Cruising is back on the HORIZON!!! (with pics) – 8/21/2021.

[Jamman54]

The Horizon sailed right at 6pm. We decided to have dinner at the Lido Marketplace. Patti grabbed a sandwich from the deli, and I just grabbed some food from the buffet. Nothing outstanding, but then again, buffet food usually isn’t. I can say that what I had was tasty and satisfied my hunger.

 

After we ate, we made our way down to the Liquid Lounge to see tonight’s Playlist Production show “Celestial Strings”. This is a very popular show, so we wanted to be there when the doors opened in hopes of snagging those great seats I told you about earlier. As we passed through the atrium the Aura Pop Duo was doing a set…..

 

 

The line was about ten deep on both sides, but once the doors opened we were able to grab the seats that we wanted. A server quickly took our drink order, and we settled in for the show. Here are some views of Celestial Strings……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a great show! We noticed during the show that the Sunny Girls Trio was now a duo. They remained a duo for the rest of cruise, so I guess one of the girls had taken ill. We hope she recovers quickly!

 

Afterwards, Patti went up to Pixels to pick up our photos. She caught piano player Eden performing at the Ocean Plaza……

 

 

I closed out my night by heading to the Skybox Sports Bar to have a nightcap with Lucian. Back at the cabin is tonight’s towel creature, and our invitations to tomorrow’s VIFP Diamond and Platinum Gathering…..

 

 

Coming up next: Our final day on the Horizon.

[Jamman54]

Day # 8  -  Sea Day # 3  -  8/28/21

 

We were up at 7am to a beautiful sunny day and calm seas. Here are today’s Fun Times…..

 

 

 

Patti wasn’t hungry for breakfast, so I went up and got me a breakfast burrito from the Blue Iguana Cantina, and took it over to the Red Frog Rum Bar to wash it down with a Thirsty Frog Red.

 

Back to the cabin, Patti and I decided to get most of our packing done this morning. Afterwards, I went to the Morning Show, and Patti went up to check out the Imax Theatre…..

 

 

 

 

Being hearing impaired, Patti checked out the closed captioning device that they provided, and said that it worked very well…..

 

 

 

 

Patti was going to meet me at the Red Frog Rum Bar for the Groove for St. Jude event, but first she stopped at the empty JiJi’s to take some pictures…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Patti meets me at the Red Frog Rum Bar and has a Chocolate Mocha Getaway…..

 

 

 

Today is the Groove for St. Jude…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, the Chocolate Extravaganza is going on at the Lido Marketplace…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We then went to the casino to get Patti’s free $25 in Fun Play chips and play some blackjack together. She gets bored playing more than 15 minutes, so she left me to browse the shops one last time. She got these pictures of me playing my last session of blackjack and to see how I was doing…..

 

 

 

At 2pm we went to the last bingo session of the cruise, and again we didn’t have any luck. We then went back to the cabin to relax before the VIFP Party.

 

The VIFP Party was at 5pm in the Liquid Lounge…..

 

 

The Cruise Director Donkey was spinning the tunes and entertaining the crowd……

 

 

We got our seats and drinks…..

 

 

 

There weren’t any snacks served, nor was there any of the guessing games that they used to do in the past. The lower level of the Liquid Lounge is fairly full…..

 

 

 

 

That’s me and my buddy Captain Iemmi…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Donkey welcomed everyone and then introduced the ship video…..

 

 

 

 

Donkey then introduced the Senior Staff…..

 

 

Captain Iemmi addresses the gathering….

 

 

 

After the VIFP Party Patti and I went up to the Sports Square to play a round of mini golf…..

 

 

 

 

 

Checking out the wake of the Carnival Horizon…..

 

 

The sun is going down on this cruise…..

 

 

 

We decided to have the Seafood Shack for our dinner tonight. Patti had the fish and chips, while I had the lobster roll…..

 

 

We took one last stroll around the ship then went back to the cabin to complete our packing, and then put the suitcases out in the hallway. We decided to call it a cruise and rest up for tomorrows drive home.

 

Here is tonight’s towel creature and the final group picture……

 

 

 

Coming up next:  They’re kicking us off the ship!!!

[Jamman54]

Day # 9  -  Debarkation Day  -  8/29/21

 

We were up at 6am, just as the Carnival Horizon was pulling into the pier in Miami. Here is the general debarkation information for today…..

 

 

 

Here is our Diamond debarkation information…..

 

 

The sun is rising over Miami Beach…..

 

 

 

The Carnival Elation is pulling in behind the Horizon…..

 

 

These are the last Miami views from our balcony…..

