Just off the Horizon

[laumicmah]

So we got off the Horizon on Sunday after 8 lovely days. It was my 9th Carnival cruise and DH's 8th. We are 45 and our kids are all off to college. The kids have been on 5 Carnival cruises with us. We have done the Fascination, Sensation, Imagination, Pride, Glory and Magic previously. We kinda liked the Magic most out of those. But also didn't mind the Pride and have warm fuzzies for the Fantasy class (our first few were Fantasy class and they are easy to navigate with less pax to deal with). Just wasn't stoked about the Glory for some reason. At any rate I will give a bit of a summary of my thoughts and maybe share a few stories but won't do a full on blow by blow. 

We cruised with some friends of ours who are close in age to us but their 3 kids are young so they brought them and their eldest brought a friend. They stayed in 2 family harbor suites and said it was totally worth it for the kids to have access to that lounge (especially the younger 2). I saw their suites and was quite unimpressed. I liked the curtain between the kids beds and adult bed and the 2 part bathroom. But the bathrooms were super duper small and the decor was bright plastic looking blue (bathrooms). There was a nice walk in like closet and a lovely balcony but narrow and the room rather plain and small. And though there were clear dividers between their two balconies, the steward claimed they could not be opened. Our friends said the suites were meh...they did suites on DCL and said those are way more impressive. (and I would get to tour a Havana Cabana suite during the cruise and that suite was AWESOME). But they loved the lounge (breakfast, ice cream, games and such).

Hubby and I were in a Havana inside on deck 6 (6470). If at the Havana bar looking towards the Havana pool, there is a set of stairs tucked to the right of that bar that go up to Havana cabins...up one flight and, bam, you hit my cabin. I loved that there were doors that closed us off from the long NON Havana cabin hallway. There was just a back row of aft cabins in Havana on decks 6-8 at least (maybe higher but I talked to some folks in a Havana aft deck 8 cabin). Those are all off that tucked away staircase and door-ed off from the main hallway. It was 'hallway' quiet. And I emphasize 'hallway' quiet for a reason. So...day 1 I am loving that cabin. I love quiet as I am a very light sleeper. And, man, was our cabin area super quiet...by day.

I loved the quick shot to the Havana section and LOVED LOVED LOVED that Havana pool area. Yes, they enforce Havana guests only. And it's not crowded. So much so that you get to meet other Havana guests (hence me getting a tour of the cabana suite). The bar service there is pretty good too due to no crowds (the inside bar, by day, was pretty dead). You can get coffee and water at that bar and right around the corner (towards mid ship on deck 5) was a place that had a small breakfast buffet (and lunch, though we never checked it out at lunch). We ate breakfast right there almost every morning. And around the corner from that was the coffee counter where we'd get cappuccinos each morning. There was also a corner open bar out there with all that and we got to know Camillo the bartender there. That's where we'd meet up with our friends before dinner. Down the ship from those things is Guys Pig and Anchor bar and outside on the deck there is the BBQ lunch window (which I grabbed 2/8 days). So that whole area was our main hangout and it was nice to avoid the masses up on Lido.

Okay, so now for the cabin 'by night'. Seven out of the 8 nights the Havana bar had a Latin music band play until 1am. It was like 9-10 and 11-1 or something like that. We tend to call it a night at 10-11pm. With that dang drink package and all that food (especially after spending 2 hours in the MDR), we crashed early (super early some nights). I also ALWAYS wake around 7am on vacations. Can't sleep in (probably being a light sleeper and other folks start moving about at 7am and it wakes me). So...we could hear that band play while in our bed with the TV blaring and hubby snoring (and eventually even with my earplugs in). It was clear as day, as if they were playing in my room and the bed vibrated. I started asking other Havana guests if they had the same and discovered that deck 8 was fine as were the cabana cabins on deck 5. Our cabin was directly above that stage in the bar so we had the worst spot...by night. And if you tend to be out until 1am, you wouldn't notice it. 

But we love the Havana section and will book that anytime we can. My dream cabin would be a cabana suite...heck just a cabana will do.

