Carnival Horizon Review: Day 6 – Sea Dayfeatured

We have a formula for sea days that works well for us.

We wake up, we grab breakfast (or coffee), we lay out at the pool, we brunch, we shower, we play trivia, we do tea, we nap, we get ready for dinner, we see a show, we go to the bar or the shops and we go to bed.

It’s a formula that’s worked well for us, leaving us enough time to laze around and relax but still experience different parts of the ship and its entertainment. When we sailed to the Baltics last year, it kind of broke our formula a little only because it was warm-ish (just not enough to lay out on a deck chair or swim!), but we only had a sea day or two anyways with our port-heavy itinerary.

We knew going into this cruise that for, at least, the first half of it, swimming and sunning would be out. The forecast never creeped above a high of 65 degrees and hovered in the 60-61 degree range as we inched closer. So instead of packing swimsuits and cover ups and maxi dresses, I was packing sweats and loungewear. And instead of planning for where to grab a deck chair, we we were planning how long we could sleep in, when we could schedule naps and when the best time to snag a laundry machine could be.

Riveting, I know. But as much as I like to run to the top of rooftops and proclaim myself Miss Adventure, Miss I’ll-Sleep-When-I’m-Dead-Or-On-The-Flight-Home, in order to be my best self for the best parts of this cruise, I needed rest. My body was clearly telling me I needed to slow things down – I slept through just about all of our bus rides on our Three Countries One Day tour and it took two days for my ears to pop afterwards.

Three of my favorite ports were ahead of me the following three days in Florence, Rome and Naples. Following that was stops in five new ports – Croatia, Corfu, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia. I decided I’d rather slow it down on the first sea day than go hard, feel worse and miss something I was looking forward to so much.

Mother Nature seemed to agree with my choice – when I woke up and looked out the window, the seas were choppy, the skies were gray and the weather didn’t show any temp higher than 58 degrees.

We grabbed a quick breakfast up on the Lido deck, where I was finally reunited with the long lost love of my life, the arepas from the Blue Iguana Cantina. Since many of you are new and might be reading my cruise journal for the first time, lets get acquainted: my name is Nicole, I’m a Cancer/Leo cusper (and live up to just about every stereotype of it) and the breakfast arepas from the Blue Iguana Cantina are my mother effing jam. Like if I were on death row and the warden was preparing my final meal, they’d be on the menu. Most people don’t know they exist (or what they are) and I’m here to tell you that they are missing out. It’s like smooth, melty cheese in between two sweet corn cakes. 100% delish (especially with some salsa verde on the side for dipping). And I haven’t had arepas since…New Year’s cruise of 2017? On the Sunshine, I think? Because we did the Baltics on NCL and they don’t have arepas and neither the Paradise nor the Splendor had a Blue Iguana Cantina, so it must have been January 2017 – 15 months. And maybe it was the new ship thing or the 15 months thing, but the arepas never tasted better than they did on our first sea day morning here.

((Did I really just write 223 words about arepas? Whoooooooboy))

After breakfast, we headed to the first Fun Aboard Fun Ashore presentation by CD Mike, which covered the first three ports on our itinerary: Livorno, Civitavecchia and Naples. We’d already been to all three of those ports twice each so we’re fairly well-versed in the port details, but we wanted to hear if there were any other details or recommendations since we hadn’t booked our tours yet for Livorno or Civitavecchia. And while we ultimately booked the tours we originally planned on, I was glad we held off – some of the sold out tours were available again on board, as well as a few tours that hadn’t been available for presale, so we had more options open to us by not booking ahead of time.

After the presentation, we popped back to the room to discover that it was being serviced, so we wandered around, catching the tail end of the cooking demo in the lobby. I don’t know what they were cooking, but it smelled so good!

We ultimately ended up back upstairs at the Lido Marketplace to make some tea because, well, it was cold and I wasn’t feeling great and tea is supposed to be good for both of those things. I’ve always found the Lido Marketplace to be a good sitting place, even when it’s not a meal time. Maybe not if I’m craving quiet, but it’s nice to be around other people, people watch, talk, mingle, drink tea (…spill tea…). And though we weren’t hungry for lunch, we took a gander at the offerings to find that they were pretty different from the ones we’d recently sailed with. More of the options in the Lido Marketplace were Americana comfort food – think fried cheese curds, chicken wings, spinach artichoke dip and a top your own loaded home fries station. Oh, and the cakes weren’t a one-day thing. It seems that onboard the Horizon, the Sweet Spot is a cake station during lunch only, with no less than five options. I wasn’t hungry for lunch, but I did steal a bite of a green tea checkerboard cake and it was just as good as it looked.

Once we were confident Marlin had enough time to service our cabin, we headed downstairs to nap, shower and start our laundry. After 12 hours of flying, three days in Barcelona and two on the ship, we wanted to knock some laundry out early instead of letting it pile up. We weren’t the only ones with that idea, it seemed – the Laundromat was packed.

Later on, we left our napping cocoon for a Q&A with John Heald, former cruise director and current Carnival Brand Ambassador slash social media superstar (in the cruising world, anyways!). And much like you’d expect with anything John was present for, it was full of double entendres, self-effacing humor and some dry, harsh truths.