 

 

 

 

We skipped breakfast and went to our meeting spot at the Reflections Restaurant at 7:30am. Within minutes they came and got us and we were out the door. Once inside the terminal we went through the facial recognition station, grabbed our luggage, and got a porter who took our luggage right to our car on the 2^nd level of the parking garage. You can bet we tipped him well!

 

We paid for our parking ($176 for 8 days), and we were on our way at 8:15am. We are leaving the port of Miami…..

 

 

 

 

Soon we are heading north on I-95…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Like on the way down to Miami, we will be splitting our drive back to New Jersey into two days. Heck, it takes five and a half hours just to get out of Florida. We did make our obligatory stop at a Cracker Barrel somewhere in Florida, but I can’t remember exactly where.

 

After ten hours of driving we made it to the Hampton Inn in Santee, South Carolina…..

 

 

 

 

This was our cabin, I mean room …..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a nice outside pool area…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

They have a small gym…..

 

 

 

 

 

This is their Business Center…..

 

 

We were hungry, so Patti went to a nearby Subway and got us some dinner, and then we turned in for the night. Good night!

 

Day # 10  -  Heading back to New Jersey – 8/30/21

 

We were up early as we wanted to get back on the road and get home. But first we were going to partake of their free breakfast…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were on the road by 8:30am and soon were passing “that” place again…..

 

 

It was a fairly easy drive home though we hit a little bit of traffic in Virginia, and some thunderstorms in Maryland. Once the storms passed we were treated to a beautiful rainbow….

 

 

A couple of hours later we were back home in Somerset, New Jersey, another great cruise completed. The End.

 

Coming up next: Final thoughts and future plans.

[Jamman54]

Our final thoughts, ramblings, & future plans.

 

Three months ago this cruise was not even on our radar, but then Carnival and the Players Club sent us an offer that we couldn’t refuse. We were surprised that we got the offer since we had twelve cruises already booked, but we’ll take it. We chose the Horizon’s 8 day Southern Caribbean cruise because we had a Horizon 8 day ABC cruise cancelled in April. Patti wanted me to book it for July and make it a B2B, but I resisted. At the time Carnival had not officially begun sailing yet, so I thought July would be a bit risky. As for a B2B, we have a BIG adventure planned for October (more on that later), and though our jobs allow us to take off just about anytime we want to, I didn’t want to take advantage.

 

Then in August when Carnival announced that a Covid-19 test would now be required, I was thinking that we should have booked in July.    In reality, the testing was just a bump in the road, but it was very stressful until you got that “Negative” test result.

 

Now, about the mask wearing. Being from New Jersey we are used to wearing them, so it was not an issue for us. I think that most of our fellow passengers wore them in the appropriate locations. It seems that they were more strictly enforced in the elevators, comedy club, piano bar, and the casino. One time in the casino, I pulled my mask down to drink my drink, and forgot to pull it back up right away. The dealer gently reminded me to pull my mask back up, and I had no issue with that.

 

As far as the ports of call, they each had their own rules, which we abided by. The bottom line is, having to wear a mask at the appropriate times did not diminish our enjoyment of our cruise much if at all.

 

Let’s talk about the ship a little. For our sailing, the Horizon carried about 3,200 passengers, or about 68% of total capacity. That meant there was little or no waiting everywhere on the ship, except at the late evening comedy shows. Those were almost always standing room only. The PSR (Passenger Space Ratio) on the Vista Class ships (28), is just a hair better than the refurbished ships (Sunshine, Sunrise, & Radiance) PSR of 27. That being said, I would avoid booking these ships during the peak times of summer, holidays, and spring break, as they may feel pretty crowded once they start booking to full capacity.

 

Patti and I only ate in the dining room only once our entire cruise, and that was on lobster night. I believe that there were two reasons for this. First, after 56 Carnival cruises we are getting tired of the same old menus, even though they have been adjusted over the years. We used to book Late Seating, then Early Seating, and now YTD. But I think the main reason we didn’t eat in the dining room as much was because of the amount of choices you have in choosing where to eat. We had dinner at the Pig & Anchor, Jiji’s, Cucina, the Steakhouse, Seafood Shack, and twice at the Lido Marketplace. Have to say that we enjoyed our dinners EVERY night, no matter where we ate, but also have to say that JiJi’s was the best by far!

 

The entertainment that we witnessed was for the most part pretty good. I could listen to the Sunny Girls Trio all day! Patti, being hearing impaired, is more into entertainment that is more visual in nature. The two Playlist Productions that we loved the most were “Soulbound”, which is our new favorite, and of course “Celestial Strings”. Patti said that we should have gone back to the second show of “Soulbound” and gotten better seats so she could get some pictures. I’m sorry that we didn’t. The other two Playlist shows were “Amor Cubano” and “Vintage Pop”. I did get to see all four comedians and enjoyed their shows. They were Ronnie Bullard, Joe Marlotti, Macio, and Cee Jay Jones.