Food...MDR was a let down so we stopped going and did Lido once and then 4 nights of specialty dining. We did the sushi (Bonsai???) place twice and it was delish. We did the, upstairs off Lido, Asian place once and that was delish. The last night of the cruise we did the steakhouse and it was very very good too. But I was so full and sick of drinking at that point that I didn't truly enjoy it. Left half my filet and didn't do dessert. Sad sad. Next time I'd move that up earlier in the cruise. Buffet didn't wow us either. We ended up mostly doing the non buffet stuff up there...pizza, Guy's burgers, wok (was Asian pay place at night and free wok for lunch) and the pay extra seafood counter. And the BBQ counter down on deck 5. We did get cake a few times though...and it was meh. DH and our friends really liked the seafood counter.

Ship was clean. Staff was friendly and good. The CD, Mike Pack, was pretty good. John Heald was on the ship for a few days and he went past me a couple times. We didn't see any theater shows. We saw 1 comedy show and it was good. We saw Jo in the piano bar 1 night and she was good. We saw a little karaoke. We saw a boy girl duo in Pig and Anchor. We were at some of the electric white party. DH and friend and his kids watched Venom movie in the theater and DH and I did the short thrills theater thing. We did 2 nights in the casino for just a little while (I won $59 and DH lost $50). We tried a lot of drinks at almost all the bars (never made it in the Library bar). We played a few trivia games. The kids did the slides. The older 2 did their own thing. The skyride was broken at first but got fixed for the 2nd half. DH went to the gym a couple times.

The 2 negatives...one was the sports bar didn't play the big football games or the baseball play offs. And our 2 guys are BIG sports fans (and eldest kid of friends along with his friend...both 16). The day we got on the ship, in Miami, FL State played Univ of Miami and they did NOT have that game on. The sports bar and casino bar and Pig and Anchor bar had like 10 TVs each and 3 played 1 same football game (but never a good one) and one played Cricket and the other had like Poker, soccer or something odd. And cabin TV have zero zilch nada sports channels.

The other negative was my spa hair salon experience. I pre-bought (with spa sale) a wash and style in the salon for formal night. It was like $42. I was not feeling great on that first seaday (little seasick and little hung over) so I went to the salon and asked if I could cancel. I was told it would not be refunded. So I asked if I could move it to the last night (when we had steakhouse resies) and was told I'd pay twice as I'd lose the money for cancelling that day. So I went ahead and got my hair done. She suggested I put it up and not get it washed as the curls and updo stays better with dirty hair. So she curls and throws it up in like 15 minutes (really 25 because she had to stop midway through to go deal with something in the computer for like 10 mins). It's cute but nothing spectacular. So then she hands me receipt to sign and it has a total on it but I don't have my reading glasses to really read it. But I say why am I being charged when I prepaid. She said 'oh, you'e not...don't worry...it's nothing'. I then see a line and ask if I can add a tip and she says 'of course'. I put $8 in the tip line and the total line. I see, later, on the TV that she refunded the $43 and charged me $56 (I suppose for updo instead of style...but I didn't get a wash so I figured the price would be same and she never told me otherwise)...and, here's the big kicker, there was already an $8 auto tip so she got $16....for $72 total. And she tried to get me to sign up to come the next night for treatments to my hair. Ha...nope. And never doing the salon on a cruise again.

Another negative, but off ship, was at Grand Turk Margaritaville. Each family got a poolside cabana. We went to desk on ship to ask to have them next door to each other and was told it was noted...but we got there and were taken to 2 cabanas not together and told that was all that was left (didn't see any folks in the far right 3 then so I think she was just too lazy to go back and switch keys). Then she tells us our buzzer (for service) didn't work in one cabana...but she swore the server would be there every 5 mins (NOT). Then, us adults and the 2 younger kids hang out in one while the two 16 year olds hang out in the other. We all go to the beach and when we adults come back we see a lady sacked out on the lounger on the deck of the boys' cabana. We tell the server to please go shoo her off and she replies 'no, I am making tips off her and you aren't using that cabana'...our friends say 'we paid a ton of money for that cabana so it doesn't matter' and she mumbles something about 'you all are over here and I want to make tips off of her' and she leaves. Then when we pay our tab on CC she asks us to pay her tip in cash so she wouldn't have to split it with the cooks and bussers. Won't EVER be booking a poolside cabana there again. In fact, after 3 times at Grand Turk, we won't be going back if we can help it. The water is gross. There are like 25 free chairs on the beach and then you have to pay. The time before, on Magic, there was another big ship there too and it was ridiculously crowded. The ground in the water is all rocky. It was a thumbs down 2/3 times I've been...so the average is not good. My DH also left his sneakers in the cabana and hoped they'd have found them and sent them to the ship. We called the desk later that night and no shoes. The next day, in San Juan, we went off in search of a sneaker store (Footlocker was right in port there, thank goodness).

