Carnival Horizon Review
Havana Experience? Biker bar meets frat house
Rating by category
Additional details
We have booked an annual cruise on Carnival since 2010, and we recently completed Carnival's Exotic Southern Caribbean cruise which we had originally booked for June 2020. The ports, food, and entertainment were standard Carnival fare and were enjoyable. We especially enjoyed Bonaire, which offers superb snorkeling in many places right off of the beach. Aruba is also one of the best ports Carnival offers, and we loved Arashi Beach as well as the shopping in town. The food was good overall, and the Chef's Table was the highlight of the cruise. Chef Loreto and his crew prepared an outstanding evening for us. The other highlights were Macio in the Punchliner Comedy Club and Cookie, the outstanding cruise director. The Horizon is a newer ship, and it was good to have some of the updates that have been added to this ship's class. Also, since our last cruise out of the Port of Miami, the disembarking procedures have been dramatically improved. We were off of the ship and in our car driving home by 8:15, and we were nowhere near the first people off of the ship. My only disappointment was with the Havana Experience.
Cabin Review
Havana Aft-View Extended Balcony
The Havana Experience was a big disappointment to us and was certainly not worth the extra money. Cabin 6480 was nice enough inside with a wonderfully comfortable bed, but the balcony room is directly over the Havana bar and pool. The pool filled up with the same people every day starting before 10 AM. They had their own speakers so they forced everyone to listen to their preferred music. They had their own personal adult sippy cups which they would hand to the bartenders for frequent refilling without any washing. By 3 PM, they would be yelling over each other as they continued to marinate in the pool, so it was impossible for us to enjoy the balcony or the pool. At night, people played drinking games, and there was a lot of screaming. There was a posted list of "rules" which were ignored, even though there were numerous employees stationed in this area. One guy even smoked cigarettes by the whirlpool. The really hysterical thing was one day we got up from our lounge chairs to get lunch, and the pool attendant stopped us and said we could not leave our chairs unattended. The people in the chairs next to us had been gone for 2 hours by that time. If you have the drink package and you like a loud party atmosphere with other like-minded individuals, then the Havana cabin might be a good choice for you. But if not, don't waste your money.