Horizon Revview - May 27-June 4

[bassmk]

1 hour ago, stinkyenglishteacher said:

I’ve heard twang, I wouldn’t say “wang” anywhere I didn’t want to immediately hear folks cackle. 🤣 Totally immature person here, I get it. 

That might be why I like it so much. 🙈

[wardwhitty]

Thank you for your review.  We have heard from numerous cruisers as well as crew that the Horizon is their favorite ship.  We sail her in January and the reviews lately have been mixed.  I wonder if there is a lot of new crew because of the Celebration and Mardi Gras needing so many.  We are still looking forward to sailing her 🙂

[Drazil65]

On 6/9/2023 at 3:08 PM, bassmk said:

A long, long time ago I read Cruise Confidential by Brian David Bruns (HIGHLY RECOMMEND),

100% (also read years ago) good read and learning tool...

[bassmk]

3 hours ago, Drazil65 said:

100% (also read years ago) good read and learning tool...

It really did completely change how I cruise. I wish everyone would read it!

[bassmk]

Busy weekend! Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of the review.

 

Debarkation:

We made it to Reflections by 7:00 like our information card said to. I always leave a cash tip for the cabin steward before we leave, and I used the back of that notice to write a thank you note to Heri to leave with the tip. We got down to level 3 and they gave me so much pushback about where I was supposed to wait. Plats/Diamonds were to wait in Reflections, but also FTTF, which I had. They wanted me to go back to the cabin to get the notice. I just walked away and went to Reflections. No one even asked me to verify once I got there and I was not about to wait 20+ more minutes for an elevator back to the cabin to ruin my thank you note.

 

Debarkation is always so stressful to me. I’m sad vacation is over, I just want to be home since there’s no more vacationing to be done, everyone is in my way, no one knows where to be or what to do…I hate it. We didn’t have any breakfast so my stomach was upset, I hadn’t had coffee yet…nightmare situation. LOL But yes, I realize these are first world problems and I am lucky to be annoyed by them.

 

We were off the ship by 8:00 and got to the airport by 8:30. We went up to Centurion Lounge after checking our bags to wait for our afternoon flight. I’m always nervous to schedule flights at noon or before, but the last 4-5 times I’ve cruised I’ve been off the ship and at the airport before 9:00am. I might take a risk next time and schedule something a little bit earlier. We have TSA Pre-Check so security never takes us very long. We’ll see if my anxiety allows that when the time comes.

 

We were home and snuggling our old, blind pup by 4:30!

 

[787cruiser]

I was on the same sailing and had a great time. Horizon is now my favorite ship but I've yet to sail Mardi Gras or Celebration. We chose your time dining so had different wait staff every night, all of them were good or very good and we never experience any real issues.

[bassmk]

Summary and Thoughts:

We truly enjoyed ourselves on this cruise. There were lots of things we did NOT enjoy, but nothing was enough to ruin our trip. We were able to relax, disconnect, unwind, and spend some real quality time hanging out with each other.

 

Bob and I didn’t really love the layout of the ship. We felt it was a bit choppier than other ships we’ve sailed on (him – 9, me – 14), and we missed the big atrium with the glass elevators. (Obviously we still enjoyed the atrium on this ship, but it definitely didn’t feel as “grand” as the other ships I’ve been on.) We were on the Mardi Gras in 2021, and we really loved it. It was huge, but we felt like everything had its place and the flow made sense. Horizon felt small and cramped somehow. There was no flow, in my opinion.

 

Embarkation was not fun. The actual, physical stepping onto the ship part of embarkation, that is. I don’t know if it’s just the port of Miami, or if they had issues of some kind…we got off the bridge onto the first or second floor. There were cabins all around and we got on just normal passenger elevators to go upstairs to the lobby/atrium. I know that’s nitpicky, but part of the excitement for me is walking into that big lobby with the music playing and passengers walking around…it was super anti-climactic and frankly, pretty chaotic this time.

 

And let’s talk about those ELEVATORS. I know it’s a topic that’s probably been beat to death on the board, but holy crap these damn elevators. I had read about them here, and I had a friend sail on Horizon last year, so I had a heads up that they were funky. I HAAAAAAAAAAAATED these elevators. I guess I understand the thought behind them, but the designers gave people at large too much credit. I don’t think enough people noticed or read the directions on the TVs mounted above the call buttons, and if they did, they decided none of it applied to them. I saw the majority of people press the button once and that was that, no matter how many people were in their party. Then they’d jump on whatever elevator arrived. This was all week, too. There were many times that would happen and one person was in a wheelchair or using a scooter, which compounds the problem even more. This is terrible and I noticed that the Mardi Gras doesn’t have this system, so maybe it was just a failed experiment.