St Kitts we did a catamaran snorkel and had a blast. But then in town we bought conch fritters but they turned out to be just corn. DH and I took a taxi to that Princess Juliana airport beach in St Maarten. That was nice but then it began to rain and rained all afternoon. We went back on ship early and watched the mountain goats running down the mountain while sitting in the havana pool area. 

Getting on the ship was easy. Though driving into port and dropping off luggage and parking was kinda chaotic. We ended up parking and having to haul luggage down to street where a guy took it and we worried we might not see it again. But then everything went smoothly. We had 11:30-12:30 time and we got email bumping it back to 12:30-1:30. We arrived at 12 and was on the ship at 12:30. Our cabin was ready at 1:30 and we had muster at like 4:00. That was THE longest muster ever. We sat there FOREVER....like 45 minutes. They had to keep waiting for folks to get there and finally listed a bunch of names and said to meet in some lounge for their muster since they missed it. It was a lot of names. That ship is too big to get muster organized. Getting on and off in ports was easy too (Glory was a nightmare in that department). Disembarking was crappy. We were told the self assist would go from 7:30-8:30 and then they call luggage tag numbers for the folks who put out their bags from 8:30-10:30. Well they arrived in port on time but Mike came on and said it would be a delay in getting off and they began by calling deck 12 and up at 7:45. Plus luggage tags 1 and 2. Then they didn't call the next group until 8:15 and it was decks 10 and above plus more luggage tags. DH and I said screw it. There was a lot of folks pouring down and out and no way were all those folks 10 and above. We go and get in massive customs lines where the agents are thoroughly examining every person (made DH take hat off and asked us where we were heading and what our names and DOBs were). There were folks at every bag lane number getting luggage and I thought self assist was all supposed to go before they started allowing the luggage out folks to go. Man, we lugged all our crap down and would have much preferred to put it out the night before but we had to drive back to NC and and needed to get going so we wanted as early as possible. Then we walk outside and hit a wall of folks waiting for taxis. So, no more port of Miami which is sad because we love that Havana section and only 2 ships have that. I hope the new big guy going to Port Canaveral has a Havana. That's our fave port.

Another 'won't do again' is getting the drink package. We got specialty coffee every day and a few big bottles of water. We also drank about 7 drinks on seadays and like 3-4 on port days...but some days I wanted to NOT have any and maybe had 2-3. I also left a lot of drinks half drank. I figure I averaged 1 coffee and 4 drinks a day plus 3 big bottles of water and one movie theater soda and one milkshake over the whole trip...so 5-6 per day but wanted more of an average of 3/day. We also wanted to have more drinks in the ports but felt we should limit those since we had free ones on the ship. And we felt obliged to add a tip. I think we spent more money than when we don't do the drink package (which was all other cruises as this was our first time getting the package). We also don't mind bringing on the 2 bottles of wine. So never again for this as well.