 

We enjoyed all of our ports of call. At this point of our cruising lives just give us a cabana or an all- inclusive beachfront property and we’re golden. Sometimes just a walk around a port area to browse the shops and have a local drink or beer is all we need. That being said, our goals were met this cruise. The only low spot was the rain in Aruba, which had never happened to us there before. We still had a good time.

 

The crew of the Horizon were fantastic. You could see that they were happy to be working again. The gang at the Red Frog Rum Bar, Indra the bar server in the casino who kept my drinks flowing, Lucian at the Skybox Sports Bar, were all top notch! Patti loved the staff at Pixels for redoing the color on a couple of ship’s pictures that she bought that were a little off. They had it done quickly and with a smile! She also loved Lisa at the IMAX theatre, who got and set up the closed captioned equipment for her. Well done everybody!

 

I can’t think of anything else right now, but if you have any questions, ask away! Don’t be shy!

 

After not cruising for almost two years, we were a little rusty in our process in doing reviews. I forgot to jot down notes, we forgot to grab the paper Fun Times, even though they were readily available, and gasp, we constantly forgot to take food porn! We promise to do better moving forward.

 

Speaking of moving forward, here are our future plans and cruises. In October we will be doing another month long California Adventure! On October 9^th we will be flying (Business Class of course!) out to Los Angeles and spending six days in Long Beach. On October 15^th we will be boarding the Carnival Miracle for B2B cruises (3 & 4 days) to Ensenada and Catalina. Then on October 23^rd, we will be boarding the Carnival Panorama for a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We will have a Havana cabin for the first time. Also, scheduled to be on this cruise this week is everyone’s favorite LIVE blogger, Saint Greg! This should make for a very fun and entertaining week! Stay tuned!

 

Looking ahead to 2022, we have a B2B (Eastern & Western Caribbean), on the Mardi Gras from Port Canaveral starting on April 23^rd. Then, starting on August 28^th we have a B2B (Bermuda & New England / Canada), on the Carnival Legend from Baltimore.

 

2023 is shaping up like this. Starting April 8^th we will be boarding the Carnival Freedom from Miami on an 8 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. When we get back to Miami on April 16^th, we will immediately jump on board the Carnival Celebration for B2B cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. Then finally on September 8^th, we will be boarding the Carnival Magic in our home port of New York for B2B cruises to the Eastern Caribbean and Canada.

 

Will any of you be on board with us?

 

Well, that’s it for now. Safe travels everyone, and may you have blue skies and calm seas.

[Joe817]

Bravo, Jeff & Patti! Bravo! Thanks so much for sharing your adventures. I loved every post of your review. It was like all pictures were taken by a professional photographer, and every word of your review was written by a professional travel writer. 👍👍

[princess76021]

again i thank you for this fantastic review and awesome cruise!!

 

the best thing about it is you allowed me to join you!  thanks again for that

 

btw, when are we cruising again 😄 ???

 

hugs

nicki

[luvcruzing]

Thank you, Jeff, for putting this review together with Patti’s excellent photos.  It’s a lot of work and very much appreciated.

[SenatorsFan]

Thanks again Jeff and Patti for another great review! I look forward to following you and @Saint Gregin October. 😀

Go Sens and Devils! 😆

[Saint Greg]

19 minutes ago, SenatorsFan said:

Thanks again Jeff and Patti for another great review! I look forward to following you and @Saint Gregin October. 😀

Go Sens and Devils! 😆

 

 

[TravelGirlinDallas]

I enjoyed your cruise review, and I’m sorry it’s over! Looking forward to reading about October’s adventures…

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, Joe817 said:

Bravo, Jeff & Patti! Bravo! Thanks so much for sharing your adventures. I loved every post of your review. It was like all pictures were taken by a professional photographer, and every word of your review was written by a professional travel writer. 👍👍

 

Thanks for reading and for your kind words. It is appreciated! 😎

 

1 hour ago, princess76021 said:

again i thank you for this fantastic review and awesome cruise!!

 

the best thing about it is you allowed me to join you!  thanks again for that

 

btw, when are we cruising again 😄 ???

 

hugs

nicki

 

Thanks Nicki. Always glad to have you along  for the ride! You won't have long to wait for the next one. We leave for California three weeks from today! 🤗

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, luvcruzing said:

Thank you, Jeff, for putting this review together with Patti’s excellent photos.  It’s a lot of work and very much appreciated.

