Hi there! This report is for a voyage on the Carnival Horizon out of Miami on September 8, 2024. We booked this cruise last minute, on January 27, 2024 so only 8 months in advance. When I originally booked this cruise, many cabins were sold out since it was a late booking. I ended up booking a regular balcony cabin, directly through Carnival. I’ve mentioned in every post, I would not ever use a travel agent. As soon as I booked the cruise, I booked dinner reservations at Bonsai Teppenyaki. On March 28 I noticed a cove balcony open up, so I changed our cabin to that. A suite is always our first cabin preference but a cove balcony is our second. We love the coves. We have been on the Horizon before so we knew what to expect and have been in a cove balcony cabin many times as well. We had other cruises booked between this booking, and the actual sail date. So for now, I just put this voyage on the backburner and didn’t really pay attention to it until late August.
The first day is always super exciting for me because it means we’re on vacation!
Normally we leave early in the morning but my son was in school so we couldn’t leave early. We wanted to limit brother & grandparents from pickups as much as possible. As soon as he got out of school at 3pm, we picked him up, took him to his grandmas and off we went to Raleigh. We always fly from Raleigh on Southwest because it’s always over $1,000 cheaper to fly from RDU than the tiny local regional airport.
We got to Raleigh and went to our hotel to check-in and drop off our luggage. We stay at the Hampton Inn in Briar Creek, which is about 8 minutes from the airport. This is a very nice hotel that’s connected to an Embassy Suites and a nice shopping center with plenty of restaurants. I also stick with Hilton properties, so this Hampton Inn is perfect. The cost for the hotel was $162.29 which also allowed us to keep our vehicle there for a week and a half.
We dropped our luggage off at the hotel, and went out for some dinner. We went into the shopping plaza and ate at Longhorn Steakhouse, which is where we eat frequently at home. My wife got some chicken meal, and I got steak and shrimp. Our total was $69.54. The food here was good and the service was also. They did seem short staffed but everything was good.
After we left dinner, we went to Target next door to kill some time. My wife bought some make-up thing, and a notebook for my son. We spent a whopping $2.12 there.
After we left Target, we went back to the hotel which it was about 7:30pm. We had a very early morning so we wanted to get in bed and catch some ZzZzs. Tomorrow was a new day!
We had a super early flight. Our flight was set to board at 5am, so that meant leaving the hotel at 4:15am to head to the airport. That’s early! Normally I use the hotel shuttle or rideshares to get me place to place. However with such an early flight, the shuttle didn’t start running until 4:30am, which would have gotten me to the airport at 4:40-4:45, which is only a 15 minute cushion, too close for comfort. So I sucked it up and booked a taxi. There aren’t a lot of taxis at RDU so I booked ahead on their website. I booked through TaxiTaxi which doesn’t have great reviews. However, they were there at 4:00am on time and ready for us. It was a 12 minute ride for the 6.69mi ride. After tip the total was $27.77.
We booked our flights on January 31 with points. (We fly with points, not money).
The taxi dropped us off at terminal one at RDU Airport. We dropped off our luggage and headed for security, and to our terminal. We have TSA-Pre which really doesn’t matter at RDU because it’s always short lines. We got to our terminal and waited to board. I think our boarding position was like A17-18.
We had a stop in Baltimore at BWI with almost an hour layover, so we went to the food court and ate breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. Normally this Chick-Fil-A is super busy but since it was so early, it wasn’t this morning. We got our food and sat and people watched until the next leg of our flight was set to board. We then went to our terminal to board. We were like A-22/A-23 for this leg. We got on our flight and was en-route to Ft. Lauderdale in sunny Florida!
We landed in Ft. Lauderdale at FLL with no issues. We deplaned, went down to baggage claim to get our luggage and out to the rideshare area to get our ride to Miami Beach. Gustavo picked us up and took us to our hotel in Miami Beach for $45.45. We arrived with no incidents at our hotel in South Beach, and was ready to begin our vacation!
