Carnival Horizon 7/24/21

[JEANMR1]

Here are my random thoughts/review of Carnival Horizon 7/24/21-8/1/21.  Feel free to ask me anything and I will try to answer.

Overall the cruise was fantastic and the crew was AMAZING. 

 

Our group was me, my wife, our vaccinated 14 year old, and our unvaccinated 10 (who turned 11 on the cruise) year old.

 

Embarkation:

Embarkation was easy.  Got to pier at 10:30am and was in the hottub by 11:30 am which included my son getting a covid test.

 

Food:

We had your time dining which worked incredibly well on the app.  We would check in, get notified a few minutes later, walk to the dining room, then someone would escort us immediately to our seats.  Again, the service was fantastic.  Sometimes too good.  I don’t need everyone who walks by to inquire how my meal is or try and refill my cup or give me more bread.  Hard to complain about that though.  We saw a couple of the dining room shows which just seems painful to me.  It feels degrading to me but that is just my opinion.  I know some people love the shows in the dining room.

 

The food was average to below average and I am absolutely no foodie.  I love chain restaurants.  I found the scrambled eggs on the buffet inedible but the on demand omelets were perfectly fine.  Do they use powdered eggs or something?  No idea, but gross.  There were a few stand out yummy dishes but overall nothing to gush over. 

 

Crowd level:

I think the ship was somewhere between 50-75% capacity depending on how you count it.  It felt wonderful – sort of like you would want it to be.  The only time it felt crowded was during disembarkation when people are squished on just a few decks and that is reasonable.  I don’t lay out in the sun but there was always some chairs to be had – though there are chair hogs too.  Why would you leave your stuff in one of the side gazebo things where people sit with their feet in the water?  Just put it on a deck chair for goodness sake!  The comedy shows got crowded but I didn’t notice anyone get turned away.  I didn’t do any of the main shows except half of one so I don’t know how those were crowd wise.  I would assume fine.  Overall the ship didn’t feel empty – but felt perfect.

 

Drinks:

We had free drinks in the casino but we also bought the Cheers plan.  Casino was crowded a lot so we didn’t get many drinks there and never activated our free drinks thing because we didn’t need to.  Drinks were plentiful and the bartenders were awesome.  Especially loved Jocelyn at the Ocean Plaza Bar and Umi at the Atrium bar.  The bartenders were also nice to the kids as well who had the soda plan.  A number of times they did get the whole can which some people seem to complain about.  The soda was cold and poured in a tall glass each time with ice.  No warm gross sodas that I have also heard complaints about.  Very good experience overall.

 

Family Harbor Lounge:

We had gotten this in the past and loved it.  We got it again and it was fine but not as important to us.  No more board games.  It was a ghost town most of the time and usually when I walked in I was the only person in there except for the employee.  There was probably a lot of food waste with the morning buffet.  Its great with little kids but mine prefer the main buffet for breakfast.  The afternoon snacks were much appreciated though.  The one thing we LOVED last time was being able to wait there for disembarkation in comfort.  That was not an option this time – it was all closed down.  That was disappointing because we were looking forward to it.

 

Excursions:

We had to do bubble tours and booked two of them.  In Aruba we did the snorkeling and boat ride with free drinks.  The boat was a catamaran and not the double decker custom one that was advertised.  That was not a problem though.  The kids liked laying on the net.  Snorkeling was fine.  Not amazing but not bad.  Free drinks was fine but it isn’t like it was a party or anything.  The great thing though was the crew.  I’m not a swimmer so I did not plan to snorkel.  The idea of going down the ladder in the open water was terrifying.  The captain(?) Robertson was absolutely amazing.  I can’t go on enough about him.  He coaxed me off the boat and stayed with me the whole time holding my arm and calming me down.  He took my camera and dove down and took some video as well.  If not for him, I would never have done it.  Overall I probably wouldn’t recommend because the price is steep for what it was but for me it was an experience I never thought I could have being afraid of the water.

In Curacao my family (not me) did the turtle snorkel and Cas Abo beach.  Wife said the crew was wonderful and the excursion was fine.  Probably a little too expensive.  Long drive.  Beach was fine.  It wasn’t something they would do again but were fine with having done it.

In La Romana we didn’t get off the ship.

In Amber Cove my daughter and I did the pool and we had a great time.  My son wasn’t allowed off the ship to do this which sucks but I knew this going into the cruise. 

 

Cleanliness

The ship of course was clean and well maintained.  I was very disappointed with the lack of pushing for hand washing or hand sanitization.  Yes there were dispensers everywhere but no staff member directing you to them or squirting stuff in your hand.  Therefore, very very few people heading into the buffet were washing their hands or sanitizing them.  I would have thought it would be better than that.  We washed our hands and that is all I can control. 

 

Random thoughts

Probably the best cruise I have been on (somewhere between 5 and 10 cruises).  This is a combination of the fun I had with my family, the amazing service, and the roominess of the ship not being full.  I do think there were some understandable cutbacks such as the library not having the self serve wine, probably a few less or less enjoyable activities, and the food being meh.  My son had to wear masks here and there but nothing he cared about as he is used to it.  It was nice feeling normal without masks everywhere on the ship but I wouldn’t be surprised if that ends with the way things are going. Oh and the teenage hoodlums were still around running around in the evenings but no problem for me.  There were probably less than usual and hung out only on the stairs by the arcade for the most part.

 

So if you are going on the Horizon soon you should have a great time.

 

Jean

 

[balcony bound]

Thanks for your review, it's so nice to hear reviews again!

 

You made me laugh about the hoodlums... yeah, they are not ever going away.

The handwashing... we all know what we are supposed to do, sorry to hear some didn't, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt they already washed up (or like me, use a product that lasts 24 hours?).

 

Sounds like you enjoyed your swim and how awesome that you had someone help you have that experience!  Nice to know they went the extra for you.

 

Glad you enjoyed the cruise - hope you have another coming up.

 

 

[Pizzasteve]

8 minutes ago, balcony bound said:

Thanks for your review, it's so nice to hear reviews again!

 

You made me laugh about the hoodlums... yeah, they are not ever going away.

The handwashing... we all know what we are supposed to do, sorry to hear some didn't, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt they already washed up (or like me, use a product that lasts 24 hours?).

 

Sounds like you enjoyed your swim and how awesome that you had someone help you have that experience!  Nice to know they went the extra for you.

 

Glad you enjoyed the cruise - hope you have another coming up.

 

 

Please explain how a product can last 24 hours that would prevent your hands from being a platform to carry a virus?  E.g. what happens if you rub your nose with your hand at some point during the 24 hours?  Why arent hospitals using this magic product instead of washing hands before surgery or after handling objects? 

 

Please post a link to the product.    

 

Thanks.

 

To OP, thanks as well for the review. The lack of enforcement effort on hand washing and was a Princess cruise issue for us as well, pre Covid19 we sent feedback to them.

 

In contrast, on a recent Viking cruise almost 100% of the time staff helping folks wash and offering towels for drying at buffet entrance.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Pizzasteve