Things I wish I knew about Carnival Horizon before 8-1-21 cruise

[wgeddings]

THINGS I WISH I KNEW ABOUT HORIZON BEFORE - First and foremost, this is a great ship and you will have a great time

 

1 – This is a very big ship!  Despite how big it is, you do not feel it is that large because it is well designed with dividers and such used well to make areas feel smaller.  Check the dimensions to compare to what you are used it.  This was roughly twice the size of most of the large ships we have sailed in the past. 

 

2 – Lots of food choices – in addition to the places you have to pay extra to eat at, there are any free places.  The Lido Buffet (The Marketplace) has basically 2 entire buffets.  Each buffet area has 4 buffets, a salad bar, a sweets bar and each one has a different specialty area (one has a deli and one has Empanadas and Gelatos).  There are 2 main pools (Resort Pool and Tides Pool).  By Resort Pool, you have Guy’s Burger Joint on one side and the Burrito/Taco place on the other.  By the Tides Pool, you have the Seafood Shack (which is not free) and the pizza place (which is free).  Cucino del Captaino and JiJi Asian both offer lunch menus for no additional charge. 

 

3 – The Carnival HUB app works really well on board.  Checking it before boarding, it was not very good and I was uncertain about it and the fact that there were not going to be Fun Times printed out.  Onboard however, once connected for free to the Carnival WiFi (which is free for HUB purposes although you cannot connect to anything else like the internet without a package), it is very intuitive and simple.  Menus are easy to access and so are maps. 

 

4 – Elevators are “smart”.  You go to the bank of elevators and select what floor you want.  The elevators are given letters (A, B, C, D, E) and the system then tells you that elevator A (for example) will take you to your floor.  When that door opens, you board and there are no floor buttons.  It takes you to your floor.  It actually does make things quicker and easier. 

 

5 – Simple Muster – when you board, you go to your muster station and are shown how to wear a life jacket (as stupid and quick as it sounds).  Then you are done with the muster and there is no mass gathering in the heat.  You can watch a safety video in your cabin.  Still some people do not comply with this 2-3 minute process so be prepared to constantly hear reminders when you are getting on ship. 

 

6 – Movie theaters – In addition to the “Dive in Movies” (movies they show by the pool on a huge overhead) there are 2 movie theaters.  One is the Thrill Theater which is similar to many movies/shows at Disneyworld (such as “It’s a Bug’s Life”) where the seats rattle a bit, water sprays, things tickle your legs, etc.  It only shows 3D immersive videos and each is about 4-5 minutes long.  They are shown in blocks of 3 and are Thrill Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 (based on how scary or active they are).  I did not do these but heard they were fun.  The other is a full IMAX theatre.  If you have been to an IMAX theater, you know what to expect.  It is quite large (tip, sit toward the back because with a huge screen, sitting close means having to turn your head a lot).  It shows standard IMAX fare like under sea things, space things but also shows first run movies.  When we were there (Aug 1-7, 2021) they were showing Snake Eyes and on Thurs and Friday when The Suicide Squad opened in theaters on land, it was shown there too.  Price was about the same as a movie on land so it was awesome.

 

7 -  Incredibly poor at answering simple questions – The crew were incredibly nice and polite and wanted to be helpful but if you asked questions, we almost always got an incorrect answer the first time.  If you ask a question, and they answer, confirm it with them!  Example, for the water taxi to Half Moon Cay, the notice put in everyone’s cabin talked about the timing of water taxies and how you need to go to 10 Forward to get a ticket for the time you wanted.  On 10 Forward, tickets were just numbered as Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  We were part of a large group of people all standing there trying to equate the zones with times.  I asked a crew member and he proceeded to “explain” that it was a water taxi port so everyone needed a ticket to determine the time they could board the tender and blah blah.  I had to stop him and explain that we understood that but we needed to know what TIME the zones would be.  He then explained that since there was no docking system, water taxies/tendered needed to be used so we should take a ticket for the time we wanted and blah blah.  I tried a final time to get him to understand that we just wanted to know what time, for example, Zone 6 might be boarding.  He said Oh, it will board after Zone 5.  I just thanked him and waited for a ship’s officer to walk by.  Same thing happened where he was determined to explain the mechanics of docking vs water tendering and would not answer the simple question.  I just thanked him and used the telephone to call Guest Services.  After being on hold for about 15 minutes, someone picked up and just hung up.  We gave up and just took tickets for Zone 6.  Same thing happened with several other issues. 

