We booked on the inaugural east coast cruise on the Carnival Horizon on May 28, 2018. Embarkation at the NY terminal was organized chaos. We booked with a local travel agency which provided bus transportation to the pier. The travel agency had sole control of our arrival time, which was 9:45 AM. Our check-in appointment was 12:30 to 1:00 PM which was the earliest we could get when we made final payment. Upon arrival we went thru security which seemed reasonably efficient, given a “zone number” and was directed to a large room to sit and wait. After sitting for about 1-1/2 hours we were called for check in. The agent scanned our boarding pass and directed us to the ship. The agent did not ask for or take the health screening questionnaire Carnival sent to us with our on-line documents. We were not asked any health questions nor did we hear them ask anyone else during check in.

Food in the Lido deck Marketplace was bland and lacked variety. The area around the service lines was restricted and at times was bottle-necked by passengers. I am not sure why Carnival would cut hot dogs into 3 and put them on the breakfast buffet as “pork sausage”. The omelet and hot and cold sandwich areas were good although the lines were sometimes very long. Both the fruit area and the salad bar were lacking in variety.

Salad dressing was either not marked or mis-marked. The staff was mostly friendly and helpful in the Marketplace area. The hand washing stations were rarely used. Carnival needs to do a better job of persuading passengers to wash their hands when entering the Lido Marketplace. Frankly, I was surprised there were not more passengers ill. The lack of vetting with the health questionnaire, lack of handwashing and the lack of staff cleaning public areas is unacceptable. Both my wife and I got severe sinus infections at the end of the cruise, I also got a case of bronchitis on the last sea day of the cruise. Read more