Carnival Horizon 14 Day B2B Southern/Eastern Caribbean Review

[jam19872016]

Day 5:

 

Curaçao

 

Today we are in Curaçao and it is my fourth time here. We are not going to get off the ship today.

 

Breakfast ended at 9 and we had both slept till 9 today so we went to the buffet and Blue Iguana for breakfast today. They were out of the jalapeño wrap so I got the whole wheat. It was not my favorite and I hope it is a temporary issue and not out for the rest of the cruise.

 

The pool area was nice and quiet this morning with most people ashore in .Curaçao

 

 

 

 

 

Health protocols for Curaçao.

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

As I said we chose to stay on the ship today so we hung out in the room for a bit then we went out for a round of mini golf. I sucked pretty bad I am going to maybe go practice on my own later to try and get better. 

 

After that we played a game of pool which I have never played before in my life. It wasn't so much that I wasn't as bad as I was at mini golf as it was my mom was pretty bad too. I still lost by quite a large margin though.

 

It was a fun little outing and somehow it was enough sun that I burned a little. Nothing major but I was a little tender.

 

For lunch today I went to the Seafood Shack. I was not sure if they would accept my dining voucher since it specifies 5:30-9:30 on the vouchers but I was going to try anyway. I was happy that they do in fact accept them at lunchtime and I ordered a lobster roll and some oysters.

 

 

 

 

I washed it down with a glob of cake for dessert.

 

 

 

Lunch was excellent and I enjoyed being able to use my dining voucher at lunch since my mom gets cranky when I don't join her for dinner 🙂 
 

[jam19872016]

I grabbed another frappe from the coffee bar and used one of my contraband straws and still could not drink it. They are not blending the ice well enough it seems. Back to the chocolate straws I suppose.

After that it was another afternoon of relaxing in the room as well as a little time in the sauna and then it was time to eat again.

 

Tonight was our second elegant night of the cruise. Tonight's menu.

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

For my starter I ordered the crab cake.

 

 

 

This was ok, truthfully I'm not a big crab cake fan but this was good.

 

For my main I ordered the teriyaki salmon and the fusilli mushroom cream.

 

 

 

 

The fish was really good. I enjoyed it before but liked it even more now paired with noodles instead of rice. The pasta was also good, but I did not like the chicken it now comes with. I am very picky about chicken and there was A LOT of chicken in this dish. I ended up having to waste it and probably will not order it again.

 

For dessert I ordered the grand marnier soufflé and the key lime mousse.

 

 

 

These were both as I remember them and very very good.

 

Dinner tonight was pretty good. Service was still great tonight but slower than it has been but we did go later and it was elegant night. Still took just over an hour for dinner which is by no means a slow dinner service.
 

[jam19872016]

Back in the room we had a leaning towel friend waiting for us.

 

 

 

We continued our trend of taking it easy and settled into the room for the evening. I made my way out one more time for a turkey sandwich from the deli.

 

 

 

The line was a little long, but they actually had four people working the deli which was impressive and moved the line right along. I was happy to see that because sometimes the deli will be understaffed and the line moves along very slow.

 

That wraps up another relaxing day on board the Carnival Horizon. Tomorrow our port of call will be La Romana.
 

[jam19872016]

Day 6:

 

La Romana, DR

 

Today we are in La Romana, Dominican Republic. This is my third time visiting this port and I would say it is my least favorite port I've ever been to. The locals are sketchy and I would strongly advise not leaving the port area without being on a Carnival sponsored excursion. This was a replacement port for us because Bonaire is not open to cruise ships just yet.

 

Here is my story that I enjoy retelling of my first experience in La Romana and how it ended up on my one and done list. 

