Horizon suite

[Frenchkona]

Sailing on the Sillouette next summer in a Horizon Suite. I was wondering if anyone has ever sailed in one of these suites before? 

[prmssk]

56 minutes ago, Frenchkona said:

Sailing on the Sillouette next summer in a Horizon Suite. I was wondering if anyone has ever sailed in one of these suites before? 

A Horizon Suite?  Are you sure you have the right name for your cabin type?  I am not aware of a Horizon Suite on the Silhouette or any Celebrity ships.

[thebutlerdidit]

I haven’t, but here’s a full tour. They’re forward and used to be called Family Verandas.

 

There are still Family Verandas on the other S-Class ships. Only the Silhouette has been changed so far. 
 

Here’s the Family Veranda.

 

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by thebutlerdidit

[mahdnc]

3 hours ago, Frenchkona said:

Sailing on the Sillouette next summer in a Horizon Suite. I was wondering if anyone has ever sailed in one of these suites before? 

 

These were first categorized as Family Veranda cabins (FV) as mentioned by the previous poster.  When Silhouette was drydocked for her Revolution makeover in early 2020, those 4 cabins were modified and rebranded first as Sunset Suites and now as Horizon Suites.  The other ships did not undergo this FV to suite conversion although there were plans to (Covid interrupted this).  We have sailed in the FVs on Solstice, Eclipse, and Reflection half a dozen times.

 

Although I could be biased because I didn't like Celebrity taking the FV away, if I were shopping for a suite, I have the following problems with the Horizon Suite:

 

1. It is too expensive compared to the other suites.  I believe the list price is somewhere in between a Celebrity Suite and Royal Suite.  For my money, I would rather book a CS, if it were cheaper.

 

2. Although the Horizon Suite is blessed with a huge amount of space befitting a suite, the bathroom is the same standard bathroom found in non-suite staterooms and it is not attached to the master bedroom.  Basically they left the bathroom unchanged in terms of its furnishings and they could not relocate it either because the plumbing pretty much keeps it where it is.

 

3. The balconies for the two Horizon Suites on Deck 7 are lousy.  They were bad when compared to a standard veranda cabin.  They would be very bad as a suite balcony.  The balconies are smaller than the adjacent cabin balconies and the sight lines are obstructed by the metal of the ship.  Two people standing at the rail may not be able to see out unless one person bent down or was seated.   The balconies for the two Horizon Suites on Deck 8 are very nice and do not have this problem.  Their balconies are actually wider (longer) than the balcony from the adjacent cabin.

Edited June 24, 2023 by mahdnc

[owensamo]

If, as someone has said, these are the old Family Verandahs at the front of the ship, we stayed in one on Deck 7 in 2021. The room itself was nice and had plenty of space for 3 adults, but the verandah was normal sized if not smaller, with Suite-level furniture - i.e. much too large of a table for the space. The bathroom is also just a normal balcony bathroom, and not really suite-level. 

 

For us, however, the main reason we won't book these rooms again is that every day there was a port, the crew started docking procedures 1-2 hours prior to port arrival time. Whatever these entailed, it was loud in the room. I mean, shock you out of bed because it sounds like someone's banging on the metal walls with a hammer right next to your head loud. The same could be heard for ~1 hr after leaving port as well, but that wasn't usually an issue. We've stayed in front-facing rooms on other lines in the past, and it never felt like we were in the middle of the winching process without adequate ear protection. 

 

There was also a day when they were doing some kind of maintenance on the front of the ship where they were actually banging something against the hull right outside our room. Honestly, that wasn't actually as loud as the docking procedures! 

 

This was our first suite experience, and Lumine and the Suite Sundeck were amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed everything about the cruise except for the unexpected early morning wake-up calls. One thing I recommend is to arrange to get chicken nuggets via room service to your suite - the ones we got were the best chicken nuggets my daughter said she's ever had. 

