Horizon Review - 10/19 - 10/27

[mdin]

Great review so far. I sailed the Horizon last February and loved it.

 

I flew out the morning of (CT to FL) for my first 5 cruises and fortunately never arrived late. However, last February we flew out the day before and it is much better. Besides reducing the risk of missing the ship, it's also nice waking up at a normal hour and not feeling exhausted when you arrive at the ship.

[bnbeyer]

3 hours ago, MamaBraz said:

I am enjoying reading your review; however, there are parts of it that give me added stress.  My husband and I are both school teachers.  It is impossible for us to fly out the day before.  We have a very early flight on the day of the cruise.  We have done it before without any incident, but when I read some of your warnings...I do have a bit of anxiety.  I am trying to be calm about it.  We fly out and sail on March 21st.  We have a direct flight from Indianapolis to FLL.

 

A direct flight is usually fine.  It's connecting flights that I won't risk.

[ishap]

1 hour ago, grandmarnnurse said:

How much does the wine cost from the self serve?

If you zoom in on the pic you can see the costs per pour. Each bottle has a different cost and there are three sizes to choose from. Looks like 1/4 glass, 1/2 glass, and 3/4 glass. 

[ishap]

4 hours ago, MamaBraz said:

I am enjoying reading your review; however, there are parts of it that give me added stress.  My husband and I are both school teachers.  It is impossible for us to fly out the day before.  We have a very early flight on the day of the cruise.  We have done it before without any incident, but when I read some of your warnings...I do have a bit of anxiety.  I am trying to be calm about it.  We fly out and sail on March 21st.  We have a direct flight from Indianapolis to FLL.

Everyone needs to do the schedule that is best for them. Personally I would have looked for a late flight out the night before but I have a feeling it will work out just fine for you!

[ishap]

3 hours ago, ricew001 said:

I'm afraid that's going to be us this time. We did 5:30 pm steakhouse reservations and I worry our luggage will not be to our room on time for us to get ready.

You can always pack your dinner clothes in your carryon. That way you aren’t dragging all of your luggage, just the dinner clothes. Even with FTTF our luggage wasn’t delivered till almost 3pm. I think this is the latest it’s ever been when we had priority. 

[purplephenom]

4 hours ago, MamaBraz said:

I am enjoying reading your review; however, there are parts of it that give me added stress.  My husband and I are both school teachers.  It is impossible for us to fly out the day before.  We have a very early flight on the day of the cruise.  We have done it before without any incident, but when I read some of your warnings...I do have a bit of anxiety.  I am trying to be calm about it.  We fly out and sail on March 21st.  We have a direct flight from Indianapolis to FLL.

 

Just keep this in mind- there are a lot of people who fly out the day of the cruise, and make it just fine.  The Carnival shuttles make several trips on the day of the cruise from the airport, and if you talk people waiting to board you'll find many just flew in.

 

Also, when the hurricane hit Puerto Rico a few years ago, some of the people who flew in early were out of luck with no where to go, while the people who had planned to fly in the day of were in much better shape.  So you never know.

 

The good part for you is you're flying at the end of March- the worst of the winter is usually over and it's not summer thunderstorm season yet.  And you're flying direct.  So it seems you're flying in at an ideal time of year, and the direct flight helps minimize issues 

 

Things happen and you need to do what works for you.  Most of the time it's just fine, fingers crossed your trip will be just fine.

[ishap]

2 hours ago, purplephenom said:

I'm a little disappointed to see the scooters in Miami.  I spend a lot of time in Washington DC and Baltimore, and both have the scooters.  It's bad enough when locals who know where they're going are using them, and you have to dodge people in a huge rush to get where they're going.  But add in tourists who don't know where they're going, and just rent the things to play on, or people that are looking at the sites instead of where their scooter is going, and it gets messy.

 

The Havana area looks great- I can't wait to spend some time back there when we do this ship in February.  We normally book a deck 1 inside, and we've gone with a Havana interior for our next 2 cruises, so I'm really hoping the area makes us happy since its a lot more money than we usually spend.  The idea of getting to know everyone back there is nice too- I like the idea of making cruise friends, but I rarely will be the one to walk up to someone and start a conversation, so a small group might make it easier to find some buddies. 

 

Looking forward to more and thanks for taking the time to do this!