 

8 -  Port of Miami – We had an 11:30 “boarding time reservation”.  The line was VERY long and we waited in the lovely Miami muggy heat for about an hour to get into the building where there was another line.  Porters taking luggage were making huge stacks everywhere but shockingly, apparently all bags make it onto the ship.  Porters were telling people that they had no idea why the line was so long which caused me, and many others, to walk to the front of the line looking for a Carnival employee to ask to confirm that this was the line we needed to be in.  It was the correct line and I can only assume that porters were getting their jolly by telling lies to people.  Beware.  Once in the building, it does move pretty quickly.  By then you will be drenched in sweat though and tired of carrying whatever you planned to carry on. 

 

9 – COVID changes – There were very real changes due to COVID.  The crew all wore masks the whole time (depending on what the current requirements are when you go, hopefully you will not be required to wear one.  We only had to wear them when embarking, disembarking and then in the port of calls if required locally).  Buffets still operated normally with self serve.  Ice cream was still self-serve.  Seating in theaters was still seat to seat.  Crew were very quick to clean any table when someone left but otherwise it was the same as it has always been. 

 

10 – TV Stations – Although the TV was nice and large, you had to turn it off and on a couple of times before it would work.  From the comment of our cabin steward, that is normal.  The only channels are Carnival stations about food, excursions (not necessarily for the ones you are able to go on), ship cameras, spoken What’s Happening, TCM (Turner Classic Movies), HGTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Travel Channel (aka Ghost Hunters any time all the time), Food Network and CBS News.   There is no movie channel but there are on demand movies.  Some are free, some are $4.99. 

 

11 – Smoking – I am not sure if the casino is a a gambling place where people smoke or a smoking lounge with some slot machines.  All I do know is that it almost seemed that smoking was mandatory in the casino because there was a LOT of it.  Casino is midship on Deck 4 and there is a large opening to Deck 5 so if you walked midship on Deck 4 or Deck 5, you better like smoke.

[bmswart3]

18 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

THINGS I WISH I KNEW ABOUT HORIZON BEFORE - First and foremost, this is a great ship and you will have a great time

 

1 – This is a very big ship!  Despite how big it is, you do not feel it is that large because it is well designed with dividers and such used well to make areas feel smaller.  Check the dimensions to compare to what you are used it.  This was roughly twice the size of most of the large ships we have sailed in the past. 

 

2 – Lots of food choices – in addition to the places you have to pay extra to eat at, there are any free places.  The Lido Buffet (The Marketplace) has basically 2 entire buffets.  Each buffet area has 4 buffets, a salad bar, a sweets bar and each one has a different specialty area (one has a deli and one has Empanadas and Gelatos).  There are 2 main pools (Resort Pool and Tides Pool).  By Resort Pool, you have Guy’s Burger Joint on one side and the Burrito/Taco place on the other.  By the Tides Pool, you have the Seafood Shack (which is not free) and the pizza place (which is free).  Cucino del Captaino and JiJi Asian both offer lunch menus for no additional charge. 

 

3 – The Carnival HUB app works really well on board.  Checking it before boarding, it was not very good and I was uncertain about it and the fact that there were not going to be Fun Times printed out.  Onboard however, once connected for free to the Carnival WiFi (which is free for HUB purposes although you cannot connect to anything else like the internet without a package), it is very intuitive and simple.  Menus are easy to access and so are maps. 

