Review of Horizon

[kdmal1]

Sail date 10/14/2023. 8-day Southern Caribbean out of Miami. DH and myself, SIL and BIL, MIL and my Mom.

 

Embarkation: The cruise coming back had a medical ER so they were late arriving at port. Once at port, it was storming so that made it even later. It was probably 11:00 - 11:30 before they started letting us board. Once we were onboard, someone on OUR ship had a medical emergency and had to be removed.

 

**Very important to note here, the staterooms now have some sort of card holder when you walk in the room where you are supposed to put your room key to make all the power in the room come on. This couple did that, but the husband was tired out after the long embarkation process, so he stayed in the room while the wife and her sister went to eat. She hooked his C-PAP machine up and left. When she came back, he was unresponsive on the floor. After she had taken her room key out of the slot to go get lunch, the cabin lost all power and his C-PAP machine quit working. They had to get an ambulance out to come and get him. Last I heard, he was finally released from the hospital and was back home.**

 

Just important to note that you must have some sort of card in that slot anytime you want constant power. This could simply be charging your electronics at night. I ended up putting the hotel key I had used the night before embarkation and just left it all week.

 

Smart Elevators: I did not have a problem with them but there were a lot of people complaining. If the wait was too long for us, we took the stairs.

 

Stateroom: DH and I were celebrating our anniversary, so we splurged on a Cloud-9 Spa Suite. It was nice having a “walk-in” closet and larger bathroom and we also made use of the Thermal Spa, but I am still not sure we would book another one. We like our normal balcony room just fine.

 

We ate at the Steak House the first night. The food was great, as usual. We also did the Chef’s Table. Excellent also. This was our 3^rd Chef’s Table, and I cannot stress how truly great it is.

 

We rode both slides, and they were awesome!!

 

Aruba: Found someone outside of the port to take us all on a tour of the island. Our driver would stop at some beautiful places and would take pictures of the 6 of us. It was fun and would do it again. The cost was $30 per person, and it was just us in the bus. We went to Eagle Beach and watched the sunset. Breathtaking. We did some shopping at was back on the ship for our late dinner at 8:15.

 

Bonaire: We did the Adults Only Sail and Snorkel through Carnival. It was great. The snorkeling itself was a little disappointing but the crew made the whole experience well worth it.

 

LaRomana: One of the Alchemist at the Alchemy Bar recommended Altos de Chavon. It was beautiful. It costs us $11.00 a piece for a round trip bus ticket (you get them right outside of the port) and it was CASH ONLY! They dropped you off and you went exploring. Their buses would run every 20 minutes, with the last one leaving at 4:00 (you had to be back on the ship by 5:30). Well worth it.

 

Amber Cove: We rented an Ocean Cabana through Carnival. Very disappointing. It was $500.00 and would hold up to 8 people. There were 6 of us. They had a whopping two lounging chairs outside on the deck and that was it – mind you, this is supposed to be for 8 people. We asked for more, so he brought us two more from the pool area, but no more could fit after that. We saw people with floats, so we asked how we could get one. They were $12.00 each. Just seemed to nickel and dime us for a float?? The drinks were not great and cost about $13 each. Hamburgers were $17. We ended up going back on the ship for lunch. The zip line was fun but that was a one and done deal. We would not rent this again.

 

Leon was our Cruise Director, and he did a great job of keeping the entertainment flowing.

 

Debarkation: A TRUE NIGHTMARE!!!!!! This makes me never want to cruise out of Miami again. Some was not the fault of the port…the facial recognition scanner was down so the people with passports had to go through the same line as the people without, which slowed everything down. All of our (the 6 of us) checked luggage was to come out on belt A. About 75% of it did, but we found a couple on C and one on D. There was just no rhyme or reason with any of it.

 

Cons:

