Carnival Horizon Quick Review (Mostly food Pictures)

[Ideb]

We were on the December 23-31 Horizon Christmas cruise from Miami. Port stops were Bonaire, Aruba and Dominican Republic. Overall, it was a good cruise. It was our 4th Carnival cruise and we've sailed on two recent Royal Caribbean cruises. I wouldn't rate this as my favorite cruise. I think the entertainment and food was much better on prior cruises on Vista and Dream. Our whole family thought there was room for improvement on Horizon but we still enjoyed the cruise.

 

One of the things I missed on RC was the cakes in the buffet. I remembered them being so good on both Vista and Dream. I've read several times where people said they didn't like them because they were dry and I didn't believe it because my experience had been so good. However this time the cakes looked the same as before but every time I tried them I thought they were dry and the icing tasted like butter or shortening. They weren't very sweet at all. They do look pretty.

 

First day cakes:

[Ideb]

First night dinner: Pappadelle with braised lamb, crawfish strudel, szechuan shrimp, 12 hour braised short ribs. Pasta was pretty good. The shrimp itself was very good but there were only a few shrimp on the plate. The noodles that came with the shrimp dish had no flavor and were greasy. Ribs were kind of overcooked and dry. Mac and cheese was good. The last picture was a pudding dessert from the buffet called "chocolate indulgence". It was pretty good.

[Ideb]

2nd night in the MDR. Some of the things ordered at our table that I got pictures of are: marinated chicken tenders (very good dish) appetizer lasagna, broiled striploin, key lime pie and bitter and blanc.

[Ideb]

Sea day brunch omelet with side of bacon and hash browns, chocolate layer cake and some smoked beef and mac and cheese from Guy's Pig and Anchor. If you asked for brisket they always say they don't have it so you must ask for "smoked beef" 😄 

[Ideb]

Christmas towel animal Santa and reindeer near the towel station on Lido, some of the Christmas cakes on Christmas Day and an afternoon pizza snack for a family member.

[Ideb]

Christmas dinner things we ordered: Deviled egg appetizer, Short rib and yam croquette (Just okay-it was like the pot roast and sweet potatoes mixed together and deep fried basically like it's name said), Parpadelle pasta with wild mushroom sauce (I love alfredo of most any kind but this was very bland) Grilled shrimp, turkey and dressing (didn't try these), Eggnog cheesecake and pecan pie. 

[fbe2228]

Thank you for your pictures and reviews of the food.  We are long time Carnival cruisers, and will be trying out the new menu next month.  Sad about the cold soups not being on the menu anymore!!

[john91498]

Thanks for the review.

 

Seeing the P&A mac & cheese makes me hungry...😀

[mz-s]

The food looks worlds better than on my last cruise, on Carnival Magic. I'm drooling at these photos.

[dlphn501]

Thank you for this!!  I have been looking for food pics from the new MDR menu, specifically the items that I would order.  Will be on Horizon for Easter.

[Ideb]

3 hours ago, fbe2228 said:

Thank you for your pictures and reviews of the food.  We are long time Carnival cruisers, and will be trying out the new menu next month.  Sad about the cold soups not being on the menu anymore!!

You are welcome. I'm glad to share. There is the strawberry chia seed cold soup on one of the menus one night but I didn't order it so no picture unfortunately.

[Ideb]

1 hour ago, john91498 said:

Thanks for the review.

 

Seeing the P&A mac & cheese makes me hungry...😀

The mac and cheese is the best thing at Pig and Anchor. I wish it was served inside the restaurant instead of walking up to the window out outside. It was cold, rainy and windy the second time I went and none of the food was really warm but I devoured the mac and cheese anyway.

[Ideb]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

The food looks worlds better than on my last cruise, on Carnival Magic. I'm drooling at these photos.

Some of it definitely looks better than it tasted but we found plenty to eat on Horizon.

[Ideb]

8 minutes ago, dlphn501 said:

Thank you for this!!  I have been looking for food pics from the new MDR menu, specifically the items that I would order.  Will be on Horizon for Easter.

I kept looking for food pictures from the new menu for this cruise before we sailed so I told my family I would be taking photos to share on here once we got home. There were a few things I wish I had tried and didn't. Maybe next time.

[Ideb]

Some photos of extra cost items from Java Blue Cafe

[mz-s]

8 minutes ago, Ideb said:

Some of it definitely looks better than it tasted but we found plenty to eat on Horizon.

 

Trust me on Magic it looked as bad as it tasted...

[Ideb]

Appetizers from our table on this night: shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, Hawaiian shrimp poke (not something I normally eat but this was excellent. I really liked it.) BBQ beef spring rolls (didn't care for these), roasted sirloin of beef, fried chicken, spaghetti carbonara (also pretty bland), fruit plate, cappuccino pot de creme.

[Ideb]

10 minutes ago, mz-s said:

 

Trust me on Magic it looked as bad as it tasted...

Oh no, that sounds bad. Notice my carbonara picture in my latest post. It looks pretty sad. It was dry and it looks like they threw some bagged bacon bits on top.

[Ideb]

I asked for a Quattro Formaggi pizza with pepperoni on it once when they weren't really busy and they made it for me. Some more of the cakes fro the lunch buffet and a mocha chocolate getaway drink. They had pineapple gelato one day in the lunch buffet and it tasted almost just like Dole whip.

Edited January 6 by Ideb

[mz-s]

Your pictures have me missing Carnival, I can't lie...maybe my Magic cruise was just an off week and the next one will be better...hmm...

[Ideb]

13 minutes ago, mz-s said:

Your pictures have me missing Carnival, I can't lie...maybe my Magic cruise was just an off week and the next one will be better...hmm...

Hopefully it was just a bad week. The food also varies from ship to ship. We liked Guy's burgers on Vista and didn't think they were very good on Dream. They were really good on Horizon this time. Our next cruise will be on Jubilee in a couple of months so I know we will be trying some of the new restaurants and eating less in the main dining room.

[Ideb]

Jambalaya pasta appetizer (pretty good), Beef Wellington ( My first time having this, I thought it was good and the cheesy potatoes with it were really good), a main dining room pic during "showtime", melting cake (Someone else ordered this. I went all week without trying one.) I think the last pic is Hazelnut mousse.

[Ideb]

Some buffet breakfast foods, a Mexcan rice bowl from Blue Iguana, a salad  and some cole slaw from the buffet, More cakes...

[Ideb]

This night we decided just to eat in the buffet. Most of the foods were the same as the ones listed on the main dining room menu. Two of us ordered steak and cheese sandwiches and while they were making them some water misters in the ceiling came on and sprayed everything. The ladies in the deli just kept working. I told one of them I was afraid to eat the sandwich with water from the pipes on the ceiling spraying down on it and asked for a new one. Oddly, she made me a different one but left the old ones there and handed the person I was with one of the ones that had been sprayed. I didn't want him eating it either so I gave him my fresh one and just ate something from the buffet. The last picture is the tiramisu and bartlett pear almond cake which is on one of the mdr menus. The tiramisu was good but the pear cake looked like corn bread and had no flavor whatsoever. The texture was very dry. I wonder how they thought this was a good addition to the new menus.

[Ideb]

First picture is from the breakfast buffet. They only had bacon every other day. On those days they always had these homemade looking cinnamon rolls right next to the bacon. They were really good. Also shown on the plate are some of the breakfast potatoes. More lunchtime cakes...