Average Cruise experience
Carnival Horizon Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 153
8 Night Southern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 04, 2023
Ship: Carnival Horizon
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 1392
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
The cruise experience was average. I was force to eat a few times at the specialty restaurants which did no disappointed me. Was the highlight of the trip. But this is because the main dining experience is loosing its quality and is becoming a casual "fast" food restaurant, like Chilis or Applebee's. I put the word fast in quotes because there was nothing fast about it. It took them 30- 45 minutes to serve you the first plate. We just came off from a pandemic and I think Carnival did not learn nothing from it. The room walls were full with dust. The main dining tables don't have a table cloth and you only have one fork to eat, so you have to place your silverware flat on the table. My server swap my plate that I already start eating from it, to another guest. Luckily the other guest, sitting in the next table, noticed and return the plate. Come on Carnival, how is this possible??? Then you read in the news that 300 guest got sick in a cruise ship, now we know why!!! Last time I cruise with Carnival was more than 10 years ago and I got exactly what I paid for. I assume I have to spend more money for a better cruise experience. I felt like flying on Spirit airlines.Embarkation
Excellent, quick, and easy. Very impress how Carnival have significantly improve the embarkation experience
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
I am giving them a good rating because of the specialty restaurant. These restaurants were the highlight of the whole cruise experience. The Steakhouse is great in comparison to any high end downtown steakhouse but much affordable.
However, the main dining and the buffet lack of variety and the food is no longer impressive as the quality has reduce to become a casual fast food restaurant similar to Applebee's or Chilis. Very disappointing experience. I personally think that they do it on purpose so you spend more money on the specialty restaurants.
Onboard Activities
There are great activities to do. However, the issue is that they overlap each other and you need to make a choice. But sometimes some of the activities are running late which end up overlapping. There are some activities that they could make it digital and I can enjoy them meanwhile I am somewhere else. For example, I could buy and play Bingo or Deal or No Deal from the APP and be in another activity. I don't have to be present to win and miss other activities that are of my interest.
Same applies to the Casino. I don't have to be in the Casino to win, send me a notification if my name was pulled on a raffle., you don't have to kidnap my time in the casino to see if I won $100. Specially if the Casino is a smoking environment and Carnival is forcing me to be a 2nd hand smoker cancer patient in the future.
Carnival has to make a better use of the technology and let me enjoy the cruise with the freedom I deserve
Entertainment
Well they were short staff on the dancers so we did not have shows the last three nights of the cruise. However, they covered it with comedians, which were very funny. The parties at the Lido deck were amazing and open to anyone to participate.
However, being a Spring break cruise, some parents forget that their kids came along cruising with them and let them run wild in the cruise hoping that security, cruise crew, and other travelers do a better parenting job that their own parents do at home. If you don't want to take care of your own kids, DON'T bring them along and ruin someone else fun!
Children's Programs
My kids enjoy their program very much. However, some kids were wild and expecting other kids to behave like them. If they did not follow them then they exclude them from the group.
Service and Staff
Service was OK. I arrived to my room and it was visible dusty. Walls were covered with dust and not clean. We just came out of a pandemic, the staff comes every day to clean the cabins. They can spend sometime to do a deep cleaning time to time.
The server make a bad mistake, he served me someone else food, I did not realize and took a bite, the server came and apologize, took the plate away and took it to the right person. The person noticed my bite and refuse the plate. What the heck!!! The server should have return that plate back to the kitchen and bring a new plate. Who knows how many times during the cruise I got someone else food?
Another thing to point out is that seems like bread and silverware were items with low inventory. I could never had a bread basket at the table, we had to constantly requested and if you wanted more had to wait a long time for it. Silverware same as the bread, you only have one fork to eat, when they change your plates, the fork that you put in your mouth goes into the table that has no table cloth or anything to avoid contact with a surface that you don't know if it was properly wiped. These are the details that will takes all back to a pandemic.
Lastly, every time we ate at the main dining we have to wait 30 to 45 minutes to get the first plate on the table. Very different from the Specialty restaurant were the services was quicker and efficient.
Ship Quality
It was a bit confusing at a time. The bathrooms sometimes were messy, wet and sandy floors, or soap or toilet paper were missing.
Cabin / Stateroom
Size was fine, however, Closet was not enough for a family of 4. Cleanliness not great, we arrived and immediately notice dark lines of dust in the walls of the cabin which is not the experience we were hoping for. That make me question the time that the staff dedicate to clean the cabins and if they ever do a deep cleaning between sailings.
Ship tip
Don't let your guard down or you will be sick. Keep an eye on the cleanliness of your cabin, the servers that don't swap plates with other guests, and be patience and wait more than usual for your food. If you want a better service, be prepare to pay and eat at the specialty restaurants
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic
Port is average, not too many services around other than stores. There is not a place to get cash like an ATM. I have to hire a cab on hourly basis to take me to the city and be able to withdraw cash from a local ATM. the ship has an ATM but the fees to draft money are exaggerated.
We did the waterfalls excursion, it was really great. We did it on our own. The ship prices were very high. I pay half and did more than what the ship excursion offers. We sailed too early I would have hope that we had more time.
Average port. Lack of ATM and stores. Same thing, excursions are heavily price at the ship. I spend half to go to the beach and have my own private chauffeur for the day. The length of stay was too short on this port
I think this is the best port location near stores, and a mall. Easy to navigate and take a ride anywhere. The length of the stay was perfect. Did not felt rushed at any time. Price of excursions in the ship are expensive. You can get better and cheaper off-shore.
I think this is the best port location near stores, and a mall. Easy to navigate and take a ride anywhere. The length of the stay was perfect. Did not felt rushed at any time. Price of excursions in the ship are expensive. You can get better and cheaper off-shore.
Disembarkation
I felt like I arrived to a 3rd world country. As soon as you come outside with the luggage, many operators jump at you offering rides or airport transfers to the city or airports. It was kind of wild. There is not a proper signs to differentiate rideshare, limos, private pick up, it is all over the place.