Horizon Review - 10/19 - 10/27

[ishap]

Well, I am unfortunately back at work today after getting off of the Horizon yesterday, but in order to help the sting of being back in the office, I figured I would start writing my view of the Carnival Horizon...both the good and the bad.  I will include pics and hopefully some video of a few things.  I warn you now...this won't be written all in one sitting, but rather as multiple pieces in this post as I organize my thoughts, get time over the next few days to type them out, organize my pics, etc.  I hope you all find it informative and it helps you on your journey.

 

Day 1:  The Journey Begins

 

We always travel to the cruise port the day before the cruise.  I will never trust an airline to get me there on time the morning of embarkation.  While I have had very good luck with on time flights, I am the type of traveler that likes to be early and in this case, that means being in Miami the day before.  We had a morning flight out of Dulles airport so that means up at 4am.  But who can sleep the night before vacation??!?  I was actually awake at 3:30am as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.  Car was already packed, that so that just means a shower, getting dressed, and out the door!  Thank god my wife is like me...early is ontime, ontime is late, and late is being left behind.  We get to the airport early...no problems there because it's off to the United Club for some breakfast and coffee.  

 

After landing in Fort Lauderdale we catch a Lyft down to our hotel in Miami.  We like to stay at the Hampton Inn and Suites Brickel when we cruise out of Miami.  It is right next to the free metromover, has lots of restaurants within walking distance, is in a rather decent neighborhood, and has free breakfast.  We got to the hotel a few hours before the posted check in time, but they had our room ready for us, so we dropped off our luggage, then it's off to walk around and buy a few necesseties that we decided to buy there instead of packing.  Though one thing we needed to get was another suitcase.  When we checked our luggage, our large suitcase was over the 50 pound limit.  I am not paying the $100 overage fee, so we moved some stuff from the large suitcase and stuffed it in the smaller.  We got the large bag down to 48 pounds but the small bag was at 45.  We had planned on buying some souveneirs, so we went to target to pick up a duffel bag as a third bag.

[thesmiths]

Thank You. Heading on Horizon a few times in the next year.

 

How much was Lyft from FLL to the hotel?

 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by thesmiths

[ishap]

12 minutes ago, thesmiths said:

Thank You. Heading on Horizon a few times in the next year.

 

How much was Lyft from FLL to the hotel?

 

 

 

Lyft prices as follows:

$34.29 from FLL to Hampton Inn and Suites Brickel

$7.96 from hotel to Port of Miami

$31.81 from Port of Miami to FLL

 

 

[ishap]

After shopping we were both hungry so we hit the restaurant right next to the hotel. Just a gastropub, however the food was tasty and they had a delicious house brewed beer on tap. I would recommend this place to anyone staying at the hotel. 

[ishap]

After lunch, we did some more walking around the city and took the free metro mover down to harbor park to see the harbor and do some people watching.  There were a lot of....interesting people on the metro mover lol.  Miami always seems to be a cleaner city than some other big cities.  
 

 

 

One thing we noticed while walking around was scooters everywhere.  While that in itself wasn't too odd, we watched some people riding them, then just stopped, got off, and walked away leaving them right in the middle of the sidewalk.  We found out later on that you can rent these through apps, including Uber, to ride around and you are just supposed to leave them when done.  Cool concept I guess, I had just never seen this.  I can certainly see how it would help you get around faster than walking if you are just going place to place within the city.

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by ishap
Fixing text formatting

[ishap]

The wife’s favorite restaurant in Miami is a little place called My Ceviche. It’s just around the corner from the hotel so we hit it up for dinner. And bonus, $2 bottles of beer for happy hour!  I love cheap drinks!!

 

 

[ishap]

After dinner we hit up the hotel bar for a few more drinks.  The hotel gave us a couple of free drink coupons, so why not?  While at the bar we started chatting it up with another couple, and a pair of ladies who were cruising together.  Come to find out, they were all on the same ship as us!

 

During the course of the conversation, we found out that one of the ladies went out drinking the night before, got really drunk, then decided to pack when she got home, so she drunk packed.  When she got to Miami she discovered that she didn't pack most of what she wanted haha!  She ended leaving the bar to go to Target to buy clothes for the cruise.  Let this be a lesson to you all!!  Oh and if she is here on CC...please chime in!

 

We ended up seeing all four people around the ship over the next week so made for some fun conversation.

