheights]

Beef Wellington, I can’t remember the other options, but they also have the usual fixed items like grilled chicken, flat iron steak (My personal favorite), and you can also get a few select items from the steakhouse for a $20 fee.

Thank you, I can always have hibachi here, just thought it would be fun.

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[swodog94]

Thanks for the quick-n-dirty review! Very informative. We almost booked this same cruise.

[AAAAmerican]

Thank You for the review.

 

The Somers Isles (Bermuda) to me are the nicest in the world!

[CruiseAdict218]

Sad to make note but my brother in law tagged me in a post on Facebook that the US Coast Guard releases footage of the medivac that took place, a woman suffered a stroke, hopefully she makes a full recovery.

 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/200a1c7

[pascalburns]

enjoyed the review.thanks.

[Ladyintheheights]

How strictly were they enforcing the dress code in MDR? This is a short cruise and we are looking to de-stress. Will my son be turned away for wearing a t-shirt? He is 17, and I am definitely looking to pack light. Will I need to pack extra clothes just to eat in the MDR?

 

 

I have seen all types of replies in regards, but want to know about this 4 day cruise in particular.

[ArmchairQB]

Sad to make note but my brother in law tagged me in a post on Facebook that the US Coast Guard releases footage of the medivac that took place, a woman suffered a stroke, hopefully she makes a full recovery.

 

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/200a1c7

 

Thanks for posting the link. I almost confused this with the first airlift that occurred on one of the 8 day Caribbean cruises earlier this summer.

[ArmchairQB]

 

Ship Time v. Actual Time?: Weirdly enough Carnival didn't mention anything about clocks going forward a hour unless we all missed it completely but this threw us off the entire cruise because we couldn't figure out what time was correct so basically we got back to the ship from Bermuda a hour early and woke up a hour earlier the following days, not a big deal but reminders would have been great.

 

Are you indicating that ship time went forward to Bermuda time?

[surfergirl15]

Carnival Horizon 4 Day to Bermuda July 19, 2018 to July 23, 2018

Hi Everyone, this will be a review of our recent trip on the new Carnival Horizon, it was only a 4 day so we were limited in what we did, but we tried our best to explore the ship, since this was our first time on a new Carnival ship, having myself previously sailed on the Triumph, Sunshine & Victory; with also a few cruises on Princess as well. Any questions I will try my best to answer them.

 

I wrote what current movies are playing in the threaters but I do have all 4 FunTimes if you have any specific questions regarding that.

 

We booked this trip for my niece's 16th birthday, and with a new ship coming to our homeport we couldn't pass up trying it out. We also traveled with my mother, her sister, mom's best friend and my niece's best friend.

 

Embarkation: We arrive a head of our scheduled time, we had between 11:00am - 12:00pm (Split between two cabins), but it was a breeze, once you check in at the desk to get your boarding pass stamped, you move through security which again very easy, and then you wait for your Zone to be called to board. I think within a hour we were called to get on board (They accidentally called too many Zones as once, lol).

 

After boarding we made our way up to the Lido Marketplace for lunch, which all was good, I like the expanded sandwich menu (They had BLTs! but man do they but a lot of lettuce on them).

 

Lido deck: I have to say, the layout of the Horizon's lido was different than say the Sunshine/Triumph class, for obvious reason but one of the things we noticed was the deck furniture which on the upper levels was basically Serenity-styled chairs which were so comfy and was a popular spot for the movies.

 

Cabins: I stayed with my Aunt in 8393, while the other 4 were in 8356, both interior cabins but they had a less enjoyable experience with there cabin but more on that later on. The storage space seemed very lacking, you get 3 shelves off the corner of one counter, two little cabinets between the beds, and a closet that's split between one side being able to hang your clothes, with the other giving you shelving space and 3 draws. We made it work, as well as the rest of the family in their cabin of 4 but I feel like for a longer cruise you would be limited but that is just my opinion, since everyone packs and organizes in their own way. We missed our cabin stewarts the first day but we met them the next night and his team were great no complaints, A/C was good and the fridge was working good as well.

 

Now for the other cabin, they did not have the same experience, they never met their cabin stewarts and when they did, they didn't do what they wanted whether it was extra towels, kinda giving a little kick back, no idea why. Another issue they had was the fridge wasn't working correctly so they never got to use theirs. Also first few nights the A/C wasn't working and my niece ended up getting very sick in the middle of the night, and they had to come clean the cabin (I won't go into detail I'm sure you can imagine but my mother called the desk and within minutes a man came up to clean up the sheets and they said he was extremely nice and very helpful so shout out to him.

 

Elevators: Those took some getting use to since they were the new concept, a lot of people were confused at first, but I think they eventually got the hang of it, the wait times for them seemed to be a bit longer in my opinion, I'm not sure if this is better than say the traditional setup but I give Carnival props for trying something different.

 

Guy's Burger's: Always great, no complaints, wanted to try the new BBQ place which we saw when boarding but sadly did not have enough time.

 

Ship Time v. Actual Time?: Weirdly enough Carnival didn't mention anything about clocks going forward a hour unless we all missed it completely but this threw us off the entire cruise because we couldn't figure out what time was correct so basically we got back to the ship from Bermuda a hour early and woke up a hour earlier the following days, not a big deal but reminders would have been great.

 

Bermuda: This was our 3rd time here and since we were short on time we just went to Horseshoe Bay Beach, which was great but since it was a Saturday very crowded. Afterward we went shopping before getting back on the ship.

