Carnival Horizon - 9/22 Review & Highlights

[mac21902]

Hey everyone, so I just got off an amazing 8-day cruise onCarnival Horizon with a group of 18 people. I booked 3 rooms – 8339 2215 &2219. I will try to do a review of our ports and some of my favorite highlightsaltogether and please feel free to ask me any questions you might have! I’ll bedoing the review in segments as I type them out

 

Flights – We flewin from MDW to FLL on the 6:55am flight (Southwest) on 9/22 which was the morningof the cruise. I typically prefer to fly in the day before the cruise but sincewe were such a large group we just couldn’t do to accommodate due to workschedules etc. Let me pause and say I HIGHLYrecommend flying in the day before as it was so hectic, I was drained by the timeI actually got on the ship. I prearranged a shuttle from FLL to the POM and theywere on time and waiting for us by the time we got all our luggage together. Weloaded up both sprinters and we were on our way!

 

Embarkation –This was the first cruise that we didn’t have FTTF (at the time I inquiredabout passes I was told since the ship was new they wouldn’t be available untilDec), but I had heard that the new embarkation process was really smooth and wouldn’tbe a long wait since they had the new check in process, but boy was that wrong.We had a 2 hour wait. I honestly don’t think it would have mattered even if Idid have the FTTF pass because it was a 2 hour wait for the Platinum etc. as well,so I guess it worked out. I will say that once the line started moving it mighthave been a 30 min wait.

After we checked in there was a line to add cash to the account.I normally do credit cards and keep it moving but we had over 1k in OBC as wellas some Cruise Cash so I felt confident in not adding a credit card but Iwanted to check that we didn’t need to add anything additional so I spoke withan agent who told me that while my husband was checked in…I wasn’t. I had topull out off of my docs just to be checked in again and after I did that shechecked our credits and only saw $300. I showed her the print out which had thecorrect amount of my OBC and she told me to handle that with Guest Servicesonce onboard. As soon as I get on the ship I head straight for guest servicesand that line was long already. After another 45 - 60 min wait in line I wasnext in line only to be told that my credits were there all along and they wereclosing the line for the muster drill. I ran to my room and dropped off thepaperwork and headed straight for the drill.

[L1211]

Following!

 

 

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[BoDidly]

Reading along.

[mac21902]

Embarkation Part. 2

After drill I met up with my family and we headed to Guysfor a burger and some relax time on the lido. We sat on the Lido deck for awhile and enjoyed the sail away party and kind of people watched until it wastime for dinner. I headed to the room to shower and we enjoyed a nice meal in theMeridien Dining Room. After dinner we kind of sat and talked for a while and Iturned in early since I was still tired from a full day of travel.

 

First Day at Sea –I slept in and headed to seaday brunch with the kiddies and hubby. Took my nephews to the arcade and we also hitup the slides. I was very bummed to learn the SkyRide wasn’t going to be workingfor our entire trip. I gambled a little bit in the casino which is a littlesmaller than the other casinos and seemed a lot smokier, but I will review moreon that later. For lunch I met up with my kids and my in-laws and we headed tothe Italian restaurant for some free pasta. Seriously an amazing meal! Myhusband had laid back down for a nap, so I took him some pasta to our roomwhich he ate on the balcony and we did a hand off and I left him with our sonwhile I laid down for a nap. This will probably sound weird, but I felt badtaking a nap in the middle of the day while on vacation…like I was missing outon something on the ship but the reality of it is I was tired, and my body wastelling me to lay down, so I did. I woke up a few hours later and we headed todinner in Meridien again with the family. Another great meal! The check in processfor dinner was different than I remember but I could be wrong….we checked in ata little spot right by the JavaBlue coffee joint on Deck 5 but we ate dinner onDeck 3 and fyi we had anytime dining. I hit a point that I started using theapp to check in because it just seemed easier. I didn’t have my first drinkuntil this night. We sat on the lido deck for a while during the Dive-In moviethen I called it an early night since we hit Grand Turk the next day.

 

