Great itinerary, nice ship, a few issues

Item: Carnival Horizon
Rating: 4.8
Author: tnlynch81

Carnival Horizon Cruise Review

tnlynch81

Contributor Level: Second Mate

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 107

Overall rating:

4.8 out of 5

8 Night Southern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 01, 2019

Ship: Carnival Horizon

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Started off rocky with a bad experience at embarkation. The AC seemed to be broken and ship was hot in common areas. Literally sweated at dinner. Service was extremely slow. All the new additions to boat was nice. Staff and ports were amazing. Fix a few things and it would have been one of my better cruises.

Embarkation

2 out of 5

Took 3 hours. Rumor is that someone was left on the ship which delayed embarkation. Carnival had no control or structure. Priority line took forever and people without priority entered line and nobody direct them differently.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Typical Carnival fare. Nothing negative or positive. Service in MDR was SLOW

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Children's Programs

5 out of 5

Great as always. Dr. Suess library a nice addition. Wish they were open on the first night.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Friendly staff from bartenders to waiters to room steward. Slow in MDR.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Stayed in the family harbor and the cabins were clean, open, and had nice new TV's that were interactive and had good movie selection. The family harbor lounge is a game changer for breakfast.

Ship tip

Eat at the salad bar on the serenity deck.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5

We rented cars and drove around the island. Saw beautiful beaches, wild donkeys, and the lighthouse.

Thumbs Up 1

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5

My all time favorite port. We did the west beach tour with Irie tours. You get to see a cave, several beaches, cliff dive, swim with turtles, and see flamingos. Amazing!

Thumbs Up 2

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5

We did a catamaran and snorkel. Beaches looked like a postcard. We got to snorkel over a WW2 ship. Very fun.

Thumbs Up 1

La Romana, Dominican Republic

3 out of 5

Go to an all inclusive or city tour. Shopping port was very generic and boring.

Thumbs Up 1

Miami, Florida

5 out of 5