BENHANDEL

3 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Do you mean that you have connecting rooms with a door to connect them inside?  If so, when the balcony partition is opened, it will block one of the doors.  EM

We will have connecting/adjoining rooms, so there will be a door inside the cabins connecting them. I was wondering if there is also a way to open the two balconies to be one big balcony. We will be connected to a room with our kids.

Awesome! We will be on it in March!

We just took our kids (16, 14, 11) on the Horizon at Christmas. It was our first carnival cruise. We have another booked next year. 

We live in MN and spend our beautiful summers camping and enjoying our area. Summers are so short that we dont want to go elsewhere. I am a teacher and rarely have the same spring break as my kids, so winter break is the best time to get out of MN. This was the first time we left before Christmas. 

I have always loved the holiday traditions. But my parents both passed in the last number of years (my mom just after last christmas) and holidays have changed. My kids are also past the "santa" stage and this was a great way to celebrate that evolution. 

I loved not stressing about shopping and cooking all season. We exchanged a few small gifts the weekend before the cruise, but their gift was the trip.  They opened stockings on Christmas morning with some earbuds and cash. 

It felt different than any other Christmas. But it was wonderful and I could see it being a yearly event. 

There were many decorated doors. People were in festive moods, wishing everyone "merry christmas." There was a party on Christmas eve with music and hats, and a service at midnight (that we could not stay up for since Christmas was a port day in jamaica.) Lots of happy families. 

I loved everything about it. The kids will remember that more than just about any other present.

I have searched for this but cant find a definitive answer....

We will have connecting cove balcony rooms on the Breeze. Any chance the balconies will connect? Mid ship forward....TIA

On 1/15/2019 at 10:12 PM, Piper934 said:

 

 

Our tour was with Rony as well, A++. Definitely do Manawakie, it was amazing.  We drove through West Bay just to sight see, went to Cameo Factory, Chocolate place, orphanage, etc.  They will customize it anyway you want if do private tour and stay as little or as much wherever you plan to go.

How long was the drive between manawakie & West Bay? We really want to do Daniel Johnsons and West Bay but feel like we'd be spending too much time in the car.

If we bring it on board, can we bring cans to dinner? Seems tacky...

We have only been on one CCL voyage. On that one the adults had Cheers! and our dinner servers were super good to our kids....(only our 16 yo had the bubbles) so we never once learned the price of beverages for the kids, lol. 

I have a quick cruise in March with a dear friend and our kids. We will not have Cheers! so I am trying to weigh the benefits of bottomless bubbles for the kids. The oldest wants it again, but the others would likely only drink soda in the dining room. 

Without bubbles, would we be charged for each refill at dinner? How much is a serving of coke? TIA. 

Thanks for posting. We will be on this cruise with 3 tweens (2 of them, mine) over spring break. Hoping there will be more kids around then! 

Other than the poor service in Circle C, did your kids like the club and the cruise and the ports? We were just on horizon over Christmas, so a bit concerned there will not be enough to keep them busy....but so short it will be over before we get bored, lol. 

13 hours ago, serene56 said:

We are booked on the Magic for February     Booked this cruise over 18 months ago and FTTF was always shown as sold out-   Until last week when all 30 slots became available.  They were gone within the first hour. 

How do you know how many spots there are?

7 hours ago, moonbmn53 said:

Cruising on the Horizon in August in a cove balcony.  Do you mind sharing what your room number was?

We were 2411. Family harbor suite. No noise from galley, other than a bump here and there. It was no worse than any people in a cabin above. I am a light sleeper but no one else in my family ever heard a thing. 

7 hours ago, Californiacruizers said:

I am having a really hard time with uploading photos to cruise critic. Once I resolve the issue with the photos, I will be back to wrap up this review. 

 

 

I am loving your photos! Thanks for all of the detailed photos. The only CCL ship we have experienced is Horizon. I read complaints about the lack of shopping options-now I get it!

We were in the family harbor area on horizon last month. Under the galley. I am a light sleeper. We had a fan and I used earplugs (as I do nightly). I had no issues. The rest of my family heard nothing. 

So excited to find this review! We will be on this exact cruise next Christmas! Our first CCL cruise was just on Horizon at Christmas. I wish there was a way for me to print it for later reference, lol. 