 

4 – Elevators are “smart”.  You go to the bank of elevators and select what floor you want.  The elevators are given letters (A, B, C, D, E) and the system then tells you that elevator A (for example) will take you to your floor.  When that door opens, you board and there are no floor buttons.  It takes you to your floor.  It actually does make things quicker and easier. 

 

5 – Simple Muster – when you board, you go to your muster station and are shown how to wear a life jacket (as stupid and quick as it sounds).  Then you are done with the muster and there is no mass gathering in the heat.  You can watch a safety video in your cabin.  Still some people do not comply with this 2-3 minute process so be prepared to constantly hear reminders when you are getting on ship. 

 

6 – Movie theaters – In addition to the “Dive in Movies” (movies they show by the pool on a huge overhead) there are 2 movie theaters.  One is the Thrill Theater which is similar to many movies/shows at Disneyworld (such as “It’s a Bug’s Life”) where the seats rattle a bit, water sprays, things tickle your legs, etc.  It only shows 3D immersive videos and each is about 4-5 minutes long.  They are shown in blocks of 3 and are Thrill Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 (based on how scary or active they are).  I did not do these but heard they were fun.  The other is a full IMAX theatre.  If you have been to an IMAX theater, you know what to expect.  It is quite large (tip, sit toward the back because with a huge screen, sitting close means having to turn your head a lot).  It shows standard IMAX fare like under sea things, space things but also shows first run movies.  When we were there (Aug 1-7, 2021) they were showing Snake Eyes and on Thurs and Friday when The Suicide Squad opened in theaters on land, it was shown there too.  Price was about the same as a movie on land so it was awesome.

 

7 -  Incredibly poor at answering simple questions – The crew were incredibly nice and polite and wanted to be helpful but if you asked questions, we almost always got an incorrect answer the first time.  If you ask a question, and they answer, confirm it with them!  Example, for the water taxi to Half Moon Cay, the notice put in everyone’s cabin talked about the timing of water taxies and how you need to go to 10 Forward to get a ticket for the time you wanted.  On 10 Forward, tickets were just numbered as Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  We were part of a large group of people all standing there trying to equate the zones with times.  I asked a crew member and he proceeded to “explain” that it was a water taxi port so everyone needed a ticket to determine the time they could board the tender and blah blah.  I had to stop him and explain that we understood that but we needed to know what TIME the zones would be.  He then explained that since there was no docking system, water taxies/tendered needed to be used so we should take a ticket for the time we wanted and blah blah.  I tried a final time to get him to understand that we just wanted to know what time, for example, Zone 6 might be boarding.  He said Oh, it will board after Zone 5.  I just thanked him and waited for a ship’s officer to walk by.  Same thing happened where he was determined to explain the mechanics of docking vs water tendering and would not answer the simple question.  I just thanked him and used the telephone to call Guest Services.  After being on hold for about 15 minutes, someone picked up and just hung up.  We gave up and just took tickets for Zone 6.  Same thing happened with several other issues. 

 

8 -  Port of Miami – We had an 11:30 “boarding time reservation”.  The line was VERY long and we waited in the lovely Miami muggy heat for about an hour to get into the building where there was another line.  Porters taking luggage were making huge stacks everywhere but shockingly, apparently all bags make it onto the ship.  Porters were telling people that they had no idea why the line was so long which caused me, and many others, to walk to the front of the line looking for a Carnival employee to ask to confirm that this was the line we needed to be in.  It was the correct line and I can only assume that porters were getting their jolly by telling lies to people.  Beware.  Once in the building, it does move pretty quickly.  By then you will be drenched in sweat though and tired of carrying whatever you planned to carry on. 

 

9 – COVID changes – There were very real changes due to COVID.  The crew all wore masks the whole time (depending on what the current requirements are when you go, hopefully you will not be required to wear one.  We only had to wear them when embarking, disembarking and then in the port of calls if required locally).  Buffets still operated normally with self serve.  Ice cream was still self-serve.  Seating in theaters was still seat to seat.  Crew were very quick to clean any table when someone left but otherwise it was the same as it has always been. 