Glad you are finding this review helpful!

 

Its funny you say that about DC...I work in DC but have never seen the scooters there. But then again, I don’t spend any time around the tourist area. 
 

You will love the Havana area!  The main pool was a human soup bowl. We have never spent much time in/at the pool until this cruise and we spent a couple hours every day in the pool or hot tubs. I’m not usually one to talk either but this area made it very easy to meet people. 

[marci4tony]

So does the contents of the hurricane/tornado centerpiece on board move?  Ive seen lots of photos - just wondering if its "art" or does it have a purpose?  Thx!

[ishap]

Here are some more random shots of the ship while we were walking around.

 

This is deck 5 near the pixel area facing forward.  Bonsai Sushi is in the distance

 

Deck 5 mid-ship.  Looking at Bonsai Sushi

 

The pixel area deck 5 mid.  They way they do photos on this ship is that you can look up your account on the ipads/tablets that are on the tables.  You can either purchase the pics or delete them.  Or you can do like we did and never even bother lol.  We had pics taken of us on the first day, and then after that we declined getting them taken for the rest of the journey.

 

This is deck 5 near the Fun Shops.

Edited October 29, 2019 by ishap
picture captions

[ishap]

Lido deck...obviously lol.  We actually rarely went up on Lido and when we did, we took the aft elevators, grabbed some food, then retreated back down to 5.  While I will admit that the setup of the ship limited the crowded feel, Lido deck always seemed crowded.  But I think that on every ship lol

 

RedFrog bar

 

Pool before it was crowded

 

Blue Iguana Cantina

 

More Lido and the Tequila Bar

Edited October 29, 2019 by ishap

[Jerseygirl1416]

16 hours ago, ashirene225 said:

Literally LOLed at this. Love it. 

Me too!!! Best line on CC ever....

[ishap]

Here are some pics of the Tides pool area in the aft of Lido.  This is really the only time we saw this part of the ship, except for the one time I went for pizza.  The other times I got pizza I had it delivered.  

[ishap]

I'm trying to upload pics as I go through the review, but they are not all in order so if I come across more I will upload them later on.

 

Alright...we've walked around the ship, gotten our lunch, and even gotten our suitcases unpacked by this time.  So what's next?  Time for the dreaded muster drill.  Ugh.  Everyone hates this but it also means it's almost time to head out!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that instead of packing the outer decks near the lifeboats, the muster drill on this ship was done in the aft restaurant...at least for those of us near the back of the ship.  My guess is that the mid ship cabins were in the mid restaurant and the forward cabins in the lounge.  They scanned cards going into the assigned muster station to make sure everyone from your cabin attended.

 

Strangely enough, this was the quickest, easiest muster drill.  By not having everyone packed in, it went rather quick without much hassle.  While we were sitting there, I ended up becoming tech support for those around me, helping a bunch of people to get their Carnival Hub app working.

 

On that note, lets talk about the Hub app.  I really wasn't planning on using it as I would normally just carry the paper FunTimes around, however they seem to have done some updates from the last cruise I was on and the app came in handy. 

 

Pro tips on using the app:

• You could mark activities that you wanted to attend and it would also show you if someone else on your account marked that activity as well.  The app would also alert you when a selected activity was about the start. 
• You could view open restaurants in order to find available food.  This would also show you open/close times for food joints.
• All restaurants had menus to be able to view...well except for Lido buffet.  No menu available.  (I think that was the only one)
• You can order pizza from the app.  Just choose what kind of pizza, how many, and where you want it delivered.  I think it was $5 per pizza.  There was also the option to order soda and/or beer along with the pizza.
• If you are going to use the app, once you board the ship, you MUST turn your phone to airplane mode, but keep your wifi on and connected to the Horizon wireless network.  If you don't have airplane mode on, the app work work as it tries to use the cell connection.

Here are a couple of pics from the muster drill.

[ishap]

OK, muster drill is done, so time for the sail away!  We watched the sail away from both the Havana pool area and from our Cabana porch.  Only thing I didn't like about the Cabana porch is the view is through tinted glass.  I would prefer they have clear glass for a better viewing experience.  I also would prefer the balcony over the porch, but then again, the porch was very convenient.  We would exit out the sliding back door, walk out to the pool area, and then back to the room without having to walk through the Havana bar.  Also, if you are on the starboard side of the ship, you can take a shortcut to the BBQ restaurant by walking through the door that keeps the Havana area separate on Lanai.  Sorry, but didn't get a pic of that.

