Just off Horizon - First B2B Cruise

[Terab85]

Little background about us.  I'm 54 years old and semi retired (I worked as a sub for after school program, but with covid, I was in no rush to go back to work).  Traveling with my DH who is 52.  We were cruising with friends that we had met on a 2015 cruise on the Liberty and this will be our 5th cruise with them.  I haven't done a trip report in years, I didn't take notes so I'm going from memory (*lol*)  and I'm far from a decent writer, so bear with me.  

 

We were on the Carnival Horizon from September 22 - October 2, 2021 doing our first ever B2B cruise.  I was going to try and do this live but just never found the time.  For this cruise, we had to do the 2 day testing. We were originally planning to get tested Wednesday and leave early Thursday morning from north Georgia and drive straight to Miami.  With the new change, we had scheduled 8:15am & 8:30am appointments and then planned to get on the road and stop in Orlando for the night before continuing to Miami on Friday morning.  We kept hearing about appointments being cancelled at the last minute and people scrambling to find a new location.  With that said, DH ordered the proctored at home tests which we received that Wednesday morning.  DH got up on Thursday morning at 3:00am and was done by 3:15am and I was done by 3:30am both being negative.  If Carnival continues to require the 2 day test, we will do the at home tests again.  We ended up getting on the road by 4:30am and took our time.  Since we had planned to stop in Orlando, we kept those reservations. We ended up staying at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Orlando near Universal.  We picked this one because one, it was free (we used points) and two, it was close to the turnpike.  The hotel was nice but definitely older and in need of some TLC.  We ate at the Miller Ale House and toasted that after 6 cancelled cruises, we were finally getting back on a ship.  The food & service were great.

 

Don't judge the picture.  We had been up since 3:00am 😵

[Terab85]

Since the drive from Orlando to Miami was only about 4 hours, we were in no hurry to get on the road.  Think we were finally heading down about 10:00am.  We arrived in Miami around 2:00pm and we were staying at the Courtyard Miami Downtown/Brickell (another free night).  This was our first time to Miami but with covid restrictions, we had no plans to explore on this trip.  We did get upgrades to a suite for us and our friends. 

[Gayle V]

Thanks for sharing your experience so far.  We'll be interested to read more, if you continue.

[GaHawkeye]

As the “friend”, I’ll chime in from time to time to keep things straight. To start, we started the cruise on 9/18, 8 day Southern to Aruba, Curaçao, LaRamona and Amber Cove. Missed Bonaire this trip. 
Ok, back to the OP. 
Hank

[Jamman54]

Thanks for posting. We get to relive our recent cruise on the Horizon! 🤗

[Terab85]

Embarkation Day - Sept 22, 2021

 

Was SO excited that we were finally sailing that we were up early.  Got to see a beautiful sunrise with some whale tails in the distance.  

 

We had a 10:30-11:00 check in and knew it would only be a 10 minute drive to the port.  We were dressed and ready to start this vacation. 

 

 

 

We left the hotel by 9:45am and drove to the port.  

 

 

DH dropped me off with the luggage and went to park the car.  We decided since we were going to be gone for two weeks, we wanted our car close by.  Yes it was expensive ($22/day) but worth the piece of mind.  Once DH got back, we went right inside the terminal (no crazy lines we heard about).  Our documents were checked at the door (boarding pass, negative test results, vaccination records, and passport).  We kept these documents close by since they would be checked again.  We walked right in and they check the staff made sure everything was good before they stamped our boarding pass (make sure you get your boarding pass stamped or they will send you back) and we continued through security and finally the check in desk.  We tried to add gift cards to our account but they didn't seem to know how to do it there and we would have to go to Guest Services once on board.  No biggie.  We arrived at the terminal about 10:05 and we were sitting down waiting to board about 10:20.  The whole process was pretty flawless.  

 

 

 

After about 15 minutes, they started to board.  We were A05 and they started with A01-A03 first.  We were walking on about 5 minutes after the initial boarding. We were on the ship about 11:00am. 

 

 

[Terab85]

11 minutes ago, Gayle V said:

Thanks for sharing your experience so far.  We'll be interested to read more, if you continue.

Thank you!  I have pictures on 3 different cameras, so having to go through everything.  Should have done that before starting 😛  

[Terab85]

10 minutes ago, GaHawkeye said:

As the “friend”, I’ll chime in from time to time to keep things straight. To start, we started the cruise on 9/18, 8 day Southern to Aruba, Curaçao, LaRamona and Amber Cove. Missed Bonaire this trip. 
Ok, back to the OP. 
Hank

Thanks Hank!  I realized I forgot to put the dates at the beginning.

[Terab85]

8 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

Thanks for posting. We get to relive our recent cruise on the Horizon! 🤗

You are one of my CC heroes and hope I can do it justice 😉 

[IloveOrchids]

Nice review so far !  I appreciate  your experience of the home test. 