 

Thank you for your kind words. It's a labor of love! 😎

 

1 hour ago, SenatorsFan said:

Thanks again Jeff and Patti for another great review! I look forward to following you and @Saint Gregin October. 😀

Go Sens and Devils! 😆

 

Thanks Heather! We look forward to having you along for the ride. Hope our teams do better this season. I miss the glory years.😎

[Jamman54]

54 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

 

 

Greg, that clip is still played on the big board at Devils games. Classic! 🤗

 

23 minutes ago, TravelGirlinDallas said:

I enjoyed your cruise review, and I’m sorry it’s over! Looking forward to reading about October’s adventures…

 

Glad you enjoyed the review. It won't be too long until the next one. 😎

[lidoplease]

Great review and wonderful pictures! So enjoy following along with you both. Happy sails!!

[Shakatime]

On 9/3/2021 at 7:31 PM, Jamman54 said:

As Patti usually does, she heads out to start taking pictures. She likes to get started before the ship gets to crowded. She starts out with the Reflection Restaurant which is the one level mid ship restaurant on Deck 3 just off the lobby. This is the restaurant where those with traditional dining will eat…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are tonight’s menus…..

 

 

 

 

 

Here are Carnival Adventures and Guest Services which are located on Deck 3 off the lobby…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

Hey, there’s  me in the khaki shorts looking down at the end of the line.

[Jamman54]

33 minutes ago, lidoplease said:

Great review and wonderful pictures! So enjoy following along with you both. Happy sails!!

 

Thank you very much!😎

 

10 minutes ago, Shakatime said:

Hey, there’s  me in the khaki shorts looking down at the end of the line.

 

Congrats on making the review! 😁 Hope you had a great cruise! 😎

[Shakatime]

Just now, Jamman54 said:

 

Thank you very much!😎

 

 

Congrats on making the review! 😁 Hope you had a great cruise! 😎

Lol. I did! Booked on Horizon again for 11/27!

[jbhcw]

As always...a wonderful review!  We've stayed at that Hampton Inn several times at Santee!   Question....do you have any idea how long the cruise lines are going to cruise at a reduced capacity?  Curious...my first cruise since 2018...will be in Feb...on Hal...husband passed last year...but will be going with family...don't mind the mask...but I have gotten weird about being around a lot of people... a result of the pandemic....reading everyone's reviews has been a life saver  for me...again...thanks!

[blarko]

4 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Our final thoughts, ramblings, & future plans.

 

Three months ago this cruise was not even on our radar, but then Carnival and the Players Club sent us an offer that we couldn’t refuse. We were surprised that we got the offer since we had twelve cruises already booked, but we’ll take it. We chose the Horizon’s 8 day Southern Caribbean cruise because we had a Horizon 8 day ABC cruise cancelled in April. Patti wanted me to book it for July and make it a B2B, but I resisted. At the time Carnival had not officially begun sailing yet, so I thought July would be a bit risky. As for a B2B, we have a BIG adventure planned for October (more on that later), and though our jobs allow us to take off just about anytime we want to, I didn’t want to take advantage.

 

Then in August when Carnival announced that a Covid-19 test would now be required, I was thinking that we should have booked in July.    In reality, the testing was just a bump in the road, but it was very stressful until you got that “Negative” test result.

 

Now, about the mask wearing. Being from New Jersey we are used to wearing them, so it was not an issue for us. I think that most of our fellow passengers wore them in the appropriate locations. It seems that they were more strictly enforced in the elevators, comedy club, piano bar, and the casino. One time in the casino, I pulled my mask down to drink my drink, and forgot to pull it back up right away. The dealer gently reminded me to pull my mask back up, and I had no issue with that.

 

As far as the ports of call, they each had their own rules, which we abided by. The bottom line is, having to wear a mask at the appropriate times did not diminish our enjoyment of our cruise much if at all.

 

Let’s talk about the ship a little. For our sailing, the Horizon carried about 3,200 passengers, or about 68% of total capacity. That meant there was little or no waiting everywhere on the ship, except at the late evening comedy shows. Those were almost always standing room only. The PSR (Passenger Space Ratio) on the Vista Class ships (28), is just a hair better than the refurbished ships (Sunshine, Sunrise, & Radiance) PSR of 27. That being said, I would avoid booking these ships during the peak times of summer, holidays, and spring break, as they may feel pretty crowded once they start booking to full capacity.

