My latest cruise adventure takes me onto a ship I haven’t been on before, the Carnival Horizon, the second ship built as part of Carnival Cruise Line’s Vista-class cruise ships. Launched in 2018, the Horizon has capacity for 3,960 passengers (4,977 max) and 1,450 crew. Carnival Horizon currently sails from PortMiami and this particular cruise is an 8-day Southern Caribbean one with stops in Aruba, Curacao, La Romana in the Dominican Republic, and Carnival’s private port Amber Cove also in the Dominican.
Once again, this cruise is free thanks to Carnival’s Last Minute Casino Offer which gave me an inside cabin for $100, which was refunded in the form of onboard credit. The cost for the cruise was simply the port fees and taxes which came to $159.20. Of course, this does not include my additional charges such as WiFi, an additional $150 for the Premium package, and $480 (plus 18% gratuity) for the CHEERS! Beverage package.
Friends who I usually cruise with booked this trip several months ago, and I held out booking because the non-casino rate price for the cruise started at $1700 for a single in an inside cabin and there is absolutely no way I would pay that. These last-minute offers are just that, last minute. Designed to fill empty cabins that may have resulted from cancellations or upgrades, the cruises that have space available show up, on average, three to five days before sailing. You need to be flexible with travel plans and be able to sail right away. I snagged this one on August 28th, right at the five-day mark, but there have been ones where I’ve gotten just 24 hours before departure.
I was assigned an inside stateroom on Deck 1 (1303). This particular inside had two lower twin beds that can be pushed together to make a king. Another interior stateroom class on Carnival Horizon features a twin lower and a pull-down twin upper. Originally, the offer was for this stateroom and to be honest, I was dreading it, as I would never be able to sleep on a twin bed, so I was thankful my room assignment came and I had one of the standard insides.
My scheduled embarkation time at PortMiami was 11:30 am, but I arrived about 45 minutes late due to my lack of attention taking the wrong exit of I95 and ending up at Miami Airport even though I have done this drive countless times. Hey, it was raining, give me a break! Once again, I have to give a shout-out to Carnival for having the easiest and most efficient boarding process. Once my bags were dropped, I was in the terminal to have my documents verified, carry on bags sniffed by the drug dog to make sure I wasn’t carrying on any of the Devil’s Lettuce which is very popular on Carnival, a quick trip through security, photo taken, and on the ship. The whole process took less then 15 minutes from curb to ship.
The room itself is your typical inside stateroom, no windows, no porthole, just your basic accommodations. There is not a lot of storage space for clothing, so two people will find it hard to find enough room in the closet to hang and store all their clothes. My closet only had 8 hangers which was not enough for my shirts and pants.
The bathroom is a bit on the small side. The shower is a bit tight and has the dreaded shower curtain that ALWAYS finds a way to become that clingy friend you just want to find a polite way to say, “Leave me alone.” However, the presence of the shower curtain gives you a little more room to move around in tight quarters. A quick word about the toilet, and probably nobody talks about toilets, but the damn thing has you sitting practically on the floor. It’s at a height that small children will find perfect but it’s not the standard toilet height and those who are a bit older may find it difficult to get on and off.
Staterooms were not ready until 1:30 pm so there was time to meander around and grab something to eat at the buffet. Of course, since it was raining, all 3,960 passengers had the same idea. Let’s just call it chaos. People not forming lines at food stations, cutting in front of others, coming to dead stops in walkways pretending to be Mitch McConnell at a press conference, and leaving manners out at the curb. I was praying this was going to end once Mother Nature turned off the waterworks.
Carnival is still using the self-muster that was rolled out post-COVID and apparently is here to stay. Long gone are the days when you would go to your stateroom, put on your lifejacket, and go to your assigned muster station and watch intently (LOL) as the crew demonstrated how to put the thing you just put on, on. Now you simply go to your muster station, have your Sign and Sail card scanned and you’re done. I’m going to be sailing on a 21-day Holland America Line cruise in October, so I’m curious to find out how they are handling their muster process since they are part of the overall massive Carnival Corporation and may share certain procedures.
Once the rain stopped people started venturing out to the outer decks and started to stand their ground to get the best viewing spot for our 4:00 pm sail away. Carnival Horizon was one of just three ships in port, joined by Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas and TUI Cruises Marella Discovery (the former Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas) – a slow day for PortMiami for sure.
