Carnival Horizon 14 Day B2B Southern/Eastern Caribbean Review

[jam19872016]

For my starter I ordered the stuffed mushrooms.

 

 

 

For my main I ordered the teriyaki salmon and the Greek spinach pie.

 

 

 

The salmon was fantastic again. The spinach pie was not very good but I was also not hungry at all by this point.

 

For dessert I ordered the grand marnier soufflé.

 

 

Even going later and with it being elegant night service was outstanding. The food was good all around except for one item I did not care for.
 

[jam19872016]

Back in the room there was a loch ness monster.

 

 

I put Nessie in front of the TV and we had a bit of a movie marathon in the room tonight.

 

Once the movies were over mom went to bed and I went to grab a small bite to eat from the late night buffet.

 

 

 

I also decided to try my luck in the casino again after the butt whipping I got last week. I was down to the last hand I was going to play before I walked away and I got this beauty.

 

 

I played for a little while longer and once again when I was down to the last hand I was going to play this happened.

 

 

 

So I played some more but this time when I was ready to walk away it let me. I played one more machine to make sure my run was over and once I confirmed it was I cashed out. Even with the beating I took last week, I did make a small profit this trip so I was pleased with the overall results.

 

By this time it was approaching 1AM so I went back to the room and went to bed for the night. Tomorrow will be our final port of call on this amazing journey, Amber Cove.
 

[jam19872016]

Day 13: Amber Cove

 

Today we are in Amber Cove. This is my fourth time here and I was just here last week.

 

Health protocols for Amber Cove.

 

 

 

I woke up late this morning so I just grabbed a small bite to eat from the buffet. Then I grabbed a big bite because the sausage was real good this morning. After I got some food in me  we made our way into port.

 

I don't think it is possible for me to not tell this bad joke every time, nice aft!

 

 

 

We came in just long enough for my mom to buy one item that she had sampled last week and then we made it back onto the ship.
 

[jam19872016]

After such a late start it was time for lunch before I knew it. I was nowhere near hungry yet but I still ate because why not. Today I enjoyed a nice bowl of pasta from pasta bella.

 

 

 

I was full enough after this I at least skipped dessert but oh man they had a key lime pie at dessert that looked so tempting.

 

I spent the afternoon trying one last time to win a ship on a stick at trivia but it just was not meant to be I did better today but so did everyone else lol.
 

[jam19872016]

I went to dinner late tonight. The casino was having the fireball raffle this evening which meant I would need to push dinner back. It was from 5-7 so I rescheduled dinner for 7:30.

 

For dinner tonight it was back to Jiji's one more time with my last voucher.

 

The sun had just set as I made my way to Jiji's.

 

[jam19872016]

Compliments of the chef.

 

 

 

Spring rolls.

 

 

 

These were so crispy and delicious. Yum.

 

For my main I ordered the peppered beef and the hakka noodles.

 

 

 

 

Both were very good and as if I did not have enough food, they brought me another compliments from the chef. Kung Pow Chicken.

 

 

For dessert I got the caramelized crepes.

 

 

 

Everything was so so good and after eating here four times the service was top notch.
 

[jam19872016]

Tonight's dinner menu.

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Back in the room I had a towel animal and my invite to the diamond/platinum party.

 

 

 

We settled in for a movie and once that was over I took a quick walk around the decks and went to be for the evening. Coming up - the final day of my 14 days on the Carnival Horizon.

Edited September 10, 2021 by jam19872016

[jam19872016]

I've got one more installment to post. I plan to wrap this up this weekend. Thanks for hanging in till the end 🙂

 

[CruisinMama2003]

Thank you for coming back to finish this great review 🙂 i am also following your current review as well. Will you be doing a review for the next cruise in a couple of days?

[jam19872016]

Yes as long as I pass all required testing. I have no reason to suspect I won't but these things still worry me lol.

[jam19872016]

Day 14: Fun Farewell Day at Sea

 

Today is my last two on the Horizon. After 14 days I know it is time to go home, but I would not have minded being able to spend more time. Greedy I know.

 

I headed to brunch in the MDR to start my final day.

 

I ordered the brunch spaghetti.

.

 

 

I don't care for the ham that comes in it but I pick it out the rest was delicious.

 

For dessert I got the banana cream pie.

 

 

 

Everything was very good. 
 

[jam19872016]

The afternoon was filled with one final set of fireball raffles. I still did not win but that doesn't stop me from trying 🙂

 

Lunch was a return visit to Guy's BBQ.