 

10 – TV Stations – Although the TV was nice and large, you had to turn it off and on a couple of times before it would work.  From the comment of our cabin steward, that is normal.  The only channels are Carnival stations about food, excursions (not necessarily for the ones you are able to go on), ship cameras, spoken What’s Happening, TCM (Turner Classic Movies), HGTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Travel Channel (aka Ghost Hunters any time all the time), Food Network and CBS News.   There is no movie channel but there are on demand movies.  Some are free, some are $4.99. 

 

11 – Smoking – I am not sure if the casino is a a gambling place where people smoke or a smoking lounge with some slot machines.  All I do know is that it almost seemed that smoking was mandatory in the casino because there was a LOT of it.  Casino is midship on Deck 4 and there is a large opening to Deck 5 so if you walked midship on Deck 4 or Deck 5, you better like smoke.

Question about the HUB app and menus....once boarded, were you able to see the Main Dining Room menus for the whole week? Or were they only available on each day? I was hoping to get on board, review the MDR menus and then make decisions about when to plan for my specialty dining, and figure out when the formal nights will be. thanks! 

[TNcruising02]

With the tickets for the water taxis, they probably don't have set times.  They call the zones  one by one until they board that zone and things slow down, then call the next zone.  It's not like zone 1 is from 8:00 to 8:30.  Maybe that's why the crew members were confused when you asked for the time.

I love the smart elevators and found they really cut down on everyone crowding to one elevator.  The new muster sounds great!  
A lot of smoking in the  casinos has always happened.  I try to get a slot machine away from anyone who is smoking, but my clothes usually end up smelling like smoke if I am in the casino for any length of time.  I read that the Mardi Gras has a nonsmoking section.
It does sound miserable waiting outside in a long line!  When we last cruised out of Miami, there was an on time line and an early/late line.  Even the early/late line wasn't long at that time.  Hopefully, things will go smoother for the next cruise.

[wgeddings]

19 minutes ago, bmswart3 said:

Question about the HUB app and menus....once boarded, were you able to see the Main Dining Room menus for the whole week? Or were they only available on each day? I was hoping to get on board, review the MDR menus and then make decisions about when to plan for my specialty dining, and figure out when the formal nights will be. thanks! 

 

YES!  That was one of the great things about the HUB app.  You could view the activities, menus in the main dining room, etc. for the entire week on a day by day basis.  We did exactly what you described and saw that for us, Friday had nothing we really were excited about for dinner so we booked Fahrenheit 555 for that night.   Being able to view the menus for all the restaurants was nice and there is a feature that lets you "check" activities that you like and I think that you could share that with the rest of your party.  

[wgeddings]

12 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:

With the tickets for the water taxis, they probably don't have set times.  They call the zones  one by one until they board that zone and things slow down, then call the next zone.  It's not like zone 1 is from 8:00 to 8:30.  Maybe that's why the crew members were confused when you asked for the time.

I love the smart elevators and found they really cut down on everyone crowding to one elevator.  The new muster sounds great!  
A lot of smoking in the  casinos has always happened.  I try to get a slot machine away from anyone who is smoking, but my clothes usually end up smelling like smoke if I am in the casino for any length of time.  I read that the Mardi Gras has a nonsmoking section.
It does sound miserable waiting outside in a long line!  When we last cruised out of Miami, there was an on time line and an early/late line.  Even the early/late line wasn't long at that time.  Hopefully, things will go smoother for the next cruise.

 

Part of the water taxi problem was that the material distributed referred to times yet the tickets were just referring to zones.  I do understand how the zones work but to me, it is reasonable to want to know that is I plan on getting off the ship at 10:00 (for example) what Zone should I pick.  In hindsight now, I know that by 10:30, all zones had been called so the zone really only matters if you want to get off very early (they started about 9:15 I think).  The printed material should give a little more guidance and the easiest thing could for the crewman to respond "What time did you want to get off the ship" and if it was 10:00 or later just tell the passenger that anything before 15 would likely be fine for him/her.  As I said, that was just one example of the "who's on first" fun.  I could give others.  For example, asking in the casino how many dollars would I need to spend to begin getting casino offers?  Wow, that was frustrating.  

