The final day onboard the Carnival Horizon was a day spent at sea as we made our way back to PortMiami. In terms of weather, there was a lot of talk onboard about Hurricane Lee and whether or not it would impact cruises leaving after us, but the weather for the past 8 days was nothing short of spectacular. It made for sunny, hot days whether onboard or ashore, but also made finding a shady spot to sit outside a challenge. Horizon doesn’t have a lot of shaded areas on the outside decks and the little shade it does provide is often taken.
Before getting into the overall cruise review and cost breakdown, time for one more dinner report. For the final night, my travel companions decided that they were just going to grab something to eat at the buffet before packing up and getting ready to go home. A quick spin around the buffet revealed nothing appealing. With the exception of the normal breakfast items available at the buffet, the selection and quality of food served was… far from even earning a “good” rating.
Skipping the buffet for dinner, I went to Ji Ji Asian Bistro one more time. This $ 18-per-person specialty restaurant proved to be a hit the other night, so I went back again to see if it could impress again. I didn’t have a reservation, but when I arrived I was given a table right away.
I started out with the Nanjing Style Duck which proved to be a winner the other night and once again it was delicious. The duck leg with crispy skin and hoisin sauce was fantastic.
For the main entree, I was torn between the Peppered Beef or the Slow Braised Beef Short Rib, so after consulting my server Ronnell, he urged me to go with the short rib. It did not disappoint. The beef was tender, well flavored and my only complaint was there was not enough!
For a side, I chose the wide noodles, which were standard and average.
For dessert, I went with the caramelized crepes which were filled with a creme that was sweet, yet not too heavy. A definite winner.
For $18, the food at Ji Ji is not to be missed as both meals I had here were exceptionally good and the service equally good.
Now, let’s get to it:
The Stateroom: For this trip, I had an inside stateroom with two twins that were combined into a king, located on Deck 1 (1303). As I mentioned in my Day 1 report, there is another type of inside stateroom that has two twins, but they are an upper and lower that cannot be put together. This type of stateroom is clearly noted when making a reservation so you won’t be surprised when you suddenly open the door to your room and see the setup.
The choice of colors for the rug and furnishings made the room a tad dark and may I say… depressing? While an inside stateroom can be an affordable way to travel, having a brighter color scheme could make or break the cabin. For me, it broke it. Maybe I’m spoiled by the bright colors used on Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras, but an inside cabin is already dark… don’t make it darker by going with dark colors.
The room itself was a bit on the small side and there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of storage. If two people are sharing the room, there may be some arguments concerning who gets to hang their stuff in the closet as closet space is very minimal. For a single traveler like me, I found it fine with the exception of not having enough hangers, but there can definitely be challenges with finding room to store all your clothes, especially on longer journeys.
The stateroom had the common stuff, a good size tv, nightstands on each side of the bed, and a mini fridge (cooler). While the Carnival Horizon isn’t considered “old” it does not have USB ports by the bed and there are only two located on the desk. The only outlets available are also on the desk, so trying to get all your devices plugged in can be challenging.
As far as the bathroom is concerned, it was your typical cruise ship bathroom with enough space to store your stuff. The only complaint I have is the shower curtain. I’m definitely not a fan of having a shower curtain suddenly clinging to you in the shower.
Overall, the cabin did what it needed to do – got me a night’s rest. As far as noise was concerned, I didn’t hear anything from my neighbors on either side, but late night and early morning the area behind the cabin is a crew area used to servicing the cabins on this floor. There was some noise but nothing that was annoying or would keep me awake. Since I was one deck above a crew deck, I did hear the occasional backup alarm of a forklift, but never during quiet hours.
The Food: Where to begin. Oh Carnival, you need to step up your game when it comes to non-speciality dining. As noted a few times, the food on the buffet was, for the most part, pretty bad. At times it looked like slop in a pan. Chicken entrees were just big chunks of chicken complete with bones and odd cuts. Meats were low quality and the sides were unappealing. When it comes to other food outlets on board, if I had to rate them, they would get:
- Main Dining Room (Free) – ** Beef Wellington was great, the rest of it blah. Menus didn’t offer great choices. Service was good.
- Cucina del Capitano ($18) – *** More choices than the restaurant on Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration and the food was better. Worth the price.
- Fahrenheit 555 ($48 pp) – **** Excellent overall, but only four stars due to the price. Better value is found at the Teppanyaki with same quality and service.