[Terab85]

Since we are not currently platinum/diamond or have a suite, we weren't able to go to our cabin but our friends were so we quickly dropped off our carry on bags and went to get lunch.  We tried to do the muster right away but was told they would not be starting until 12:00.  So we went to get a cocktail and Guy's burger.  

 

 

[IloveOrchids]

Oops, forgot to ask ....For the home  test... Did you use your  Tablet?  Lap top ?? Mobile phone ???

Flying out of Boston the day before sailing on the Horizon for  New Years Eve sailing .  Weather can be unpredictable here.  

Thank you in advance ! 

 

 

[Terab85]

Once we were done with lunch, we walked around since this was our first time on the Horizon.  We went by the Liquid Lounge and remembered we still needed to do our muster drill.  Once checked in, we sat and listened to how to put on a life jacket and that was it.  Probably 5 minutes.  I hope Carnival continues to do this. 

 

[Terab85]

Like I said before, this was our first time to Miami and from all the other ports we've been to (Port Canaveral, Tampa, Jacksonville, and New Orleans), this port has the best skyline. 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2021 by Terab85

[Terab85]

Our cabin was ready at 1:30 so we went back to unpack our stuff.  I'm one of "those people" that my vacation doesn't start until I'm unpacked and everything in it's place.  Yes I know and I'm working on it 🤣.  At 3:45, we headed to Ocean Plaza to do our M&G.  I was the admin for social media group and we had over 600 members. It was a pretty active group and we had a decent turn out.  It was great to meet so many people and see their faces throughout the cruise.  Several of them we met up with to do shows or trivia.  After the M&G, it was time for sail away so we went back to our cabin to watch.  Now the ships come out of a channel that other boats go in and out of.  The coast guard was very active about keeping boats away from the cruise ship.  We had some idiots that were coming straight at the cruise ship and they were ignoring the CG telling them to "move away from the cruise ship".  They ended up getting boarded as we were leaving.  It was very entertaining.  

 

[Terab85]

 

 

More pictures as we are leaving Miami

[Terab85]

28 minutes ago, IloveOrchids said:

Oops, forgot to ask ....For the home  test... Did you use your  Tablet?  Lap top ?? Mobile phone ???

Flying out of Boston the day before sailing on the Horizon for  New Years Eve sailing .  Weather can be unpredictable here.  

Thank you in advance ! 

 

 

We used my hubby's laptop.  It was easy to pull the screen down so they can watch as you open the test.  There is a youtube video out there that'll show how they did theirs (using their phones) and said that it was harder to do unless you had something that could hold it for you.  If you have a camera on your laptop, use that.

[princess76021]

38 minutes ago, Terab85 said:

Once we were done with lunch, we walked around since this was our first time on the Horizon.  We went by the Liquid Lounge and remembered we still needed to do our muster drill.  Once checked in, we sat and listened to how to put on a life jacket and that was it.  Probably 5 minutes.  I hope Carnival continues to do this. 

 

as i put on my lifejacket i want to thank you for taking me along 🙂

hugs

[Terab85]

We had Anytime Dining for the first time and really loved it.  Didn't have to worry about being ready to go for early dining and will probably continue do do Anytime in the future.  We had a GREAT wait staff that we requested them not only for our first 8 days but our second leg too. 

 

 

I forgot to take pictures of the menus but did try and take pictures of the food which we found to be excellent. 

 

[Terab85]

We kept the evening short but like to sit and enjoy our balcony.   Tomorrow will be our first day at sea in almost 2 years.  

 

 

 

Forgot to mention our cabin was on deck 10, cabin #10236 and our room steward was Lismana and was awesome. 

[GaHawkeye]

This was our 15th cruise on Carnival and overall. I love taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets. The moon for the first few days were awesome. Don’t think I’ve sailed with a full moon like that. Truly breathtaking and beautiful. 
Hank

[GaHawkeye]

One other note. We were on Deck 10 as well. There is a “secret deck” forward. There were no lights on at night and made star gazing very easy. It is windy, but so worth it   
Hank

[IloveOrchids]

38 minutes ago, Terab85 said:

We used my hubby's laptop.  It was easy to pull the screen down so they can watch as you open the test.  There is a youtube video out there that'll show how they did theirs (using their phones) and said that it was harder to do unless you had something that could hold it for you.  If you have a camera on your laptop, use that.

Thank you !  

[Terab85]

Sept 19, 2021 - Sea Day

 

I don't have many pictures of today since our plan was to enjoy hanging out in Serenity and walk around the ship.   Did get up early to catch a beautiful sunrise. 

 

[KmomChicago]

Looking forward to this-you boarded the first leg on the 18th, not 22nd right?

Edited October 3, 2021 by KmomChicago