Review: Celebrity Cruises - Horizon - [April 23 , 2005]

[Net Reviews]

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Reviewer Comments:

We sailed the Celebrity MV Horizon, San Juan to Norfolk VA. April 23, 2005
sailing. Both my wife and myself along with long times friends and fellow
cruisers Tom and Laurie. Initially both couples were booked in the Concierge
Class on the Atlantic Deck. Celebrity was gracious enough to offer both
couples complimentary upgrades as Captains Club members and I presume as
good customers since we all have sailed Celebrity quite a bit through the
years. We were assigned the Presidents Suite 1058 which is the top suite
onboard the Horizon. Tom and Laurie assigned suite 1014 which is the next
category. This was viewed by us a wonderful gesture of customer relations by
the Captains Club desk. I have not been overwhelmed in the recent years by
the benefits afforded by past passenger clubs of any of the lines to be
honest so receiving a truly substantial upgrade came as a very pleasant
surprise.

This sailing constituted a repositioning cruise for the Horizon which had
sailed from Tampa to San Juan and would then sail to Norfolk Virginia to
commence the 2005 Bermuda season from Norfolk. Such reposition cruises often
offer very good pricing since travel can be somewhat more costly to and from
the different embarkation and disembarkation ports. In this case I was told
that 600 passengers originally sailing from Tampa remained onboard for the
second weeks sailing from San Juan. Some were even sailing yet for a third
week to Bermuda. Generally taking such a long cruise means a bit older
crowd, those that have the time to sail for two or three weeks, this was no
different. There were some young families onboard with kids but they
definitely were the minority.

GETTING THERE: We flew from NY JFK to San Juan the day prior on Jet Blue.
Flying one way and at an apparent travel week that was extremely busy there
were no wonderful cheap rates. We had also booked the 1 day pre-stay
ourselves with Best Western Pierre in San Juan. Researching the hotel
resulted in mixed reviews almost evenly spread between hating it and it was
just fine. We did really have much choice anyway, most hotels insisted that
we book at least two days or not at all because it was “ season policy .”
Also most hotels simply did not have anything available for that Friday.

We arrived safe and sound and gathered our luggage to take a cab to our
hotel. The cabs at the San Juan airport are controlled by the transportation
department or some such. This means you go to a booth and tell them where
you are going, how many and what luggage and they write you a transport
ticket. That ticket tells you exactly what the driver can charge you. There
are then people that get your cab and get you onboard. I tried to tip the
young lady that did so as she was so pleasant and helpful but she advised
they did not take tips. Cab fare for four people and about 6 bags was in
area of $16 without optional tip. Couldn’t complain about that. The hotel
was about a 10-15 minute drive mostly because of traffic conditions.

You can put us in the category of finding the hotel to be just fine for a
short stay. Rooms were clean, mattresses etc in good shape, and pillows were
great. Staff extremely friendly and helpful. Rooms feature coffee maker,
microwave, and ironing boards. These are all kind of tucked into a tiny
closet space and it is obvious room original design was not made to conclude
such things, they had been added to remain competitive in the hotel
offerings. The hotel had a nice bar area in the lobby and a restaurant that
was toward upscale in a small area. They offered a fixed price dinner for
$26 and dinner was reasonably acceptable. You are an easy taxi ride $10
without luggage, to either Old San Juan or to El San Juan Hotel casino area.
We elected to taxi to the El San Juan for some gambling. I must admit that
the Casino was good to me but I was surprised that a casino in such an
upscale hotel was terribly understaffed and the machines showing wear. Still
hard to complain when you leave a winner. Nothing overly dramatic but better
than losing.

The Hotel offered a continental breakfast in the pool area. Nothing fancy
but more than acceptable. Fresh Danish, cereals, toast, and such. The small
pool area had nice table and chairs outside and was pleasant if small area.
Previous reviews I had read complained about the elevators and I can
understand that. Not the most reliable I have seen. One would only stop on
floor 4 if you held the button down. You figure that out after you pass the
floor for the third time or so, ha ha.

Overall I would have no problem staying at the Best Western Pierre again for
a pre-stay. I wouldn’t want to do a week there but a day or two would be
just fine. Another PLUS is that FREE internet is offered in the rooms with a
very easy high speed connect.

EMBARKATION: Took a taxi to the pier area in Old San Juan, again very
reasonable considering 4 people and luggage, $25. Porters were available and
embarkation just starting, we were through and on board in less than 30
minutes. However cabins were not yet available and were locked, signs
advised that cabins would become available at 1 pm and that a buffet was
being served.

CABIN: As noted, we were in the presidents Suite which would be comparable
to the Royal Suite on the Horizon’s sister ship the Zenith, but it wasn’t
really. The Royal Suite on the Zenith is far more roomy and better designed.
The Horizon was the first Celebrity ship when Chandris Line started
Celebrity as their upscale end cruise line. It was taken over during it’s
build from a defunct cruise line I believe was the story. The Zenith was
commissioned two years later with some design changes obviously one was a
better designed top suite. Where the Royal Suite on Zenith has a dining area
this suite wasn’t designed with one. The bottom line for the Horizon and the
basic reasoning for her to be sold off is not that she is ancient ( she isn’t
in nautical measurement, she is still a young ship ) but rather she doesn’t
meet the changing cruise market needs in US. The absence of balconies being
a large minus for her and her size and capacity held against her by bean
counters I would imagine. The other design change that was made over the
first years of the Horizon’s life was fixing the beds, deck by deck, to be
able to be put together. Originally all the twin beds were affixed to the
floor and could not offer an alternate bed arrangement.

