ShortCruising

Personally I’d have to do option 2 or 3. Extra day, great ports. I think a unique itinerary makes up for an older/smaller ship. It’s seems that’s the conundrum lately: hot, new ships or interesting ports. You rarely get both in the same shot. Horizon really isn’t all that old, though, and I’ve heard good things about it. Enjoy whatever choice you make. No such thing as a bad cruise!

It’s possible by phone call. We just booked two connecting rooms—one for my husband and I, the other for our boys (3, 7, 13 at sailing) on the symphony in 2025. I was surprised because when I called I asked if we could split the adults to book two rooms and the representative was like “No need! The kids can be in their own room since it is next to yours.”

Perfect timing for the $500 deposit I'll be putting on a cruise! Thanks for the tip.

I appreciate all the responses. We're going to go with the connecting interiors. No family harbor connecting interiors available, but I think we can do without those amenities. Two bathrooms and the ability to essentially create our own "suite" is all we need. We won't be spending a ton of room in the stateroom anyways. I'm sure the kids will have us very busy at the arcade, pools/splash area, etc. As for Celebration Key, I think we'll sit out. I was simply thinking of normal construction delays and didn't even account for a hurricane or storms tacking on time. There will be many other cruises in the future where we can experience it. While it would be nice, it's not super important that we are "the first" to experience the port.

My family is looking at booking a cruise on the Mardi Gras for June/July 2025. We have 3 kids (13, 7 and 3 at the sailing date). We are stuck between a couple of options and I wanted to ask for input from people who are a little more in-the-know. #1: We're stuck between booking a family harbor suite vs. 2 connecting interiors. A suite is tempting and we used the family harbor perks quite a bit on the Celebration. However, 2 interiors would give us a second full bathroom. Plus, it's $1200 cheaper and we get double the onboard credits. Can we prop open the door between the staterooms so that it's always open and everyone can walk freely between the rooms? Am I missing any significant "perks" of staying in a suite? Right now I don't see enough to justify the difference in price. #2: We're stuck on if we should pay a little more to go in July when the ship is visiting Celebration Key. It would be the second day this port is operating. Obviously we're all just guessing here, but do you think there is a significant chance that the construction gets delayed? If so, we'd miss that port and would rather go on the June sailing. I haven't followed this project very closely, so I'm not sure how concrete the opening date is when we're still a year and a half out. Thanks!

On our cruise to Aruba we joked about finding a way to ferry over to Venezuela. Because, you know, it would be basically asking to be captured and held for ransom. This is equally as ridiculous. Anyway, make sure you have your affairs in order before giving this a go.

I'm not an electrician so I don't know the "why," but my curling iron would never fully turn on. The light just blinked as if it were trying to heat up. I called my stateroom attendant, but we weren't able to find a solution. Eventually I figured out that if I kept turning it off and back on quickly I could make it work, but it was a pain. I actually assumed it broke until I got home where it once again worked without issue. Super weird.

Good to know. Just another reason for us to stick to Bayonne or cruise Carnival from other ports. Starting off with that sort of chaos while trying to manage my family would not be our definition of FUN.

Wow! Thanks for this review. My husband and I were toying with the idea of cruising Carnival out of NYC. We live in the Midwest so it’s the only port within single-day driving distance. We’ve cruised out of Bayonne, NJ once on RCI and are going again this summer. We loved the entire experience—port, ship, and clientele. So interesting considering that the two ports are so close to one another. We have 3 kids (12, 6 and 2) with the oldest being on the spectrum. We will definitely strike the CCL/NYC combo off our list. He wouldn’t know how to handle witnessing that behavior let alone, god forbid, being part of it. For now, he’s still afraid to stray out of eyesight to grab an ice cream. I do wonder if it’s just a result of an unfortunate mix of sailing, cruise line and clientele. Although I have seen many people complain about kids on CCL and I’ve never had those experiences. (Ok, one group of teens did loudly tease my husband about looking like Jesus, but he is one of those long haired freaky people…) Might also be that we have a sky-high tolerance for teenage nonsense as two high school teachers. A lot of mischief is another Tuesday for us except that we can ignore it on a ship (within reason)! Violent behavior is a whole other level of unacceptable though. I feel for the mother and the child. I know I wouldn’t have been able to get my child to leave the stateroom if he even just saw that happen.