• No hot water on the ship on night 1. This was not a big deal to me at all, but I only mention it because I heard a lot of people complaining about it. They had the water heater fixed the very next morning.
• The lock on our cabin door quit working and we had to get maintenance to come. They ended up having to take the whole lock off the door and replace it. Again, not a big deal but it happened to three other people on our side of the deck.
• The ship itself just seemed off. The Sports Bar is tiny! People were standing in the hallway trying to watch NFL games through the glass of the bar. The lounge was small too. We had to stand up to watch the Love and Marriage game (along with a LOT of other people) because there was nowhere to sit. This has never happened on any of the ships I have been on previously. I would think they could make certain areas smaller (cough, IMAX, cough), and made some of the more popular places a little larger.
• My MIL and Mom roomed together. I paid for my mom's portion straight to my MIL but when it got time to check in, I set my mom up with an account using my credit card. I also put $100 in cruise cash on her account and bought a couple of AARP gift cards to put on once we got there. Well, the $100 cruise cash went to my MIL because she was the primary one in the room, even though I bought it using my mom's login and checked for it to go to my mom's account. The gift cards worked fine but when she went over those gift card amounts, she couldn’t purchase anything else and had to go to guest services. Come to find out, if the credit card used does not match the name of the person in the cabin, they will not process it. It would have been great if they had mentioned that when I was checking her in and I typed MY NAME on the credit card line. Other people may know this, I did not.
• This brings me to my biggest gripe of all… Carnival has a great Hub App that we all used. But there is no way to add funds to your account using the app. It was either stand in line with guest services or use one of the two kiosks on the ship. And if you are using the kiosk, the credit card must match the name of the person in the cabin. I ended up just buying gift cards and using the kiosk to add to her account. It was just crazy. They really need to figure out a way to add funds on the app as opposed to having people stand in crazy long lines,

 

Overall, it was a great trip. This was my 8^th cruise with Carnival, and I will definitely go again. I guess you learn a little more with each cruise so I will take all that happened, the good and the bad, and move on to the next one.

 

 

 

[Drazil65]

• They really need to figure out a way to add funds on the app as opposed to having people stand in crazy long lines,

 

 

Yikes...you think the lines are long now...can't even imagine the issues that this would cause and the people screaming about it in those long lines...

Edited October 24, 2023 by Drazil65

[Journey11]

Informative and interesting review. Thank you for taking the time to prepare it. 

[Pellaz]

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Sail date 10/14/2023. 8-day Southern Caribbean out of Miami. DH and myself, SIL and BIL, MIL and my Mom.

 

I was on this sailing also.  Overall we had a good time, but for the first time in a while, we never had "outstanding" service in the MDR causing us to ask for a particular crew again.  OTOH, we never had a bad experience there either.  🙂 

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Just important to note that you must have some sort of card in that slot anytime you want constant power. This could simply be charging your electronics at night. I ended up putting the hotel key I had used the night before embarkation and just left it all week.

After this incident, they should simply have the room stewards place extra name-cards in the slot permanently.  Cardboard business cards work as well as credit cards.   It's not as if power is THAT much of a problem onboard; the ship's diesel generators produce upward of 70 megawatts of power.  

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Smart Elevators: I did not have a problem with them but there were a lot of people complaining. If the wait was too long for us, we took the stairs.

 

Carnival REALLY should make the "tutorial" video available to everyone before the cruise, maybe in an email.  The system works well, EXCEPT when people don't follow directions and overload a car with a large group that the system isn't "expecting."  

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

We rode both slides, and they were awesome!!

 

Yep! 

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Aruba: Found someone outside of the port to take us all on a tour of the island. Our driver would stop at some beautiful places and would take pictures of the 6 of us. It was fun and would do it again. The cost was $30 per person, and it was just us in the bus. We went to Eagle Beach and watched the sunset. Breathtaking. We did some shopping at was back on the ship for our late dinner at 8:15.

 

Bonaire: We did the Adults Only Sail and Snorkel through Carnival. It was great. The snorkeling itself was a little disappointing but the crew made the whole experience well worth it.

 

I did the catamaran snorkeling in Aruba -- second time -- and it was fine.  The cat is surprisingly well-equipped; it even had a soda gun at the bar.  

 

We all did the Private Van With Driver for Bonaire and it was the highlight of the entire cruise.  Great driver/guide and we saw a huge part of the island, which was great since it was our first time there! 

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Amber Cove: We rented an Ocean Cabana through Carnival. Very disappointing. It was $500.00 and would hold up to 8 people. There were 6 of us. They had a whopping two lounging chairs outside on the deck and that was it – mind you, this is supposed to be for 8 people. We asked for more, so he brought us two more from the pool area, but no more could fit after that. We saw people with floats, so we asked how we could get one. They were $12.00 each. Just seemed to nickel and dime us for a float?? The drinks were not great and cost about $13 each. Hamburgers were $17. We ended up going back on the ship for lunch. The zip line was fun but that was a one and done deal. We would not rent this again.

 

We six rented a Hillside Cabana -- it was the LAST cabana of any kind available when I snagged it -- and we were very happy with it.  Our own hot-tub, A/C, close proximity to the Sky Bar, slide and zipline (those were included free), and gorgeous views.  We paid less for it since the hilltops are regarded as the least desirable of the three cabana-types, but we thought it was great. 

