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Just Back from the Horizon 8/1 Cruise. Mini Review and Questions Welcomed.

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By tap_out,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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tap_out

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Little about us, my Wife and I are 37 with a 5 year old. We left our son at home this time. We have 7 Carnival cruises 7 Royal and 2 NCL. We both prefer Carnival. We booked  a Havana Cabana last minute the beginning of July for a price we just could pass up. I was fairly certain the cruise was going to happen. As word started to spread about the Delta variant I started to get nervous that they would change things up. Well I am very thankful that we got the last cruise in before the changes. It would have been a huge fight between my wife and myself if we had to make the decision to wear mask or not.  

 

We had an excellent cruise! Honestly if I complain any I am mostly just nit picking because we had such a wonderful cruise. I have honestly never seen a more happy crew. The were all so honestly happy to be working and it really showed. They made the trip for us and sort of put things in perspective. We did not do the MDR room although heard the service had greatly improved from what I read about previous cruises. We ate in all the specialty restaurant's and they were all excellent. It was so nice sailing a ship that was not at full capacity with limited kids. My wife being a teacher and running a summer program we are forced to cruise in August so we have our fair share of packed cruises with plenty of kids. The ship never felt crowded, we never fought to get a seat anywhere. 

 

We had the cheers package and somehow manage to hit our 15 drinks just about everyday. We spent a lot of time at the Alchemy Anna and Oscar really made it a great cruise for us. Pig and Anchor was also a highlight and we spent a ton of time there. In the Havana this cruise the service was great! There was also somebody that did nothing but police, making sure everyone was a Havana guest. This was something that changed since our last cruise but a nice touch. We made use of our Cabana and it was a nice touch but we will probably never splurge like that again. 

 

The only thing I can really nit pick about was the entertainment. We have seen all the shows in the past and loved them but they just didn't do it for us this cruise. With just a few ships sailing I figured they would have the best of the best entertainers on the ship. We were not impressed with the singers on this cruise. There was a TON of comedy on the ship. I mean just about all day and all night. The comedians were just ok and one was down right bad. With that being said there was always plenty to do and we were always entertained. 

 

I know some people want to hear this so I will touch on it a bit. There was very little mask being worn on the ship. I would say maybe 1 out of 20 passengers decided to wear a mask. They were keeping the ship very clean. They did not seem to be enforcing hand sanitizing at all. If the crew did not have mask on we would have never known we were cruising during a pandemic. Which was just fine with us. It was nice to just forget about it all. Did not hear and reports of Covid on the ship. 

 

The ports were kind of a miss for us but that is ok. We were perfectly content chilling in the Havana are taking advantage of our cheers package. Debarkation was the smoothest easiest we have ever dealt with. Embarkation was a little bit of a mess. We showed up right at our check in time of 11 and there was a line couple hundred yards long. Things moved fast though and we were on the boat by 1130. It was about 930 when we walked off and there was already a long line to get on the boat. 

 

This was really a great cruise. I would say it is right up there with our best ever. I know it probably spoiled us for when things get back to normal. If you guys have any questions I will do my best  to answer them. 

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gentlehyena

gentlehyena

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Do you happen to know if they were renting Cabanas at Half Moon Cay? We are sailing in a Havana Suite 9/12 and there are no excursions listed at all for HMC. 

We have been sailing Carnival for 30+ yrs and for us old folks that have lived through too many hairy chest contest feel the Havana area was made for us. I love the ability to be right at the room and always have a place to sit. Glad y’all had a wonderful trip, stay safe.

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tap_out

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14 minutes ago, gentlehyena said:

Do you happen to know if they were renting Cabanas at Half Moon Cay? We are sailing in a Havana Suite 9/12 and there are no excursions listed at all for HMC. 

We have been sailing Carnival for 30+ yrs and for us old folks that have lived through too many hairy chest contest feel the Havana area was made for us. I love the ability to be right at the room and always have a place to sit. Glad y’all had a wonderful trip, stay safe.

Yes they are. Its the perfect area. 

Edited by tap_out
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matt082600

matt082600

Posted
Posted

Hi Tap Out, thanks for your review.  I was on this sailing as well.  I agree that the service was OUTSTANDING.  Reminds me of what I experienced on my first cruise 30 years ago.  I also enjoyed sailing with fewer guests.  I never waited in a long line, no crowded feeling, it was great!

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tap_out

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14 minutes ago, Penguin11 said:

Anyone else disturbed by two adults maxing out the cheers beverage limit every day while caring for a 5 yo?  DYFUS HELLO!

 

Thanks guys! At least read my post if your going to try and flame me lol 

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Cruise Related

Cruise Related

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, Penguin11 said:

Anyone else disturbed by two adults maxing out the cheers beverage limit every day while caring for a 5 yo?  DYFUS HELLO!

Who cares?! They are on vacation. Judge yourself before judging others. My god. Go back to your cave. 

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TS4IA

TS4IA

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Posted

@tap_out I couldn’t agree with you more about the Playlist shows, the vocals were downright terrible. It was really hard to sit through a show. After the welcome aboard show, we thought we’d give them another try, then went to Soulbound and decided to skip them the remainder of the time. The male vocalist were particularly bad, I felt embarrassed for them.


The one comedian named Joel should never do a Carnival cruise again, he was downright terrible and came across as blatantly racist. We made sure to avoid his shows the remainder of the time. The other 3 were decent, but recycled a lot of their material from show to show with a few new pieces thrown in each time.

 

Like you, I found it to be an amazing cruise, particularly with so few crowds anywhere onboard. Makes me want to hop right back onto another ship.

