Cruising is back on the HORIZON!!! (with pics) – 8/21/2021.

[Jamman54]

Ahoy, Cruise Critic family! My lovely wife Patti and I have just returned from our first post shutdown cruise on the beautiful Carnival Horizon. This was an 8 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean from Miami with port stops in Aruba, Curacao, La Romana, and Amber Cove. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 1 year, 11 months, and 25 days, (but who’s counting?), since we last sailed on a B2B on the Carnival Sunrise. This was our longest break between cruises since 1995 when we took 3 years off to have our two sons.

 

We were originally not supposed to sail until October when we head back out to Long Beach to sail on the Miracle and Panorama, but we received a casino offer that we just couldn’t refuse, so we booked the Horizon. Air fares were through the roof, with many last minute cancellations, so we decided that we would drive down to Miami and back.

 

I still have a multitude of behind the scenes prep work to do, but I have enough done to get this party started. For those that are wondering, our go to camera is the Canon PowerShot XS720 HS, and our water camera is the Fuji FinePix XP60.

 

We are so excited to be doing our reviews again. This will be our first cruise on a Vista Class ship, so Patti is so happy to be able to photograph something a little different than our previous cruises. Our format will remain the same as our past reviews, with a day by day account of all the fun. As always, there will be many, many pictures with plenty of explanations and details. We strive to make you feel that you are cruising right along with us. So, grab yourself a DOD, hop on board with us, and join the fun!

 

T-Minus 3 Days -  8/18/21 - Off we go!!!

 

Well, not quite.  A couple of weeks before the cruise we received an email from Carnival that we would have to be tested for Covid-19 before we could board the ship. Since our cruise leaves on a Saturday, they said we could be tested anytime starting the Wednesday before. Since we’re both vaccinated we were allowed to get the rapid antigen test.

 

We immediately booked appointments at a fairly close CVS for Wednesday the 18^th. That’s today, so we drove over to CVS and got our tests. When we were done they told us that they were a little backed up so it would be about 3 hours before we got our results, which they would text and email to us.

 

Those 3 hours were the most tense and stressful hours of our journey. We were all packed and the car loaded up for the trip down to Florida. What if we tested positive? What is our contingency plan? Should we even have a contingency plan?  Finally, at 5pm, almost exactly 3 hours since we were tested, the results were revealed….

 

 

             

We were both negative! A giant weight had been lifted from our shoulders, and now we could relax. I could now take my nap before beginning our drive.

 

Since we had the time, we would take two days to drive down to Miami. When we drive down to Florida, we like to leave at night to avoid the morning rush hour traffic in Baltimore and Washington. It is such an easy drive when there is very little traffic on the roads. I just set the cruise control to 79 mph and listen to tunes all night long. We left at 11pm, and of course Ryan took the obligatory departure picture......

 

 

To be continued…..

Edited September 3, 2021 by Jamman54

[TravelGirlinDallas]

So glad to see you cruising again!! Looking forward to following your review!

[mkcurran]

Yay!

[Jamman54]

T-Minus 2 Days - 8/19/21  - First stop, Kingsland Georgia. 

 

Patti is not a fan of driving long distances, even though I do most of the driving, but as long as we stop at least once at Cracker Barrel on the way down and back, she is happy. Around 7am we were getting hungry for breakfast so we stopped. This one was in Smithfield, North Carolina.

 

 

Once Patti got her shopping fix in, we were on our way again. Not long after leaving Smithfield we encountered a landmark familiar to those that travel up and down the I-95 corridor……

 

 

 

 

This place is a tourist trap, a dump, and looks exactly the same as when I first passed it 45 years ago! Every time we pass here the place seems deserted. We continued on through South Carolina and into Georgia, and after driving about 13 hours we arrived in Kingsland, Georgia, where we would be staying at the Country Inn & Suites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If this place looks familiar it’s because we always stay here before cruising from Jacksonville, and we highly recommend it. It’s located at exit 3 on I-95, just a short distance from the Florida border and about 25 minutes from Jaxport. We were in Room 208……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

Edited September 3, 2021 by Jamman54

[Jamman54]

Here are some more pictures from the Country Inn & Suites in Kingsland, Georgia……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had dinner at a nearby Ruby Tuesday…..

 

 

 

Again, we forgot to take any food pictures. We sure are rusty doing this review thing!   Afterwards we made our way back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

T-Minus 1 Day – 8/20/21 -  Next stop, Dania Florida

 

We were up at 6am to begin the second leg of our journey, but first we had to partake of the free breakfast that the Country Inn & Suites offers. Because of covid, the hotel staff would dish out whatever you wanted which was okay by us…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are back on the road again, and in a matter of minutes we are in Florida……

 

 

A little further down the road we hop on I-295 which circles around the city of Jacksonville. Here we are crossing the Dames Point Bridge, a bridge we’ve sailed under many times when sailing out of Jaxport…..