 

Patti and I only ate in the dining room only once our entire cruise, and that was on lobster night. I believe that there were two reasons for this. First, after 56 Carnival cruises we are getting tired of the same old menus, even though they have been adjusted over the years. We used to book Late Seating, then Early Seating, and now YTD. But I think the main reason we didn’t eat in the dining room as much was because of the amount of choices you have in choosing where to eat. We had dinner at the Pig & Anchor, Jiji’s, Cucina, the Steakhouse, Seafood Shack, and twice at the Lido Marketplace. Have to say that we enjoyed our dinners EVERY night, no matter where we ate, but also have to say that JiJi’s was the best by far!

 

The entertainment that we witnessed was for the most part pretty good. I could listen to the Sunny Girls Trio all day! Patti, being hearing impaired, is more into entertainment that is more visual in nature. The two Playlist Productions that we loved the most were “Soulbound”, which is our new favorite, and of course “Celestial Strings”. Patti said that we should have gone back to the second show of “Soulbound” and gotten better seats so she could get some pictures. I’m sorry that we didn’t. The other two Playlist shows were “Amor Cubano” and “Vintage Pop”. I did get to see all four comedians and enjoyed their shows. They were Ronnie Bullard, Joe Marlotti, Macio, and Cee Jay Jones.

 

We enjoyed all of our ports of call. At this point of our cruising lives just give us a cabana or an all- inclusive beachfront property and we’re golden. Sometimes just a walk around a port area to browse the shops and have a local drink or beer is all we need. That being said, our goals were met this cruise. The only low spot was the rain in Aruba, which had never happened to us there before. We still had a good time.

 

The crew of the Horizon were fantastic. You could see that they were happy to be working again. The gang at the Red Frog Rum Bar, Indra the bar server in the casino who kept my drinks flowing, Lucian at the Skybox Sports Bar, were all top notch! Patti loved the staff at Pixels for redoing the color on a couple of ship’s pictures that she bought that were a little off. They had it done quickly and with a smile! She also loved Lisa at the IMAX theatre, who got and set up the closed captioned equipment for her. Well done everybody!

 

I can’t think of anything else right now, but if you have any questions, ask away! Don’t be shy!

 

After not cruising for almost two years, we were a little rusty in our process in doing reviews. I forgot to jot down notes, we forgot to grab the paper Fun Times, even though they were readily available, and gasp, we constantly forgot to take food porn! We promise to do better moving forward.

 

Speaking of moving forward, here are our future plans and cruises. In October we will be doing another month long California Adventure! On October 9^th we will be flying (Business Class of course!) out to Los Angeles and spending six days in Long Beach. On October 15^th we will be boarding the Carnival Miracle for B2B cruises (3 & 4 days) to Ensenada and Catalina. Then on October 23^rd, we will be boarding the Carnival Panorama for a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We will have a Havana cabin for the first time. Also, scheduled to be on this cruise this week is everyone’s favorite LIVE blogger, Saint Greg! This should make for a very fun and entertaining week! Stay tuned!

 

Looking ahead to 2022, we have a B2B (Eastern & Western Caribbean), on the Mardi Gras from Port Canaveral starting on April 23^rd. Then, starting on August 28^th we have a B2B (Bermuda & New England / Canada), on the Carnival Legend from Baltimore.

 

2023 is shaping up like this. Starting April 8^th we will be boarding the Carnival Freedom from Miami on an 8 day cruise to the Southern Caribbean. When we get back to Miami on April 16^th, we will immediately jump on board the Carnival Celebration for B2B cruises to the Eastern and Western Caribbean. Then finally on September 8^th, we will be boarding the Carnival Magic in our home port of New York for B2B cruises to the Eastern Caribbean and Canada.

 

Will any of you be on board with us?

 

Well, that’s it for now. Safe travels everyone, and may you have blue skies and calm seas.

Oh my gosh, this was great! Thank you so much for the review. Looking forward to your future cruises/reviews, especially the one with @Saint Greg onboard at the same time!

[Jamman54]

23 minutes ago, jbhcw said:

As always...a wonderful review!  We've stayed at that Hampton Inn several times at Santee!   Question....do you have any idea how long the cruise lines are going to cruise at a reduced capacity?  Curious...my first cruise since 2018...will be in Feb...on Hal...husband passed last year...but will be going with family...don't mind the mask...but I have gotten weird about being around a lot of people... a result of the pandemic....reading everyone's reviews has been a life saver  for me...again...thanks!

 

Thanks for reading and so sorry for your loss. I'm thinking that the cruise lines will sail at reduced capacity until at least the end of the year and possibly the first quarter. 😎

 

9 minutes ago, blarko said:

Oh my gosh, this was great! Thank you so much for the review. Looking forward to your future cruises/reviews, especially the one with @Saint Greg onboard at the same time!

 

Thanks for following along once again. I'm thinking that our Panorama cruise will be epic! 🤗