Carnival Magic vs. Carnival Horizon

[nicnic96]

We just did a back to back on these 2 ships (Magic out of Fort Lauderdale/Horizon out of Miami).  This was our 7th and 8th Carnival cruise, but we have also sailed NCL and Royal.  I would be happy to answer any questions, but here are some notes I took...

 

Carnival Horizon is beautiful ship with a modern decor but has some significant design flaws.  The elevators are pathetic (and all you Carnival lovers better not blame "user error" because having just got off the Magic we consistently had MUCH longer wait times on the Horizon and every elevator stopped on 4 or 5 floors).  By the end of the cruise, guests were getting on the first elevator to open and hoping it would stop somewhere near where they were headed but were content to walk up or down a couple floors so they didn't have to wait on an elevator.

 

Horizon's show theater is poorly designed with the balcony offering poor visibility from most seats.  Even when we got a front row seat in the balcony we still had a prop to contend with (see the large rose in the attached picture).  The shows are visually beautiful but very artsy and lack a broad appeal.  We walked out most nights asking each other "Did you get the storyline?" Even though there are more guests on board there seemed to be less (unique) comedy shows.  Maybe that's because the Punchliner is smaller than most ships forcing the comedians to repeat shows so that they don't run out of room in the club. 

 

I'm puzzled by how Carnival, after all these years, can't design better soundproofing for cabins.  We were in 2212 for Horizon and while I know that forward lower cabins have more noise, I was disappointed when it sounded like the thrusters were immediately below us and when we hit a wave (a mere 6 ft wave) it sounded like we hit another ship!  My wife was awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night in spite of the fact that we had asked for a fan to drown out the noise.  Someone in the neighboring cabin stopped me in the hallway and said "WHAT IS THAT BANGING NOISE?" I told him that I believed it was waves hitting the side of the ship and he said "How could that be, the seas are like 6ft?  What happens when there is a real storm?"

 

The Magic is a more traditional Carnival experience.  The shows are comparable to the other ships, as is the food.

 

I will say that the food was generally better on the Horizon.  Same food, better flavor, cooked better.

 

Both ships offer good value, but both ships had a ton of drunks!  I suspect folks figured "we saved money on the cruise, so we can afford the all you can drink plan!"  And then they attempted to get their money's worth.  I saw a guy nearly throw up on the comedian.  His buddy stood up in the middle of the comedy show for no apparent reason.  We also had a group of young girls talking loudly the entire comedy show, a really loud group at dinner, another really loud drunk in the Serenity hot tub, and a fight on shore where the girlfriend punched her boyfriend in the jaw after he called her a terrible name.  My suggestion is that Carnival offer a 1/2 plan at a reduced cost.  Maybe some folks will recognize they don't need 15 drinks and we will all be better off.

[TNcruising02]

I appreciate your post and comparisons.  I recently cruised on the Panorama and had a 2018 cruise on the Vista. I agree that the theater arrangement is horrible.  The worst of any ships or cruise lines I have been on.  I thought the theater shows were equivalent to my experiences on the other Carnival ships.

I agree with you regarding the comedy shows.  On other cruises, I have seen as many as four different comedy shows a night. The Panorama had more repeats than any of my other Carnival cruises.  I guess with that many passengers, they like to do a lot of repeats so that more people can see particular shows.  The comedy area on the Vista class is not as good as the smaller ships.  

The only thing I experienced differently was the elevators.  The elevators on the Panorama were great.  It took a little while to get used to them, but it saved so much time.  Gone were the times when everybody standing near the elevators tried to get into the one that opened next.  The new way definitely helped disperse people so that everybody wasn't standing in front of the same one.  Then once we got on, we didn't have 6 or 7 different stops.  It was great.  Maybe the ones on the Horizon weren't working as they should.

Another improvement was the set up for the buffet.  The Panorama got it right.  It's a great setup that I wish all of Carnival's ships could have.

[nicnic96]

Maybe the Horizon elevators need reprogrammed.

 

You make an excellent point about the lido buffet on Horizon!  We had no wait at the buffets (unless you wanted an omelet).  They have definitely improved this.  However, I didn't discover until day 4 or 5 that unlike breakfast the dinner buffet was different by station.  I incorrectly assumed they were all the same and we went to the main dining room because they had such limited options at the buffet.  When I realize that they were each different at night I wished we had tried dinner at Lido one night.

[evandbob]

I too was initially bewildered by the Horizon's elevator system and would get on any elevator that first sea day.  Then I read the instructions that were posted. I found that if I did the correct call input, the elevators were snappy and got me to my deck pretty darn fast.

[nicnic96]

We followed the directions and we still waited consistently longer and made consistently more stops than on the Magic and every other ship we have sailed.  This included forward, mid, and aft elevators going any direction.

 

I should have pointed out that Magic was our preferred ship of the two even though it has a lot of rust for a ship less than 10 years old.

[Sagittarius traveler]

I sailed horizon and want to go in Magic next . 

 

Horizon was okay the elevators was easy to use but like you have said it does take a while half the time my family and I we used the stairs instead and got a workout haha. I was a little sad about the atrium design no more gold stairs lol. JiJi kitchen was a plus on Horizon and the family harbor.

 

Looking forward to be on Magic even though they don't have the Jiji kitchen but atleast they have Magnolian Wok.

[bjd2]

We've been on both ships. We enjoyed the Magic and will always remember it as it was our 30th anniversary cruise to Bermuda. Months before that we were on the Horizon. We loved that ship! Can't wait to be on the Panorama in March. We love the elevator system and had no issues on the Horizon. We did see many others not tapping the deck for the number of people needing to go, so often there were elevators that would open but were already full or people getting in and looking for a floor button to select.

 

 

[nicnic96]

On 1/30/2020 at 1:29 PM, Sagittarius traveler said:

I sailed horizon and want to go in Magic next . 

 

Horizon was okay the elevators was easy to use but like you have said it does take a while half the time my family and I we used the stairs instead and got a workout haha. I was a little sad about the atrium design no more gold stairs lol. JiJi kitchen was a plus on Horizon and the family harbor.

 

Looking forward to be on Magic even though they don't have the Jiji kitchen but atleast they have Magnolian Wok.

We didn't go to Jiji's for dinner, but we did for lunch.  I actually prefer Mongolian Wok as the sauces tasted the same to me and it was much faster and easier to just grab a bowl of what I wanted at Mongolian.  Jiji's was slow for us and unfortunately it is right below the basketball court and apparently there was a dodgeball tournament going on and it was extremely loud.  We had a similar experience on the other side (Cucina del Capitan) a few days later.

[nicnic96]

On 1/30/2020 at 1:54 PM, bjd2 said:

We've been on both ships. We enjoyed the Magic and will always remember it as it was our 30th anniversary cruise to Bermuda. Months before that we were on the Horizon. We loved that ship! Can't wait to be on the Panorama in March. We love the elevator system and had no issues on the Horizon. We did see many others not tapping the deck for the number of people needing to go, so often there were elevators that would open but were already full or people getting in and looking for a floor button to select.

 

 

Maybe the difference on the elevators is what bank of elevators you are using.  We were forward, we tapped the number of people each time, still consistently waited longer and rode longer than any other cruise ship.

[shipbound2]

I've been on both but I prefer the Horizon or Vista because they have a latin club on board I like dancing to that type of music.
 

Gary

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by shipbound2
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