 

 

 

The remainder of the afternoon was spent being lazy except for some packing. I am getting better about not waiting until the last last minute. That's progress.

[jam19872016]

Final dinner menu

 

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

For my starter I got the shrimp cocktail. Sorry about the lighting, they were doing showtime and had the lights off.

 

 

 

They also brought out cherry soup for my mom and I. She commented how much she loved it and wondered if she could special order it. I was surprised they were able to make it happen. This was a top notch crew! I did not get a photo because the lights were still not turned back on.

 

For my main I ordered the penne mariscos.

 

 

 

My mom's dinner, which I believe was the short ribs.

 

 

 

For dessert I ordered a double helping of the baked Alaska.

 

 

 

Everything was good and the service began and ended on a high note this entire cruise.
 

[jam19872016]

Back in the room we had our final towel animal which was no animal at all.

 

 

 

We watched one more movie and then went to bed.

 

Debarkation:

 

One final breakfast then we were off the ship.

 

 

 

Debarkation was smooth with the new facial recognition in the terminal as well as the lighter capacity.
 

[jam19872016]

Summary:

 

Dining:

 

Breakfast in the dining room was very good and I really enjoy Carnival's breakfast menu. I have never really considered myself a breakfast person so this was no easy task for Carnival to achieve. Brunch was also good although it does seem like a lot of the dishes have an ingredient in them that I don't care for. For example the ham in the brunch spaghetti.

 

The dinner menu in the MDR has changed slightly. Most of it is subtle. There are a few new items and unfortunately several items that are missing. Many of the dishes are prepared in a different way. For example onions in the carbonara (blek), a tomato sauce in the vegetarian mushrooms dish, and a sweet sauce for dipping the spring rolls in (yum!). There were others but that are a few examples.

 

Most of the items are noticeably smaller in portion. Overall I think the quality of food has declined since the restart.

 

The buffet continues to be Carnival's weak point. My advice is to skip it all together in favor of the wide variety of other options available. Some nice additions in the buffet on Horizon include a free gelato stand with toppings, and an empenada station. And the lunch cakes are amazing. Other than that, steer clear of the buffet.

 

Among the free lunchtime choices are Guy's Burger, Blue Iguana (which has supply issues), the Deli, Guy's BBQ. 

 

Sit down options above the buffet include the Pasta Bar and Mongolian Wok. Both were very good and with lower capacity they had much quicker turn around times on the food than I remember from my first trip on Horizon.

 

Basically there is no shortage of free lunch options to help you avoid the buffet which is just not very good.

 

There is also seafood shack and bonsai as options for pay lunches. Both were good but I don't feel like there is a lot of value to either option and would not pay to eat there if you are happy with the included choices.

 

For dinner the only specialty I dined at was Jiji's. The food here was amazing and at only $15 is a great bargain. I am sad to see that it is not being included on their new ships any more.

 

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

The first week I had an ocean view cabin on deck 3. The second week an interior on deck 3. The ocean view was quite large with plenty of space to spread out in. The inside was much smaller but I still liked it better because it did not let any light in. The bathroom door was squeaky in the interior but a little WD40 fixed that right up. The TV frequently had to be turned off and back on to work in both cabins. Many others reported the same issue.

 

Both cabins and the ship itself were spotless. Everywhere you went there were people constantly cleaning high traffic areas. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was they used some kind of sanitizer that left a sticky residue on the stair railings. I was extra careful to just not touch it but whenever I did it was a yucky surprise.

 

Entertainment:

 

Their was no shortage of things to do on this ship. I wish I had tried the Imax and the Skyride but I didn't do either. Their was always music going on all over the ship. The playlist performers were okay. They were about standard for what I expect on Carnival. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

I've seen the comments about CD Donkey. He has been a CD with Carnival for many years, in fact he is probably one of the most senior having been a CD since 2011 I believe he said. He used to be CD on Liberty and I had him a couple times while doing the weekend Bahamas runs on that ship. I was surprised when I heard he was going to be CD on Horizon. I think he is a perfect fit for a smaller ship but perhaps not for one of their most prominent ships. He was not a bad CD by any means and I enjoyed him and his personality he just isn't the most high energy super CD that Carnival is known for. 

 

The Quest was no longer being done. He was asked about it in a Q&A session and he said it was Covid protocol related but he also said he did not like doing it because he got too many complaints and probably would not be bringing it back. He was unclear if he meant he won't be bringing it back (as I understand it is at a CD's discretion) or if Carnival would not be bringing it back.