 

** If you ever happen to go to Bermuda, if you need a van service to take you somewhere, ask for the driver named Socks, you will not regret it, she is the best driver and she remembered us from our Sunshine cruise almost two years before!

 

MDR: We only ate here for dinner (Sorry specialty restaurant fans no comment on any of those), food was great no complaints other than I wish they had more options, but I am a picky eater so can't win them all. Lobster was on the menu, formal night which was Day 2 and Baked Alaska was on the last night. Our dinning staff were excellent as well.

 

The FunShops / Cherry On Top: My mom ordered a cake for my niece to celebrate her birthday in the MDR for formal night, I forget what exactly she ordered but they ended up messing it up, but my mom ended up getting a refund.

 

The Funshop is split in two on both sides with different Carnival Merch and smaller, Cigarettes/Alcohol have their own spot. I believe as read before, they don't have any toiletries in the shops, not sure why they did this but I would hope they would change that.

 

Entertainment/Ship Activities: Second Sea Day was when me, my niece and her friend were able to try out the ship activities that are limited to the Vista Class.

 

Sky Ride: Do not get leave the ship without trying this, the three of us all love it, you get some great views of not only the ship but seeing the water from high up was really nice. Do plan accordingly because we were going to do it the first sea day but once the line builds it can take up to 1 hour before you get the front of the line, I believe its open 9am-5pm on Sea Days so shoot for 8:15-8:30.

 

Waterslides: We did the bigger red/white one which we loved.

 

IMAX/Thrill Threater: While we did not do the IMAX part ($12.95 per person incase your wondering) we did the Thrill Threater part which is broken down into three different levels, the first being for kids, second PG13 and the last 17+, it's basically 3 short clips from different movies lumped together and while you watch in 3D you also feel simulation like water, touch all that. The duration was 15 minutes but it give you a good thrill so do try that out ($5.50 per person).

 

Carnival Seaside Threater: Few different movies, Day 1 had Daddy's Home 2 and Pitch Perfect 3. Day 2 had Star Wars, The Last Jedi, Black Panther & 12 Strong. Day 3 had Peter Rabbit & Coco. Day 4 had Jumanji playing.

 

IMAX: Incredibles 2, Momma Mia: Here We Go Again and a few nature movies.

 

Cloud 9 Spa: I treated myself to a Elemis Deep Tissue message, totally worth the money, she gave me a lot of helpful advice for managing stress, which was a plus. One thing to note, if you prebook online, you still get charged for the service but then you get credited back to your account whatever amount you prebooked, little bizarre if you ask me.

 

Locker-room was a lot smaller than say on the Victory, 1 small sauna instead of a full steam room and sauna.

 

Luggage Tags & Disembarkation: Another new? concept found on the Horizon was how they do disembarkation. Luggage tags aren't delivered to your stateroom rather in one of the areas just before the lido in a long hallway from the elevators, the tags are tucked in a corner on a stand and you select what you want, I think they were put there around 12:00-12:15 on the last sea day.

 

The actual process itself took a lot longer than any other cruise we have been on, but we got an announcement at 7am that overnight we had to divert off course, so that someone could be airlifted off the ship, which delayed everything by 1 hour. We got the impression people were going down before their zone which is why it probably took a lot longer as well. We got off around 10-10:30, Customs is a breeze as well.

 

Tip: If you grab one of the porters to take your luggage, they will bring you to the front of the line and once they check your idea your good to go, unless you have to declare a large amount of something or items worth more than $400 in total?

 

Cruise Director: Chris Williams, otherwise known as The Flying Scotsman, we didn't really notice him at first but as the cruise went on we saw him more and more and he did a good job of entertaining knew how to keep the party going. (Emma is still our favorite).

 

 

 

Another new to Carnival?: The White Night Party, or as they call it Electric White Night, we did not know this was a thing until we were on board, we did go to it but not dressed in white, I do wish we got a memo about this a head of time but no a big deal.

 

Final Thoughts: A side from the little things as mention above, nothing stopped us from enjoying this cruise, she was a wonderful ship that I would recommend at least trying once. I myself would probably try out the other classes before returning to the Vista-Class. I hope this review was helpful for you when deciding on book a cruise on her and like I said I will answer anything to the best of my ability, hope I covered what I wanted to say.

 

Now I look forward to our next cruise which will be back to Princess on the Royal Princess, and then next year we will be cruising on the Triumph when she returns to NYC with her rumored Sunshine upgrades, cannot wait to sail on my first ship again!

 

Thanks for the review. Will be cruising on the Horizon soon.

[BENHANDEL]

Thanks for the review! Cam you tell me more about the white night party? We will be on a 6-day Horizon in a couple months and I'd love to pack something to play along. Were there black lights? Thanks!

[jeepchick444]

Thanks for the review!!! Any chance you have the 4 FUNTIMES to post?? Thx!!:cool:

[IntrepidFromDC]

Thanks for the review. Great to hear skyride is all it's hyped up to be!

[kmp70]

Did you do the cheers program? I’m doing Bermuda next week not sure if it is with it they charge for 4 days but we can’t use it in NY in the first day so do they really charge for 4 days or credit you back a day?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Mikew0805]

Thank you for the information. I am looking forward to the Horizon in December.

 

I also hope that the woman makes a full recovery. So sad.