We usually stay at The Gabriel in South Beach, which is part of the Hilton Curio Collection. This is the old Park Central Hotel which is at the southern end of South Beach in the Art Deco District. The hotel has 2 pools including a rooftop pool, 2 restaurants on-site, including Meet Delia. They provide bike rental, beach chairs, towels, and more. We checked into the hotel, and went to our room. I had booked this hotel on January 31. I booked the “King Deluxe Oceanfront with loft” room. Now if you know anything about South Beach, most hotels do not have oceanfront rooms with balconies. Many have oceanfront rooms but without a balcony. The Gabriel has 6 rooms with balconies facing the ocean. We made it to our room, dumped our luggage and was ready to go out and get our day started.
We grabbed an Uber to head to the Wynwood District of Miami, which is the street art area. If you’ve been to Wynwood / Wynwood Walls before, you can go multiple times a year and it’s always different. We went to Wynwood Walls to enjoy the art there. My wife didn’t get to go last year when we were in Miami because she wasn’t feeling well so it had been 2 years for her. Our Uber picked us up at the hotel and Jhon took us to Wynwood Walls for $17.49. When we were en route to Wynwood Walls, I purchased our passes to enter, which was $26.40 so we had our passes when we arrived.
We spent some time at Wynwood Walls just walking around enjoying the place, then was ready to head back to the hotel. I called for an Uber and engleberto picked us up and took us back to the hotel for $16.40. We got back to the hotel and decided we were hungry. We walked around the corner from the hotel and ate at Redhead South Beach, where we got pizza. The pizza here was very good. It reminded me of Abitino’s in Manhattan. It was fantastic. The cost for both of us to get a slice of pizza was $16.24. We ate our pizza then did some walking up Collins Avenue looking in the shops, including the Vans store for my youngest. After we were done shopping, we walked up to the CVS next to our hotel to grab some sodas, then go to the room and relax before dinner. For 4 sodas it was $10.70. Fun Fact: This CVS is where the chainsaw scene from “Scarface” was filmed. After we left CVS, we went back to the hotel to rest for a bit.
We originally had dinner reservations at Havana1957 which I booked on June 11th, but at the last minute my wife decided she didn’t want Havana1957, so I cancelled those reservations and we rode up to Lincoln Road Mall. I wanted to go to Lincoln Road Mall anyway to a certain store. I called for an Uber and Elliot picked us up and took us to Lincoln Road Mall for $7.00.
We walked around Lincoln Road Mall for a bit checking out some of the shops and food options, but we were really there for one reason, which was so I could check out the Britto Store. I LOVE Romero Britto and his art, so I was excited to check out his store. We were greeted by Tammy which was an art consultant there, where she showed us some of the amazing work by Britto. I ended up making a rather large purchase, and she was going to have it shipped to me at home. It’s due to arrive tomorrow (as of this posting) and I am excited to get it.
After we left Britto, we went to find something for dinner. We ended up stopping at Aura on Lincoln. At Lincoln Road Mall, most seating is outdoors since it’s an open air mall. My wife got grilled chicken, and I got steak and shrimp. We got 2 Cokes and our total was $91.19.The food was fantastic and the service was decent. We’ll definitely add this to our list of recommended places to eat in Miami Beach. It was great!
Once we were finished dinner, we decided to just walk back to the hotel. It wasn’t terribly far, and it allowed us to go into some of the shops in Miami Beach and browse. We went in lots of shops and walked the strip back down to our hotel. It was getting late and we were really tired from being up so early. We got to the hotel, took showers and hit the bed. Tomorrow was a new day!
We woke up this morning and sat on the balcony for a few minutes, just watching the people and the beach. It was a relaxing morning. Once we were both ready to get the day started, we went downstairs in the hotel to grab breakfast. My wife got Huevos Rancheros and I got French Toast and orange juice. Our total was $51.44 for the breakfast. However I do get $15/pp a day food and beverage credit for being a Hilton Diamond member, so our total to pay was only $21.44.