[mahdnc]

35 minutes ago, owensamo said:

If, as someone has said, these are the old Family Verandahs at the front of the ship, we stayed in one on Deck 7 in 2021. The room itself was nice and had plenty of space for 3 adults, but the verandah was normal sized if not smaller, with Suite-level furniture - i.e. much too large of a table for the space. The bathroom is also just a normal balcony bathroom, and not really suite-level. 

 

For us, however, the main reason we won't book these rooms again is that every day there was a port, the crew started docking procedures 1-2 hours prior to port arrival time. Whatever these entailed, it was loud in the room. I mean, shock you out of bed because it sounds like someone's banging on the metal walls with a hammer right next to your head loud. The same could be heard for ~1 hr after leaving port as well, but that wasn't usually an issue. We've stayed in front-facing rooms on other lines in the past, and it never felt like we were in the middle of the winching process without adequate ear protection. 

 

There was also a day when they were doing some kind of maintenance on the front of the ship where they were actually banging something against the hull right outside our room. Honestly, that wasn't actually as loud as the docking procedures! 

 

This was our first suite experience, and Lumine and the Suite Sundeck were amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed everything about the cruise except for the unexpected early morning wake-up calls. One thing I recommend is to arrange to get chicken nuggets via room service to your suite - the ones we got were the best chicken nuggets my daughter said she's ever had. 

 

Those cabins definite suffer from noise because of their location. If the anchor is being dropped or raised, for example, you can hear it and it might wake you up in the morning. 

 

For the six times that we were on Solstice class FV (all on Deck 8), I was fortunate to not hear anything as bad as you were describing. Maybe it's the difference between being on Deck 7 and 8. 

Edited June 24, 2023 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

3 hours ago, prmssk said:

A Horizon Suite?  Are you sure you have the right name for your cabin type?  I am not aware of a Horizon Suite on the Silhouette or any Celebrity ships.

 

A  historical technicality: there were Horizon Suites (HS) also aboard Horizon when she was part of the fleet back in the day. 

 

[Bibblejw]

Not sure which one you're going in, but we're in a Horizon Suite from next weekend, so I'll try and postt an update once the cruise is done.

 

My situation is a little different, as we got it through a MoveUp from Aqua Class (so suite-level access is a benefit, better space, amenities and balcony put up ahead of where we were), but the general stuff that I've read seem to echo what's on here, specifically: If I was booking a suite, this is not the one that I would aim for, but it's a step up from what we had.

[Stem to Stern]

It is a shame Celebrity did not update the bathrooms of these suites to coordinate with the decor of the rest of the suite.  That guy in the You Tubes always does a decent job with his stateroom videos.  Thanks for posting.

[mahdnc]

38 minutes ago, Stem to Stern said:

It is a shame Celebrity did not update the bathrooms of these suites to coordinate with the decor of the rest of the suite.

 

I agree. Decor aside, the bathroom actually would need to be bigger to put in a proper bathtub and maybe a double bowl sink to bring it up to suite standards.  But where it is currently positioned, it could not be made bigger without causing problems with the rest of the cabin layout (e.g. cut off access to the balcony door or main cabin door). The bathroom would have to be relocated and that was probably a very expensive task to reroute piping to accommodate that, if it could be done at all. 

[wrk2cruise]

17 hours ago, Bibblejw said:

My situation is a little different, as we got it through a MoveUp from Aqua Class

 

The fact that it was still available for MoveUp to me indicates that it is overpriced for normal purchase for a suite.

 

Enjoy.

[Bibblejw]

Ok, back from this cruise now, so will post a couple of my own thoughts about the room, the perks and the amenities:

 

Room:

- Noise. Ok, this is something that's going to vary by itinerary, and be dependant on person. There is a lot of noise during manuevering (basically docking and sail-off), to the point that it woke up my partner through ear plugs. For us, this wasn't a major issue, as the only time we were docking during the night was on the last day, and things were hectic enough as it was, but if you're getting into ports early for a lot of the cruise, then it's something to think about.

- View. I can honestly say that it would have been difficult to be more impressed by the view from the room. There's the usual side view from the balcony, but the forward view from the windows was incredible. We did the passages through the achipelego into Stockholm, and it was beautiful. Most of the sail-in events don't apply to you, as you get a better view, and better shielding from the elements in your room.

