Get What You Pay For

Item: Carnival Horizon
Rating: 4
Author: Mariner77

Carnival Horizon Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Mariner77

Contributor Level: Purser

458 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 2

Overall rating:

4 out of 5

6 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 03, 2024

Ship: Carnival Horizon

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 11326

Traveled as: Large Group

Reviewed: 2 days ago

Review summary

Carnival is worth the money, but we only go on Carnival for cheap cruises. If we are picking a special cruise or want a bit more upscale, we would choose NCL. Carnival is a fun time, but the Wal-Mart of cruise lines rings true to us. For us our (3) mainstream cruise lines are Carnival Economically friendly, Royal who is very overpriced and NCL hits the sweet spot for us as being best at dollar-for-dollar value.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

It was a good process but very crowded. It was much easier on our last Carnival Cruise out of Miami.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

No specialty restaurants this time, last time they were okay. Food is good, much better on NCL but still worth it. Must tries are Guy's Burgers, the quick service Pizza station in the back of the ship, the made to order sandwiches in the buffet. These are top notch on any cruise line but the rest of the food it just good, nothing exceptional. QUICK TIP: Room Service was quick (under a half hour) for a pizza, & hot wings (8 wings). Pizza was $6 & wings were $7, plus gratuities the bill came to around $16 which is the same as a mixed drink at a bar and were very good. Well worth it!!

SKYBOX Sports Bar

4 out of 5

Great place just too small for a big game.

Seafood Shack

5 out of 5

Very pricy but very good. I highly recommend if you are willing to pay and in the mood for seafood.

Pizzeria del Capitano

5 out of 5

Back of the ship and best pizza on the ship. It is where they make the pizza that they would deliver to you, but this is free.

Pizza Delivery

5 out of 5

Under a half hour delivered to my room and I got pizza & hot wings with it and the total was $16 (the same price as a mixed drink at a bar). Food was great and they gave you 8 wings. Well worth the price.

Piano Bar 88

5 out of 5

The early piano player was boring, but the nighttime player was TOPS!!! He was Robbie and if he is on your cruise, it is a must stop for fun.

Ocean Plaza

3 out of 5

Good place to view many different things.

Meridian Restaurant

4 out of 5

Good food, not great. Good positive staff.

Liquid Lounge

4 out of 5

Really good shows in here and two floors so it can seat a lot of people.

Lido Marketplace

4 out of 5

Food was okay but the sandwich making area was the best.

Guy's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que

5 out of 5

Only for Lunch (it free) and available only on see days, this is a must try. Great food!!!

Guy's Burger Joint

5 out of 5

Best burgers ever!!! Most efficient part of the ship, no matter where you are in line you will likely receive your burger within 5 minutes. An absolute must have (if you do burgers).

Cucina del Capitano

4 out of 5

Good food worth the stop for FREE Lunch (Noon to 2:30pm) but not as a costly specialty dinning.

24-Hour Room Service

5 out of 5

Ordered Coffee & Danish and it was free but also ordered through the APP for a Pizza & Hot Wings (8 wings) and they cost $6 & $7 respectfully. Total after gratuities was around $16 (about the same cost of a mixed drink at a bar). Food was delivered to our room in less than a half hour and was delicious!!!

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Pools were crowded (hot tubs were usually a better option), there was a water park and a sky ride that I did not partake in as well as basketball court and plenty of activities for younger (under 50) individuals. (This is activities, not shows or participation areas).

Serenity

4 out of 5

Nice place to get away and sit in the sun and have peace from the crowds of the ship.

Horizon Casino

2 out of 5

It was small & smoke. I was on a smaller ship that had bigger casinos. The Magic has casinos on 2 different floors, and both were bigger than the Horizon's casino and one was non-smoking. All in all, it was okay.

Entertainment

5 out of 5

There shows were good and worth your time, I have seen better but these were truly talented individuals. There comedians were great, we seen 4 different ones and they all had me laughing, well worth the watch. The was a Piano Bar with Robbie and he was great. He does change ships every so many months but if he is on your ship, he is absolutely a must see. We ended our nights there almost every night.

Limelight Lounge

4 out of 5

A smaller venue that hosted shows. Good place but poles took away some sight lines.

Children's Programs

No children in my group.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

While the staff was not as engaging as I have had in the past, they were very good and mannerly and wanted to make sure we had everything we wanted. Our steward Joenathan (pronounced Jonnathan) was exceptional!!!

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Things were clean but not exceptional clean. The ships layout seems to have you walk one side of it and had a similar layout to the Magic which is not in its ship class. In fact, it seemed like a larger ship that concentrated on having more guest and not many (if any) more features, so it always seemed more crowded wherever we went as when we were on the Magic, a bit smaller ship with less guest on a sold-out New Years Eve cruise, I never felt crowded.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Cabin was clean, okay for an inside cabin. We were on the SPA floor, unless you are truly into that stuff, I don't recommend the few extra dollars for that room. Bed was good, enough electrical outlets.

Ship tip

Elevators can take a while, so if it is just a floor or two just take the stairs. Don't expect to use any elevators on embarkation day because they will be bringing luggage to the rooms with them. I had never seen this before, other ships on other cruise lines usually have their own elevator system to do this with. This will also happen on the last night of your cruise when they are picking up luggage.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

3 out of 5

Embarked & Disembarked in Miami so to me that really isn't a port.

Thumbs Up 0

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

3 out of 5

Nice to visit once, natives are too aggressive and pushy but the island is beautiful. Did not do beach, that may be better. PLEASE NOTE: There is no Sales Tax so don't get taken with merchants looking to charge you a tax on your purchase. We had this happen to a couple that we traveled with, 15% tax was added to their purchase.

Thumbs Up 0

George Town, Grand Cayman Did not visit port

Missed because of stormy weather.

Thumbs Up 0

Cozumel, Mexico

4 out of 5

Very nice place to tour and shop. Many things are cheaper here than in Jamaica so beware that you can get things for less in Mexico. Beaches are great.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

4 out of 5

Again, large lines but much quicker with facial recognition. Not sure leaving early or late has any benefit. Other couples we were with kept their bags and left early but did not get out much quicker than us who had our bags taken and picking them up the next morning and leaving late.

7 Comments

HeavySeas 1 day ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience

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TheBigSalad 1 day ago

Thank you, for sharing your experience.

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cruising2004 2 days ago

Thank you for your review.

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natelorip 2 days ago

Thanks for the detailed review.

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lsbs 2 days ago

Thanks for sharing

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Cloeyj 2 days ago

NCL isn’t all that great up scale?

Thumbs Up 2

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Gwbigdog 2 days ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us

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