Some quick observations before getting into notes about dinner. First, the cruise director Leon Smith joined the ship in August and is a bit on the quiet side (so far) which I prefer. Personally, I can’t stand the constant obnoxious announcements and continual self-promotion that many tend to make their calling card, so no complaints about the CD so far. My fellow passengers are all over the spectrum when it comes to age, however, it is very apparent that school is back in session as there are very few young kids running amuck. Then there’s the elevators.
The elevators on Carnival Horizon are “smart elevators.” While they may be smart, the passengers using them are not “smart” enough to grasp the concept and using them is a complete disaster. Here’s how they are supposed to work. Instead of pressing an up or down button, you tap a screen and select which deck you’re going to. You do that for every member of your party. It then tells you which car to go to and you line up.
Once inside the elevator, there are no buttons to select a floor, as you do this before you board. But people don’t understand. They tap once for a party of 6. They just go into any elevator where a door opens. They don’t use the car they are assigned to. It’s a complete disaster. Combine that with a bunch of drunk people trying to get to their room at the end of the night and you’re better off taking the stairs.
The system is supposed to efficiently get you to your floor with “guaranteed” space in the car for everyone in your party, but when you have dozens of people in an elevator lobby who have no clue what to do, or are too drunk to figure it out, forget it. It’s frustrating, it’s annoying, it’s unnecessary, and makes for a lot of angry people who are doing it the right way only to be cut off by people who are just jumping into any elevator that opens up.
There is NOTHING “smart” about this system in an environment like this.
Nothing.
Time to talk about dinner, but before I do, let’s talk about restaurants on board. In addition to the ship’s main dining room, for dinner you also have Cucina del Capitano (Italian and $18/per person); Bonsai Teppanyaki (Teppanyaki, $38/per person); Bonsai Sushi (sushi, ala carte); Ji Ji Asian Kitchen (Asian, $18/per person); Fahrenheit 555 (steakhouse, $48/per person); Guy’s Pig & Anchor Smokehouse | Brewhouse (BBQ, ala carte); and of course the buffet, deli, and pizza which are free.
My dining companions and I decided to give Cucina del Capitano a try.
On Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras, this restaurant is free, on Horizon, it’s $18 per person and the menu is vastly different from the one on those other two ships – right down to the bread served, which is a pull-part brioche:
For appetizers, I went with the Antipasti (prosciutto, bresaola, olives, peppers, and eggplant) and the House-Made Burrata served with chardonnay poached cherry tomatoes. The antipasti assortment was average while the burrata was fresh and the tomatoes were fantastic.
When it came to ordering main courses, three of us wanted to order the Tomahawk Pork Chop but our server told us that it would take 45 to 50 minutes to prepare and suggested we order something else. Needless to say we were a bit disappointed and there’s more to come with this, so hang in there… I went with the Shrimp Pizzaiola which consisted of four jumbo shrimp on top of a bed of eggplant (missing from the menu description), mushrooms and peppers. This was flavored well and a nice light dish – no complaints.
I ordered gnocchi as a side and was expecting your traditional kind of gnocchi you would get back home, but was surprised when it arrived and was more like three large mashed potato tots sprinkled with parmesan cheese. They weren’t bad but were heavy and not quite what I was expecting.
Others at the table ordered the Chicken Parmesan and the Cavatelli with a veal and pork ragu which they had no complaints about.
For dessert, I ordered the Biscotti which was a sea salt chocolate cooked with coffee cream inside and another scoop of coffee gelato on the side. It was interesting, but not something I would order again.
Others ordered the Apple Crostata which was served with a side of caramel ice cream… no complaints and probably was the better choice of the desserts.
Now back to the pock chop. We asked another server if it was possible, since we were told it takes 45 to 50 minutes to prepare, that if we made a reservation for another night could we specify we wanted the pork chop so we would not have to wait that long for it. She looked at us like we suddenly each grew a second head and said, “you can’t just order it like any other entree, it doesn’t take 45 minutes to make, not sure why you were told that.”
Doh!
After dinner, it was off for a cigar under the stars to wrap up my first night on board. I found a nice secluded spot away from the masses smoking their Winstons and kicked back to enjoy when all of a sudden someone out of the blue came up, sat down, and said, “Hi, where are you from?” Being the social butterfly I am, I wanted to say, “a small town in Wisconsin called Lemme Alone,” but humored her by telling the truth and responding with “Delray Beach, FL.” Turns out she lives just up the road from me in Boynton Beach. After some more small talk and two Virginia Slims, she was on her way, probably wondering why a retired gynecologist from Delray Beach would choose a Carnival cruise.
Till tomorrow…
Fun Times for Day 1:
The Fun Times for September 2, 2023, can also be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.