Mr305

I enjoyed the cruise and booked another one for next Thanksgiving, looking forward to sailing Celebration again. The cruise wasn't a disaster but it was far from perfect and as I stated before, you need to give the crew time to find their rhythm. Some passengers were out of control which added to the frustrations, but that's present in every cruise. Some observations or issues I encountered: MDR slow and disorganized, some crew members couldn't even tell you the hours of operation for a given day. Overall, lack of experience or familiarity with how Carnival does things. Lido only had cantaloupe or honey dew, no berries of any kind or pineapple. Looking to enjoy a fruit salad, unfortunately, not in this cruise. Workaround was to order from a restaurant that offered it. Acclimating to how the elevator system works, most folks didn't have patience or willingness to understand. Instead, they just kept pressing buttons or trying to cram into the first one that stopped at the floor. Cucina had 1+ hour wait most nights, ChiBang had a two hour wait one night. The day we chose to eat there, a party of 12 had reserved but most weren't present. One member of the party kept trying to hold the table not knowing how long it wold take for the rest of them to show up. Eventually it got canceled but that exchange lasted 20+ minutes. Unwillingness to keep spaces clean. Saw lots of disposable cups left behind when a garbage can was in sight, folks just didn't care to help the crew keep spaces clean. Lots of plates left in hallways, people stepping on them as they walked by and creating a bigger mess. Just leave it in the room or walk it over to lido if it bothers you that much. The day we arrived at Amber Cove, the opening of gangways was delayed. Shortly after, they gave the all clear but as we were walking out, Carnival Freedom showed up. Procedure is to stop the process until the other ship is fully tied down and gangways deployed. This took 25+ minutes to complete, lots of folks had excursions and were worried they would miss them. Security team did a poor job of handling the situation, one guy told me I should have come down earlier. I mentioned that I in fact did but was told there was a delay with the opening of gangways when I arrived at Deck 3. He insisted it was a lie, although Lee had advertised the delay himself. Pure stupidity on his part, lots of fellow cruisers had it out with him. Most just wanted to know if excursions would be impacted but he couldn't answer the question. Eventually, an excursion team member showed up and told everyone not to worry, that help calm things down. Had my door knocked on three times, twice during the day and once late at night. Recurring theme the whole cruise with kids, complete lack of supervision by their parents. Not complaining, just sharing what I experienced or saw throughout my cruise. Celebration will be a success, it's a beautiful ship and once the new shows come online next year, it will make it even better. The potential is there, except for the cabin bathroom. 🙂

I just got off Celebration this morning, the ship is beautiful. The pay restaurants were excellent but the rest of the food was hit or miss including service. I don’t think the staff has found its rhythm yet. What I didn’t like: Our balcony bathroom was incredibly small, enough to make me rethink the room for something bigger. The mid-ship theater has a huge design flaw, limited viewing from deck 6 and a major lack of seating. Unfortunately, a good portion of the shows are performed there. The main dinning room was a mess, slow service and mediocre food at best. I didn’t see any problems with crowds or fellow cruisers but did hear a lot of complaints regarding out of control kids. The shows were great, some dated back to 2016 (Amor Cubano). Bolt had technical difficulties on Saturday plus a wrap was being installed behind the stationary car used for pictures. Also, at all ports, there was quite a bit of painting going on. Enjoyed the cruise but was disappointed with the included food venues, service and quality of food. For being their top of the line/newest ship, was expecting a bit more in these areas. Would I sail Celebration again, for sure but my room choice would have to be different. Plus I would give the crew a bit more time to grow into their day to day responsibilities.

The ride is tops 30-40 secs, $15 was pushing it.

Celebration is facing 16 foot seas at the moment and that is expected to go up a bit more next day or two, In the above video, which is worth watching, at one point you see the ship listing and the bloggers comment that it is starting to move quite a bit.

Any A/C issues? We experienced rolling A/C outages in public areas during our July/August cruise. Lido was unbearable most days due to a lack of cooling. Internet was abysmal the entire trip. Had a great time, no power issues.

I recently heard they were expanding the pier/dock to better handle Mardi Gras, currently too short, only the front gangway can be used to exit/enter the ship.