 

 

 

After driving a little over 5 hours we have arrived at the Springhill Suites in Dania, Florida…….

 

 

To be continued……

[CruisinMama2003]

Yay! Glad yall are back to cruising and reviewing! We have been on the Vista 2x now (most recent was a month ago) so im interested to see (read?) how yall liked the Horizon 😁

[Jamman54]

If again the hotel looks familiar, it’s because we stayed here prior to our Conquest cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale a few years back. It’s very close to the airport and cruise terminals and offers shuttles to both. We looked at hotels in Miami, including the Holiday Inn which we liked, but the prices were very high, so we opted to go back to the Springhill Suites for half the price. We were in room 315…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[mjrcruiser]

So excited to read your review!  I am a transplant NJ girl living in NC, and you stopped in Smithfield, NC....I am very familiar with the I-95 corridor and the South of the Border makes me laugh every time we pass it.  My husband and I sailed the Horizon B2B in May 2019.  Looking forward to reliving our experience through yours.  🙂

[Jamman54]

Here are some pictures from the hotel. We recommend this hotel whether you are cruising from Ft. Lauderdale or Miami…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate dinner at the Hollywood Ale House, but the only food picture we remembered to take was of our cheese stick appetizer……

 

 

 

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel for the evening.

 

Coming up next: We board the Carnival Horizon!!!

[topaz123]

50 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Ahoy, Cruise Critic family! My lovely wife Patti and I have just returned from our first post shutdown cruise on the beautiful Carnival Horizon. This was an 8 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean from Miami with port stops in Aruba, Curacao, La Romana, and Amber Cove. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 1 year, 11 months, and 25 days, (but who’s counting?), since we last sailed on a B2B on the Carnival Sunrise. This was our longest break between cruises since 1995 when we took 3 years off to have our two sons.

 

We were originally not supposed to sail until October when we head back out to Long Beach to sail on the Miracle and Panorama, but we received a casino offer that we just couldn’t refuse, so we booked the Horizon. Air fares were through the roof, with many last minute cancellations, so we decided that we would drive down to Miami and back.

 

I still have a multitude of behind the scenes prep work to do, but I have enough done to get this party started. For those that are wondering, our go to camera is the Canon PowerShot XS720 HS, and our water camera is the Fuji FinePix XP60.

 

We are so excited to be doing our reviews again. This will be our first cruise on a Vista Class ship, so Patti is so happy to be able to photograph something a little different than our previous cruises. Our format will remain the same as our past reviews, with a day by day account of all the fun. As always, there will be many, many pictures with plenty of explanations and details. We strive to make you feel that you are cruising right along with us. So, grab yourself a DOD, hop on board with us, and join the fun!

 

T-Minus 3 Days -  8/18/21 - Off we go!!!

 

Well, not quite.  A couple of weeks before the cruise we received an email from Carnival that we would have to be tested for Covid-19 before we could board the ship. Since our cruise leaves on a Saturday, they said we could be tested anytime starting the Wednesday before. Since we’re both vaccinated we were allowed to get the rapid antigen test.

 

We immediately booked appointments at a fairly close CVS for Wednesday the 18^th. That’s today, so we drove over to CVS and got our tests. When we were done they told us that they were a little backed up so it would be about 3 hours before we got our results, which they would text and email to us.

 

Those 3 hours were the most tense and stressful hours of our journey. We were all packed and the car loaded up for the trip down to Florida. What if we tested positive? What is our contingency plan? Should we even have a contingency plan?  Finally, at 5pm, almost exactly 3 hours since we were tested, the results were revealed….

 

 

             

We were both negative! A giant weight had been lifted from our shoulders, and now we could relax. I could now take my nap before beginning our drive.

 

Since we had the time, we would take two days to drive down to Miami. When we drive down to Florida, we like to leave at night to avoid the morning rush hour traffic in Baltimore and Washington. It is such an easy drive when there is very little traffic on the roads. I just set the cruise control to 79 mph and listen to tunes all night long. We left at 11pm, and of course Ryan took the obligatory departure picture......

 

 

To be continued…..

Great Picture....hoping we can be just as happy in NOV/HORIZON.....

[lidoplease]

So excited to see you and Patti sailing again. All your older reviews kept me sane during covid! We leave in about a month on the Mardi Gras. 

[vicky3vicky]

I am so excited for your live review!

[vicky3vicky]

We have reservation for bonsai teppanyaki on the Panorama next year. If you tried it will you please share your experience. please and thank you.

[V_V]

Yay! I'm looking forward to your review of Amber Cove. 

[Jamman54]

Day # 1  -  Embarkation Day  -  8/21/21

 

We were up at 7am to a beautiful day and we are ready to cruise!