 

It was 2016 and I was on only my fifth cruise (carrying a gold card for the first time). The CD was Josh "Big Sexy" Waitzman and he strongly advised only taking a Carnival sponsored excursion because a lot of areas were unsafe for tourists. A pretty bold statement from a representative of a company taking you there. I chalked it up to fear mongering to sell more tours. I had been to Belize and Freeport by this point and had seen poor dirty islands, but nothing I would say was bad enough to warrant such a strong disclaimer. After today, I would be a believer.  Below is from my review of that cruise that I never published:

 

We took a while to get ready and it was around noon when I set foot in the Dominican Republic for the first time.

 

 

We did not have anything planned for today (if you have not picked up on it yet, we are just kinda go with the flow people at ports). We found some shuttles available for various places and decided to choose the one that went downtown. I had told M there was really nothing to do in La Romana and that you needed to have an excursion planned it was really not a "wing it" kind of port. She did not listen and I was not interested enough in any of the listed excursions to insist on one, so wing it is what we did. My mistake.

 

[mbglib]

Sounds like a great trip...thanks for reviewing and for all the pictures.

[jam19872016]

The bus we rode in on was very nice. The seats were comfortable and the AC worked VERY well. Most people were complaining it was cold, but I love love love the cold air so I was happy. We did seem to be waiting for a long time, the shuttles were advertised as picking us up "every 15 minutes" but I am not sure how as this one was not leaving after at least 20 minutes of us being on it and no telling how long it had been waiting before we got on. Finally a large group boarded and the driver decided we were full enough to leave, I mean that it had been 15 minutes and we could leave.

 

Traffic was insane. It reminded me of the level of traffic you see in movies that take place in India or some other extreme high density populated place. 

 

It was a very congested and broken down area the entire ride over. No problem, I enjoy the opportunity to experience different cultures and be pushed out of my comfort zone a little. It would never make a list of the prettiest places I have been to, but at this point it was still something I was glad to have the chance to experience.

 

We arrived at the drop off spot downtown and the vendors were practically mobbing the bus. As we exited, to the left was the vendor area. No thank you, we went to go to the right and the driver stopped us. This way was blocked off and we were told for safety we had to turn left. Safety? Maybe it was because we would have to cross the street going this way instead of having a sidewalk, but I was pretty sure it was just to force us to walk past the mob of vendors.

 

So we turned left and we got past them pretty quickly as they mainly hovered on the ones who did not know to run through there quickly! Then we reached the intersection. We had been on the outside of the vendor space, turn right and we would go through it, so we took a left crossing the street the driver told us not to cross.

 

We were doing our normal thing, just kinda walking along and seeing where it would lead us. Notice how the traffic is bumper to bumper, this was the traffic everywhere you looked. Also if you look close, you will see a police car parked at the intersection.

 

 

We continue walking along, we are approaching the intersection and suddenly the police officer yells out at us. He speaks very little English (and I speak very little Spanish) but from I can understand he says we are not allowed to go any further. He points down ahead and says "no insurance no safe for you go down there muy peligroso(very dangerous)". I was a little surprised by this and a little upset, how dare you tell me I am not allowed to go down a public street. I also knew better than to argue with a police officer in a foreign country so we turned around in defeat. 

 

After we started walking back, we heard the officer shout very loudly so we turned back to see what was up. There in broad daylight, being forced to turn back around back into the "no safe" area, were two men on a motorcycle each carrying BIG A$$ MACHINE GUNS the kind you see in war movies taking place in Africa! This was unlike anything I have ever seen or expected to see in person with my own two eyes. 

 

Suddenly I realized the bus driver really did mean that it was not safe to go the other way and the cop was not just treating me like a child when he said I could not go in there. At first I thought maybe he was there to direct traffic because I could see him just parked there as I approached, but I guess his job is to keep tourists out and bad men open carrying machine guns in. I wonder though, as he was obviously outgunned, what would the officer have done if the men did not turn back around when he told them to?

 

When I got home I asked Uncle Google about gun laws in DR and found that hand guns are very easy to get a permit for, yet most are unregistered (illegal) and nobody really enforces the gun laws. Machine guns on the other hand are only issued to the Military Police (scary concept) but if those men were police they were not in any kind of uniform indicating that they were.