After we ate, we went to the beach to enjoy it for a little bit. However as soon as we hit the sand, it started pouring rain so we went back to the hotel. However once we crossed the street and was at the hotel, it stopped. UGH. So, we enjoyed some time in the pool at the hotel for a little bit. Once we were done in the pool, we went back across the street to the beach to enjoy it for a few hours, which we did. It was so relaxing, just listening to the waves. Once we finished at the beach, we went back to the pool to relax there. We had chairs with umbrellas by the pool and I ended up falling asleep for a little while. It was so peaceful. Once I woke up and we were done at that pool, we went upstairs to the rooftop pool to enjoy it for a while, and take some photos. The rooftop pool has a glass bottom which you can see from inside the hotel, so we took some cool photos there. Then once we were done at the rooftop pool, we decided to get lunch.
We walked around the corner again back to Redhead South Beach to get some more pizza. The total was the same as yesterday, $16.24 for 2 pieces of pizza. After we ate our lunch, we walked around to some more shops before going back to the hotel to take showers and relax for a little bit before dinner.
Once it was close to time for dinner, we got ready to go. We were going to grab an Uber but knew the restaurant was only a mile away, so we decided to walk. We had reservations booked at Fogo de Chão which I made on March 5. This is a chain restaurant but is one of my favorite places to eat. I had the Churrasco Experience, which includes all cuts of meat. If you’ve never been to Fogo de Chão, it’s a Brazilian steakhouse where they constantly walk around with meat skewers and put it on your plate as long as you want it. I had that and my wife had Picanha, which is unlimited steak of that cut. It was fantastic. We also both got a Coke, and the dinner total was $146.15.
After we left Fogo de Chão, we decided to go downtown Miami to Bayside Marketplace to people watch and kill time. I called for an Uber and Emanuel picked us up and took us downtown for $24.85. We walked around Bayside for a bit just shopping and people watching. My wife did look for a hat but was unsuccessful. From Bayside, we decided to head back to the hotel but stop and get our wine and soda. I was going to Instacart some to the hotel but couldn’t find the wine we wanted with Instacart so decided to just go in person and browse. I called for an Uber and Carlos picked us up and took us to Publix back in Miami Beach for $13.68. Publix is in a building with Best Buy and Total Wine & More. We went to Total Wine & More but they didn’t have the wine we wanted, so we went over to Publix. We got 2 bottles of Castello Moscato and a 12pk of Dr. Pepper for $34.42. From there, I called for an Uber and Elvie picked us up and took us back to the hotel for $10.68. We got back to the hotel and was ready to call it a night. Tomorrow is cruise day!
This is it, it’s embarkation day! We slept in a little, then woke up, packed our stuff, took showers and headed downstairs to get breakfast. I had French Toast again and I do not remember what my wife had. Our total was $48.12 so after the $30 HHDiamond credit, it was $18.12. We ate our food, then went to our room to get our luggage and wrap things up. We sat on the balcony for a little while relaxing before heading out. We had a port arrival time of 10am, so at 9:30 we checked out of the hotel and booked our Uber. Saray picked us up and took us the 6.75mi in 16 minutes to the Port of Miami where she would drop us off at terminal F to board our ship! The Uber cost was $18.76.
Saray dropped us off with the porters where I gave them our luggage and inside of the cruise terminal we went! We went through the priority line past the people lined up in the general boarding line, checked our stuff with the port agent, then into the lounge we went to wait for boarding. About 20 minutes later, they started calling for priority boarding, which was us! We got on the ship, and embarked on deck 2, which is the deck we were staying on. We went straight to our cabin which was about 10 cabins down from embarkation, to drop off our carry on things and sodas. From there, we went to scan into our muster station. After we scanned at muster, we went to lido to grab some lunch and people watch. We also grabbed our rum punch and our Blue Iguana cups for $68.99. We chilled around the ship just people watching until it was time to get to our cabins at 1:30. We then went there to sit on the balcony and relax. We just sat on the balcony until we sailed away. We love doing this, especially in Miami. Most people explore the ship but since we’ve been on the Horizon several times, there was nothing for us to explore. We knew where everything was.