 

Something I tried this cruise that I never had before…Alchemy Bar! Bob doesn’t drink, and I never wanted to make him sit around while I did, so it was never a priority for me to try it. On our last cruise, we had a bartender make some delicious seltzer-based mocktails for him, and my mind was blown…both by the mocktails and by the fact that something so obvious never occurred to me. We had so much fun trying all kinds of different drinks. Bob’s mocktails were always so amazing-looking, and he said they were delicious. We’ll definitely be trying to recreate some of them this summer with Topo Chico.

 

I know itinerary and time of year makes all the difference when you talk about who is on any ship, but after sailing a couple other lines (Holland and Princess), we have noticed a stark difference in clientele and atmosphere. We came to the conclusion that we may have “aged out” of Carnival. Yes, I know older people sail Carnival as well as young people, but as I mentioned, we are BORING. My vacations now are about relaxing and zoning out, and Carnival is too much for me I think. I don't want to participate in all of the high-energy activities, but I still get this weird sense of FOMO, kinda like, "Am I getting my money's worth if I don't do the ropes course/rollercoaster/deck party/etc?" I am no longer in the “Fun Ship” demographic…I prefer the cruises where I bring down the average age by a lot. That’s not to say I will never sail Carnival again (never say never!) but unless it’s a bargain I can’t pass up, or if travel companions would rather sail Carnival, I believe this may have been our last one, at least for a good long while.

 

That’s my review! I’m realizing now that if I want to do these for future cruises, I need to make notes along the way. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you can find it helpful if you’re sailing or thinking about sailing Horizon soon. If you were on this cruise with us, let me know your thoughts!

[787cruiser]

Oh yeah I forgot about embarkation, stepping into the hallway of cabins was very odd and a first for me. It did cause a lot of confusion and a mess as the majority of elevators are out of service for luggage distribution. That does need to be looked at by Carnival. Im used to a grand entrance in the atrium!

[bassmk]

15 minutes ago, 787cruiser said:

Oh yeah I forgot about embarkation, stepping into the hallway of cabins was very odd and a first for me. It did cause a lot of confusion and a mess as the majority of elevators are out of service for luggage distribution. That does need to be looked at by Carnival. Im used to a grand entrance in the atrium!

It took FOREVER for luggage distribution this time! And I remember elevators being shut down for it on every other cruise I've taken, but it's not usually the midship main elevators, AND I've never seen them do the sorting right there in the elevator lobby on each floor!

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 hour ago, bassmk said:

I prefer the cruises where I bring down the average age by a lot.

you should definitely go back to Princess. Royal class and newer only. We love Princess (not even 50 yet with a pre-teen who doesn't do kid's club). Don't do Caribbean Princess (I see you have it booked).

Edited June 13, 2023 by Itchy&Scratchy

[bassmk]

Just now, Itchy&Scratchy said:

you should definitely try Princess. Royal class and newer only. We love Princess (not even 50 yet with a pre-teen who doesn't do kid's club).

We've done 2 on Princess (Royal and Enchanted) with 2 more coming up (Caribbean and Enchanted again)! We love it. I know the Medallion can be controversial bc it doesn't always work as intended, but we've never had trouble and we love it.

 

We've also done Holland and enjoyed that for times when you might like a smaller ship. 

[nascartim]

What are your final thoughts on using FTTF? Was it worth the price? Did you get your money's worth?

[bassmk]

56 minutes ago, nascartim said:

What are your final thoughts on using FTTF? Was it worth the price? Did you get your money's worth?

I've done FTTF several times now and I like it. I like using the priority lines at embarkation mostly, and pre-Covid I liked being able to get into my room as soon as I was onboard. (Now you can drop your things off with FTTF, but you can't hang out in the cabin until all the rooms are ready.) You also get to wait with the Plat/Diamonds at debarkation, which was also nice because they're first off the ship if you do self-assist. I think if you don't haul your own luggage off, you get an early group, but that I'm not sure about. Using the Plat/Diamond line at Guest Services came in handy twice on this cruise. (When Bob's luggage wasn't delivered and when he lost his Sail and Sign card.)

 

I think I paid $129 this time for it. I balked a bit bc I remember paying something like $89 pre-Covid. I'm on the fence about whether it's worth the extra cost, which may be dependent on which port you sail from? I'm not sure. Anyway, skipping the crazy long lines for embarkation was the biggest benefit this time. When I checked in online before the cruise, I still had to choose an arrival time, but with FTTF you can show up as early as you like and get right on.

[bassmk]

One last thing about the elevators that I just remembered...

 

Bob and I decided on the best "fix" for them. 🤣 Instead of pressing the floor button as many times as people in your party, first you tap the screen to turn it on. Then it asks you "How many in your party?" and THEN you select the floor. That seems way more logical to us. But they never asked us, so...