 

 

[wgeddings]

I forgot to mention that I hate being hot and I knew from experience that the AC in the rooms is never enough to let me sleep comfortably.  When we got on, I went to Guest Services and requested a fan for my room and an extension cord for us to plug in our CPAP machines.  The person said it was no problem and both were delivered before 4:00 PM.  It made for a much better time and that bed was some kind of comfortable!  

 

A crew member tried to convince to wait to go to Guest Services until we were underway when the line would be shorter.  There were 2 people in line and I knew from experience that once everyone was on board, the line at guest services would be extremely long.  A non-experienced cruiser would have accepted the helpful advice of the crew and waited.  I knew better and hopefully my fellow cruise critic passengers know better too. 

 

BTW, TNCruising02, I did like the Smart Elevators.  We usually had no wait for elevators once we were used to them.  

[bmswart3]

18 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

 

YES!  That was one of the great things about the HUB app.  You could view the activities, menus in the main dining room, etc. for the entire week on a day by day basis.  We did exactly what you described and saw that for us, Friday had nothing we really were excited about for dinner so we booked Fahrenheit 555 for that night.   Being able to view the menus for all the restaurants was nice and there is a feature that lets you "check" activities that you like and I think that you could share that with the rest of your party.  

Perfect, thanks so much for the info. thats a huge relief. I hate to miss out on something super yummy in the MDR, but I definitely want to spend an evening at Fahrenheit! 

[princess76021]

1 hour ago, wgeddings said:

THINGS I WISH I KNEW ABOUT HORIZON BEFORE - First and foremost, this is a great ship and you will have a great time

 

1 – This is a very big ship!  Despite how big it is, you do not feel it is that large because it is well designed with dividers and such used well to make areas feel smaller.  Check the dimensions to compare to what you are used it.  This was roughly twice the size of most of the large ships we have sailed in the past. 

 

2 – Lots of food choices – in addition to the places you have to pay extra to eat at, there are any free places.  The Lido Buffet (The Marketplace) has basically 2 entire buffets.  Each buffet area has 4 buffets, a salad bar, a sweets bar and each one has a different specialty area (one has a deli and one has Empanadas and Gelatos).  There are 2 main pools (Resort Pool and Tides Pool).  By Resort Pool, you have Guy’s Burger Joint on one side and the Burrito/Taco place on the other.  By the Tides Pool, you have the Seafood Shack (which is not free) and the pizza place (which is free).  Cucino del Captaino and JiJi Asian both offer lunch menus for no additional charge. 

 

3 – The Carnival HUB app works really well on board.  Checking it before boarding, it was not very good and I was uncertain about it and the fact that there were not going to be Fun Times printed out.  Onboard however, once connected for free to the Carnival WiFi (which is free for HUB purposes although you cannot connect to anything else like the internet without a package), it is very intuitive and simple.  Menus are easy to access and so are maps. 

 

4 – Elevators are “smart”.  You go to the bank of elevators and select what floor you want.  The elevators are given letters (A, B, C, D, E) and the system then tells you that elevator A (for example) will take you to your floor.  When that door opens, you board and there are no floor buttons.  It takes you to your floor.  It actually does make things quicker and easier. 

 

5 – Simple Muster – when you board, you go to your muster station and are shown how to wear a life jacket (as stupid and quick as it sounds).  Then you are done with the muster and there is no mass gathering in the heat.  You can watch a safety video in your cabin.  Still some people do not comply with this 2-3 minute process so be prepared to constantly hear reminders when you are getting on ship. 