There were 4 port days in a row with the last 2 days being seadays. I was ready to be off the ship by then and felt it was 2 days too long. So we decided we will stick with 5-6 nighters (maybe 7). We have a 9 night Royal booked and I am a regretting that. Too long. So shorter and preferably out of PC and with a Havana and no drink package but bring 2 bottles of wine and do all the specialty dinner venues. Also will pack less. That inside cabin was SMALL. We've been in insides before (on Carnival) and had more storage space. This one had one closet with one tiny hanging side and one shelves/drawers side. The desk area was half with only the hairdryer drawer with a little section to put stuff. And the TV channels sucked...that reminds me...no more cruising during football. DH has great memories of watching football on the pride one October with some friends of ours...in the sports bar. And he remembers watching in the cabin too as I remember watching Survivor and Walking Dead (not this time). Anyway, I will pack lighter and have easier luggage to drag off the ship. Don't need as much stuff as I brought and I did laundry twice since DH wears the same 4 things over and over. So one small rolling suitcase each.

Well this report went on longer than anticipated. More blow by blow after all. We did have a nice cruise. Would give it a solid B. Just tweak some things for next time. Can try to post some pics tomorrow. Will see if I can figure this new fangled CC out (I say, if it aint broke...).

Edited October 18, 2018 by laumicmah

[Mikew0805]

Thanks for the review.

 

[jem77bfp]

Thanks for your review!  Can't wait to check out the Horizon in January!

[newdestination]

Great review. Thank you for doing it!  I was especially interested in your remarks on the Family Harbor section as we have booked aft cabins there for our cruise in January.

[laumicmah]

Cruise pics...

Spa Salon Hair Do For Formal Night (that cost me $72)

GRAND TURK

HAVANA- pool area all to myself

ATRIUM- artsy funnel

same funnel during electric white party

My only pic from SAN JUAN (sigh)

[laumicmah]

ST KITTS

CATAMARAN

ST MAARTEN

[laumicmah]

ST MAARTEN from our HAVANA pool area

More ST MAARTEN

PRINCESS JULIANA AIRPORT beach area

port of ST MAARTEN

[laumicmah]

Random ship pics...

Little friend who wasn't shy and hopped right up on my friend's arm and across that food she was eating (WAS)

Pay extra sushi place was to die for (but not good for my diet...as was much of what I consumed and I gained 5 pounds...boo)

Free Mongolian wok place for lunch (also yummy and also terrible for the diet)

Didn't include any that had our friends' faces showing. Not sure how they'd feel about it so I skipped adding them.
 

[laumicmah]

Forgot to finish the rest of my embarkation day story. So after the longest ever muster drill we went to MDR. We had anytime dining and used the Hub app to get tables on 3 nights and never had to wait long (like 5 mins). We had table for 8 one night and 6 another night and 4 another night. MDR took 2 hours so we stopped going and the food was meh. Anyway, after the long long muster we went to dinner around 5:30 and we still had no luggage. This was a first time going to dinner without luggage yet. We didn't even have it after dinner at 7:30. I really started to worry since we handed it off to a random guy when we came out of the parking garage. But, luckily, all was well and our luggage was there at 9:30 when we went to our cabin for the night. It was delivered sometime between 7:30-9:30pm. Our friends' luggage on family harbor section was delivered during dinner, I do believe (all but like 1 bag which came before 9:30 too). 

Hub app...worked fine. We all paid the $5 to message each other but we missed each others messages often. And sometimes messages took several hours to come through. But we also used what'sapp and I upgraded our social media internet to the middle one and we could then text too. I wanted the social media to Facebook my kids back home but I could never get it to work on my tablet and only my phone where I didn't have FB messenger installed and it would not let me install. So I upgraded and could text and Duo my kids. But the Hub worked well for booking meals and looking at what was going on. No need for those paper Fun Times things anymore. 

[BENHANDEL]

Thank you for this review!

I am also interested in more information on the family Harbor Suites. Do you happen to know the room numbers that your friends were staying in? And did they mention anything about excessive noise from The Galley above? How about their cabin room temperature?

Can you give more information on the MDR? Did you not like it because it took so long? What was wrong with the food? Did you eat there on elegant nights?

 

TiA

 

[Jenjer]

Thank You so much for the info and the what to do different.

We are in Havana on deck 6 so I will look for the secret stairwell.

We have a cabana rented too and I am a little worried about that. We rented it so FIL could hang out in it while we swim and kids flow ride. My expectations of Grand Turk are pretty low right now.

[laumicmah]

1 hour ago, BENHANDEL said:

Thank you for this review!