There's a Twitter video from The Big Speaker that shows the beach area and says the dock is damaged. You can see the metal walkways on the beach and in the distance you can see pieces of the pier/dock still standing.

Hearing that the dock at Grand Turk has been damaged by Hurricane Fiona, with some pieces breaking apart. Has anyone heard of the same? We have a cruise to this port in November, this would be a shame. Thoughts and prayers to everyone on the island, wishing them the best.

I’ve never tried taking one to go but have had 2 different desserts, they don’t give you a hard time, want you to be happy.

You’re going to enjoy it, Horizon is a great ship. Weather should be good too, no tropical storms forecasted for the next 5+ days. Safe travels, we were on in July and had an awesome time.

The two locations with the best WiFi coverage and speeds were lobby and ocean plaza, my room was hit or miss. Texting was not a problem as long as there wasn't an attachment, uploading pictures to Instagram or small videos were the major headaches. At times, some websites failed to load but that was less noticeable. I can tell you that WiFi/Internet was saturated, you can see folks on their phone 24/7 when walking around. What really saved me the most was TMobile, free data at all the stops, was able to catchup on my uploads during that time.

If you plan to use WiFi while onboard, I recommend you purchase it from Carnival prior to boarding, save some money. There are three tiers, Social/Value/Premium. I recently cruised on Horizon with the premium plan, 6-day, and the internet was not good at all. Almost impossible to use most days. You'll get best speeds during morning or late hours, it was very hit or miss. I was able to make FaceTime audio calls but no video. TMobile WiFi calling had worked in the past but that no longer seems to be the case.

I was on Horizon’s 31-JUL sailing and got my complimentary bottle of wine at the steakhouse on the first night.

We did Teppanyaki for dinner last week on the Carnival Horizon. There's no extra charge for lobster, in fact you can get lobster and beef. The portions are large and you can go for seconds on the fried rice. There was leftover shrimp for appetizer, can go for seconds on that too if available. Nothing goes to waste. It was entertaining but not something we would do each time we cruise.

How fast was the internet?

We are booked for Carnival Celebration's first cruise out of Miami, looking to purchase the Internet Plan. How's the Internet Speed on Carnival Mardi Gras? Is it worth getting the premium plan, are speeds that fast? If anyone that has been on Mardi Gras can confirm would greatly appreciate it.

I've had a Cove Balcony on Horizon, prefer one towards the front of the ship. Reason being, you have Family Harbor towards the aft of the ship and get a lot of kid traffic. Noise wise, no problems, usually pick one under the lobby/customer service area or just after it.

His page looks like this:

Had a great time, just be on the lookout for A/C issues here and there. Bullet Train was good, mix of Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction.

Nope and Lightyear were playing in July, Bullet Train started on Friday.

I just got off Horizon, horrible internet experience. Paying for anything higher than the social plan is throwing money away. Even that was a waste this last cruise.

It doesn’t, just stating that the design of the ship’s HVAC system works well even in summer. Whatever the issue is today, it’s unrelated to capacity and/or summer temperatures.

I sailed Horizon when she first arrived in Miami back in 2018, don’t remember any of these issues. Been on its sister ship Vista three times never had this issue. I can tell you it happens at all times of the day. Just had lunch at JiJi’s today, the staircase leading up to it and the elevator banks on Lido and deck 11 leading to the AFT of the ship must of been in the high 80s. It was cooler outside thanks to a breeze.

It’s like rolling blackouts, some areas will be cool then hot again the next day. Elevators and staircases seem to be warm most of the time. After speaking with several crew members, they claim it was cutbacks to save fuel. I don’t know what the real problem is but if this keeps up, Horizon will end up with a bad reputation. Not a way to get customers hooked on cruising and keep a business running. You want to relax, stay cool and enjoy the spaces.

Aboard Carnival Horizon at the moment, there’s definitely A/C issues. During the day and at peak times, Lido is an oven. First night spent a couple of hours at Havana Bar, sweating bullets. Around 5:30PM yesterday, area around Bonsai was warm. Room has been nice but there’s definitely something going on with the public areas. Read reviews about the same prior to the cruise and refused to believe it but it’s definitely true. Having a great time, don’t get me wrong.