We just returned from our first cruise with Carnival-in-5-years – Carnival Horizon! Yes! It’s been since 2017 since we sailed with Carnival. We sailed on the beautiful Carnival Horizon and in this post, I’ll share with you all of the things we thoroughly enjoyed about our sailing (and one or two that we didn’t love).
If you’re new to my blog it may be important to know my frame of reference. While we have sailed on Carnival a few times in the past as well as one sailing on MSC, we primarily cruise with Royal Caribbean and have earned Diamond status in their Crown and Anchor program.
For this cruise, we were so happy to join our good friends who happen to be Diamond Status in Carnival’s loyalty program. It was fun to note the differences in the cruise lines and catch up with our friends and their fun family during this FUN cruise. Do I dare say, we were #funderstruck? 😉
Let’s talk price
One of the most apparent advantages of a Carnival Cruise is the completive price and overall value of the cruise fare. The cost of this 8-night, Southern Caribbean cruise in July 2022 was comparable to a 4-5 night cruise on another line.
In addition to the standard cruise fare, the extras of cruising- daily gratuities, drink package, internet, etc. also seemed to be a lower cost when compared to Royal Caribbean. Even though we are at Diamond level with Royal Caribbean, we could not pass up the overall value of this sailing.
Related Post: The extras of cruising
Embarkation Process – Verifly!
Kudos to Carnival for hitting the 1 million mark in their use of the Verifly app. This app was so easy to use and made the embarkation process so easy. Carnival cruisers can upload their important documents – Vax record, negative Covid test, etc. If you have a checkmark that’s all that the agent needs to see. I had the documents printed out (and I still recommend doing this) but they did not need to be reviewed by the Carnival employee.
One quick note, I asked about Verifly when we were starting the process and getting in line and the employee told me, NO! You must show the print-outs. However, once it was our turn in line, we were told that was not the case and the clearance from Verifly was all we needed to show!
I hope the other cruise lines quickly adopt this process!
Related Post: What’s in my Embarkation Day Bag?
Carnival Horizon staff – In a word, friendly!
Actually, I think I would like to say, WOW! Friendly! Our room steward, Arnold, was so nice that if he noticed us leaving our cabin he would speak to us by name and tell us to have a good day, from down the hall!
We were greeted by smiles and hellos from every crew member we encountered. Additionally, the staff seemed to genuinely be enjoying their jobs, their co-workers, and their interactions with guests.
The ship
Carnival Horizon is a large ship with so much to do. We thoroughly enjoyed the Pig & Anchor, the fantastic staff at the Alchemy Bar, and the Tide Pool. The ship also featured the Sky Ride, a Dr. Seuss-inspired splash zone for kids, an IMAX theatre (for a fee), and a ropes course. Cruisers of all ages would have plenty to do on the Horizon.
One side note: The IMAX theatre area did not appear to be busy and it was a bit hidden. I think that if this were an “included” activity or if we had rainy days during this cruise, it would have attracted more guests.
Cruise Director – Donkey!
Yes, he gets his own shout-out! Hailing from Australia, the man that is affectionately known as “Donkey” was exceptional. He was lighthearted and engaging. We saw him frequently throughout the ship. He would engage with the guests and be also exceptional at the “business” of his job. He had a way of managing a crowd that made the people feel entertained but he somehow accomplished what needed to be accomplished. This was evident during a hectic time of early disembarkation.
“Bing Bong” (iykyk) “Good morning Carnival Family it’s your cruise director, Donkey…”
No sales pressure for the extras
I know I already mentioned the price, but I have to admit this difference was so nice. Carnival, of course, offers all of the extras. However, we weren’t bombarded the first two days of our sailing with requests to buy the drink package, purchase specialty dining, etc. It was such a laid-back experience. This may seem like such a minor thing to mention but in our experience, crew members are really told to push the extras. Yeah…I’m looking at your RCL.
Survey
This one may surprise some of you long-time cruisers but we only had one crew member mention the survey. We are cruise advocates and huge fans so we always complete the survey but on most sailings, it’s all crew members can talk about on the last day or so of a cruise. Again, this cruise was very laid-back in every aspect.
St. Jude’ Children’s Hospital
Near and dear to my heart is Carnival’s fundraiser, Groove for St. Jude. Each sailing, Carnival raises money for St. Jude hospital. Guests can “donate” by purchasing a t-shirt, a stuffed bear or just make a monetary donation. While we were onboard, some guests made donations of over $500 to this very important place.
Debarkation Process on Carnival Horizon
This is not necessarily a pro or con, but a noticeable difference from other cruise lines. Luggage tags were not delivered to our cabin. We were instructed to pick up luggage tags from a rack located in the atrium of the ship. The nice thing about this process is you are able to choose the luggage tag that best suits your desired departure time based on your travel plans. The downside is, that the rack was frequently empty and we ended up getting luggage tags from our friends. Luggage tags are still delivered to the cabins for those guests who are at the Diamond level in their loyalty program.
While on the topic of luggage, I will mention that even on the morning of debarkation there were large carts of stacked luggage in the elevator areas of guest cabins. I’m not sure if there was an issue with the I-95 (the crew-designated area that runs the length of the ship) or if this is standard practice for Carnival. It wasn’t prohibitive, but I did find it interesting that bags were not taken to a more secure area overnight.
If you are a Carnival cruiser, let me know in the comments below if this is standard practice. I do not recall this from our 2017 sailing on Carnival Dream.
Related Post: 5 Things we loved about Carnival Dream
Food Quality and Selection
I pride myself on noting all of the positives but I will note one area that we felt was a noticeable difference from our Royal Caribbean experiences.
There were plenty of included extras such as Guy’s Burgers, Blue Iguana Cantina, Pizzeria del Capitano, etc. In fact, more included options than on Royal Caribbean, however, it was all located on the same deck. It is very efficient from a staffing point but I also found it to be a drawback that all of the included food was located on the lido deck. On other ships, we have sailed there are included snacks in the coffee shop and other areas around the ship.
My experience on Carnival Horizon was that the food in the buffet was generally the same at all of the main stations. However, they did have a nice salad bar and deli station each day and an omelet station at breakfast. I will mention that there was zero policing of hand washing which was a big surprise! Honestly, grown adults shouldn’t have to be reminded to wash their darn hands, but you’d be surprised at how many people sailed on by.
We thoroughly enjoyed the staff in the dining room each night and thought the quality of the food in the MDR was good but not great. On the last night of our sailing, we enjoyed Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse and it was excellent!
I am not a foodie so please take the opinions of my tastebuds with a grain of salt. As with any cruise, I promise, you will not go hungry!
Are you ready to sail Carnival Horizon?
There are so many great things I could say about this cruising adventure but I’ll have to save the rest for another post.
Do you have an upcoming sailing on Carnival Horizon? If so, let me know in the comments below and know that you are in for a great cruise! Don’t forget to share your cruise-related questions, reviews, and photos with our community on social media.
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