I am also interested in more information on the family Harbor Suites. Do you happen to know the room numbers that your friends were staying in? And did they mention anything about excessive noise from The Galley above? How about their cabin room temperature?

Can you give more information on the MDR? Did you not like it because it took so long? What was wrong with the food? Did you eat there on elegant nights?

 

TiA

 

Friends had 2402 and one next to it. They did hear galley noise like clunking. They said their cabins were nice and chilly while we had a problem cooling our deck 6 aft inside. DH and I woke up sweating at night.

MDR was slow slow slow. But we did get bar drinks easily (other cruises that was a problem...guessing it's because they have an actual bar inside the MDR). Food wasn't as good as in the past. We did go to formal night and that was good. But on night 3, 2 of our party got the fish (I forget what fish) and they said it was gross and flavorless. Night 1 wasn't great either. Vanilla creme brulee the sugar layer was too hard. I got some apps that were icky...ceasar salad lettuce, on night 3, was browning and gross. We did the first 3 nights. And 2 hours kills your 'have fun' mood. Just ready to go to bed after. 75 minutes would be ideal. The cheese plates were nothing special. Just wasn't wowed. Also...where did those giant sticky buns go that used to be on breakfast buffet? Didn't see them (though we didn't go up to Lido breakfast except maybe twice).

[laumicmah]

52 minutes ago, Jenjer said:

Thank You so much for the info and the what to do different.

We are in Havana on deck 6 so I will look for the secret stairwell.

We have a cabana rented too and I am a little worried about that. We rented it so FIL could hang out in it while we swim and kids flow ride. My expectations of Grand Turk are pretty low right now.

They close doors to that secret stairwell in the night and open them in the morning. I guess to help block the band noise. When I'd go out around 7-8am they'd still be closed and it was confusing to find my way down. But you can just open door and use the stairs. Everyone was.

The flo ride was closed most of the time we were there. The kids waited for it to open and it opened a little bit while we were at the beach and I think it closed again. The kids with us didn't get to do it. But we only stayed from like 10am-2pm. The cabanas are dumpy inside but the AC works and you do get the server. Just be careful with ordering...it's expensive and adds up. Our group's tab was $400 (and we tipped $80 cash...that she kept all of and didn't share with cooks). You can get a bucket of beer and rum drinks cheaper on the beach (some locals set up tents with stuff...some snacks too but we didn't look at that). But that's right there by Margaritaville. If you go farther down the beach (past the roped off area in the water) it's nicer water to swim in. If you go to the right off the ship there is no beach right now due to hurricane. Just rocky drop off.

[laumicmah]

Want to add...the MDR had a lot of empty tables the 3 nights we went. My friend and I, just us 2 ladies, went to MDR later one night for just dessert (after eating at sushi place). It was empty then too. And the pay places were hard to get resies for. That's why we did the sushi place twice as they were walk up only. We could not get resies for Japanese steakhouse place and had a hard time getting the Asian place. Wasn't even really able to get the Italian. Didn't try the steakhouse because I made that resie before getting on the ship. So if folks really want to try those places, maybe book before cruise or immediately (on Hub) when you get on the ship.

[SEABECK]

Question:  What color were the Havana area wristbands?

[Jenjer]

Since the flowrider is a extra charge do you think it was broken or just didn't have any reservations? My DD lives on the flowrider on RCCL ships.

[laumicmah]

3 hours ago, SEABECK said:

Question:  What color were the Havana area wristbands?

yellow

[laumicmah]

3 hours ago, Jenjer said:

Since the flowrider is a extra charge do you think it was broken or just didn't have any reservations? My DD lives on the flowrider on RCCL ships.

There was a line of kids waiting to use it when it was going. My friend said it was all staff using it so maybe it was broke.

Edited October 18, 2018 by laumicmah

[cruisersunsetbrat]

We were also on this 8 day cruise. We got a great last minute deal and drove from Central FL to Miami. We're platinum so were among the first on and the first off using self-assist. We disembarked early Sunday morning right on schedule, but as we were walking down the corridor to get to the escalators (and then on to customs), we noticed that someone had vomited several times - it was disgusting and my guess is they had to close it down to clean it up.  

