Ports of Call from Carnival Horizon: Western and Southern Caribbean

 January 2025

We have been to all of these ports before except Bonaire. You can find more information than what is provided in this post by clicking on the labels at the bottom of this post.

Ocho Rios cruise pier from Carnival Horizon

Ocho Rios, Jamaica: 9:00 - 5:00 PM

There is nothing to do at this pier, and it is not recommended to explore Jamaica on your own. We have previously gone on excursions to Dunns River Falls, an island tour with butterfly garden, and more. This time, we stayed on board, and enjoyed the peace and space on serenity deck. 

7-mile beach in Grand Cayman
Views from Governor's Beach

Grand Cayman, CI: 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Grand Cayman is a tender port, and there were several cruise lines in port the day of our visit. This made the process to get to and from the ship take a bit longer than usual. After we got to shore, we walked a couple of blocks inland to the public bus depot next to Starbucks. The cost to take the bus to Governor's Beach was $2.50 per person, one-way. This beach has a couple of picnic tables, and a bit of shade. There is a building on the south end near the parking lot that looked like it may have been restrooms, although we did not check this out. We enjoyed the beautiful beach for awhile, and then we walked back to the cruise port along the beach. This is about a 3 mile walk, and you can walk along the beach most of the way. We walked out to the sidewalk when obstructions in the water made our walk in the water more than waist deep. We had walked through the water a little before this; however, we did not want to go that deep because of belongings we were carrying.

Cozumel cruise port from Carnival Horizon
Below: leaving Cozumel

Cozumel, Mexico: 10:30 AM - 6:30 PM

We did not do anything new at this port. There are many tours available through Carnival and independent companies. We disembarked the ship just so we could walk around and get some exercise, different than on deck 12! Again, there were many ships in port, so the area was very busy. 

Above: cruise ships from Renaissance rooftop pool downtown Aruba
Below: free bus ride downtown Oranjestad, Aruba

Aruba, BVI: 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM

Aruba is a beautiful island with many things to do on your own, or with an excursion. Be prepared for a breeze, as it is always windy in Aruba. We rode the complimentary double decker bus through town. This stops at the cruise port, and there are different stops in town. This entire area is walkable; we only rode the bus to get a different view point.

Above: swimming and snorkeling pier in Bonaire from Carnival Horizon
Below: sea turtle in Bonaire from cabin 9206 on Carnival Horizon

Carnival Glory cruise -- 7-night Exotic Western Caribbean from Miami

Carnival Glory;
photo taken from our excursion boat in Belize

Check-in at port of Miami

This was our first experience with kiosk check-in. I had not noticed that our boarding document said "kiosk ready" on it before we arrived. Two Carnival representatives were greeting and directing guests to two different lines. They were also providing zone number cards. We arrived around 11:30 a.m., and received a Zone 7 card. One check-in line was for guests with kiosk ready boarding passes, and the line on the left was for other guests. After checking in and scanning our passports at the kiosk, we received a receipt from the machine with a window number for our cabin key pick up. Our receipt was for window number one. There was no line, and we were immediately greeted and given room keys. We sat down to wait, and our zone was called about 30 - 40 minutes later. We were on board the ship around 12:30 p.m.

When we had first arrived at the port, we noticed guests who rushed right past the Carnival representatives instead of waiting to speak with them. They were in such a hurry to get in line, they paid for it later. While we were waiting for our zone number to be called after check-in, we observed guests being redirected to the other line (they had chosen the incorrect kiosk or non-kiosk line in their haste). And, some guests did not have zone number cards because they had not waited to speak with a representative when arriving (we had to wait briefly behind four or five guests when we arrived). When these guests noticed the zone numbers, they asked what they were for, and what time certain guests had arrived (yes, some of them asked us what time we had arrived). Then, the guests without numbers expected Carnival to give them a low number (or, they expected guests like us who had a low number to include them in our group). They claimed that a representative was not greeting guests when they arrived, which was untrue. I always observed at least one representative greeting guests from the time we arrived until we boarded. There was only one representative when we first arrived, and the second representative returned to a his post a few seconds after we stood in line to wait. We were glad to see that the Carnival representatives were not providing already called zone numbers to the complaining guests.

