Currently on the Horizon

[Elaine5715]

2 hours ago, CChamp said:

I have one question, please. In the new elevators, do they stop at other floors to pickup people? If I am on deck 3 and am going to deck 9 will it stop at say deck 5 to pick people up going to deck 9 or is it always a non-stop ride for everyone? Thank you very much and have a good time.

The only time I had a non stop elevator on the Horizon was late night.  They make multiple stops 

[Elaine5715]

Don't forget the freshly made gelato at noon on Lido!

[Gettys84]

Someone asked how embarkation day was. This has been a huge topic and I read so many threads about what time we could board in Miami and if you could board before your official “check in time”. We drove down from South Carolina on Friday. (Yes, I know they have these cool things called airplanes.  We don’t have a great airport in our city and prices just seemed high). Took us exactly 10 ours to drive down with a couple gas stops, breakfast, lunch and couple bathroom breaks. Traffic was not bad on 95 at all until we got to Miami. We did take the toll road/turnpike because the map said to go that way. Who am I to argue with Siri or Waze?  

 

Saturday morning we left our hotel at 8am and stopped at chick fli a and got some breakfast. We headed towards the port and drove across the bridge where you can see all the cruise ships lined up. 6 ships were in port so not as crazy as it could have been.

 

We parked our car (4 dollars to park for an hour) walked over to take a look at south beach and walked around a very nice park to waste an hour. Weather was sunny and 80 degrees. Not sure why we don’t live in Florida. After exploring south beach for a little while we headed back to the port. The Map app took us back across the bridge and we could see the Horizon and other ships in port. It took us through downtown, past American Airlines area where the Heat play. The left turn is super quick to get over to the Port of Miami so be sure to pay attention if you are driving.

 

Our check in time was 12:30 to 1 (I logged and and checked in at 12:01am the first day you could check in online and that was the soonest available. Will be glad when I can trade in this Gold card for a fancy Platinum card for priority boarding).  We parked our car at 10:45 on the second deck of the parking garage. Luggage to the porter (4 bags and $20 tip, is that too much tip?). Walked over to the terminal and they checked our boarding pass and passport. They put us in the early/late line and then we walked to security. They scanned our passports and stamped our boarding pass. Took about 5 minutes and we were headed up the escalators. 

 

We were directed to a room to wait by the terminal employees.  We were sitting and waiting by 11:00am. 15 minutes from the car to sitting and waiting to board. They gave us zone 14 as our boarding number. At 11:15 Mrs. Announcer lady came on the speakers and told us that boarding would start for weddings, Diamond, Plats and FTTF at 11:45. Well she lied. At 11:20 they started boarding the wedding party. They called zone 14 at 11:35 and we headed towards the ship. Make sure to keep boarding passes out but don’t need your passport out any longer. They checked our boarding pass, handed in our zone 14 card and went up an escalator, they scanned our boarding pass and we were walking onto the ship.

 

We walked onto deck 3 and we took the stairs in the main lobby up to deck 10.  Yes the lobby doesn’t go up 10 stories like the other classes of ships, but it is still very nice. If this ruins your trip because there are not glass elevators...change is hard. I get it...I guess.   With the amount of food (and ice cream) we figured some exercise would be good for us.  We usually do take stairs most of the time. Our stateroom is on deck 6 forward this trip. In a balcony (balcony will be the normal from now on). We love the Pasta bar for lunch, and we will not book a ship that does not have it. So, we get to deck 10 and walk up the stairs and the lady said to come back in 10 minutes. It was 11:50am and they don’t open until 12. This was the easiest and fastest boarding experience we have ever had. Carnival has the process down now, the biggest time saver must be cards in the “tree mail” outside your cabin door!  

 

Please let us know any other questions. This has turned into our first live review. If we can figure out how to post some videos I will do that as well. 

[Gettys84]

8 minutes ago, Love2travel4 said:

Can you tell me more about the Sea Day Brunch Menu? Does the Horizon have the new brunch menu?  If so, I am going to SADLY miss the funny French Toast😢

Ugh. You have no idea how much I miss the funny French toast.  I am a 34 year old adult but man, I don’t know what it is about fruit loops stuck to really good French toast that is so good But I really missed it this morning. I did get the (72 hour)...I mean 12 hour French toast. It has a couple of peaches on top, and it’s the size of a quarter loaf of bread. I wanted to love it, or at least like it...nope. It’s just not good. They still have the steak and eggs which is good. No more free OJ. They are pushing the $5 drinks BIG time. We were asked by 3/4 different people if we wanted some.  No, I don’t want a tiny glass of OJ that almost costs as much as a beer. I’ll take a beer.  I’ll attach the menu for people that have not seen it. Hoping they don’t go fleet wide with this before our September Bermuda cruise on the Sunshine out of Chuck Town...only a 2 hour drive for us vs 10 hour Miami drive.  

 

They still have have the funny French toast on the Dr Seuss breakfast, so on Friday morning I am going to ask if they can make it for me. Hell, I would get a $5 OJ if I can get my funny French toast!

