CARNIVAL HORIZON SAILING ~ September 16, 2023

[vadersprincess12]

We sailed the ABC Islands on the Horizon and enjoyed each port stop.

 

The ship itself is a nice ship but we are finding that we prefer the smaller ships as the large ships just seem too crowded.

 

As usual cruise food is hit or miss and it seems that the menus are the same on each ship.

 

For the life of me I cannot understand the elevator lobbies being right in front of the restaurants; it's a zoo when people are waiting in line to get into the restaurant. Not sure what the solution is but I hope they find one for future ships.

 

We had several negatives on this cruise regarding our cabin. When we arrived our safe was not working so we had to have someone come and repair it ~ that was done pretty quickly. We also had no vanity bench so on the first morning of the cruise I had to drag the table over to sit on it which was not really comfortable; it took three requests to get a bench. We could not get cold water in our sink to save our lives. Not sure what the problem was, but it was never fixed.

 

The biggest gripe for this cruise was luggage delivery. We are platinum level and while embarkation was smooth, it took almost 6 hours for our luggage to get delivered. Our tags are clearly marked Priority. Luggage was being delivered left and right in our hallway without priority tags. I asked our stateroom steward who had his supervisor come into our stateroom and she said they don't do priority delivery anymore however when I went to guest services they said they do but had no explanation as to why it took so long.

 

I'll leave this here because I want to do my review on the Venezia which we just departed. 

[mz-s]

As far as luggage delivery, it really is a crapshoot. I've had luggage arrive at my room by the time I get to my room, and I've had it not show up until closer to supper time. I don't think the "Priority" text on the luggage tag means much, especially on longer cruises when there are so many priority guests and so much luggage to deliver.

[Tobleronebar]

We are traveling on the Horizon to the ABC islands. Would love to know what you did on each island.

[staceyglow]

2 hours ago, vadersprincess12 said:

 

 

I'll leave this here because I want to do my review on the Venezia which we just departed. 

When you do, could you please use the default font? I am sure I am not the only person who found your post very difficult to read. 😊

 

And I am genuinely interested in your Venezia review as I will be on it in a few months. 

[vadersprincess12]

I already did the review.  When I have time I’ll go back in and change it to default so it will be easier to read.  

[vadersprincess12]

Oh, holy heck, I just saw the font and that’s not the one I chose.  That is hard to read!!!!   Stay tuned…..

[vadersprincess12]

We sailed the ABC Islands on the Horizon and enjoyed each port stop.

 

The ship itself is a nice ship but we are finding that we prefer the smaller ships as the large ships just seem too crowded.

 

As usual cruise food is hit or miss and it seems that the menus are the same on each ship.

 

For the life of me I cannot understand the elevator lobbies being right in front of the restaurants; it's a zoo when people are waiting in line to get into the restaurant. Not sure what the solution is but I hope they find one for future ships.

 

We had several negatives on this cruise regarding our cabin. When we arrived our safe was not working so we had to have someone come and repair it ~ that was done pretty quickly. We also had no vanity bench so on the first morning of the cruise I had to drag the table over to sit on it which was not really comfortable; it took three requests to get a bench. We could not get cold water in our sink to save our lives. Not sure what the problem was, but it was never fixed.

 

The biggest gripe for this cruise was luggage delivery. We are platinum level and while embarkation was smooth, it took almost 6 hours for our luggage to get delivered. Our tags are clearly marked Priority. Luggage was being delivered left and right in our hallway without priority tags. I asked our stateroom steward who had his supervisor come into our stateroom and she said they don't do priority delivery anymore however when I went to guest services they said they do but had no explanation as to why it took so long.

 

I'll leave this here because I want to do my review on the Venezia which we just departed. 

[vadersprincess12]

11 hours ago, staceyglow said:

When you do, could you please use the default font? I am sure I am not the only person who found your post very difficult to read. 😊

 

And I am genuinely interested in your Venezia review as I will be on it in a few months. 

I just reposted this in the default font.  Didn't see where I could edit, so I just reposted later in this thread.