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tap_out

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24 minutes ago, TS4IA said:

@tap_out I couldn’t agree with you more about the Playlist shows, the vocals were downright terrible. It was really hard to sit through a show. After the welcome aboard show, we thought we’d give them another try, then went to Soulbound and decided to skip them the remainder of the time. The male vocalist were particularly bad, I felt embarrassed for them.


The one comedian named Joel should never do a Carnival cruise again, he was downright terrible and came across as blatantly racist. We made sure to avoid his shows the remainder of the time. The other 3 were decent, but recycled a lot of their material from show to show with a few new pieces thrown in each time.

 

Like you, I found it to be an amazing cruise, particularly with so few crowds anywhere onboard. Makes me want to hop right back onto another ship.

I am glad we are not alone on the singers. We had to walk out of the celestial strings shows. 

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ray98

ray98

Posted
Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Penguin11 said:

Anyone else disturbed by two adults maxing out the cheers beverage limit every day while caring for a 5 yo?  DYFUS HELLO!

 

No Karen....we aren't.  If you would read instead of trying to come up with some little outrage you would see where they left their child at home.

Edited by ray98
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ray98

ray98

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thanks for the review.  We are on in a few weeks and I am a little disappointed to hear about the musicians, that is a huge part of our experience.  I have already watched a few Youtube reviews and had the feeling things were lacking a bit.

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tap_out

tap_out

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8 minutes ago, ray98 said:

Thanks for the review.  We are on in a few weeks and I am a little disappointed to hear about the musicians, that is a huge part of our experience.  I have already watched a few Youtube reviews and had the feeling things were lacking a bit.

Yeah I will be honest we were surprised how bad they were. I read some reviews of the first cruise and them being bad. I had just assumed they were not used to working with each other. Unfortunately they just don't sing well. They did have a bunch of great music around the ship that we wished we made more time to sit down and enjoy. 

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ray98

ray98

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1 hour ago, tap_out said:

They did have a bunch of great music around the ship that we wished we made more time to sit down and enjoy. 

 

That is good to hear at least.....we spend a good bit of time doing that also.

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princess76021

princess76021

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, tap_out said:

Little about us, my Wife and I are 37 with a 5 year old. We left our son at home this time. We have 7 Carnival cruises 7 Royal and 2 NCL. We both prefer Carnival. We booked  a Havana Cabana last minute the beginning of July for a price we just could pass up. I was fairly certain the cruise was going to happen. As word started to spread about the Delta variant I started to get nervous that they would change things up. Well I am very thankful that we got the last cruise in before the changes. It would have been a huge fight between my wife and myself if we had to make the decision to wear mask or not.  

 

We had an excellent cruise! Honestly if I complain any I am mostly just nit picking because we had such a wonderful cruise. I have honestly never seen a more happy crew. The were all so honestly happy to be working and it really showed. They made the trip for us and sort of put things in perspective. We did not do the MDR room although heard the service had greatly improved from what I read about previous cruises. We ate in all the specialty restaurant's and they were all excellent. It was so nice sailing a ship that was not at full capacity with limited kids. My wife being a teacher and running a summer program we are forced to cruise in August so we have our fair share of packed cruises with plenty of kids. The ship never felt crowded, we never fought to get a seat anywhere. 

 

We had the cheers package and somehow manage to hit our 15 drinks just about everyday. We spent a lot of time at the Alchemy Anna and Oscar really made it a great cruise for us. Pig and Anchor was also a highlight and we spent a ton of time there. In the Havana this cruise the service was great! There was also somebody that did nothing but police, making sure everyone was a Havana guest. This was something that changed since our last cruise but a nice touch. We made use of our Cabana and it was a nice touch but we will probably never splurge like that again. 

 

The only thing I can really nit pick about was the entertainment. We have seen all the shows in the past and loved them but they just didn't do it for us this cruise. With just a few ships sailing I figured they would have the best of the best entertainers on the ship. We were not impressed with the singers on this cruise. There was a TON of comedy on the ship. I mean just about all day and all night. The comedians were just ok and one was down right bad. With that being said there was always plenty to do and we were always entertained. 

 

I know some people want to hear this so I will touch on it a bit. There was very little mask being worn on the ship. I would say maybe 1 out of 20 passengers decided to wear a mask. They were keeping the ship very clean. They did not seem to be enforcing hand sanitizing at all. If the crew did not have mask on we would have never known we were cruising during a pandemic. Which was just fine with us. It was nice to just forget about it all. Did not hear and reports of Covid on the ship. 

 

The ports were kind of a miss for us but that is ok. We were perfectly content chilling in the Havana are taking advantage of our cheers package. Debarkation was the smoothest easiest we have ever dealt with. Embarkation was a little bit of a mess. We showed up right at our check in time of 11 and there was a line couple hundred yards long. Things moved fast though and we were on the boat by 1130. It was about 930 when we walked off and there was already a long line to get on the boat. 

 

This was really a great cruise. I would say it is right up there with our best ever. I know it probably spoiled us for when things get back to normal. If you guys have any questions I will do my best  to answer them. 

thank you for taking the time to give us a review!  appreciate it!!

hugs from texas!!

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JaniceB

JaniceB

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Posted

Thanks for your review.  I was looking at the drink menus and saw quite a few drinks I wanted to try and wondered if I would max out my cheers package.  Doesn't mean I would drink all 15 but if I don't like something I could get another. 

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klfhngr

klfhngr

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, tap_out said:

 

Thanks guys! At least read my post if your going to try and flame me lol 

EXACTLY!!! Even if you did max out, a 5 year old is fine on a cruise ship! 😉 You know I'm kidding, let's see if he reads this entire post! 😉

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