[jam19872016]

We made the short walk back to be picked up. M said "lets at least check out what's for sale" We went in to the vendor area and they were like sharks! We had people circling us from every direction trying to lead us to their shop. There was literally not a single second we did not have someone in our face. When we said no to one someone else would ask. How can anyone buy anything when you will not leave them alone for even one single second to look around? We got out of there pretty quick but then we had the swarm of them waiting by the buses. 

 

Thankfully we were just in time to catch a bus as it was pulling up and not have to wait by these vultures any longer. Or so I thought, they started pounding on the bus windows to get our attention STILL TRYING TO SELL STUFF. As I sat there I witnessed a guy buy a beer for $3. He handed the man a $5 and was told he could not make change thanks for the tip. The man said no problem, how bout sell me two beers then. The man said nope and walked away, the man had to snatch his money back from the guy and give him the beer back. One lady on the bus said a lady snatched a hat off her head and tried to sell it back to her. 

 

There are ports that I have been to that are dumpy but I would never say I would absolutely not get off at port. Freeport and Belize are two that come to mind, but unless I had an excursion I can now say, I will absolutely not get off at La Romana. It is a dreadful place and I cannot imagine what people who take cruises not expecting to see anything but what they see in brochures thought of this place."
 

[jam19872016]

Of course never say never, I would be getting off today but not leaving the little port area. 

 

Health protocols for La Romana.

 

 

I slept in good today and almost missed the 10am cutoff for breakfast. That time in the sun yesterday really drained me I guess. I ordered a Spanish omelet which was interesting but good. I don't think they traditionally would come with cabbage but like I said, it was good.

 

[jam19872016]

We don't arrive this morning until 11:45 so I went back to the room until it was time for me to put lunch in my belly.

 

I finally made it to Guy's today for my first Guy's Burger in a year and a half..

 

 

 

Yum! Still so so good but I try to limit myself to once a cruise because I can feel my arteries clogging when I eat them 🙂 

 

With full tummies we headed out into La Romana.

 

 

 

It's not large, but they do have a nice little shopping area and they all appeared to be local vendors not the chain jewelry stores you see all over and the vendors where not aggressive like they were downtown back on my first visit here.

 

My mom bought a couple items then we boarded the ship.
 

[jam19872016]

I tried my luck at some trivia again this afternoon. One was Carnival Trivia which I am a big nerd with that kind of stuff so thought I had a pretty good chance. Nope not so much. Some of the questions were pretty obscure, and I was surrounded by Carnival nerds. Seriously, most of these were not things anybody but a carnival fanatic would know.

 

Tonight's dinner menu is the one my mom likes booking 8 night cruises for, just for the cherry soup.

 

Tonight's menu.

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

For my starter I ordered a new appetizer to the menu, buffalo cauliflower.

 

 

 

This was delicious. When I eat these at home they always seem to be mushy but these held their crisp. They were not spicy at all but they were amazing.

 

For my main I was not really finding anything I was interested in so I ordered the seafood newburg and another new menu item the vegetable moussaka.

 

 

 

 

Both ended up being really delicious and I enjoyed them very much.

 

For dessert I ordered the chocolate and cheese brownie.

 

 

Another great item.

 

Dinner tonight was the best of the cruise so far. Service continued to be excellent with our dinner service taking less than an hour.
 

[jam19872016]

After dinner we stopped by the shops to kill a little time until Deal or No Deal started. Deal or No Deal cards were $25 or 2 for $40. I bought two cards and settled in to see if my luck would be better here. I won a $25 bingo package. Better than nothing I suppose. It was a fun little activity though that I've never done before.

 

Towel elephant in the room.

 

 

 

We have gotten into a bit of a routine, which includes a lot of relaxing. I will try to break the cycle on the second leg of the cruise but after dinner it is so nice to sit in the room and relax. So relax we did 🙂 

 

I made one more trip out tonight for second dinner. A pastrami sandwich from the deli.