- Bonsai Teppanyaki ($38 pp) – ***** Fantastic food, great entertaining chefs, terrific value.
- Ji Ji Asian Bistro ($18 pp) – **** Great food, great service, good value, small portions.
- Guy’s Burger Joint (Free) – ***
- Blue Iguana – (Free) – Didn’t experience
- Pizza del Capitano – (Free) – *
Fellow Passengers: With school back in session, there were not many families with kids on this cruise. Most passengers were 40+ with a good majority 55+.
Entertainment: As you can see in the daily Fun Times at the bottom of each one of my daily reports, there are plenty of things to do both day and night. In the evening, there are various musical groups ranging from a single to a trio to a complete band to entertain in the different lounges and public areas. The main production shows put on in the ship’s theatre ranged from high school musical quality, to very good.
Embarkation: This seems to get easier and easier with Carnival and time around it was the easiest yet. You can read about embarkation day in the Day 1 report, but it’s important to point out that Carnival has this process down to a science and there are no bottlenecks to tie up the embarkation process at all and one can literally go from curbside to shipboard in 15 minutes or less if all the docs are in order.
Debarkation: I am always afraid of what debarkation is going to be like on every cruise I’m on, no matter what the cruise line. I always do self-assist where you carry your own bags off the ship rather than leaving them out for the ship’s crew to take off for you where you get them in the terminal. If you’re able to carry all your stuff off without assistance, you’re one of the first to get off the ship.
We arrived at PortMiami around 6:00 am and priority guests, those in suites and those with higher loyalty status, were the first to disembark. Those looking to self-assist off the ship were told the process would start at 7:45 am, and that is EXACTLY when it started. Not a minute sooner, not a minute later – exactly 7:45 am. Groups were called by muster station to make their way to the gangway on Deck 3. As one of the first to get called, I lugged my suitcases up two decks, got into a quickly moving line at around 7:50 am, and was off the ship and through customs at 7:55 am thanks to facial recognition technology.
If that seems like a short amount of time, it definitely was. This was one of the quickest and most organized processes for disembarking in a LONG time.
Value: As I mentioned previously, I was given a free interior stateroom as part of a last-minute casino offer, I paid the solo rate of $100 per person, which was given back in the form of $100 in onboard credit. I only had to pay the $159 in port fees and taxes.
Here’s what this cruise cost me at the end of the day:
- Cruise Rate – $0 ($100 charge was refunded as onboard credit)
- Port Fees & Taxes – $159
- Premium WiFi – $149
- CHEERS! Beverage Pacakge – $565
- Gratuities, Special Dining Charges – $443 (does not include gambling money)
- Port Parking – $176
The total for this cruise came to $1492. In comparison, my April 7-day Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival Celebration came to $3176 for a balcony stateroom and all the above.
Now, let me briefly mention the casino. My casino points on this cruise were a bit higher on this ship than on previous cruises as I had some small jackpots that were cycled through the machines. For every $2.50 cycled, you earn one point. The points I earned equaled roughly 300% of what I spent, and I walked home a loser.
Overall, this cruise gets a 5 out of 10. I felt the food in the main dining room and the buffet was subpar, the production shows not engaging, the two stops at Dominican ports with little to do were a tad disappointing, and a crowded ship with little space for shade on outside decks an issue.
The ship itself was in fairly good condition and the crew was constantly around cleaning and keeping up with routine maintenance. One of the biggest complaints about the Carnival Horizon is the “smart elevators” which in all honestly, would work fine in an office building, but not on a ship with 4,000 people who don’t read directions, may be too drunk to care, or simply can’t figure them out.
In order to get an elevator, you selected which floor you were going to on a touch screen and you would tap it for each member in your party. So a party of four would touch it four times. With each touch, you’d be assigned an elevator car to board when it arrived. Common sense would tell you to move over to that elevator and wait in front of it until the doors open. But people would not. Then they would miss their elevator or others would just jump in. It was quite a mess and so very frustrating.
As of now, my next adventure is a 21-day cruise on the flagship of the Holland America line – Rotterdam – on a Caribbean and Panama Canal voyage leaving October 22, 2023, which I’m looking forward to, so be sure to stay tuned for updates!
FunTimes for Day 8:
The FunTimes for September 9, 2023, can also be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.