Thoughts/Impressions on Horizon 5/28 - 6/5 Sailing

We cruised for the ship, not the ports. This was the 1st Horizon 8 day sailing from NY, and 2nd sailing from NY since the ship's TA. It's 1st sailing from NY was a 4 day Bermuda cruise.

 

Many passengers were still on the ship from the TA, doing B2B2B's or more. We met a few who were on the ship from it's very 1st inaugural sailing! About 30 attended the Diamond Captains Party. The Platinum and Diamond Party was held in the main theater to seat all those repeat guests. And Cruise Critic's Meet & Mingle had about 30 attendess with Carnival's CD, entertainment director, guest services director and hotel top honcho showing up.

 

Some new items on the Horizon appetizer menu like a Michigan Pasty {didn't like it, lots of crust, little meat or whatever filling}. Second time I saw a real steak selection replace the flat iron steak in the usual 4 category grill selection section one night mid cruise. Steak was almost like Chatteaubriand, look for it! Bitter n Blanc appeared with a cinnamin syrup, so-so, then we had it 2 nights later with the vanilla syrup, yum.

 

We ate dinner in the specialty restaurants 3X, alternating with the MDR. The Steakhouse was it's usual fantastic meal, JiJi's was excellent as well, and the Bonsai Tapanyaki Hibachi was okay. The Hibachi chef had limited comedic skills, the courses were tasty but came out slowly, so the fried rice was cold by the time our steak and shrimp were finally cooked. For a $30 Hibachi upcharge, we would prefer to eat in the Steakhouse instead.

 

We had a spa balcony for the first time, and while there was nothing wrong with it, we felt the add-ons may not be worth the extra cost. Sure, we got nicer robes, Elemis shamppo/conditioner/shower gel, and access to the steam rooms, showers and the tiny mineral pool. We thought we would use it daily, but found ourselves going about as often as we used the steamroom/sauna on a Conquest or Dream class ship, maybe every other day. It was difficult to get a heated lounger inside the spa. The spa cabin didn't impact the cost of the actual spa treatments and seemed a few sq ft smaller than a regular Conquest or Dream class cabin.

 

We loved the new LED designs on the two atria columns, spent about an hour a night after dinner in the casino, which had increased max bets for most slot machines. The lowest max bet I saw was $2.50 per spin, and $$$ disappear quickly if one doesn't hit a few hundred dollar prizes along the way.

 

On a few nights, the adult comedy shows were scheduled early at 8:30 and 9:30pm, which was great if you were getting off the ship early the next port day.

 

The port times were short, back on board by 2:30pm in Grand Turk. In San Juan (been there 20 times or more) I went across the street to a drugstore to get some Listerine. For Amber Cove, we looked at it from the ship and knew our decision not to explore the Carnival designed port was best for us. (I love the DR's Punta Cana beaches, but despise Puerta Plata's, and a manufactured shopping corral like AC or MB is not our style).

 

I was happy our balcony faced the undeveloped side of the harbor. An ATV excursion appeared on an undeveloped beach at the tip of the harbor entrance, and that looked like a spot I would enjoy spending some time lounging and swimming, but that tour hardly spent more than a quick look see before they sped off back into the jungle.

 

Since this sailing began on Memorial Day, there was a Moment of Silence as we got underway, and sailing past Ground Zero was moving and poignant for us recent ex- NYers.

 

Coming home, we had a few waves mid Atlantic, but I thought the ship handled the sideways impact excellently. Of course, there were some disturbed by the ship's motion and occasional shudder when a broadside smacked the bow.

 

I would sail the Horizon and it's sister ship Vista again in a heartbeat, both great ships, fine food, welcoming crew and officers. I'll be looking at Miami bookings after its repo.

I should add to the above that there was a medical emergency the first night sailing, and the ship made an extreme west turn to get closer to land so a medivac could be accomplished. We were probably off the tip of New Jersey, maybe Cape May when this happened.

 

The elevators have a new system, took some cruisers a bit to get adjusted to. When you get to the elevator banks, you can press and input your floor number as you wait for the elevator. The system tells you what your elevator will be, so you just wait for that elevator to arrive. Sometimes the wait seemed long, at other times it was fairly quick. The elevator has 2 buttons inside for hold open doors and close doors, as well as an emergency panic button.

 

Unless we had a long climb, our preference was to use the stairs anyway. We didn't feel the new system was any better or any worse than the old one.

Thank you for the review! I’ll be on the Horizon’s last sailing out of NY for my first Carnival cruise.

Nice review, we will be doing it in 4 weeks. Thanks for doing it.

 

 

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Nice review, we will be doing it in 4 weeks. Thanks for doing it.

 

 

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Thanks Jimbo, enjoy your Horizon cruise!

Nice report evandbob...as always. Waiting for the turn of year to board so maybe a new hibachi chef will be funnier and quicker. Thoughts on pig and anchor? Beers and or bourbon?

Thank you for the review! I’ll be on the Horizon’s last sailing out of NY for my first Carnival cruise.

 

I will be on that sailing as well Cherries. What an exciting ship for your 1st cruise!

Thanks Jimbo, enjoy your Horizon cruise!

We will, it will be a year almost to the day, which for us is the longest period in a long time. I have to admit I am jonesing to get on the ship.

Nice report evandbob...as always. Waiting for the turn of year to board so maybe a new hibachi chef will be funnier and quicker. Thoughts on pig and anchor? Beers and or bourbon?

 

 

We had 1 lunch there, some pulled pork and bbq chicken with baked beans and mac n cheese. Way better than anything at the buffet IMO.

 

You can eat inside or out. There are more substantial offerings, like baby back ribs for sale as well.

We will, it will be a year almost to the day, which for us is the longest period in a long time. I have to admit I am jonesing to get on the ship.

Us as well - last cruise was 7/2/17. evandbob, thanks for your review of Horizon. I wanted to book an independent excursion in Amber Cove but we're in port on a Sunday and the tour doesn't operate. We might walk around Amber Cove a bit, but unless I find a tour that we can do (DH can't do the waterfalls - bad knees), I think we'll enjoy the ship.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Here us a link to the Funtimes from that same cruise.

 

Thanks for the review.