vwgolf2

As a UK resident, I can confirm this is quite likely! We've cruised with several cruise lines and it's only Carnival who don't provide a kettle. Safety could be their reasoning but I suspect not...

I've just got back to the UK following 8 days on the Horizon visiting Aruba, Curacao and the Dominican Republic. I'll get a more detailed review done when I've settled down and got my thoughts in order but briefly, here are my goods, bads and uglies: Good - Lovely ship, great food and excellent crew (with one exception - below). Aruba, Curacao and Amber Cove were all good but La Romana seemed a bit of a waste of time. The comedians were funny and we loved the trivia quizzes. Couldn't fault the weather either, apart from a brief heavy shower at La Romana. Bad - People sitting on stairs and the smart elevators which seemed more bother than the old style. Biggest bad was the waiting time in the MDR. It took up to 30 minutes before our order was taken and another 30 minutes before the first course arrived. The food - when it came - was excellent. I'd like to say that the waits were due to staff cut-backs but it seemed that many of the dining room staff were standing around waiting to be told what to do. We ate at the buffet for the second half of the cruise but even there, dirty plates were left on tables for some time, which leads me to... Ugly - The amount of food that was wasted. Why oh why do people pile their plates with as much food as they can fit on it and then proceed to leave half of it? It pained me to see so much food getting thrown in the bin.

Excellent, sounds very efficient. I wonder how this impacts older people who are not tech savvy? Neither my parents nor my in laws would have a clue how to use a mobile phone app!

Forgive my ignorance here but it seems you need to reserve a time for Your Time Dining via the app rather than just turn up and wait; is that correct? Also, can you make a request for table sizes? There will just be two of us but we're more than happy to share; in fact we'd prefer to sit with others and talk about the day!

As a Brit, I must defend our bacon! The bacon eaten in America is what we would call streaky bacon and although available in supermarkets and butchers, is rarely served in restaurants. The most popular form of bacon is back bacon which is similar (I think) to Canadian bacon. How it is cooked varies by establishment but few places will cook it so it is crispy and brittle unless you ask. A typical "full English" breakfast will consist of several slices of back bacon along with pork sausages, fried eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, baked beans, fried bread and perhaps even black pudding. Hash browns are a controversy; are they English or an American import???

I bought two packs last weeks at $11.75 a pack. The website now says that the online price is the same as the onboard price.

Well I'm hoping it will be a bit warmer! I'm guessing you are referring to the clientele and entertainment on board. This will be a fourth Carnival cruise and third in the Caribbean. We prefer Carnival to RCC for our American cruises as they seem a little more relaxed. Not sure if you've been on many British cruise ships but Carnival is to Marella just as RCC is to P&O, I think.

Hey - I live in the UK and can assure you that SUVs are everywhere nowadays! Back to the matter in hand. My favourite Carnival cruise (indeed my favourite ever cruise) was to Alaska from Seattle in 2019. I'm on the Horizon in a couple of weeks visiting the A and C of the ABC islands, along with two stops in the Dom Rep. If this thread is anything to go by, that should be a cracker!

1. Wake up when nature wakes me up, not an alarm. 2. Go for a sit down breakfast and perhaps chat with fellow diners which invariably consists of conversations about previous cruises and where my accent is from. 3. Grab a book, shades and towel and find somewhere on deck to sit and read. 4. Take part in a quiz 5. If it's gone midday, have a beer or two. 6. Lunch - Guy's burger with lots of toppings. 7. Back to the deck to continue reading. More beer. 8. Return to cabin and fall asleep on the balcony 9. Get ready for dinner and eat too much. Probably have the same conversations as at breakfast. 10. Check out the entertainment: is there a comedian? Does the band sound good? Is the show worth watching? Tell my wife for the 100th time that no, I don't want to dance. 11. A cocktail, whisky or G&T. And then another. 12. Quick flutter at roulette. 13. Am I hungry? Looks for snacks. 14. Bed

When in New Orleans, don't miss coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde!

As an English man, I love tea and drink it by the gallon! I wonder how many of my American friends realise that the idea of afternoon tea, or at least its name, is a source of much argument in the UK? Perhaps like the US, there is a bit of a divide in the UK between the north and the south and one of the (many) indicators of whether you are a northerner or a southerner is what you call your daily meals. In summary, we have this: North: Breakfast, dinner at midday (which is generally a cooked meal), tea in the later afternoon (which, if a cooked meal, would be called high tea) and supper (a snack later in the evening) South: Breakfast, lunch at midday, afternoon tea (not so common nowadays), dinner in the evening. A less formal or substantial evening meal would be termed supper Being from the middle of the country, I use the terms interchangeably!

One where the whole cruise revolves around me...

No, you are right, this is awful! I'll be making an extensive playlist on Spotify, packed with rock and metal from the 60s, 70s and 80s to keep me going!

What's the disembarkation routine for those booked on an excursion? We have booked the Everglades trip with onward travel to the airport. Do you still have to like up to get luggage tags for an early exit?

Been wondering this myself. I've just exchanged UK pounds for dollars for our stay and cruise and was hoping I could use any left over cash to reduce the onboard account. It seems like I will.