Cabin 7442, balcony, category 8M

We had an aft cabin extended balcony room. The balcony is much deeper than the aft cabin balcony we had on the Legend; however, the room is smaller. There was no couch, and there was only one chair with the table. There was room for two chairs, so I did not understand why only one was provided.

Carnival Glory cabin 7442

There were two chairs and a lounger on the balcony, which was great! Unfortunately, I do not have any good balcony photos to share.

Carnival Glory cabin 7442

Food & Beverage

The food on this ship included the same offerings that I wrote about in my Freedom post from December 15, 2010.

There were a couple differences, which I will list here. There is a burrito bar on the opposite side of the ship from the deli counter. It was similar to the deli: You waited in line to special order any type of dry burrito desired. My husband had a shrimp burrito, which he said was great. If there was a burrito bar on the Freedom, we missed it. The sushi bar on this ship was open every evening from 5:00 - 8:15 p.m., instead of just a few nights. This was not listed in the Fun Times each day; however, I observed a sign stating the hours.

Carnival Freedom -- 6-night Western Caribbean Cruise

Carnival Freedom from shore excursion

Check-in

This was one of the smoothest check-in processes we have experienced. We took a cab from a cruise port hotel around noon. Our driver was able to pull right up to the luggage drop off spot at Port Everglades, and we walked inside after leaving our bags with the porters. We wove through a couple of line mazes, went through security, and were on board in about an hour. I noticed that the line had become quite long shortly after we boarded, although it still moved along quickly.

Carnival Freedom interior cabin 1021

Interior cabin 1021, category 4H

We usually book a balcony room; however, this was an extra cruise for us, so we went for the lowest category inside cabin--at a rock bottom rate. We booked the Early Saver rate, and saw two price drops before our cruise. One price drop was showing all inside cabins for the same price, so we were able to move up to the 10th/Panorama deck. This was still an inside cabin, but better than the bottom of the ship! There is a front balcony on this floor, which can only be accessed through the cabin hallway, so many guests do not know about it. It's not a place to hang out, since there were not any chairs or anything, although it was a great place to view the port as the ship was arriving and leaving.

Carnival Freedom interior cabin 1021

The room was quite small. In fact, our son's room, #2212, was much larger than our room. Our cabin had the basic storage space and bathroom; there just wasn't any sitting room. The foot of the bed almost hit the vanity, and there was barely room to sit on a chair in front of the vanity. We could not walk by the foot of the bed, if someone was sitting in the chair.

Food & Beverage

The food and beverages were very good, as always. I think the free champagne Carnival serves at events is lower quality than what we received on prior cruises. They used to serve Korbel, which I like. I did not like the complimentary champagne served on this cruise. For dinner, the three of us were seated at a table by ourselves in the dining room, which we found disappointing. This happened to us last time we cruised together after Thanksgiving, too. The Maitre'd says this is because there are so many families cruising this time of year. We like each other; however, we also like to meet new people. We think the dining experience is part of the fun. We ate breakfast in the dining room almost every morning, so we did get to meet and socialize with some guests this way. I prefer the dining room menu for breakfast, although my husband likes being able to get special order omelets at the buffet. The dining room breakfast menu only offers a ham and cheese omelet. The dining room is open for lunch on sea days with open seating. We ate lunch in the dining room one day, and it was very good. Lobster was served in the dining room for dinner on the first formal night.

One of the days that we were in port, we arrived back at the ship around noon, and ate at the Mongolian Wok, which is similar to BD's Mongolian Barbeque. The flavors were great, and the line wasn't too long. We ate at the Deli when we returned to the ship ahead of most of the guests on another port day. We are early risers, and are often done on shore before the crowds. There is a menu to order from at the Deli, and you can also make special requests to add or remove an item--such as cheese, or ask for a cold sandwich to be grilled. I requested Swiss cheese for the turkey wrap I ordered. The wrap was jalapeno flavored and wasn't very spicy, which was fine with me. I thought the sandwich was very good.

Many guests are not aware of Fish & Chips on the 10th deck at the back of the ship, so we dined there for lunch on a sea day because there was never a line. Other seafood is available, along with the fish and chips.