[ishap]

Embarkation Day...

 

Up and at 'em!  Embarkation day is finally here!!!  Head down to breakfast, then back to the room to collect our luggage.  We head down to the lobby at about 9am to grab a Lyft to the port.  The hotel does have a shuttle to the port, but they want $16/person and the first shuttle doesn't leave till 10am.  That's a little late for me as I like to be at the port early.  Plus, as I already posted the cost of the Lyft, saves me about $23 or so.  That's about 3 beers on the ship!!

 

You may be wondering why someone would want to get to the port early just to sit and wait there, well let me tell you...

 

First and foremost, I am an anxious traveler.  Not anxious in the manner of being nervous about traveling, but anxious as I want to be there, get there, be on board.  That being said, I can't relax at the hotel while waiting to go to the port.  I would rather get to the port early before it gets busy, get my luggage turned over to the porters, get through security, and sit at the front of the lounge with the ship in sight.  Yep, that's me.  And I will never understand why people drag their luggage with them instead of using the porters.  Too much hassle.

 

I also like to be on board as early as possible.  Day 1 of an 8 day cruise is embarkation day.  So why waste day 1 on land?  GET ME ON THE SHIP!  I know I am not first on board, but close to it.  I want to board, drop off my bags, grab some grub, and since this is a new to me ship, explore!!!

[ishap]

The Lyft arrives and it’s off to the port!

 

 

[ishap]

We got our bags dropped off to the porters with a cash tip to make sure they were handled nicely.  The doors to security didn’t open till 10am so we got in line. As we got to the port about 9:30, we were second in line in the priority line. 
 

At 10 they opened the doors and in we go...breeze through checkin and security, then to the FTTF area to wait boarding. 
 

 

[bnbeyer]

Following.  Looking good so far!

 

Love the drunk packing bit.  🙂 

[grandmarnnurse]

3 hours ago, ishap said:

Well, I am unfortunately back at work today after getting off of the Horizon yesterday, but in order to help the sting of being back in the office, I figured I would start writing my view of the Carnival Horizon...both the good and the bad.  I will include pics and hopefully some video of a few things.  I warn you now...this won't be written all in one sitting, but rather as multiple pieces in this post as I organize my thoughts, get time over the next few days to type them out, organize my pics, etc.  I hope you all find it informative and it helps you on your journey.

 

Day 1:  The Journey Begins

 

We always travel to the cruise port the day before the cruise.  I will never trust an airline to get me there on time the morning of embarkation.  While I have had very good luck with on time flights, I am the type of traveler that likes to be early and in this case, that means being in Miami the day before.  We had a morning flight out of Dulles airport so that means up at 4am.  But who can sleep the night before vacation??!?  I was actually awake at 3:30am as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.  Car was already packed, that so that just means a shower, getting dressed, and out the door!  Thank god my wife is like me...early is ontime, ontime is late, and late is being left behind.  We get to the airport early...no problems there because it's off to the United Club for some breakfast and coffee.  

 

After landing in Fort Lauderdale we catch a Lyft down to our hotel in Miami.  We like to stay at the Hampton Inn and Suites Brickel when we cruise out of Miami.  It is right next to the free metromover, has lots of restaurants within walking distance, is in a rather decent neighborhood, and has free breakfast.  We got to the hotel a few hours before the posted check in time, but they had our room ready for us, so we dropped off our luggage, then it's off to walk around and buy a few necesseties that we decided to buy there instead of packing.  Though one thing we needed to get was another suitcase.  When we checked our luggage, our large suitcase was over the 50 pound limit.  I am not paying the $100 overage fee, so we moved some stuff from the large suitcase and stuffed it in the smaller.  We got the large bag down to 48 pounds but the small bag was at 45.  We had planned on buying some souveneirs, so we went to target to pick up a duffel bag as a third bag.

How much does it cost to take Lyft from FLL to Miami? I always heard that the only reasonably priced choice was a shuttle. 

[4hunters]

1 hour ago, ishap said:

Embarkation Day...

 

Up and at 'em!  Embarkation day is finally here!!!  Head down to breakfast, then back to the room to collect our luggage.  We head down to the lobby at about 9am to grab a Lyft to the port.  The hotel does have a shuttle to the port, but they want $16/person and the first shuttle doesn't leave till 10am.  That's a little late for me as I like to be at the port early.  Plus, as I already posted the cost of the Lyft, saves me about $23 or so.  That's about 3 beers on the ship!!