 

We enjoyed the MDR dinners and it didn't take too long to eat, but then we chose a table for two (anytime dining) and chose the same wait staff each night. (You can't choose your table on the Carnival app, but you can go up to the reservation desk and request a specific table. Kind of a pain to have to go up to check in and then go back down to the dining room, but we had great wait staff and didn't mind the minor inconvenience.) 

 

We hate the Miami port, as well. It is very chaotic and disorganized, and prefer Port Canaveral. We're hearing that they're expanding this port, so hopefully they'll add more ships. We would be happy to never have to drive to Miami again. LOL.

 

The cruise ship parking garage is horrible and very expensive. If you have a big vehicle, it's a tight fit to park!

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[mickeyhereicome]

Can you tell me what company you used for the St. Kitts excursion?  Did you snorkel? 

[laumicmah]

5 minutes ago, mickeyhereicome said:

Can you tell me what company you used for the St. Kitts excursion?  Did you snorkel? 

Booked it through Carnival. It was the catamaran snorkel with bar drinks (I think called deluxe catamaran snorkel). I did snorkel. The guides said it was so-so as far as how good it would be (what we'd see) but we were pleasantly surprised in what we could see. I saw cuttlefish and colorful fish and some saw a big turtle and there were big fish and little. At the end I was swimming to the boat when I swam into a huge school of fish. The guides were feeding off the boat. That was neat. It poured rain on the drive back and we all huddled inside the boat, drinking rum drinks. 

[kaseyj79]

On 10/18/2018 at 12:27 PM, laumicmah said:

Want to add...the MDR had a lot of empty tables the 3 nights we went. My friend and I, just us 2 ladies, went to MDR later one night for just dessert (after eating at sushi place). It was empty then too. And the pay places were hard to get resies for. That's why we did the sushi place twice as they were walk up only. We could not get resies for Japanese steakhouse place and had a hard time getting the Asian place. Wasn't even really able to get the Italian. Didn't try the steakhouse because I made that resie before getting on the ship. So if folks really want to try those places, maybe book before cruise or immediately (on Hub) when you get on the ship.

I didn't care much for the MDR. I wish we'd ate more specialty dining. We only did the steakhouse the last night. We are going on the Magic in Sept next year and I already told my husband we are doing the sushi place this time.

[kaseyj79]

On 10/18/2018 at 9:05 AM, laumicmah said:

Random ship pics...

Little friend who wasn't shy and hopped right up on my friend's arm and across that food she was eating (WAS)

Pay extra sushi place was to die for (but not good for my diet...as was much of what I consumed and I gained 5 pounds...boo)

Free Mongolian wok place for lunch (also yummy and also terrible for the diet)

Didn't include any that had our friends' faces showing. Not sure how they'd feel about it so I skipped adding them.
 

I never saw the Mongolian wok place?  I would have tried it for sure had I known it was there. 

[laumicmah]

30 minutes ago, kaseyj79 said:

I never saw the Mongolian wok place?  I would have tried it for sure had I known it was there. 

When in back of Lido buffet, by the Tides pool in the aft and on the side the pay extra seafood counter is...go inside buffet right there by seafood counter and to the left is a set of stairs. There are 2 menus posted on the wall by the stairs...one for the wok/Asian and one for the pasta bar/Italian...both are free for lunch (wok and pasta bar) and pay extra for dinner (Asian and Italian).

 

 

 

*CHEERS update...spent the evening looking over my sail and sign. Counted up my Cheers purchases and I did 57. Of those 57, 7 were coffees and 2 were bottles of water and 1 was a soda. So 47 bar drinks in 8 days that averages 6 a day. I did leave several half drank. But it seems I pretty much broke even. Though I did sometimes look for the most expensive...like beer flight, shot of good whiskey, best wine by glass in steakhouse. Beer flight in Pig and Anchor was surprisingly included. The one most drunken night, after catamaran snorkel, I got a coffee and cake (in picture somewhere up thread) and just noticed they charged me for the coffee. 

Edited October 20, 2018 by laumicmah