Grand Turk – ForGrand Turk I ordered Room Service and we ate breakfast on the balcony before meetingup with the group to leave the ship. Our meet up spot before leaving for eachIsland was the Lobby. Now let me pause here and remind you that I was travelingwith a group of 18 and within that group I had a group of men in our group (we’reall close friends) that I referred to as “The Boys”. The Boys (3 men) liked tostay up in the nightclub all night which an issue at all wasn’t but they hatedgetting up every morning for each island lol. Every Island and debarkation day Ihad to go to “The Boys” room and do a wake-up knock or two. They literallyslept through every text message and phone call we did. Their room was what Ienvisioned a boy’s door room would look like, but it was all three of theirfirst cruise and boy did they live it up and enjoy it. So, we had to wait anextra 30 mins on The Boys to come down from their room and meet us. The majorityin our group had already been here so this was a chill island and we just didsome shopping and headed to the beach. I tend to research each island, so weknow the do’s and don’ts and this island was no different. We chose the beachright off Margaritaville which has free chairs and umbrellas, but the ones upfront you pay for. Well we were armed with that knowledge and I’m thankful forit because someone did try to charge us for the chairs as well as anotherfamily that came along. I told him I was told that the chairs in the back werefree and I asked had that changed and he said oh no no no only the chairs in thefront you pay for. I also let the other family know so they didn’t get dupedfor free chairs. We rented 2 of the giant white floaties which were about $30each but we all kinda chipped in and shared it and we drank a little bit andthat’s the only money we spent. The drinks were a little higher, but I tipped extra,and she was very generous with the alcohol. The beach and weather were perfect,and we had an absolute blast. It was a great island to kick off the cruisewith. Once back on the ship we took showers and ventured out for lunch. I ranupstairs for another Guy’s Burger (seriously I waited 2 years for theseburgers) I didn’t actually run it was more of a casual walk then running but Idigress I was starving. The rest of the evening we hit the lido deck for themovie and walked around a little bit. My son got sleepy so I headed to the roomwith him and we were knocked out by 11.

[crewsweeper]

Signing up for the "Mad Dash Across the Horizon" review.:D:D

 

Thanks for sharing. Can't wait for the rest.

[LizzieTrowbridge]

Following! Thanks for the review.

 

 

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[BENHANDEL]

Following! Excited to read about sailings from Miami as we will be there in Dec. Hoping you comment on your experience on 2nd floor balconies, any noise issues and any excessively warm cabins.

[cruzinfamilyof4]

Looking forward to the rest of your review since we will be on her in February!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[JAXCRUISER]

Thanks for writing this review!

[smurfm69]

Ready to read more of your review as we are doing this same itinerary in May. Don't feel guilty about the naps. We do the later dining time so that we can squeeze in a nap before dinner and stay up later to party!

[granni10]

thanks fr the good update going in november is there a marriage game on the the ship, thanks for any input

[bookgirl98]

Great review! Cant wait to be cruisin too. We are leaving the week of Thanksgiving. It can not get here fast enough. Do you happen to have copies of your Fun Times that you can post pictures of? It appears that everyone needs them but no one has them.

 

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[mac21902]

La Ramona, DR – Iwas very excited to visit La Ramona as this was my first time here. We atebreakfast in the dining room and headed straight to the lobby to meet up withour group. Of course, we had an additional 30 min wait as I waited for the “TheBoys” but I ordered a drink in the lobby bar while we waited. Once we were offthe ship we walked through the cruise terminal and visited the stores in thatarea and did a little shopping. We ended up booking 2 buses/vans to take usshopping in the downtown area and then to the beach for a few hours anddropping us back off at the terminal. This was about $13 a person and I thinkwe paid $5 for the youngest 2 in our group which were under the age of 5. Now Ithought we were going to go to be able to walk around the downtown area and dosome shopping then head to the beach but that isn’t how it happened. In realitywe ended up going to one store downtown (I’m guessing the drivers had arrangementswith this store to bring tourists here) and then they took us to the beach. Nowour driver silently followed the van in front of us but once we got to the beachour other group told us that their driver actually gave a tour and explained thingsto them so I guess we got the wrong driver…lol. Now the beach (Bayahibe) wasnothing like any other beach we had been too. It was littered with trash andthe water was very cloudy and the texture in the water under our feet was clayand not sand like we expected. As we were walking toward the beach someonewalked up and explained that an umbrella and 2 chairs was $40 and a table andchairs was free if we ordered drinks or food. So, we took the free option andordered food and drinks. While we were getting situated, someone walked up withan iguana and just placed it on my brother in laws shoulder he kind of laughedand shrugged it off and handed it back to the owner and the owner demanded $10.Someone else also did this with a monkey. Most of our group didn’t go in the waterand those that did only stayed maybe 20 – 30 mins long so we just soaked up thesun and sat around joking while waiting on the food and drinks which didn’tarrive until maybe 15 mins before the buses came to pick us up. One of thethings I didn’t like was once it was time to pay for the food the guy sawsomeone in our group pull out money and he completely changed the price of theorder and since the van was waiting we didn’t’ have time to hash it out so hejust paid it. Once we paid for the food and drink we headed to the bus and madeour way back to the ship was about a 30 min drive. Once we got back to the shipI ordered some room service while we showered and we ate and took a nap. Weended up having dinner in the MDR and catching the Love & Marriage which neverdisappoints!