 

6 – Movie theaters – In addition to the “Dive in Movies” (movies they show by the pool on a huge overhead) there are 2 movie theaters.  One is the Thrill Theater which is similar to many movies/shows at Disneyworld (such as “It’s a Bug’s Life”) where the seats rattle a bit, water sprays, things tickle your legs, etc.  It only shows 3D immersive videos and each is about 4-5 minutes long.  They are shown in blocks of 3 and are Thrill Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 (based on how scary or active they are).  I did not do these but heard they were fun.  The other is a full IMAX theatre.  If you have been to an IMAX theater, you know what to expect.  It is quite large (tip, sit toward the back because with a huge screen, sitting close means having to turn your head a lot).  It shows standard IMAX fare like under sea things, space things but also shows first run movies.  When we were there (Aug 1-7, 2021) they were showing Snake Eyes and on Thurs and Friday when The Suicide Squad opened in theaters on land, it was shown there too.  Price was about the same as a movie on land so it was awesome.

 

7 -  Incredibly poor at answering simple questions – The crew were incredibly nice and polite and wanted to be helpful but if you asked questions, we almost always got an incorrect answer the first time.  If you ask a question, and they answer, confirm it with them!  Example, for the water taxi to Half Moon Cay, the notice put in everyone’s cabin talked about the timing of water taxies and how you need to go to 10 Forward to get a ticket for the time you wanted.  On 10 Forward, tickets were just numbered as Zone 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.  We were part of a large group of people all standing there trying to equate the zones with times.  I asked a crew member and he proceeded to “explain” that it was a water taxi port so everyone needed a ticket to determine the time they could board the tender and blah blah.  I had to stop him and explain that we understood that but we needed to know what TIME the zones would be.  He then explained that since there was no docking system, water taxies/tendered needed to be used so we should take a ticket for the time we wanted and blah blah.  I tried a final time to get him to understand that we just wanted to know what time, for example, Zone 6 might be boarding.  He said Oh, it will board after Zone 5.  I just thanked him and waited for a ship’s officer to walk by.  Same thing happened where he was determined to explain the mechanics of docking vs water tendering and would not answer the simple question.  I just thanked him and used the telephone to call Guest Services.  After being on hold for about 15 minutes, someone picked up and just hung up.  We gave up and just took tickets for Zone 6.  Same thing happened with several other issues. 

 

8 -  Port of Miami – We had an 11:30 “boarding time reservation”.  The line was VERY long and we waited in the lovely Miami muggy heat for about an hour to get into the building where there was another line.  Porters taking luggage were making huge stacks everywhere but shockingly, apparently all bags make it onto the ship.  Porters were telling people that they had no idea why the line was so long which caused me, and many others, to walk to the front of the line looking for a Carnival employee to ask to confirm that this was the line we needed to be in.  It was the correct line and I can only assume that porters were getting their jolly by telling lies to people.  Beware.  Once in the building, it does move pretty quickly.  By then you will be drenched in sweat though and tired of carrying whatever you planned to carry on. 

 

9 – COVID changes – There were very real changes due to COVID.  The crew all wore masks the whole time (depending on what the current requirements are when you go, hopefully you will not be required to wear one.  We only had to wear them when embarking, disembarking and then in the port of calls if required locally).  Buffets still operated normally with self serve.  Ice cream was still self-serve.  Seating in theaters was still seat to seat.  Crew were very quick to clean any table when someone left but otherwise it was the same as it has always been. 

 

10 – TV Stations – Although the TV was nice and large, you had to turn it off and on a couple of times before it would work.  From the comment of our cabin steward, that is normal.  The only channels are Carnival stations about food, excursions (not necessarily for the ones you are able to go on), ship cameras, spoken What’s Happening, TCM (Turner Classic Movies), HGTV, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Discovery, Travel Channel (aka Ghost Hunters any time all the time), Food Network and CBS News.   There is no movie channel but there are on demand movies.  Some are free, some are $4.99. 