Some highlights from John’s Q&A:

*They’re close on finalizing the details for an updated loyalty program (John said he expected it to be done in the next few months). Sounds like they’re adding a level between Platinum and Diamond (as it is, there are currently over 400,000 Platinum VIFP members!), as well as an additional Diamond level.

*Someone asked why the Panorama wasn’t scheduled for any European or Transatlantic voyages and John said that Carnival wants to get the Panorama to California ASAP. They make no money on transatlantic voyages, and it would take more than 20 days for the voyage because the ship l wouldn’t fit through the Panama Canal without taking the life rafts off. Carnival brass felt it would not a great experience, and while John couldn’t say more, he did say this wouldn’t be the last we’ll see Carnival’s smokestack in Europe. Take that for what it’s worth.

*John is really advocating for an Iceland/Greenland itinerary. If and when they do it, we’ll be there, that’s for sure!

*90% of promotions at Carnival are internal, and many senior officers, managers and execs started in junior positions. I think that’s awesome, and highlights just how important those post-cruise surveys can be!

The session ran a little over, so we ducked out for tea time. Tea time is one of my favorite Carnival sea day traditions, but the experience is consistently, well, inconsistent. Sometimes, the service is top notch, and others, you can barely get a server to bring you a pot of water. This time fell a little in between, but to be fair, it was the first tea service onboard. The servers were incredibly friendly (and generous with the macarons!) and they brought back the live music with a string duo playing classical tunes live in the dining room, but it was so packed and busy that while we were lucky enough to get consistent attention from the staff, others could barely get a tea bag or hot water. They’ll get there. I believe in them.

After tea time, we headed back to the room to start getting ready for our first formal night (where a plate of goodies was waiting for us on the desk). That second bathroom really came in handy when we were all trying to get our makeup done! One person at the desk, one in the bathroom, one on the couch/table. While we were primping, we checked the dining menus on the FunHub app and since nothing looked incredible or new, we made a reservation for Cucina del Capitano instead and headed off to the lobby for a round of obligatory atrium pics in our formal wear.

We all have different opinions on Carnival’s alternative dining options. Ji Ji is, hands down, my favorite. I love them all, but if I had to choose a meal at just one, it’d probably be Ji Ji. Stephanie – her favorite rotates amongst the three of them depending on where she’s dined the most recently and how wow’ed she was, but Mom’s favorite is now and has been for years, Cucina del Capitano. And much like the steakhouse, it had recently undergone a makeover, with a revamped menu that removed a lot of old favorites, including the spaghetti carbonara, the bistec alla griglia, the tiramisu and the cannoli. What’s an Italian restaurant without tiramisu?

We arrived right on time for our 6:30 PM reservation and were seated immediately at a high top near the kitchen, as the restaurant was at capacity for the slot. I can’t speak any higher of the service we received. The servers were not only efficient, but so friendly, and that was a trend we saw throughout. I’m not sure if they chose the best of the best to launch this ship, or if it was excitement for a new contract on a new ship, but I’ve never seen a crew in such high spirits and so consistently friendly.

And while we weren’t sure how we’d feel about the new menus (RIP, bread board and whipped ricotta), everything we ordered not only tasted good, but was plated beautifully. It was like they took Cucina del Capitano, made it more authentic, upped the quality and the presentation and best of all, kept the prices the same. Oh, and the biscotti I had for dessert? To. Die. For.

New bread plank (now served with garlic butter)

Antipasti

Il Capitano’s Signature Arancini

House-Made Burrata

Il Capitano’s Favorite Insalata Di Rucola

Pasta Patate E Provola Di Rosaria

Costina Di Manzo Con Porcini

Pollo Parmigiana Della Cucina

Fingerling Potatoes

Spaghetti

Melanzane

Crostata Di Mele Con Crema Al Caramello

Agrumi | Torta Al Miele E Polenta | Sorbetto Di Limone

Biscotti Al Cioccolato Con Sale Marino | Caffe Gelato

We grabbed a cup of tea in the Lido Marketplace before heading back to the room to change before we had to grab seats for a Playlist Production Show of Amor Cubano, a show we’ve seen more times than we can count at this point. This Playlist Cast that launched the Horizon is so talented, so locked in with each other, it was like watching a master class on how to execute a show we’ve already seen so many times. We recognized many of them from the Vista, a few from other ships we’ve sailed on, but props to them – they were truly fantastic.

I was ready to pass out and crawl into bed after the show. Between not feeling the best and the motion of the waves rolling beneath us, I was exhausted even though I was fully rested. Mom and Stephanie wanted to look at some of the shops, though, and we discovered that there were MORE shops on deck 4 that we hadn’t realized in our walk throughs, including an Inaugural Pop Up Shop that only has inaugural themed merchandise. Stephanie and I contemplated some inaugural sweatshirts, but decided we’d wait to see how much money we blew through in Florence before buying more stuff we didn’t need.

Our tour had an early meeting time the following AM, so we meticulously chose our outfits, laid out our shoes and packed our bags. We’d dock in Livorno bright and early, and even though the forecast said rain, I was so beyond ready to marvel at my old pal, Il Duomo.