Carnival Horizon - A/C Issues

[Mr305]

Aboard Carnival Horizon at the moment, there’s definitely A/C issues.  During the day and at peak times, Lido is an oven.  First night spent a couple of hours at Havana Bar, sweating bullets.  Around 5:30PM yesterday, area around Bonsai was warm.

 

Room has been nice but there’s definitely something going on with the public areas.  Read reviews about the same prior to the cruise and refused to believe it but it’s definitely true.  Having a great time, don’t get me wrong.

[mz-s]

Carnival Corp's new motto:

 

"A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the office"

[BlerkOne]

31 minutes ago, Mr305 said:

Aboard Carnival Horizon at the moment, there’s definitely A/C issues.  During the day and at peak times, Lido is an oven.  First night spent a couple of hours at Havana Bar, sweating bullets.  Around 5:30PM yesterday, area around Bonsai was warm.

 

Room has been nice but there’s definitely something going on with the public areas.  Read reviews about the same prior to the cruise and refused to believe it but it’s definitely true.  Having a great time, don’t get me wrong.

Don't those areas have doors to the outside?

[mz-s]

21 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Don't those areas have doors to the outside?

 

Are you suggesting that guests should go outside if the inside is too hot, or are you saying Carnival's engineers don't know how to properly design an HVAC system to take into account the fact that doors exist?

Edited August 2, 2022 by mz-s

[cruisin from vegas]

I just got off Horizon Sunday….  You are 100% correct.  Public areas .., inside..  are sweltering.  Casino most of the time, shops, lounges, hallways? Restaurants, and elevators are suffocating (probably where I got Covid) .  Yes tested positive yesterday..  my cabin was perfect, but there is most definitely something wrong with the AC in most other areas 

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, mz-s said:

 

Are you suggesting that guests should go outside if the inside is too hot, or are you saying Carnival's engineers don't know how to properly design an HVAC system to take into account the fact that doors exist?

Are you hangry?

[elephant98]

I got off the Horizon on Sunday as well.  Thankfully, I only noticed the heat in the buffet on the first day of the cruise. I assumed that it was because it was the first day and everyone was hitting the buffet at the same time and the automatic doors kept opening and closing. That experience prompted me to sit more towards the middle of the buffet for the rest of the cruise and I didn't notice a cooling issue after that.  I can't speak. for the casino (that I only walked through to get to the other side) or the Havana Bar (that I only went to so I could buy drinks). But, throughout the cruise, I spent a lot of time on deck 5 near the coffee shop for daily trivia and midship near the alchemy bar, the steakhouse and sushi/teppanyaki for food and drinks and didn't notice a cooling problem. I noticed no cooling problems in the venues for comedy and the 3 production shows. Same for the atrium.  I'm not a night owl though, so I'm guessing that things warmed up as areas got more crowded.

[wemjam]

Hope they identify and fix the issue before our family cruise in a few weeks.  Will be watching to see if anyone posts here if it has improved?

[Hoosierpop]

56 minutes ago, elephant98 said:

I got off the Horizon on Sunday as well.  Thankfully, I only noticed the heat in the buffet on the first day of the cruise. I assumed that it was because it was the first day and everyone was hitting the buffet at the same time and the automatic doors kept opening and closing. That experience prompted me to sit more towards the middle of the buffet for the rest of the cruise and I didn't notice a cooling issue after that.  I can't speak. for the casino (that I only walked through to get to the other side) or the Havana Bar (that I only went to so I could buy drinks). But, throughout the cruise, I spent a lot of time on deck 5 near the coffee shop for daily trivia and midship near the alchemy bar, the steakhouse and sushi/teppanyaki for food and drinks and didn't notice a cooling problem. I noticed no cooling problems in the venues for comedy and the 3 production shows. Same for the atrium.  I'm not a night owl though, so I'm guessing that things warmed up as areas got more crowded.

Got off Sunday also and agree with this. As for the casino, I spent a fair amount of time at the crap table. Never felt hot. The smoke got bad sometimes though. But that’s typical.

[mz-s]

15 minutes ago, Hoosierpop said:

Got off Sunday also and agree with this. As for the casino, I spent a fair amount of time at the crap table. Never felt hot. The smoke got bad sometimes though. But that’s typical.

 

Is there a craps table in the non-smoking annex casino?

[DAllenTCY]

No, the only crap tables and blackjack ones were in the smoking side when I last sailed on the Horizon.  

 

David

Edited August 3, 2022 by DAllenTCY
additional

[Colorado Beach Bum]

It seems to be different areas of the ship are inconsistent for sure. We just got off Sunday and our experience was hot in many areas through the ship. Room was thankfully freezing cold. 

[Mr305]

It’s like rolling blackouts, some areas will be cool then hot again the next day.  Elevators and staircases seem to be warm most of the time.  After speaking with several crew members, they claim it was cutbacks to save fuel.  I don’t know what the real problem is but if this keeps up, Horizon will end up with a bad reputation.  Not a way to get customers hooked on cruising and keep a business running.  You want to relax, stay cool and enjoy the spaces.