 

Pro tip:  If you are staying in a Havana Cabana on Deck 5, you can hang your bathing suits outside to dry.  Just use the clothes hangers with the clamps, then hang them on the slatted dividers.  They won't go anywhere.  

 

Miami has some great views during sail away.

 

  

[ishap]

Relaxing with a beer during sail away!  Oh yeah, and we had some protection to make sure the pirates didn't get us.

[ishap]

Miami beach.  All the times I've been to Miami and I've never been to the beach there.  Shame on me I guess?

 

And yes, the pics are probably a little out of order...CC uploads aren't always in the order I choose lol

[ishap]

Good 'ol Patch the pumpkin man keeping watch over the lobby.  I've never cruised around a holiday when they have the ship decorated so was kinda cool.  I would like to cruise in December sometime when they have the ship decorated for Christmas.

 

[luvcruzing]

Lots of discussion about taking a direct flight, but a direct flight is not a non-stop flight.

[ishap]

They had a tour of the IMax and Thrill theatre.  We wanted to check it out and they also had a drawing where they gave away some free passes to the documentary films.  They had 3 docs playing and 2 first run films - The Joker and Gemini man.  Costs were $12.95/person for the first run and $5.95 for the docs.  

 

We didn't win any passes...typical for us...but we did buy tickets to go see Gemini Man one of the sea days.  The theatre was great...sound and video were top notch.  The movie itself was also surprisingly good so that was a double bonus!  I wish they offered more first run movies as there were some down times during the cruise that would have been a nice time to see a movie.  The wife didn't want to see Joker so that choice was out.

 

 

[nybumpkin]

4 hours ago, ishap said:

Lido deck...obviously lol.  We actually rarely went up on Lido and when we did, we took the aft elevators, grabbed some food, then retreated back down to 5.  While I will admit that the setup of the ship limited the crowded feel, Lido deck always seemed crowded.  But I think that on every ship lol

 

 

We found that with Havana, the only time we spent on Lido was to eat. It did mean that we missed the towel animal invasion the morning that happened, but we sure didn't miss the crowded pools.

[tstoic]

Great review, following along.  We will be on the Horizon on the 16th (17 days) for the 8 day Southern itinerary.  This will be our 3rd Havana cruise, 2 previous on Vista.  We're hooked.

[Buffalobills]

Following

[mlshum]

Thanks so much for the review!  I was really excited to find it since we are sailing on Horizon in January.  I’m following!

[beshears]

I'm still following along with your good review with pictures.  A few people had mentioned about the luggage of whether to carry it all on, or have someone else take care of part of it.  This happened several years ago, but I LEARNED my lesson.  I ALWAYS take an outfit/shoe,medicine, etc. in my carry on luggage, and let them take care of the rest.  As I said this happened years ago, but I learned my lesson from the experience I am getting ready to tell, so hopefully, if anyone is reading this, they will make sure they see our error, and not let it happen to them.  We had just flown  in from Kansas City, and were getting ready to get on one of the open air Taxi's, as they had taken our luggage already.  Not thinking anything about it, we just figured the luggage would arrive in our state room like it always had.  Well it turned out that we went on one big Taxi with some peoples luggage but NOT ours! 😞 There were 8 of us that did not have our luggage come to our ship, as our luggage had gone on another Taxi, only to another ship! 😞   We were without our luggage for almost 4 days, having only what was  in our carry-on luggage.  I always take out insurance for "just in case," and glad I did.  We were able to purchase a couple items on the ship, but still did not make up for all our other clothes, etc. that we had planned to wear.  I won't go into the rest of the details of when our luggage came back, but just make sure..............if you go on an open air Taxi, your luggage is on the SAME Taxi that you are on.

[Irene225]

6 hours ago, ishap said:

Strangely enough, this was the quickest, easiest muster drill.  By not having everyone packed in, it went rather quick without much hassle.  While we were sitting there, I ended up becoming tech support for those around me, helping a bunch of people to get their Carnival Hub app working.

 This has been me on many cruises!