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Debarkation: A TRUE NIGHTMARE!!!!!! This makes me never want to cruise out of Miami again. Some was not the fault of the port…the facial recognition scanner was down so the people with passports had to go through the same line as the people without, which slowed everything down. All of our (the 6 of us) checked luggage was to come out on belt A. About 75% of it did, but we found a couple on C and one on D. There was just no rhyme or reason with any of it.

 

Oh, it was a mess.   It didn't help that the escalator failed at one point, clogging up the gangway.  

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Cons:

• No hot water on the ship on night 1. This was not a big deal to me at all, but I only mention it because I heard a lot of people complaining about it. They had the water heater fixed the very next morning.

 

Our hot water never went out, but our friend Jay's did.  Our other cruise-friends had no issues.  

 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Overall, it was a great trip. This was my 8^th cruise with Carnival, and I will definitely go again. I guess you learn a little more with each cruise so I will take all that happened, the good and the bad, and move on to the next one.

 

We felt the same way.  We really enjoyed the cruise, even though there were a few bumps and hiccups here and there, and we're looking forward to next year on the Celebration.  

[pe4all]

Nice balanced review - thanks for taking the time to write it.  We have also had problems on debark with the facial recognition being down in Miami - seems like a problem they need to address.  Really creates a log-jam getting off the ship.   

[txsmiles]

On 10/24/2023 at 4:24 PM, kdmal1 said:

Aruba: Found someone outside of the port to take us all on a tour of the island. Our driver would stop at some beautiful places and would take pictures of the 6 of us. It was fun and would do it again. The cost was $30 per person, and it was just us in the bus. We went to Eagle Beach and watched the sunset. Breathtaking. We did some shopping at was back on the ship for our late dinner at 8:15.

Thanks @kdmal1 for sharing your experiences.  Curious about whether you know who you used for your Aruba tour?

[Tobleronebar]

14 hours ago, txsmiles said:

Thanks @kdmal1 for sharing your experiences.  Curious about whether you know who you used for your Aruba tour?

I would like to know, too.

[havanadaydreaming]

Loved the horizon elevator system. Definitely reduced line jumpers. 

[kdmal1]

On 10/24/2023 at 5:06 PM, Drazil65 said:

• They really need to figure out a way to add funds on the app as opposed to having people stand in crazy long lines,

 

 

Yikes...you think the lines are long now...can't even imagine the issues that this would cause and the people screaming about it in those long lines...

Issues by being able to add funds using the app? It would be just like the kiosks they have now, just on your phone.?.?

[kdmal1]

17 hours ago, txsmiles said:

Thanks @kdmal1 for sharing your experiences.  Curious about whether you know who you used for your Aruba tour?

I do not. I had a card for him but can’t locate it. Honestly, they are everywhere right outside of the port. It was $30 per person and that seemed to be the going rate for all of them. 

[kdmal1]

1 hour ago, havanadaydreaming said:

Loved the horizon elevator system. Definitely reduced line jumpers. 

Agreed!!! It was funny watching people just jump on one and then get angry it didn’t stop on their floor. And this was like day 4 or 5. 

[kdmal1]

On 10/24/2023 at 5:08 PM, Journey11 said:

Informative and interesting review. Thank you for taking the time to prepare it. 

Thank you. I wish I had a flair with words, but I don’t. 🙂

[kdmal1]

On 10/27/2023 at 5:10 AM, pe4all said:

Nice balanced review - thanks for taking the time to write it.  We have also had problems on debark with the facial recognition being down in Miami - seems like a problem they need to address.  Really creates a log-jam getting off the ship.   

Yes!!!!!  It was so crowded trying to collect luggage, you could barely turn around. 

[kdmal1]

2 hours ago, Tobleronebar said:

I would like to know, too.

If I locate their card, I’ll be sure to post it here. 

[rtfnl]

Were there people selling Bonaire tours and if you remember how much, please 

Edited October 28, 2023 by rtfnl

[kdmal1]

29 minutes ago, rtfnl said:

Were there people selling Bonaire tours and if you remember how much, please 

I’m so sorry, but I don’t know. There were a lot of cabs and vans outside of the port but since we had an excursion booked, we didn’t even check into them at all. 

[rtfnl]

Thank you though. We have.a tour for my group but was quoted $50. We need a bus due to it being 30 of us.