At 4, we sailed away and watched Miami go into the distance. Once we sailed away, we unpacked our luggage and got ready for dinner. Tonight was dinner in the main dining room. I got my usual, sirloin with 2 shrimp cocktails & warm chocolate melting cake. After dinner, we went to the comedy club to see Cisco Durant. We’ve seen him before and really enjoyed him. After the comedy club, we went to lido to grab some pizza. We ate our pizza then went to our cabin to call it a night. We were tired. OH we also did the “Welcome Aboard” show.
We slept in this morning. REALLY, slept in. We are normally both awake by 6 but it was after 10am until we rolled out of bed!! We had a meet & greet planned with our Facebook group, but I slept through it. I was so mad. But man, that was some good sleep.
We woke up and went to lunch, because it was lunch time. We went to Guy’s Pig & Anchor to get some BBQ. After lunch, we went to “Mobile Trivia”, which is new on Carnival. The trivia is played on your phone, which is FANTASTIC because it keeps people from cheating. I REALLY enjoyed this improvement that they have done. After trivia, we just hung out around the ship. This was a very low-key day until dinner time.
At dinner time, it was elegant night where some people dress up. If you’re new to Carnival you need to know that just because it’s elegant night, you do not have to dress up if you don’t want to. My wife enjoys putting on cute little sun dresses but I do not. I wear cargo shorts, a polo shirt and my sandals. We have over 1000 pictures taken on board the ships so I do not need more, and have zero interest in dressing up anywhere. We went to the MDR where I got my usual, sirloin, 2 shrimp cocktails and the soufflé for dessert.
After dinner, we went to the comedy club for a bit before heading to the piano bar. Dara Jazzlyn was the pianist on our voyage and I had talked to her prior to the cruise. She knew today was my wife’s birthday and sung happy birthday to her. We spent the rest of the night in the piano bar before heading for pizza at bedtime. We had an early day tomorrow in Jamaica!
We arrived in Ocho Rios early. We woke up and went to the main dining room to grab some breakfast. Then we debarked the ship into Ocho Rios. I looked for my friend Sham but couldn’t find her. We went to the rendezvous spot to meet our driver for the day. I booked us a day pass at RIU Ocho Rios. I made this booking on August 12th, and the total was $238.00 for the day. This included round trip transportation and all inclusive at the resort. Our bus finally arrived and off to the RIU we went.
We arrived at RIU and checked in. We got our AI bracelets and towel cards, and to the beach we went. We grabbed some loungers on the beach and relaxed for most of the morning, drinking as many frozen concoctions as possible. The drinks were poured strong and were delicious. After our naps on the beach, we decided to head to the pool. We spent the rest of the day at the pools drinking and just relaxing in the water.
Toward the end of the day, we went to the buffet to get lunch. The buffet at this resort was massive and very good. It reminded me of the AI we stayed at in 2021 in Cancun. The food was great and tons of options from sushi, lobster, steak, chicken, you name it. It was great! We ate lunch then just hung out at the resort until it was time to head back to the port. Our back on board time was 3:30 local time. Our driver picked us up at 2:30 local time to head back.
We got back to the port and onto the ship. I have never been a fan of Ochi but the RIU changed that. We’ll always go there now. It was a FANTASTIC day! Once we got back on the ship, we took showers and sat on the balcony to watch us sail away. Once we sailed away from Ochi, we got ready for dinner in the MDR. Tonight I had spaghetti carbonara and my wife had steak. I also had the banana cream pie. We enjoyed our dinner, then went to the adult arcade to make some donations. My wife spent $100 this night in the casino and didn’t win anything. I put $20 in Heidi’s Bier Haus and won $300 on that machine. That was my new favorite! After we spent a little while in the casino, we decided to go back to the piano bar to see Dara again. Dara was fantastic. She reminded us of Stevie Nix with a touch of Miley Cyrus. She was great. We stayed with her until 10:30 when it was time for the 80’s Rock & Glow party on lido. We got our 80’s gear on and headed toward lido to enjoy the party. After the 80’s party, we got our nightly pizza and ice cream, then went to the cabin to go to bed. It had been a long day.