[mz-s]

I wonder if the propulsion issue Horizon had last year was more serious and the repair done was a bandaid until drydock but it requires more engine power, leaving less for HVAC. Just a guess.

[ProgRockCruiser]

17 minutes ago, Mr305 said:

After speaking with several crew members, they claim it was cutbacks to save fuel.

That seems highly unlikely, IMHO.

 

More than likely they have an actual equipment problem, and they are re-directing cooling, as best they can (no idea how much they can) to where they think it is needed.

 

EDIT: and maybe it is enough of a problem that normally they'd pull the ship out of service, but they don't dare do that less than a year after pulling it out of service for the propulsion issue - the ship would get labeled as "bad luck".

Edited August 3, 2022 by ProgRockCruiser

[pc_load_letter]

18 hours ago, mz-s said:

 

Are you suggesting that guests should go outside if the inside is too hot, or are you saying Carnival's engineers don't know how to properly design an HVAC system to take into account the fact that doors exist?

 

HVAC systems rely on being a closed system. Doors constantly opening can create positive and negative air pressure which adversely effects cooling. Try running your ac with all your doors open and see how well it works. 

[BlerkOne]

6 minutes ago, pc_load_letter said:

 

HVAC systems rely on being a closed system. Doors constantly opening can create positive and negative air pressure which adversely effects cooling. Try running your ac with all your doors open and see how well it works. 

A better experiment on a cruise ship might be to open your balcony and cabin doors and watch the contents of your cabin evacuate.

[mdin]

I sailed on Horizon at the end of March and didn't notice it being extremely warm throughout the ship (was comfortable as far as I remember). Sounds like the issues started since then.

[ProgRockCruiser]

1 hour ago, pc_load_letter said:

 

HVAC systems rely on being a closed system. Doors constantly opening can create positive and negative air pressure which adversely effects cooling. Try running your ac with all your doors open and see how well it works. 

Well, except we don't hear of anyone experiencing this increased Lido / public areas warmth on the other two ships of that class.  Or in general on cruise ships, which all have the same constraints of doors constantly opening on Lido (and other) decks.  So they are designed to handle that, if all things are working.  I've certainly never encountered a warm-throughout Lido buffet area, but I also don't sail in summer much, usually late-Fall or Spring.  Which brings me to:

 

52 minutes ago, mdin said:

I sailed on Horizon at the end of March and didn't notice it being extremely warm throughout the ship (was comfortable as far as I remember). Sounds like the issues started since then.

Indeed, it is probably a new problem, exasperated by the increased summer heat.

[Mr305]

I sailed Horizon when she first arrived in Miami back in 2018, don’t remember any of these issues.  Been on its sister ship Vista three times never had this issue.  I can tell you it happens at all times of the day.  Just had lunch at JiJi’s today, the staircase leading up to it and the elevator banks on Lido and deck 11 leading to the AFT of the ship must of been in the high 80s.  It was cooler outside thanks to a breeze.

[tallnthensome]

4 minutes ago, Mr305 said:

I sailed Horizon when she first arrived in Miami back in 2018, don’t remember any of these issues.  Been on its sister ship Vista three times never had this issue.  

I'm note sure what that has to do with issues on the Horizon today, not 4 years ago. 

[Mr305]

It doesn’t, just stating that the design of the ship’s HVAC system works well even in summer.  Whatever the issue is today, it’s unrelated to capacity and/or summer temperatures.

[chengkp75]

This problem has nothing to do with the design of the HVAC system, nothing to do with doors being opened, nor with any "reported" cut back in AC "to save fuel".  It takes more energy to allow a space to warm up and then cool it down again, than it does to maintain a constant temperature.

 

This sounds like a problem we had on the NCL Pride of Aloha.  An air compressor was added to the ship after construction, and for some reason, the HVAC chilled water system was used for the cooling medium.  The cooler failed, and compressed air was injected into the chilled water system.  This is the system that does the "AC" on the ship, they circulate 50*F fresh water around the ship to cool the air, not refrigerant like in your home.  This compressed air would collect at the highest cooler in each loop, and once there was enough, there would be no more water flow, and the spaces that that cooler handled would get hot.  We would bleed the air out, that would fix that space's temperature, and another cooler would block up.  No one was around from the time the compressor was installed, so we didn't know the compressor was using chilled water, so it took a few days to figure out where the air was coming from.  A "migratory" problem like what is being reported seems to fit the "air in the system" cause.

[acsfl]

I sailed her at the end of May and it was the hottest I have ever been on a ship. Some areas and times were unbearable(especially the casino). I won't likely go again on her until I hear it's better.

[gazingm42]

Does anyone know if a note has been dropped to John Heald to look into this?