 

 

We got our suitcases re-packed, tagged, and ready to go. First, we had to partake of the Springhill Suites free breakfast. The staff once again  served your choices to you. Damn covid!  Of course we have zero pictures of the food offerings.  We had time to walk around before leaving and Patti made friends with the resident cat…..

 

 

 

Around 9:30am we made the 30 minute drive to the port of Miami…..

 

 

 

The Elation and Horizon docked at the Port of Miami…..

 

 

After coming out of the tunnel we made our way to Terminal D, where we got our first close up looks of the Horizon……

 

 

 

After dropping off our luggage we made our way to the adjacent parking garage and parked right in the middle by the elevators on Level 2. Here are a couple of views of the Horizon from the parking garage…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…….

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

So glad to see you cruising again!! Looking forward to following your review!

First to the party! Welcome aboard! 

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, mkcurran said:

Yay!

 

Glad to have you. Welcome aboard! 

 

1 hour ago, CruisinMama2003 said:

Yay! Glad yall are back to cruising and reviewing! We have been on the Vista 2x now (most recent was a month ago) so im interested to see (read?) how yall liked the Horizon 😁

 

Yep, it's great to be cruising and reviewing. Thanks for following along! 

 

57 minutes ago, mjrcruiser said:

So excited to read your review!  I am a transplant NJ girl living in NC, and you stopped in Smithfield, NC....I am very familiar with the I-95 corridor and the South of the Border makes me laugh every time we pass it.  My husband and I sailed the Horizon B2B in May 2019.  Looking forward to reliving our experience through yours.  🙂

 

Glad to have you along for the ride. Remember, you can take the girl out of Jersey, but you can't take the Jersey out of the girl! 

[Jamman54]

58 minutes ago, topaz123 said:

Great Picture....hoping we can be just as happy in NOV/HORIZON.....

 

We're still smiling! 

 

51 minutes ago, lidoplease said:

So excited to see you and Patti sailing again. All your older reviews kept me sane during covid! We leave in about a month on the Mardi Gras. 

 

Glad to have you following along again. Have a great cruise on the Mardi Gras. We have to wait until April to sail on her. 

 

45 minutes ago, vicky3vicky said:

We have reservation for bonsai teppanyaki on the Panorama next year. If you tried it will you please share your experience. please and thank you.

 

We did not do the Bonsai Teppanyaki on this cruise. Thanks for following along. 

 

44 minutes ago, V_V said:

Yay! I'm looking forward to your review of Amber Cove. 

 

Thanks for coming along for the ride. We had a great time there, but it will be a while before we get to that part of the review. We covered Amber Cove extensively on our Conquest review if you want to check that out. 

[Jamman54]

Time to board the ship……

 

 

At this point it was only 10:20 and we had the 11 to 11:30 time slot. There didn’t seem to be any kind of line so we decided to try to get in. We fully expected to be sent to the Early/Late line. We got to the first checkpoint where they checked our boarding passes then sent us through.

 

Once inside the doors we were directed to a station where they examined our vaccination records and covid test results. Satisfied, they stamped our boarding passes and sent us to the next stop, which was the security scan.

 

Once through there we were directed into the check in line where we basically walked up to the next available station. It appeared that they had close to forty stations available for checking in.

 

Checking in went very quickly, and once again our boarding passes were stamped and we were sent to the seats to wait. In about five minutes they began boarding starting with the suites. Less than a minute later they called for boarding zones A01 thru A03. That’s us!

 

Just before heading upstairs we had our embarkation photo taken. That done we made our way upstairs to where they were doing the facial recognition pictures and breezed thru there. As we made our way to the gangway I noticed that they had finished calling all the “A” zones, and were now starting with the “B” zones. I said to Patti that I thought that those boarding later would breeze right through. Boy was I wrong which I’ll show you later. Anyway, here is our first embarkation photo in a long time…..

 

 

We boarded the Horizon at 10:45, and the first thing that catches your eye is the dreamscape by the Lobby Bar…..

 

 

 

Here is the gangway entrance to Deck 3…..

 

 

Here I am getting my first Thirsty Frog Red of the cruise…..

 

 

 

Patti will start with a Mocha Chocolate Getaway…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[mkcurran]

The smiles seems to be a bit bigger in the pictures this go around...

[Jamman54]

2 minutes ago, mkcurran said:

The smiles seems to be a bit bigger in the pictures this go around...

You bet! 

[SenatorsFan]

I'm so happy to see you back cruising and sharing your adventure with us. I hope you enjoyed your time on Horizon. I know I did. 😀

Heather 

[redsox1584]

Very excited for your review!  I am doing the same itinerary in 2 weeks on the Horizon

[Jamman54]

40 minutes ago, SenatorsFan said:

I'm so happy to see you back cruising and sharing your adventure with us. I hope you enjoyed your time on Horizon. I know I did. 😀

Heather 

Hey Heather! Always glad to have you along with us, plus hockey season is just around the corner. Go Devils!