 

You may be wondering why someone would want to get to the port early just to sit and wait there, well let me tell you...

 

First and foremost, I am an anxious traveler.  Not anxious in the manner of being nervous about traveling, but anxious as I want to be there, get there, be on board.  That being said, I can't relax at the hotel while waiting to go to the port.  I would rather get to the port early before it gets busy, get my luggage turned over to the porters, get through security, and sit at the front of the lounge with the ship in sight.  Yep, that's me.  And I will never understand why people drag their luggage with them instead of using the porters.  Too much hassle.

 

I also like to be on board as early as possible.  Day 1 of an 8 day cruise is embarkation day.  So why waste day 1 on land?  GET ME ON THE SHIP!  I know I am not first on board, but close to it.  I want to board, drop off my bags, grab some grub, and since this is a new to me ship, explore!!!

Great start to your review!  Also, I’m exactly like you in how I view getting to port early. 👍🏻

[lazydayz]

Great start.  Thanks for doing this. 

 

We cruise Horizon in March, an 8 night to the Southern Caribbean.  Hope that was your route!  

[grandmarnnurse]

2 hours ago, ishap said:

Embarkation Day...

 

Up and at 'em!  Embarkation day is finally here!!!  Head down to breakfast, then back to the room to collect our luggage.  We head down to the lobby at about 9am to grab a Lyft to the port.  The hotel does have a shuttle to the port, but they want $16/person and the first shuttle doesn't leave till 10am.  That's a little late for me as I like to be at the port early.  Plus, as I already posted the cost of the Lyft, saves me about $23 or so.  That's about 3 beers on the ship!!

 

You may be wondering why someone would want to get to the port early just to sit and wait there, well let me tell you...

 

First and foremost, I am an anxious traveler.  Not anxious in the manner of being nervous about traveling, but anxious as I want to be there, get there, be on board.  That being said, I can't relax at the hotel while waiting to go to the port.  I would rather get to the port early before it gets busy, get my luggage turned over to the porters, get through security, and sit at the front of the lounge with the ship in sight.  Yep, that's me.  And I will never understand why people drag their luggage with them instead of using the porters.  Too much hassle.

 

I also like to be on board as early as possible.  Day 1 of an 8 day cruise is embarkation day.  So why waste day 1 on land?  GET ME ON THE SHIP!  I know I am not first on board, but close to it.  I want to board, drop off my bags, grab some grub, and since this is a new to me ship, explore!!!

OMG! I should have married you! Lol! Just kidding, but you and I are EXACTLY alike. I’d rather be a half hour early for anything, than ever be 5 minutes late. With that said, I want to be at airports AT LEAST 2 hours ahead of flight, where as it’s a real hassle to get my hubby of nearly 50 years moving. He just doesn’t have that same drive to be early as me. If it was up to him, he’d pack morning of flight, and arrive at airport with barely enough time to squeak through security and make flight! 😱 It’s an anxiety attack every time! This next cruise, we have an 5am flight out to NOLA in the winter. I convinced him that traveling that early to the airport a half hour away on snowy roads could be a real nail biter, so we book a hotel by airport that will shuttle us over at 4am (the soonest I can get this man to the airport). So, when I hear a man (or maybe this is a woman writing the review?) I feel so much envy for anyone that doesn’t produce stress for his/her spouse on travel day. 

[grandmarnnurse]

Can’t wait for the rest of the review.

[ishap]

2 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

How much does it cost to take Lyft from FLL to Miami? I always heard that the only reasonably priced choice was a shuttle. 

Lyft prices as follows:

$34.29 from FLL to Hampton Inn and Suites Brickel

$7.96 from hotel to Port of Miami

$31.81 from Port of Miami to FLL

[ishap]

1 hour ago, lazydayz said:

Great start.  Thanks for doing this. 

 

We cruise Horizon in March, an 8 night to the Southern Caribbean.  Hope that was your route!  

Yep!  This was an 8 night with stops in Grand Turk, DR, Curaçao, and Aruba. 