Today we woke up in Grand Cayman, in the Cayman Islands. We have been here before so we decided to just stay on the ship for the most part. We did tender into George Town to buy some t-shirts and rum. We went to “Friendship” across from the port to buy a few shirts. I think we bought 2 shirts, a cup for my son and a flag. We spent $75.00 in this store which was very low key. Then we went back across the street to the port to buy some rum. We LOVE Tortuga Rum, and the only place you can buy it is in Grand Cayman, and Nassau. We use the rum for rum cakes, as well as ice cream. We bought 3 bottles of rum for $63.00. From there, we just got back on the tender and headed back to the ship.
Once we were back on the ship, we went to the pool. In as many cruises as we’ve taken, I had never been in the pool on a cruise ship. We have a pool at home, so I have zero interest in a pool. However nobody was in it, so it was nice to enjoy for a bit. At 2pm, we went to “Majority Rules” trivia to participate, followed by “Calling all nerds” trivia. I did good at the first one, but not the second one.
After trivia, we went to the cabin to relax and shower before dinner. Tonight we had reservations made at Bonsai Teppanyaki. We eat at Bonsai Teppanyaki at least once every cruise. I made these reservations back on January 27th, the same day I booked the cruise. The cost for Bonsai Teppanyaki was $99.12 for the both of us. I had steak and chicken with shrimp, and my wife had steak and chicken. Jeramel was our teppanyaki cook. It was fantastic as always!
After Bonsai Teppanyaki, we went to the Celestial Strings show in the Liquid Lounge and enjoyed that. From there, we went to the Limelight Lounge to see Manny Acosta the comedian. After Manny was finished with his set, we went to join Dara in the piano bar. Today was her birthday! We enjoyed the rest of our night in the piano bar before heading to bed. Tomorrow was a new day!
Today we were going to spend the day relaxing. We got off of the ship as soon as it was cleared for debarkation. Today we had the day booked at Paradise Beach with a bali bed. I made this booking on January 29, 2 days after booking the cruise and the cost was $204 for the both of us. We went straight to the taxi stand to grab a taxi to Paradise Beach. We beat most of the people off the ship and there was no line/wait for a taxi. The cost was $18 from the port to Paradise Beach and I gave a $2 tip.
We arrived at Paradise Beach and was greeted by Sandi, the owner. She sent us to the line to check in and get our bracelets. We got checked in and went to our bali bed on the beach. We immediately ordered food and drinks, and spent the day on our bed just relaxing. We went back and forth from the bali bed to the pool, and eating and drinking. It was a low key, fantastic day. Sandi spent some time at our bed just chatting with us. If you didn’t know, Paradise Beach is a family run business. It’s owned by Sandi and her husband, as well as their daughter and daughters fiancé. It’s much nicer than Mr. Sancho’s and much more calm. If you want a constant party vibe, Mr. Sancho’s is for you. If you want a relaxing, nice day, Paradise Beach is the place for you. The food was fantastic, the service was fantastic, and the atmosphere is great.
After our day at Paradise Beach, we did a little shopping at the pharmacy on-site, then grabbed a taxi back to the port area. It was $18 to go back plus the $2 tip. We got back to the port and went into several shops and bought shirts and other trinkets. We also bought some vanilla in port as well. We spent a total of $270.13 in the port shopping.
Once we finished shopping, we went to the ship and sat on the balcony to watch people coming back to the ships. We were beside of the Carnival Breeze so we watched them first, then us. We sat on our balcony and watched sail-away, then took showers and got ready for dinner. Tonight was the usual, steak, shrimp and I had some weird dessert.
After dinner, we went to Deal or No Deal to play. I never win but it’s fun to play. After we were finished with Deal or No Deal, we went to the casino to play some more. We lost a few hundred more there, but it was fun. Then we went to the comedy shows in the nighttime, before heading back to the cabin to get ready for bed.