[Crusin Karen]

I’ve been Diamond for a ton of cruises. I’m always one of the last ones to

Get luggage  delivery! Every single cruise! 😣

[vadersprincess12]

3 hours ago, Crusin Karen said:

I’ve been Diamond for a ton of cruises. I’m always one of the last ones to

Get luggage  delivery! Every single cruise! 😣

Even when we weren't Platinum we would get our luggage at a decent time.  Only this cruise and the subsequent one on the Venezia did we have such a long delay.  I guess it's just that we like to have lunch, explore a little and then come back and unpack before dinner time.  It did not "ruin" our experience as some posters seemed to think and we have decided that we will not even think about it on our next sailing in February.  We always carry important stuff in our carry-on so we will just change our expectations and enjoy.

[pe4all]

We have also had luggage "issues."  Often one piece gets delivered quickly (we are always on the ship as soon as boarding is allowed) and the other "disappears" somewhere - to the point where we have to literally go searching the hallways for it. At times we don't get our luggage until after sailaway, or even until after our dinner.  Makes for a bit of stress, wondering if I will be wearing next to nothing for the cruise! (we do not "cross-pack."   I do agree that "smaller" ships are also more to our liking than the newer, larger ships.

[mz-s]

I really think it's just that on longer cruises there is so much more luggage for the crew to handle it takes them longer to process it all. And on longer cruises there tends to be more Priority guests than a normal cruise so the Priority text on the luggage tag means less.

[vadersprincess12]

12 hours ago, mz-s said:

I really think it's just that on longer cruises there is so much more luggage for the crew to handle it takes them longer to process it all. And on longer cruises there tends to be more Priority guests than a normal cruise so the Priority text on the luggage tag means less.

mz-s ~ I think you are probably right about the longer cruises.  Let me pose this question to you; I posed it to a Carnival rep a month or so ago, but they didn't have any explanation.

 

On a sailing prior to ours someone posted a message they got stating that there were so many Platinum and Diamond members that they wouldn't be offering priority embarkation on that sailing.  I asked if they were still doing priority embark for those who pay for FTTF but they couldn't answer me.  I think this would be totally wrong, offering it for paying customers when they are not offering it to those who have earned it.  What do you think?

[Jamman54]

On the longer Journeys cruises it is true that there is no priority embarkation. They don't sell FTTF on Journeys cruises. 😎

[jimbo5544]

9 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

On the longer Journeys cruises it is true that there is no priority embarkation. They don't sell FTTF on Journeys cruises. 😎

On our first Journey cruise on the Breeze, 3/4 of the ship were Diamonds and Plats.  To offer all the perks was simply untenable.  All that said, it was THE best cruise experience we have ever had.

[jimbo5544]

10 hours ago, vadersprincess12 said:

mz-s ~ I think you are probably right about the longer cruises.  Let me pose this question to you; I posed it to a Carnival rep a month or so ago, but they didn't have any explanation.

 

On a sailing prior to ours someone posted a message they got stating that there were so many Platinum and Diamond members that they wouldn't be offering priority embarkation on that sailing.  I asked if they were still doing priority embark for those who pay for FTTF but they couldn't answer me.  I think this would be totally wrong, offering it for paying customers when they are not offering it to those who have earned it.  What do you think?

We have done four journey cruises.  While we do not have to pay for it, I am sure they would not offer it on a cruise with so many plats and diamonds (see my previous post on our first aboard the Breeze).  I cannot specifically remember if it were ever offered and rescinded, but still feel fairly certain they could not support it.  This included all features (priority embark debark , luggage, everything except the priority line at GS.  They still offered the perk of free laundry but asked for compliance in not overloading them with what was sent in.  

 

All that said, FTTF is/was the driver for some if not all of these perks.  If it comes down to what makes them money vs what is a free perk, who can blame them under these fairly rare occurrences if they pull some back for the ones they do for free. 

[mz-s]

10 hours ago, vadersprincess12 said:

mz-s ~ I think you are probably right about the longer cruises.  Let me pose this question to you; I posed it to a Carnival rep a month or so ago, but they didn't have any explanation.

 

On a sailing prior to ours someone posted a message they got stating that there were so many Platinum and Diamond members that they wouldn't be offering priority embarkation on that sailing.  I asked if they were still doing priority embark for those who pay for FTTF but they couldn't answer me.  I think this would be totally wrong, offering it for paying customers when they are not offering it to those who have earned it.  What do you think?

 

Carnival would just as soon the platinum and diamond cruisers move on. They want new cruisers who don't remember what Carnival is capable of.