snowdogsmm

Sailed on the Horizon in a Havana cabin in August and loved it!  spent most of the cruise in the Havana pool!  You will have a great trip.

18 hours ago, figmentfreak said:

I did formal night pictures in my robe last year on Panorama. 

I love this so much!  

11 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Going to Mexico's seafood capital to eat Tex-Mex? No way! Seafood all day is the ticket. Glad to see Megan is having a great time on the Mex-Riv cruise. A lot of folks underestimate the itenerary, it's a great time.

well I didn't specify what kind of fajita's........shrimp and throw in some fresh fish tacos.

28 minutes ago, MeganGC1983 said:

Today’s plan is to take a water shuttle over to Stone Island. 

Stone Island is our favorite.  We go to Lety's- they will set you up with loungers, umbrella and the best fajita's and margarita's on the island.  

On 12/2/2022 at 11:28 AM, Saint Greg said:

Tour was a little over an hour and I thought worth it. Especially for someone without cheers I got 8 of those little beers plus a pint. Plus a pint glass and certificate. Plus the tour done by the brewmaster for what woul’ve been 27 dollars. My cheers discount brought it to 21.

 

That was our brewmaster on the Horizon in August.  We got to taste all of his own recipes as well as the Carnival 4.  

On 11/28/2022 at 8:05 AM, Saint Greg said:

I signed up for the brewery tour. I guess this is as good a time as any since I have a lot of OBC.

 

We did the brewery tour on Horizon in August and you get pitchers of each beer at each table, plus a souvenir glass and certificate of completion.  It was worth it....plus you get a discount if you have Cheers.

On 11/20/2022 at 7:22 AM, Thenagers said:

Does the beer on the brewery tour count towards your 15? I was curious because I was thinking of doing the mixology class but don’t want to waste my drinks on something I won’t like? 

no the brewery tour is separate and doesn't count towards your Cheers total.  I haven't done the mixology class but it should be the same as the brewery tour.

Horizon from August

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2884363-horizon-southern-caribbean-review-82022-82822/#comment-64050713

On 10/10/2022 at 4:41 AM, PATRLR said:

Just curious, which one?  We would prefer to get a full room for the day vs just access to the pool and I've found very limited hotels what will rent a room for the day.  

It was the Cadillac Hotel and Beach club and I reserved it through DayUse.com

On 10/14/2022 at 11:35 PM, nasus2 said:

 

Please can you tell me which hotel - sounds great - thank you 

It was the Cadillac Hotel and Beach Club and I reserved it through DayUse.com  I recommend both.

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

We’ve been to Maui 3 times before on at least 1 week vacations, so we’ve “been there done that” for most things on the island. If you’re here, definitely go to the Old Lahaina Luau. Fantastic, but we’ve done it twice. We’ve driven the Road to Hana 1.5 times (daughters got bored halfway through our second time so we turned around). We’ve been to the top of Haleakala 3 times. We’ve ziplined (highly recommend Flyin Hawaiian), snorkeled, helicoptered (twice…Blue Hawaiian 👍), watched kite boarding at Ho’okipa (Wow). We’ve been to the Iao Valley and driven our rental car places that they are not supposed to go. 
 

So what do we have planned? Not much. We’re going up on North Star this morning at 10:30, figuring it would be better to do in port than at sea. We’ll then make our way to shore and go to Kaanapali. We’ll walk along the beach path and see what’s changed with the resorts in the area. We’ll do a little shopping in Whaler’s Village. We have dinner reservations at one of our favorite restaurants, the Hula Grill. We are very much looking forward to some fresh seafood. It will be good to walk on dry land, although probably with sea legs. 😁

I love Hula Grill!  Enjoy your dinner.

Don't know what ship you are on but we went to Cucina on Horizon in August and it was our least favorite meal....by a long shot.  We won't go again.

Our flight was at 5:00 so we rented a resort room for the day on Miami beach.  Laid out by the pool, had a nice lunch and then was able to shower before leaving for the airport.

18 hours ago, Jenner9 said:

Thank you for posting this review and the pics! What was the cost of the Pig and Anchor Brewery Tour? Did you book in advance or was it listed in the Fun Times? 

I think it was $20 per person.  It was listed in the Hub app and we made reservations the day before.  It was well worth the money.  We were at tables for 4 and each table got about 3/4 of a pitcher of each beer to taste (so way more than a small taster) then everyone received a souvenir pint glass to take home.  The brew master was really knowledgeable and the whole experience was very interactive.  

On 10/1/2022 at 5:34 PM, ninjacat123 said:

Great review and thanks for taking the time to put it together!  I grew up in Salem, Oregon.  Are you near there?  I hardly ever meet anyone from Oregon so this is a treat!

I'm in Medford at the southern end of the state-what we like to call the banana belt 🙂  I'm originally from southern California so this is the furthest north I could live.  I couldn't deal with the rain up north.

On 9/30/2022 at 7:04 PM, tradewinds traveler said:

Thank you for the reveiw. I loved the photos. I liked the way you cruise. We are leaving on the Horizon, Oct 29 to the 8 day cruise. So glad you enjoyed!

 

 

 

 

You will have a great trip-enjoy!

1 minute ago, Mellylucy said:

Thanks for a great review. 