- Room. There's an almost insane amount of space in this. For a 2 (4 if you count the sofabed) suite, you've got a living area that's probably close to 8-10m long, the sofa and TV area were great for unwinding in the evening, the "reading area" was good for a doze on sea days, the vanity areahas more than enough room to store your belongings, and to get ready for the trials of the day. Even the entrance area, awkwardly shaped as it is is a usable space if you so wish it. The bedroom is probably not far off the size of some of the standard cabins, so has more than enough room and storage.

- Bathroom. The last cruise that we went on was an outside view, and the bathroom was smaller than the Horizon suite. Can't say how it lines up to other suite offerings, but it was more than roomy enough for us.

- Location. There's no getting around the fact that you're at the front of the ship, that means that you've got fairy easy access to the theatre, Sky Lounge, Solarium, etc, but the majority of the food and bar access is the other end of the ship. That's not a major issue, as it's not a collossal ship.

 

Perks - These are the things that we didn't get with the MoveUp programme, so I'm commenting on these without nessecarily having all of them:

- Wifi. We're tech-heads, so the premuim wifi was pretty much a requirement. We picked it up (as an upgrade from the basic package), and were reasonably impressed by it. Streaming was possible (sometimes), and viedo calls were easy enough. Transferring between devices was relatively easy, so no major gripes.

- Drinks. We stuck with the classic package with this, and can't say that we had any major issues or concerns. The big benefit to upgrading is more variety before we need to sign anything to charge back, and it's going to depend on your drinking preferences and requirements. For us, the wine selection was easy enough, and we were happy with the lagers available.

 

Amenities - These are the things that are included with the Suite regardless of how you get it:

- Butler. On this one, we were probably terrible Suite passengers, in that we didn't really ask much of our butler (Bart), but anything we did ask was done and accomodated easily (HDMI cable connection on the TV, for instance). He did suggest and offer some additions, like putting a bottle of wine in the fridge after noticing that we'd bring a glass back from the bar before settling in for the night.

- Lounge. Honestly, this was one of the amenities that we got most use out of, and it became our default hangout. If we didn't have access to it, that would probably be the Sky Lounge or Ensemble, but it was nice to have somewhere quiet that didn't get events or music scheduled in most of the time.

- Concierge. Again, we didn't ask much, but what we did was addressed helpfully and efficiently. We had some queries around the credit on the accounts, and some bookings that we wanted moving or shifting, and it was done easily and quickly. They were even able to provide us some interesting info (such as us being only 2 of around 400 people left on the ship on the first day of one of the overnight stops).

- Sun Deck. Was a nice venue, and the hot tub was appreciated, but, basically, we were sailing in the Baltic ocean, and that's not always conducive to relaxing in the open air. If you're booking a baltic cruise, and the sun deck is you major draw, then there's probably bigger issues.

- Luminae. This is probably where I'm going to get some disagreement, but we generally weren't fans in particular. There was less choice in the menu, and while other alternatives may have been possible, we were met with a level of incredulity and puzzlement if we chose something slightly outside of the norm (the look I got when asking for a beer with dinner was almost insulting). When I contrast that to the main dining room, where I have to say the food was about on par, but was more accomodating, and even had the capability to be more sociable (not on every visit, and not a requirement, but nice to have). The other comparison that's easy to make was Murano, where the food was about level, but the service was worlds above. The issue seems to be that there's not enough difference in the quality of the food (which is understandable when the MDR baseline is so high), and Luminae seemed to be trying to ape the Murano service, but missing the mark on almost every front.

- Room Service. Only did this for breakfasts, and generally only where time was a factor, so we were hapopy to be able to pick an appropriate delivery slot. Honestly, I was about as lukewarm on this as the food was, and that's the impact of being at the front of the ship when all of the food prep areas are at the back. Not a major issue, but not anything that I'd rave about either.

 

 

Overall, it's entirely possible that there are better suites for better prices, but I don't think that there are any with that level of space in that price bracket.