[ishap]

40 minutes ago, grandmarnnurse said:

OMG! I should have married you! Lol! Just kidding, but you and I are EXACTLY alike. I’d rather be a half hour early for anything, than ever be 5 minutes late. With that said, I want to be at airports AT LEAST 2 hours ahead of flight, where as it’s a real hassle to get my hubby of nearly 50 years moving. He just doesn’t have that same drive to be early as me. If it was up to him, he’d pack morning of flight, and arrive at airport with barely enough time to squeak through security and make flight! 😱 It’s an anxiety attack every time! This next cruise, we have an 5am flight out to NOLA in the winter. I convinced him that traveling that early to the airport a half hour away on snowy roads could be a real nail biter, so we book a hotel by airport that will shuttle us over at 4am (the soonest I can get this man to the airport). So, when I hear a man (or maybe this is a woman writing the review?) I feel so much envy for anyone that doesn’t produce stress for his/her spouse on travel day. 

yes, I’m a man. My wife just goes with my travel flow cause she knows how I am. Anymore she doesn’t worry about travel plans at all. She knows I will take care of everything. I just tell her when to be up, when we are leaving and she makes sure we are packed in time. 

[ishap]

I’m not always a social person, but it always seems that on cruises I tend to talk to strangers more. This is back tracking a bit, but when we were waiting to get in to security, we ended up taking to a big family that was traveling together. We had a good time chatting and it turned out that one of their cabins was right next to ours so we ended up seeing them all cruise long.  Kinda funny how that happens. 

 

The time has finally arrived!  It’s about 10:50 am and they have called wedding parties, suite guests, Diamond, plats, and now FTTF!  Here we go!  Up the gangway and on the ship!
 

 

 

 

[ishap]

Little video of us heading up the gangway. This should get you all excited for your next cruise! 

[ishap]

And now, the moment we first enter the ship!  First time I ever recorded us getting on the ship cause I wanted to remember the moment we first saw the Horizon interior. 

[ishap]

Sorry for all the split posts...I am trying to keep everything separated. I also apologize for the video quality lol I was trying to record and take it all in at the same time!

 

Here are some still shots of when we got on the ship. 
 

 

[ishap]

So now we are on the ship. Time to drop our bags off at our room and take a look around. Lobby is on deck 3 and our Havana room is on deck 5. We spent a lot of time on deck 5. 
 

A few things we took note of:

- The liquid lounge, the main theatre, is only 2 levels night and accessible from decks 4 and 5. We are so used the Conquest class that we kept trying to go enter from the lobby on deck 3. 
- The casino is on deck 4. Smoking is allowed in there. The smoke ventilation system is TERRIBLE and the casino is very smoky. However, the smoke does not seems to drift out of the casino which is great if you don’t gamble. If you do gamble and don’t smoke, well good luck. 
- This ship has the new smart elevators. The biggest downfall for the smart elevators is that it relies on stupid people. And boy are people stupid when it comes to these elevators. You are supposed to choose the floor you want for EACH member of your party. Not once for the entire party.

- We saw so many people press the floor once for their party, no matter the number of people. This is the reason why the elevator shows up and is already full. 
- Because people never figured out the proper way to use the elevator, the elevators were slow. Because they were slow, people tended to call the elevator, get tired of waiting, then use the stairs. Therefore we would stop at floors with no one there. 

[nybumpkin]

7 hours ago, ishap said:

 

Day 1:  The Journey Begins

 

We always travel to the cruise port the day before the cruise.  I will never trust an airline to get me there on time the morning of embarkation.  While I have had very good luck with on time flights, I am the type of traveler that likes to be early and in this case, that means being in Miami the day before. 

My assistant at work sailed on Norwegian Sky the same day you sailed on Horizon. Not only her first cruise, but also her first time on a plane. Fortunately she traveled with an experienced cruiser; however, their flights came as part of their NCL travel package and NCL booked them on a same-day flight. At midnight before flying she got a call from her cruise partner saying he had just received an e-mail that their flight was delayed and they would miss their connecting flight. They ended up leaving at 2 a.m. to go to another airport for a re-booked flight (actually better than the original flight) and made it to Miami in plenty of time. However, she was exhausted and stressed - I was thankful to see her post an onboard photo with drink in hand.

 

The week before she traveled I thought about sending her a video I had seen of tips for first-time cruisers; however, the first tip was DO NOT FLY IN THE DAY OF THE CRUISE. Knowing she was doing exactly that, I didn't share the video.😮

 

Thanks for sharing your vacation!