 

Service:

 

Service was outstanding. I rarely rank something a 10 out of 10 when filling out surveys. To me a 10 is perfect and there is almost never anything that is truly perfect. The service on this ship was absolutely a 10 out of 10. Everyone was so gracious that we were back on board and went out of their way to make sure we were having a fantastic experience.

 

 

Overall this was a great cruise. Literally the only thing negative I can say about it is the food quality. I am hopeful that in time that will improve and in the meantime I am so glad to be back on a ship that I can cut them a little slack while they work to get their operations full steam ahead again.

 

Thanks again for reading along everybody.

[chicail16]

4 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Summary:

 

Dining:

 

Breakfast in the dining room was very good and I really enjoy Carnival's breakfast menu. I have never really considered myself a breakfast person so this was no easy task for Carnival to achieve. Brunch was also good although it does seem like a lot of the dishes have an ingredient in them that I don't care for. For example the ham in the brunch spaghetti.

 

The dinner menu in the MDR has changed slightly. Most of it is subtle. There are a few new items and unfortunately several items that are missing. Many of the dishes are prepared in a different way. For example onions in the carbonara (blek), a tomato sauce in the vegetarian mushrooms dish, and a sweet sauce for dipping the spring rolls in (yum!). There were others but that are a few examples.

 

Most of the items are noticeably smaller in portion. Overall I think the quality of food has declined since the restart.

 

The buffet continues to be Carnival's weak point. My advice is to skip it all together in favor of the wide variety of other options available. Some nice additions in the buffet on Horizon include a free gelato stand with toppings, and an empenada station. And the lunch cakes are amazing. Other than that, steer clear of the buffet.

 

Among the free lunchtime choices are Guy's Burger, Blue Iguana (which has supply issues), the Deli, Guy's BBQ. 

 

Sit down options above the buffet include the Pasta Bar and Mongolian Wok. Both were very good and with lower capacity they had much quicker turn around times on the food than I remember from my first trip on Horizon.

 

Basically there is no shortage of free lunch options to help you avoid the buffet which is just not very good.

 

There is also seafood shack and bonsai as options for pay lunches. Both were good but I don't feel like there is a lot of value to either option and would not pay to eat there if you are happy with the included choices.

 

For dinner the only specialty I dined at was Jiji's. The food here was amazing and at only $15 is a great bargain. I am sad to see that it is not being included on their new ships any more.

 

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

The first week I had an ocean view cabin on deck 3. The second week an interior on deck 3. The ocean view was quite large with plenty of space to spread out in. The inside was much smaller but I still liked it better because it did not let any light in. The bathroom door was squeaky in the interior but a little WD40 fixed that right up. The TV frequently had to be turned off and back on to work in both cabins. Many others reported the same issue.

 

Both cabins and the ship itself were spotless. Everywhere you went there were people constantly cleaning high traffic areas. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was they used some kind of sanitizer that left a sticky residue on the stair railings. I was extra careful to just not touch it but whenever I did it was a yucky surprise.

 

Entertainment:

 

Their was no shortage of things to do on this ship. I wish I had tried the Imax and the Skyride but I didn't do either. Their was always music going on all over the ship. The playlist performers were okay. They were about standard for what I expect on Carnival. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

I've seen the comments about CD Donkey. He has been a CD with Carnival for many years, in fact he is probably one of the most senior having been a CD since 2011 I believe he said. He used to be CD on Liberty and I had him a couple times while doing the weekend Bahamas runs on that ship. I was surprised when I heard he was going to be CD on Horizon. I think he is a perfect fit for a smaller ship but perhaps not for one of their most prominent ships. He was not a bad CD by any means and I enjoyed him and his personality he just isn't the most high energy super CD that Carnival is known for. 

 

The Quest was no longer being done. He was asked about it in a Q&A session and he said it was Covid protocol related but he also said he did not like doing it because he got too many complaints and probably would not be bringing it back. He was unclear if he meant he won't be bringing it back (as I understand it is at a CD's discretion) or if Carnival would not be bringing it back.

 

Service:

 

Service was outstanding. I rarely rank something a 10 out of 10 when filling out surveys. To me a 10 is perfect and there is almost never anything that is truly perfect. The service on this ship was absolutely a 10 out of 10. Everyone was so gracious that we were back on board and went out of their way to make sure we were having a fantastic experience.

 

 

Overall this was a great cruise. Literally the only thing negative I can say about it is the food quality. I am hopeful that in time that will improve and in the meantime I am so glad to be back on a ship that I can cut them a little slack while they work to get their operations full steam ahead again.