[mac21902]

I apologize for the grammatical errors. I am typing this in Word and copying and pasting here and it's losing it's format. Sorry guys! I have a ton more to post though and i'm going to try and get it all out over the next 2 days but I am having surgery tomorrow so depending on how i feel it may be 3 days.

[mac21902]

Great review! Cant wait to be cruisin too. We are leaving the week of Thanksgiving. It can not get here fast enough. Do you happen to have copies of your Fun Times that you can post pictures of? It appears that everyone needs them but no one has them.

 

Sent from my SM-N950U using Forums mobile app

 

I'm so sorry I don't but I will remember that for next time or maybe screenshots from my phone as I used the app a lot. It was great to have the funtimes at my fingertips. I will ask if anyone in our group still has it though.

[tulipcityfamily]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review. We will be sailing on the Horizon in January with the same ports.

[mac21902]

thanks fr the good update going in november is there a marriage game on the the ship, thanks for any input

 

There was! I always try to catch the love and marriage show, it's one of my faves! There was also the adult scavenger hunt which hasn't been on every cruise we've been on but was fun to watch as well.

[mac21902]

Ready to read more of your review as we are doing this same itinerary in May. Don't feel guilty about the naps. We do the later dining time so that we can squeeze in a nap before dinner and stay up later to party!

 

Those naps were the absolute best. I'm seriously considering order those pillows as comfortable as they were. lol

[mac21902]

Following! Excited to read about sailings from Miami as we will be there in Dec. Hoping you comment on your experience on 2nd floor balconies, any noise issues and any excessively warm cabins.

 

Someone in our group had a cove balcony on deck 2 and it was warm but they didn't realize you could adjust the air so I think that was the issue. Rooms 2215 & 2219 felt A LOT of rocking! Room 8339 was across from the laundry room which was great since I always do laundry before we return and I only had one issue where someone actually tried to get into my room thinking it was the laundry room.

[mac21902]

Curacao – Since we didn’t dock in Curacao until 1:30pm we slept in late and ate in the Dining Room. Once it was time to dock we went to the lobby to meet up with our group and off we went! Once off the ship we walked through the terminal and did a little shopping then ventured off to find transportation to the beach. We ended up booking with a shuttle service that offered a 2-hour tour plus 2 hours at the beach for $20/pp which was a pretty good dealing considering the taxis were about $20 just for the beach. Curacao was gorgeous and our tour guides were great! We visited this cool rock formation that we were able to climb to the top and it allowed a great view of all of Curacao. I’m not fit by any means andall I had on was flip flops but I was able to climb up the formation and comeback down the steep stairs. The view was definitely worth it but my thighs and legs killed me the rest of the trip. We also got to visit the local liquor factory and got some free samples of the local drinks. After the tour was over we headed to the beach which was free since it was after 5pm. This beach was AMAZING!The seats were free and the bar was steps away from where we were sitting. This beach looked like something out of a movie especially at night once they turned the lights on. I’ve never done night swimming but I would gladly swim at night if it were here. We spent 2 hours here and headed back to the ship for dinner.On the way back our tour guide took us to the bridge that lights up so we could get some pics. Once we made it back to the port we did a little shopping and boarded the ship. We ended up showering and eating dinner at the deli. Edited October 8, 2018 by mac21902

[Jenjer]

Curacao – Since we didn’t dock in Curacao until 1:30pm we slept in late and ate in the Dining Room. Once it was time to dock we went to the lobby to meet up with our group and off we went! Once off the ship we walked through the terminal and did a little shopping then ventured off to find transportation to the beach. We ended up booking with a shuttle service that offered a 2-hour tour plus 2 hours at the beach for $20/pp which was a pretty good dealing considering the taxis were about $20 just for the beach. Curacao was gorgeous and our tour guides were great! We visited this cool rock formation that we were able to climb to the top and it allowed a great view of all of Curacao. I’m not fit by any means andall I had on was flip flops but I was able to climb up the formation and comeback down the steep stairs. The view was definitely worth it but my thighs and legs killed me the rest of the trip. We also got to visit the local liquor factory and got some free samples of the local drinks. After the tour was over we headed to the beach which was free since it was after 5pm. This beach was AMAZING!The seats were free and the bar was steps away from where we were sitting. This beach looked like something out of a movie especially at night once they turned the lights on. I’ve never done night swimming but I would gladly swim at night if it were here. We spent 2 hours here and headed back to the ship for dinner.On the way back our tour guide took us to the bridge that lights up so we could get some pics. Once we made it back to the port we did a little shopping and boarded the ship. We ended up showering and eating dinner at the deli.

 

 

That sounds like a great day any additional info on where to meet up with this tour or name of the beach?