Nice ship but poor food

Item: Carnival Horizon
Rating: 3.8
Author: Librarygal

Carnival Horizon Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Librarygal

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 42

Overall rating:

3.8 out of 5

6 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: January 20, 2019

Ship: Carnival Horizon

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 1302

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

While the ship was nice enough I doubt that we will go on Carnival again. Now that we are older we prefer a more relaxing experience with fewer people and certainly better food.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Embarkation in Miami was a breeze as you no longer have to stand in line if you check in online and use a credit card. The sail and sign card is at your cabin door.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Since we were not feeling well and did not bring formal clothes we never ate dinner in the main dining rooms. The food at the buffet ranged from unedible too average. There were only about ten foods to choose from plus the salad bar. Cakes were dry. I remember huge buffets with multiple stations on past cruises. The deli was ridiculously small and understaffed so the lines were always long. Guy’s Pig and Anchor was OK as was the Mexican restaurant near the pool. There is a limited breakfast service in the Ocean Plaza that is quiet and not crowded. There are few free options for dinner if you don’t feel up to the main dining room. Why can’t they offer a Ruby Tuesday quality restaurant that is free? Surely this would be cheaper than a three course meal in one of the dining rooms.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

The SkyRide was still down. They should dismantle the whole thing. Typical fitness activities.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

There are many options for entertainment although there is too much trivia. The Liquid Lounge performers were good although the sight lines in the theatre are terrible. I never had a problem getting a seat. Unlike other cruises I have been on there were no live bands in the pool area playing reggae, steel drum or calypso music.

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Our cabin steward kept our cabin clean and remembered our names. The buffet attendants whisked away dirty dishes amazingly fast. We did not eat dinner in the dining rooms so I can’t comment on waiter service and we don’t drink so we did not use any bars. We never received a final bill under our door so we had to request one via the internet. Instead of crediting us $100 for our gift card they credited $10! We had to fax them a form to fix it.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Being new the ship was clean and in good shape. The atrium was small and unimpressive. The elevators system was hit or miss. Sometimes it worked great and other times it was down or assigned too many people to a car. The problem with the system is that when a person selects a deck number it does not know if they are alone or with ten family members. The casino was large but stank of smoke. The main pool deck had no whirlpools. It was hard to find an empty place on the Serenity Deck at times and there was no shade. My favorite place was the Lanai on deck five which is shady and quiet. You can buy a fancy watch but there was no place to buy over the counter medications, sunscreen, candy bars, magazines, toothbrushes, Dramamine, diapers, etc. What were they thinking?

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

We were in a deluxe ocean view which was spacious and very clean. The second bathroom was wasted space since there was only two of us. There was plenty of closet storage although there was only one small drawer outside the closet. The bathroom had plenty of counter space but there was no fan so it tended to fog up. The bed was a little too firm for my taste. TV channels are very limited with no major networks or music channels. There were some noise issues as we could hear people talking outside our cabin, kids running down the hall late at night, doors slamming, people above us opening their balcony doors and moving furniture and when the ship was moving fast, waves hitting the side. Also a couple of times there were announcements in the middle of the night.

Ship tip

You don’t need tickets for the water shuttles in Grand Cayman and the cruise director will say that nobody waits for more than 12 minutes but what they don’t tell you is that you may sit on the rocking water shuttle for up to 30 minutes while it loads. They hold over 300 people which is why they take forever to fill. If you have a private excursion reserved allow at least an hour to get to land and find your tour company.

Thumbs up