 

Thanks again for reading along everybody.

Really enjoyed your review.  Thank you!

[jam19872016]

13 minutes ago, chicail16 said:

Really enjoyed your review.  Thank you!

Thanks for reading along.

[Megan_Strick]

On 8/24/2021 at 5:38 PM, 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 🙂 
 

Those 3 oysters are enough to make me mad! I need a bunch

[Megan_Strick]

On 9/13/2021 at 3:31 PM, jam19872016 said:

Summary:

 

Dining:

 

Breakfast in the dining room was very good and I really enjoy Carnival's breakfast menu. I have never really considered myself a breakfast person so this was no easy task for Carnival to achieve. Brunch was also good although it does seem like a lot of the dishes have an ingredient in them that I don't care for. For example the ham in the brunch spaghetti.

 

The dinner menu in the MDR has changed slightly. Most of it is subtle. There are a few new items and unfortunately several items that are missing. Many of the dishes are prepared in a different way. For example onions in the carbonara (blek), a tomato sauce in the vegetarian mushrooms dish, and a sweet sauce for dipping the spring rolls in (yum!). There were others but that are a few examples.

 

Most of the items are noticeably smaller in portion. Overall I think the quality of food has declined since the restart.

 

The buffet continues to be Carnival's weak point. My advice is to skip it all together in favor of the wide variety of other options available. Some nice additions in the buffet on Horizon include a free gelato stand with toppings, and an empenada station. And the lunch cakes are amazing. Other than that, steer clear of the buffet.

 

Among the free lunchtime choices are Guy's Burger, Blue Iguana (which has supply issues), the Deli, Guy's BBQ. 

 

Sit down options above the buffet include the Pasta Bar and Mongolian Wok. Both were very good and with lower capacity they had much quicker turn around times on the food than I remember from my first trip on Horizon.

 

Basically there is no shortage of free lunch options to help you avoid the buffet which is just not very good.

 

There is also seafood shack and bonsai as options for pay lunches. Both were good but I don't feel like there is a lot of value to either option and would not pay to eat there if you are happy with the included choices.

 

For dinner the only specialty I dined at was Jiji's. The food here was amazing and at only $15 is a great bargain. I am sad to see that it is not being included on their new ships any more.

 

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

The first week I had an ocean view cabin on deck 3. The second week an interior on deck 3. The ocean view was quite large with plenty of space to spread out in. The inside was much smaller but I still liked it better because it did not let any light in. The bathroom door was squeaky in the interior but a little WD40 fixed that right up. The TV frequently had to be turned off and back on to work in both cabins. Many others reported the same issue.

 

Both cabins and the ship itself were spotless. Everywhere you went there were people constantly cleaning high traffic areas. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was they used some kind of sanitizer that left a sticky residue on the stair railings. I was extra careful to just not touch it but whenever I did it was a yucky surprise.

 

Entertainment:

 

Their was no shortage of things to do on this ship. I wish I had tried the Imax and the Skyride but I didn't do either. Their was always music going on all over the ship. The playlist performers were okay. They were about standard for what I expect on Carnival. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

I've seen the comments about CD Donkey. He has been a CD with Carnival for many years, in fact he is probably one of the most senior having been a CD since 2011 I believe he said. He used to be CD on Liberty and I had him a couple times while doing the weekend Bahamas runs on that ship. I was surprised when I heard he was going to be CD on Horizon. I think he is a perfect fit for a smaller ship but perhaps not for one of their most prominent ships. He was not a bad CD by any means and I enjoyed him and his personality he just isn't the most high energy super CD that Carnival is known for. 

 

The Quest was no longer being done. He was asked about it in a Q&A session and he said it was Covid protocol related but he also said he did not like doing it because he got too many complaints and probably would not be bringing it back. He was unclear if he meant he won't be bringing it back (as I understand it is at a CD's discretion) or if Carnival would not be bringing it back.

 

Service:

 

Service was outstanding. I rarely rank something a 10 out of 10 when filling out surveys. To me a 10 is perfect and there is almost never anything that is truly perfect. The service on this ship was absolutely a 10 out of 10. Everyone was so gracious that we were back on board and went out of their way to make sure we were having a fantastic experience.

 

 

Overall this was a great cruise. Literally the only thing negative I can say about it is the food quality. I am hopeful that in time that will improve and in the meantime I am so glad to be back on a ship that I can cut them a little slack while they work to get their operations full steam ahead again.

 

Thanks again for reading along everybody.

I love your reviews. On to the next!