How much was it for the Wi-Fi at Amber Cove?

I want to say around $8.00 for one device for the whole day.  I needed to download more books on my iPad otherwise we wouldn't have purchased it.

1 hour ago, kelkel2 said:

Great review! The JW Marriott Marquis is my favorite hotel in Miami! We stayed there last time too. Don’t they have an amazing infinity pool too?

Bonaire is on my bucket list, we’ve done Aruba and Curaçao so hopefully we’ll get back one day! 
Do you have any balcony pictures? 

The balcony itself?  No but all of the photos coming into and out of port were taken from the balcony.  The extended balconies are decent sized with a lounger, chair, ottoman and small table.

5 minutes ago, 80sGal said:

Agree that Havana makes for a very relaxing trip.   We've only had it the one time on the ABC trip on Horizon, too, and it came with the GS upsell we had (which was reasonable imo).   But I'm wondering how it was in the Aft balcony?   Did you feel much movement or vibration at the back?  Did any noise from the Havana area filter up to the balcony?   Did you have any issues with soot as others have reported on aft balconies fleetwide?   This would help us decide if we want to splurge for the Havana area again, because we definitely are not GS people as a usual thing -- although I wish we were!     Thanks!    

We actually didn't feel much movement at all.  We were on the 8th deck and it was very quiet.  There was no noise issues at all.  No one running down the halls or slamming doors and there wasn't much noise at the Havana pool so nothing to filter up.  It rained overnight almost each night so the balcony was always wet in the mornings.  The only thing we said we would do differently if possible was to move up to deck 9 where the balcony is more shaded.   We were in the sun most of they afternoons.

yes you can purchase multiple bottles.  they will tag them for you and they will "follow" you to other dining venues.  My husband doesn't drink wine so my bottle from night 1 followed me to Ji Ji's and Bonsai Tepenyaki.  It is a great deal.

15 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

Great review! I enjoyed reading about your trip, it sounds like you had a great time! 

Thanks we did have a great time.  My last installment is "hidden" right now needing to be approved by a mod for some reason.  Hopefully it will post soon.

Entertainment

We love stand-up comedy so we went to at least one comedy show each night.  They had 4 comics that rotated throughout the week and we enjoyed all but one who was just ok.  The Horizon had a new comedy host who started that week and he did a great job.

Love & Marriage show with Donkey was really funny.  I’m not sure there was a clear “winner” but we were entertained.

Vintage Pop was the only Playlist Production that we went to and I really enjoyed it.  I am a musical theater fan and can be pretty critical but I thought they did a good job and I liked how they took current songs and arranged them in the style of swing. 

Havana Bar- We went and listened to the live salsa music one night in the Havana Bar and the dance floor was packed.  Fun watching everyone dance and have a great time.

Casino- spent some time in the casino almost each night and left my standard “donation” to the cause.  The casino got pretty smoky so there were some nights were didn’t play very long.  We also did a slot pull that someone from the book of faces group organized.

Pig & Anchor Brewery Tour- My husband is beer drinker so he wanted to do the brewery tour.  It was educational and enjoyable and we received souvenir glasses to take home.  The brew master makes his own brews in addition to the standard P&A beers so we got to taste those as well which was fun.

CHEERS- We had the Cheers package.  Neither one of us came close to the 15 drink max but I like paying for everything in advance and not worrying about a bar bill at the end so it was worth it to us.

There are many areas of the ship we never made it to because we spent most of our time on deck 5 in the Havana Pool and I’m ok with that.  We had a very relaxing trip.

Final takeaways- We loved the Horizon and would sail on her again.  I’m a Havana area snob now and the extra cost was worth it to us.  Ports-loved Aruba and Bonaire could skip the DR and would want to add Curacao in the future.

The staff was terrific across the board.  The ship is very clean and the staff works really hard to keep it that way.

I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. 

7 minutes ago, pcvtmom said:

We did this same cruise back in February. We, too, did the Sea Cow excursion, and I've NEVER snorkeled anywhere more beautiful.  The excursion staff members were also the best we've ever snorkeled with (and we've been all over the Caribbean).  I learned some things from the Sea Cow group that I've never been told before.  Excellent company!

I agree.  It was the very best snorkel trip I've ever been on.

Friday-Amber Cove

We decided to check out the party pool at Amber Cove.   I tried to get one of the pool side cabanas but they were sold out when I tried to purchase.  We rented an umbrella and purchased Wi-Fi.  We only lasted a couple of hours.  As the pool started getting more crowded and the guests more rowdy, we made the decision to go back to the ship and enjoy the peace and quiet at the Havana pool.

We dined at Cucina del Capitano that evening and this was the worst meal and service we had the entire week.  My husband had the chicken parm and I had the veal.  I just don’t have anything good to say at all about this meal so we’ll move along.

Thursday-La Romana

On our last cruise we said that the next time we cruised we would pick one port day to stay on the ship and this was the day we chose.  I got a facial at the spa which was discounted since it was a port day.  We chilled at the Havana pool which we pretty much had to ourselves and that night we had dinner at Bonsai Teppanyaki.  I had the shrimp and chicken and my husband had the filet and chicken.  It was really good, so much food!!! And you can’t beat the free show.  The dessert presentation is lovely.