 

 

 

That sandwich was simply amazing. So hot and fresh and the condiment on it was perfect. The menu says it is a sun-dried tomato spread but it kind of looked a tasted like cream cheese. I don't think they keep cream cheese stocked here so I am sure that's not what it was, but that was what it tasted like to me.

 

After that I made my way back to the room and called it an evening. Next up, our final port of call for the first leg of the cruise, Amber Cove.
 

[jam19872016]

26 minutes ago, mbglib said:

Sounds like a great trip...thanks for reviewing and for all the pictures.

It was amazing! Thanks for reading along.

[EngIceDave]

Don't be mean, he's from the Land of the Misfit Toy (Towels)

 

[WhiteOptima]

On 8/19/2021 at 4:43 PM, Terab85 said:

Definitely following this.  We are doing our first B2B on the Horizon in 4 weeks and excited to hear all your input.  Did you get up to Serenity at all during your trip?  Curious on how crowded on the at sea days. 

We did a B2B on her and Serenity was always busy but the best day the first day of your 2nd cruise😀!  Everyone is boarding and hitting the buffet and I sat in a clamshell and my husband sat in the sports bar.

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

I'm really enjoying your review & can hardly wait for my cruise in Nov on Horizon. I'll have a hard time deciding what to eat, everything  sounds good to me!!

 

Stay safe.

 

~ Jo ~ 😊

[POACruzer]

@jam19872016 Enjoying your review! Especially love all the food pictures and thoughts! 

[Terab85]

23 minutes ago, WhiteOptima said:

We did a B2B on her and Serenity was always busy but the best day the first day of your 2nd cruise😀!  Everyone is boarding and hitting the buffet and I sat in a clamshell and my husband sat in the sports bar.

Didn't even this of that 🤪  Our daughter gets onboard the second leg but we'll say hey and then head to serenity 😄 

[helene109]

3 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

As I said we chose to stay on the ship today so we hung out in the room for a bit then we went out for a round of mini golf. I sucked pretty bad I am going to maybe go practice on my own later to try and get better. 

 

After that we played a game of pool which I have never played before in my life. It wasn't so much that I wasn't as bad as I was at mini golf as it was my mom was pretty bad too. I still lost by quite a large margin though.

 

It was a fun little outing and somehow it was enough sun that I burned a little. Nothing major but I was a little tender.

 

For lunch today I went to the Seafood Shack. I was not sure if they would accept my dining voucher since it specifies 5:30-9:30 on the vouchers but I was going to try anyway. I was happy that they do in fact accept them at lunchtime and I ordered a lobster roll and some oysters.

 

 

 

 

I washed it down with a glob of cake for dessert.

 

 

 

Lunch was excellent and I enjoyed being able to use my dining voucher at lunch since my mom gets cranky when I don't join her for dinner 🙂 
 

How did you know about these dining vouchers? When logged in? What type of room did you have? Did you feel the ship move everywhere? Thinking about this abc itinerary for May? We got off of the Mardi Gras Saturday!

[JaniceB]

Thanks for the LaRomona info.  My DH is the type who likes to explore local. 

[eileen11]

I can not seem to find the dinner vouchers.  Did you purchase them onboard?

[Terab85]

6 hours ago, eileen11 said:

I can not seem to find the dinner vouchers.  Did you purchase them onboard?

I think this is something you can only buy on board.  I saw a recent youtube video that had an advertisement on the wall as they walked by. 

[jam19872016]

20 hours ago, retiring soon said:

HI all!

 

I'm really enjoying your review & can hardly wait for my cruise in Nov on Horizon. I'll have a hard time deciding what to eat, everything  sounds good to me!!

 

Stay safe.

 

~ Jo ~ 😊

There were definitely lots and lots of food choices. In 14 days I did not come close to being bored with the dining options 🙂 

 

20 hours ago, POACruzer said:

@jam19872016 Enjoying your review! Especially love all the food pictures and thoughts! 

Thank you!