Today was the last day of our cruise, boo. 🙁 I woke up fairly early and got our laundry together to wash. I took the suitcase to the launderette to wash clothes and spent all morning in there, literally. I was in there over 3 hours waiting on machines, machines to finish, etc. Finally at noon I was finished with the laundry and took it back to the cabin. We folded the laundry and packed most of our cabin up. Then we went to lunch at Guy’s Burgers & Blue Iguana. After we ate lunch, we went to the kids arcade to play air hockey, then to the adults arcade to make more donations. Once we were finished in the casino, we went to dinner. Tonight is our favorite night in the MDR. We both ordered filet mignon from the steakhouse selection, and 2 Baked Alaska desserts. These are our favorite. We actually had a 5 day cruise booked but remembered they didn’t have Baked Alaska on the 5 day cruises, so we changed cruises, literally for the Baked Alaska.
After dinner, we went to the casino one last time, then cashed out. From there we went to the comedy club, then to the cabin to finish packing our alcohol we purchased. Then, it was time to go to the Love & Marriage show. This show is always fun to watch. It was a little more……rough…. this time. I was worried how Georgia the cruise director would handle it, because she isn’t as good as other cruise directors we’ve had but she did an amazing job. After Love & Marriage, we stuck around for the comedy duo which was good. After the comedy duo, we went for our last night of pizza on lido before going back to the cabin. We went to bed since tomorrow was an early and busy day.
Today is debarkation day. They kick us off of the ship, kicking and screaming. Boo. 🙁
We woke up early to take showers and get ready for our long day of travel. We went to the main dining room for breakfast before debarking. This was our last meal on the ship. Once we finished breakfast, we headed down to deck 2 to debark the ship. We scanned our Sail & Sign cards for the final time and exited the gangway down into the cruise terminal. This was a very quick and easy process and honestly the fastest debarkation we have ever done. We walked off of the ship at 8:18am. We have Passports so we went through the Passport line which uses facial recognition and you keep moving. We grabbed our luggage and out the door we went to grab an Uber. I was in our Uber at 8:48am. Niurka picked us up at 8:48am and took us to Ft. Lauderdale airport for our 11am flights. The cost was $74.34 after tip for the UberXL. We made it to the airport at 9:20am, dropped our luggage off with the Southwest Skycap and proceeded to security. We went through security and was at our gate at 9:27am. We were an hour and a half early for our flight, ugh. So we grabbed some drinks for the flight and made ourselves comfortable until it was time to board the flight.
When we checked in for the flight, we were in position like B22/B23 so I went ahead and upgraded our boarding position for the $200. Since we get that free, it was worth it to upgrade both legs of the flight. We were position A4/A5 after the upgrade. We boarded the flight and onto Chicago we went!
We made it to Chicago with no issue, and had a 2hr layover. We went and found some food, which I ate at M Burger. I got a burger, a drink and some fries for $29.25 and my wife had something next door. I don’t know what nor the cost. Then she bought some popcorn and I got a drink for $15.16. We had a full stomach, drinks for the plane, so we went to people watch, then head to the terminal when it was time for our flight to Raleigh to board.
We made it to Raleigh on time with no issue, went downstairs to get our luggage then I called for the hotel shuttle to come pick us up and take us back to my car. We got back to the hotel, loaded up the car, and went to Chick Fil A for dinner. We went through the drive-thru and just ate on the road. We made it back home about 10pm. Both of my boys were at home and were happy to see us. The vacation was fantastic and we had a lot of fun but as Dorothy said, there’s no place like home.
This was a great trip. We had a great Facebook group leading up to the cruise, with lots of fun people. We met some really nice people from our group. The weather was very hot, especially in Florida. The food was great everywhere including in each port, in Miami as well as on the ship. The staff was great as always. Jonathan the comedy club host was fantastic and I think he needs to be promoted to a CD. I really enjoyed him. This was a very low key, relaxed trip and we didn’t do a ton of things, especially on the ship. It was nowhere near as active as our last cruise on the Norwegian Joy out of New York City. That was an active trip! While we sail with Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, it sure was nice to be back on a Carnival ship. We’ve missed the fun, family atmosphere that we feel on Carnival versus the other 2 lines. Our next voyage is on the Carnival Venezia out of New York City so I guess now I can start preparing for that one. Thanks for taking the time to read this blog posting and happy sailing!!
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