 

11 – Smoking – I am not sure if the casino is a a gambling place where people smoke or a smoking lounge with some slot machines.  All I do know is that it almost seemed that smoking was mandatory in the casino because there was a LOT of it.  Casino is midship on Deck 4 and there is a large opening to Deck 5 so if you walked midship on Deck 4 or Deck 5, you better like smoke.

thank you so much for your detailed review!

hugs from texas!!

[TooManyWakeUpsTilWeSail]

@wgeddings

Thank you for your detailed experience with Horizon and especially the tender situation.  I’m pretending to work so I can’t comment much but you’ve said some things I was not aware of or prepared for.  

[JaniceB]

Thank you for sharing what you learned on your Horizon cruise.

[EngIceDave]

1 hour ago, wgeddings said:

 

4 – Elevators are “smart”.  You go to the bank of elevators and select what floor you want.  The elevators are given letters (A, B, C, D, E) and the system then tells you that elevator A (for example) will take you to your floor.  When that door opens, you board and there are no floor buttons.  It takes you to your floor.  It actually does make things quicker and easier.

 

 

That is similar to how the elevators in Nobu tower of Caesars Palace LV.

 

Key card tells it floor, then it tells you which elevator to wait at

 

 

[BlerkOne]

Half the casino is non-smoking on Horizon. I had no trouble getting the attention of casino staff when violators got within range of my nose. Especially for one idiot smoking a cigar.

 

They aren't water taxis or water tenders, Carnival calls them water shuttles now, for some bizarre reason.

[kdr69]

2 hours ago, wgeddings said:

We had an 11:30 “boarding time reservation”.

Just a clarification that its not a boarding time reservation its an Arrival time reservation.  Just a lot of people get the same time to Arrive as you did.

[wgeddings]

26 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Half the casino is non-smoking on Horizon. I had no trouble getting the attention of casino staff when violators got within range of my nose. Especially for one idiot smoking a cigar.

 

They aren't water taxis or water tenders, Carnival calls them water shuttles now, for some bizarre reason.

 

One of my favorite quotes is "You can call a Bull a Cow but I ain't gonna milk it".  Yeah, they did refer to them as shuttles but i am more familiar with the term taxi or tender.  😁

 

It is like the old smoking and non-smoking sections on an airplane.  You are in a sealed metal tube, EVERYTHING is the smoking section.  Or when restaurants used to have smoking and non-smoking sections, smoke doesn't recognize that little sign.  I liked when airports had the "smoking lounges" where they basically sealed in all the smokers and we could look at them like monkeys in a zoo.  

[wgeddings]

3 minutes ago, kdr69 said:

Just a clarification that its not a boarding time reservation its an Arrival time reservation.  Just a lot of people get the same time to Arrive as you did.

 

Yes, arrival time reservation, boarding time reservation, it is all basically the same in that the paperwork says to show up during that time frame (11:30 to 12:00).  There were people ahead of us and behind us with earlier and later times.  No one even looked to see what time we had and I believe it is basically there to hopefully control the flow and reduce the lines by discouraging everyone from showing up at the same time.  My point is that it did not work at all at PortMiami and waiting over an hour in the lovely muggy Miami noon heat while wearing a mask is not something anyone is likely to enjoy. 

[ontheweb]

19 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

 

One of my favorite quotes is "You can call a Bull a Cow but I ain't gonna milk it".  Yeah, they did refer to them as shuttles but i am more familiar with the term taxi or tender.  😁

 

It is like the old smoking and non-smoking sections on an airplane.  You are in a sealed metal tube, EVERYTHING is the smoking section.  Or when restaurants used to have smoking and non-smoking sections, smoke doesn't recognize that little sign.  I liked when airports had the "smoking lounges" where they basically sealed in all the smokers and we could look at them like monkeys in a zoo.  

The reminder of when there was a smoking and non smoking section on planes brought back a terrible memory. We were flying from one of the NY area airports to San Francisco for the wedding of one of my brothers. We (including a child) were seated in the first row non-smoking. The people in front of us in the last row of smoking had cigarettes going the whole way; they were not even smoking them just keeping them lit in front of them. By the time the flight was over I felt like death warmed over.😢 Thank you federal government for now banning all smoking on airlines.😊

 

Can you imagine if smoking were not banned now on airlines, people would use a lit cigarette as an excuse not to wear a mask!