[Gettys84]

8 minutes ago, Love2travel4 said:

Can you tell me more about the Sea Day Brunch Menu? Does the Horizon have the new brunch menu?  If so, I am going to SADLY miss the funny French Toast😢

Ugh. You have no idea how much I miss the funny French toast.  I am a 34 year old adult but man, I don’t know what it is about fruit loops stuck to really good French toast that is so good But I really missed it this morning. I did get the (72 hour)...I mean 12 hour French toast. It has a couple of peaches on top, and it’s the size of a quarter loaf of bread. I wanted to love it, or at least like it...nope. It’s just not good. They still have the steak and eggs which is good. No more free OJ. They are pushing the $5 drinks BIG time. We were asked by 3/4 different people if we wanted some.  No, I don’t want a tiny glass of OJ that almost costs as much as a beer. I’ll take a beer.  I’ll attach the menu for people that have not seen it. Hoping they don’t go fleet wide with this before our September Bermuda cruise on the Sunshine out of Chuck Town...only a 2 hour drive for us vs 10 hour Miami drive.  

 

They still have have the funny French toast on the Dr Seuss breakfast, so on Friday morning I am going to ask if they can make it for me. Hell, I would get a $5 OJ if I can get my funny French toast!

[Gettys84]

27 minutes ago, Elaine5715 said:

Don't forget the freshly made gelato at noon on Lido!

Had the coffee yesterday. Was nice having toppings for the soft service ice cream too!

[Gettys84]

Line check for pizza at 8:25

[Gettys84]

Movie night in lido. See a good amount of chairs available. Popcorn “not very good” from my wife.  Not enough butter. 

[Gettys84]

Comedy club was very busy. There were a couple of seats we could have grabbed but decided to go walk around. We left the main theater and walked strait there. 15 minutes before the show and would say it’s full. Seems like 20/30 minutes would be good for seats in main theater and comedy club. 

[Gettys84]

Another shot of lido on movie night. Lots of available chairs. 

[missholly24]

2 hours ago, Gettys84 said:

I feel like the lines yesterday and today have been comparable to any other class of ship I have been on. Fantasy, Dream, and whatever class the Victory is.  Sea day today so a lot of people on lido but still does not feel crowded. This ship is bigger than dream class and the layout is really good in our opinion.  I will take some pictures over the next few days of areas around the ship during peak times so you guys can see for yourself.  And pizza......I will let the picture explain. This was taken last night about 9pm. Have never been on a ship where there isn’t a long wait for pizza. I watched them today, at lunch, put 10 pizzas in the double decker oven!  

OH my gosh this pizza picture may have me sold on booking the Horizon!!! hahahaha....thats amazing. Glad to hear it is like any other ship. I guess maybe people tend to complain about things that are new. Have a great time! Thanks for the updates, I will be following!!

[Gettys84]

Walked past the Havana-na-na-na bar to see what was going on. A few tables were available. I feel like most people never make it back to deck 5 to even know it is there. 

 

Pro Tip we learned from watching @parodeejayreview of the Horizon, the water stations at the Havana-na-na-na bar and on deck 5 at the ocean plaza bar. It’s nice because they have larger glasses and ice cold water without having to go up to lido deck! 

[elmadden2270]

Thank You Gettys84

[cruise4family]

Sorry to ask this question, but with the new brunch menu, are you saying there's no longer orange or tomato juice for no extra charge?  We were on the Horizon last year, but they still had the old sea day brunch menu.

We're on the Sunrise in July and just wanted to know what to expect.  Thank you.

[Gettys84]

3 minutes ago, cruise4family said:

Sorry to ask this question, but with the new brunch menu, are you saying there's no longer orange or tomato juice for no extra charge?  We were on the Horizon last year, but they still had the old sea day brunch menu.

We're on the Sunrise in July and just wanted to know what to expect.  Thank you.

All the juices are for charge now, and are NOT included in the Cheers package. $5 each. 

[Gettys84]

Picture of our room and Mr. Doggie McDoggerson. (My wife came up with that one haha). We have mostly stayed in interiors, had an ocean view once on a family trip, but not a balcony.  Really enjoying the balcony even more than we thought we would. We have a cruise booked in September on the Sunshine going to Bermuda and then we have the first 7 day cruise out of Port Carnival on the Mardi gras next October. We have not scheduled a spring 2020 yet but will probably get that booked soon after we get back home.  

[Elaine5715]

48 minutes ago, Gettys84 said:

Movie night in lido. See a good amount of chairs available. Popcorn “not very good” from my wife.  Not enough butter. 

There is no butter or salt on it...need to bring your own..

[Gettys84]

1 minute ago, Elaine5715 said:

There is no butter or salt on it...need to bring your own..

They do have salt available. But no butter. 

[Gettys84]

Let me know if this video upload works. Took a time lapse from our balcony this afternoon. 

[Bases5]

Yes. I got the video and it works

[Gettys84]

Going to call it an early night tonight. We are in Grand Turk tomorrow at 7am. Last year on the Magic we got to see humpback whales from the ship. Hope this happens again tomorrow!  Keep the questions coming and will be back tomorrow!

[ROXY GIRL]

Is the cruise director leaving for good or just taking his vacation?

[parodeejay]

@Gettys84 Glad we could help! We love those extra water station options!! 😄 ~Jay

[Cairns Cruisers]

Thanks for a great review so far! I'm really enjoying your pictures.

[CA_Cruzing]

1 hour ago, Gettys84 said:

All the juices are for charge now, and are NOT included in the Cheers package. $5 each. 

Those are specialty justices. IIRC you can still get grapefruit, orange, and other juices at SDB in the MDR. Just ask your server.