4 hours ago, auscgguysgirl said:

 

It's not listed in the email or in the offer itself.  When you click on the offer and it gives you the sail date/ship/days screen ... it ONLY shows you dates for 5 days or less and only allows the option to pick Mexico, Bahamas or Caribbean.  I called with the "rate code" and was told it doesn't apply to anything else.

I was able to see longer cruises. I was pricing 6, 7 and 8 days sailings from FL. I just got off last week. However, I talked with my PVP before booking. I ended up booking through the new year special. It was $10 more (total) for 2 cabins but the more flex on the deposit and "losing" less if something were to happen appealed to me more. 

We have only done Horizon (just off last week and wrote a review on this page). We had a family harbor suite with our 3 kids (11, 14, 16) and it was perfect. Loved everything about the experience. Dont book for the sky ride as it is often down. It was working on our voyage and we did it once....but even on a port day we waited 45 minutes for the 4 minute twirl around the ship. 

We will do the Breeze next Christmas on the other itenerary. The rooms for 5 there are more cramped and no balcony, so we will go with 2 rooms. 

Have a blast whatever you choose!

Best meal on board! I saw menus online prior to sailing.

We bought Cheers! on a recent Horizon sailing. Would not have been worth it for our family had our dinner server not automatically brought frozen drinks for kids at each dinner. 2 each for 3 kids.... I wrote about it in a recent review called "newbies on the horizon." We did not ask so I do not consider it cheating. However, we will not do the package again as we spent so much time waiting in lines to "get our money's worth."

On 1/1/2019 at 12:49 PM, lauraingalls said:

 Yes I have to say that I got spoiled having a suite. It was very nice. I still only got service once a day- new Carnival policy that I will talk about here soon. I did spend more time in my room having the extra space. 

While I wait for you to add more...we got twice a day service in a family suite on Horizon. We were never given and option (and I had planned to ask for that), but it just happened. Met room steward in passing after he had already done a morning and evening tidy. 

We did Christmas on Horizon and I agree with you about spending Christmas away from home-i loved not stressing about shopping and wrapping. My youngest (almost 12) was sad that she did not get all the "santa" gifts that the elders had had, but once on the ship she was begging with the others to do this every year. Like you, our Christmas morning gift was simply some cash (and ear buds as I figured they may get lost on the trip.) 

I also agree with you about this being a tough way for a little kid to do Christmas.

Our MDR experience on Horizon went much quicker. We had an assigned table in the ATD due to an allergy and start to finish with all the courses was just over an hour. 

I have screen shots of the menus. I do not know how to add them here. I posted them on another social media forum, specific to the ship. Others had previously posted the fun times there so I did not bother taking photos. 

We just got off our first CCL voyage (Horizon). And are looking at booking another trip for next Christmas. 

Is the Welcome Home offer really any better than other promotions? We are willing to take risks with ES deals, but it seemed similar to other deals offered. TIA

Thanks for this review. We are looking at the Breeze next year for Christmas (after Horizon this year) so eager to find out how the ship amenities work for a family with teens. 

We got back a few days ago and the service team was amazing with my child with a dairy allergy.

To robc1972...An allergy to dairy is more than simply being "lactose intolerant" so tough to truly avoid without some accommodation. My son has a very minor (now) peanut and shellfish allergy but that is easy to avoid and a bit of exposure will not hurt him. Before I had a kid with a true allergy I also judged those like me. Then I saw her face blow up and her airway close and gained some understanding. I joked that God "blessed" me with all the things I judged my students' parents about. We stopped at 3 kids for fear of what may come next, lol. 

5 hours ago, GMRPHRN said:

 

 To me, the $8000 difference is no choice at all. It is true for Carnival and Disney that you get what you pay for. But the money would pay for another cruise (or two) after all.

 

Enjoyed your review and glad to know that your kids enjoyed it also. I have sailed at all times of the year and have never had issues with unruly children or adults. Maybe I am like you and just avoided the places where they might be. 

 

I know Horizon is a new ship and I am glad the smoke didn't bother you. Maybe they have gotten better about the ventilation?  Most of the ships I've sailed it seems it was always most convenient to walk through the casino to get somewhere else and even when closed you had to hold your breath when you walked through. 

No need to walk through the casino on Horizon. I will be prepared for the possibility of needing to when we sail the Imagination in March.

2 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

Wow, what a statement. People pay a boatload of money to sail Disney for a reason.

But in fairness...our kids are not little so I would imagine 4 and 6 year olds would have preferred Disney, lol.