[bucfan2]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Can you imagine if smoking were not banned now on airlines, people would use a lit cigarette as an excuse not to wear a mask!

I despise cigarette smoke...that being said - having gotten the experimental therapy, it's a bummer to wish the entire ship was smoking to enable the diaper to go in the trash.

[klfhngr]

Can you text each other via the App?

[wgeddings]

39 minutes ago, klfhngr said:

Can you text each other via the App?

 

No, but that is an interesting question.  When we got onboard it is necessary to "activate" the app and WiFi (your free account which does not include internet).  You have to enter your birthday and folio number.  The folio number is on the Sign and Sail card so until you get your card (when your room is accessible) you do not know the folio number.  So until you get into your room, you may not be able to access the HUB app.  

 

Also, once activated, we were offered to enable a CHAT feature for $5 for the whole cruise.  Since it was 2 of us we did not do it but were tempted.  Hopefully someone who has activated that can tell us if it uses your text feature on your phone or uses the Carnival HUB app.  I would like to know before my December cruise when I have a lot of people going. 

[ProgRockCruiser]

38 minutes ago, wgeddings said:

Also, once activated, we were offered to enable a CHAT feature for $5 for the whole cruise.  Since it was 2 of us we did not do it but were tempted.  Hopefully someone who has activated that can tell us if it uses your text feature on your phone or uses the Carnival HUB app.  I would like to know before my December cruise when I have a lot of people going. 

The Chat feature of the HUB App is a separate function from your normal texting/MMS apps.

 

It works similarly, but is a different tool.

[Cruise Related]

3 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

The Chat feature of the HUB App is a separate function from your normal texting/MMS apps.

 

It works similarly, but is a different tool.

It also cost like two bucks or something. If you have an iPhone and carnivals internets you can iMessage each other. Not sure if that’s a thing on android. 

[ProgRockCruiser]

3 minutes ago, Cruise Related said:

It also cost like two bucks or something. If you have an iPhone and carnivals internets you can iMessage each other. Not sure if that’s a thing on android. 

It is $5 per "person" for the entire cruise duration (i.e. not per day), and you use it without having to otherwise pay for wifi access - just airplane mode and turn on wifi.

 

If you are paying for one of the Internet packages, I would imagine most messaging apps will work, but each person would have to sign up, which can be costly.

[Cruise Related]

5 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

It is $5 per "person" for the entire cruise duration (i.e. not per day), and you use it without having to otherwise pay for wifi access - just airplane mode and turn on wifi.

 

If you are paying for one of the Internet packages, I would imagine most messaging apps will work, but each person would have to sign up, which can be costly.

Ah man! 5 bucks? Whelp I was almost half way there. Good info! I usually just use carnivals 2nd tier package and do the imessaging and use other apps to get things done. Thanks for the info! 

[wgeddings]

40 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

The Chat feature of the HUB App is a separate function from your normal texting/MMS apps.

 

It works similarly, but is a different tool.

 

Thanks!   Good to know.  Are you limited in who you can text or, how do you identify who you are sending a text to?

[csm5986142]

55 minutes ago, ProgRockCruiser said:

Also, once activated, we were offered to enable a CHAT feature for $5 for the whole cruise.  Since it was 2 of us we did not do it but were tempted.  Hopefully someone who has activated that can tell us if it uses your text feature on your phone or uses the Carnival HUB app.  I would like to know before my December cruise when I have a lot of people going. 

 

We used the CHAT feature on a recent cruise and will from now on, loved it (but I have a teenager to keep track of). 🙂

It is completely outside of the text feature on your phone, and through the HUB app.

As mentioned, it's $5 to activate it for the entire cruise, but each person you want to communicate with has to also pay the $5/get activated.