Fun if you have young kids

Item: Carnival Horizon
Rating: 3.4
Author: dablitz50

Carnival Horizon Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

dablitz50

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 2-3 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 34

Overall rating:

3.4 out of 5

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 08, 2018

Ship: Carnival Horizon

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10224

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

This really soured me on doing business with carnival again

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Airline style boarding, you were assigned boarding numbers instead of just being able to board when you were ready like most other cruises I have been on. Plus it took almost an hour longer than the time we signed up for to actually get on

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Maria our head waiter in the dining room was awesome and the only reason we kept going to the dining room. The food was average and boring. The same choices night after night. They need to spruce it up, also the additional upcharge for a good steak was ridiculous. The same steaks on other cruise lines were included.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

For small children the activities were abundant. But for adults there was not a lot of fun to be had other than the nightly show. Two tiny pools which were always crowded with kids not being watched by parents. Bingo and trivia were the only daytime activities for adults other than drinking. They had out door pool tables which were unusable most of the time due to wind or ship rocking. They should have been installed inside with stabilizers on the legs to actually use them.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

For such a new ship the lack of innovations really blew me away. In the stateroom for starters the USB be ports they installed were still all the way across the room on the countertop. There was a lamp on each nightstand so having USB ports there too would not have been hard. I like a lot of people use my phone as a clock and alarm so it was annoying to have to get up in the dark to figure out what time it was. The mini fridge looked like something out of a 70's dorm room and could not hold anything very well. The rest of the ship was a bit better. It was always very well kept. Oh and the ship broke down causing us to miss our last port.

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

see above

Ports of call

New York, New York

1 out of 5

Embarking and disembarking were very difficult

Thumbs Up 1

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5

Catamaran, snorkel, and beach. The crew of this excursion was excellent. Very friendly and eager to make sure everyone was having fun

Thumbs Up 3

San Juan, Puerto Rico

4 out of 5

did self exploration of the island

Thumbs Up 6

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic Did not visit port

ship was broken

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

1 out of 5

4 Comments

Crazycruiser962 6 years ago

Steak is included on certain nights usually the elegant nights so you can have steak without paying!!

Thumbs Up 0

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Chakaleelee 6 years ago

I have always cruised with Carnival in the past. Last year I was on the Vista and loved it as I love Carnival. I also always cruise with extension cords and a battery operated clock to eliminate charging and time visuals problems. Yes, the food is the same day in, day out. I too wasn’t a fan of process of getting onto the ship but I understood since there were thousands of people all trying to get on. I am looking into either going back on the Vista or trying the sister ship Horizon. Departure port and itinerary is what I need to choose

Thumbs Up 1

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IkeDeb 6 years ago

Sorry to hear that

Thumbs Up 0

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Chakaleelee 6 years ago

I am thinking about going on the Horizon late fall, early winter. May I ask your opinion and experience on the Horizon?

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Other reviews of this sailing

The cruise was good except our last port was cancelled and it was the one we were looking forward to. The food in the restaurants was wonderful but the buffet was very small and not good.

Great Cruise

Wonderful Caribbean Cruise