So the Presidents Suite is indeed a lovely accommodation offering twice the
normal cabin space. A Jacuzzi tub and walk in closet are also features. You
are provided with a bottle of scotch, bottle of vodka, and soda’s
complimentary. After the first bottles of liquor you do pay for
replacements. There is a Aiwa disk player on the drawer set, a box of Cova
chocolates, bottle of champagne, butler service. Tea at 4, delivered by
butler, canapés at 5, and such amenities. Traveling in such a suite is
really up to the value you place upon it versus price. I have often paid
twice the price to sail in high category cabins, would never pay triple as
some require, and never considered the perks afforded actually worth the
money expended.

The butler, Taylan, was exceptional, however he became ill for the first
three days of the cruise and another butler filled in. He was competent but
seen little as he was probably being a bit over worked. Still service did
not suffer. Just that we did miss Taylan because he was the type of butler
you like to get, very pleasant and service oriented.

DINING: Still going the good old traditional dining route we were assigned
table 48 with our traveling companions, two lovely ladies from Boston ( okay
except for the Red ox thing we got along famously ), and two nice sisters
traveling without their mates. We all enjoyed evening conversations that
covered many varied subjects and got along well. I highly value the cruise
dining experience and spending a week with people of various different
backgrounds and opinions. An interesting group of tablemates makes for a
wonderful end of the day and start of the evening for us. Another aspect of
dining, the waiter and asst. waiter, also can make or break a cruise for
us. In this case it didn’t break the cruise for us, but didn’t offer any
added good experience.

Our waiter Pablo was capable and provided the minimal amount of service
needed to provide for acceptable dining. The assistant waiter, never did get
his name which says something right there, was the only person I have met
recently that has a worse memory than me. At least I can invoke the old
senior moment excuse which he could not. Yes some are better than others at
remembering or providing for individual tastes, but this guy wasn’t even
close. Two ladies had Tea instead of coffee every night. Not once did he
provide that automatically. We asked for cheese plates as appetizers for the
table at start of meals. We often do this and it is never a problem on any
line as cheese plates are often offered as part of dessert menu meaning they
are already made up and readily available. We find that having cheese plates
at table helps the starving not fill up on bread while ordering and makes a
nice little appetite suppressant that also goes good with wine before
dinner. Never once provided them unless specifically asked. In comparison
on our January sailing of the Coral Princess, our waiter Fabio ( you never
forget a real waiters name, Pablo will be but a distant memory by Tuesday,
the fact that his service was not up to Celebrity’s standard will linger for
a while ) not only automatically provided cheese platter but went further to
have a different style one every night complete with crackers. May life
bless Fabio! And that’s the difference.

Food itself was excellent and there is no doubt in my mind that Celebrity
still makes the best desserts found at sea. Coffee remains horrible as it
does on most lines, that syrup conglomeration that passes for java on the
ocean. Thankfully, the Cova Café offers wonderful brewed coffee, espresso,
and so forth and has an outer perimeter of tables for smokers. I also
learned a new method for handling the non smokers who insist on entering a
smoker area and then covering there nose and saying just loud enough for you
to hear “ oh stinky smokers. “ I now hold my hand over my eyes and say just
loud enough for THEM to hear, “ oh fat ugly people. “ Okay juvenile but it
beats going postal and frankly they all were fat and ugly. “Alright no more
social comment. You do have to pay for the real coffee naturally.

Talking about the Cova Café, I have to mention Ahmet, a nice bar waiter that
was in Cova working each morning. He was the example of how a good
waiter/server, bar or otherwise can make a cruise even enjoyable. He greeted
me with a smile every morning, got my coffee fast, knew my name and always
asked if Mr. Tom or Mrs. Laurie would be joining me and so forth. He was 3
months into his first contract and hailed from Turkey where he was a bar
manager. He was starting out at the bottom again being knew to working the
ships but is aspiring to promotions down the road. I have no doubt that he
will be a Manager in no time. The extra tip I often give the dining room
waiter but didn’t this time, was happily given to Ahmet at the conclusion of
our sailing.

The buffet area for lunch was very good as we expected. Do still wish that
Celebrity would do away with those baby sized glasses of theirs though.

It should be noted that about our third day the buffet area was suddenly no
longer self serve. We already know what that means now, a touch of Norwalk
virus must have surfaced onboard. As I mentioned our butler was ill three
days, “ with the flu “ he advised. Yeah okay. One of the TV’s onboard
channels was also dedicated to a notice that 25,000,000 cases of Norwalk
type viruses occur annually in the United States and cautioned on proper
hand washing. It was also noted that cleaners were constantly around wiping
down handrails, slot machines and so forth. I did not personally see or even
hear of anyone being ill. I think the cruise lines are all very quick to
react now to any potential viral threat and have done a good job trying to
ensure that it is passed around as little as possible. Let’s face it, Noro
type viruses are indeed prevalent throughout the world and I think the
amount of publicity that ships get is unwarranted.

CASINO: Casino staff, very pleasant and though I didn’t leave rich I can’t
complain. The slots were hitting far better than most I have seen on boards
ships. You can get up to $2,000 a day on your onboard card via the casino
cashier with no surcharges. Not a great policy for the inveterate gambling I
would think. Makes it far too convenient.

DRINKS: I usually ignore those that complain about drink prices since I am
from NY where the price is generally high anyway. So I seldom see much
difference between the price of a drink on a ship versus a local bar in NY.
That said, even as a New Yorker I thought that the Horizon’s drink prices
were getting carried away. One of my tablemates was charged over $9 for a
glass of Chardonnay at dinner via bar waiter. Cheaper to buy the bottle! A
Dewar’s scotch and soda was over $6 with tip, bad enough but worse if you
consider at least my bar free pours a decent drink versus ship bar measured
shot.

SHIP CONDITION: I had noted some reviews mentioned the carpets as being
stained and in bad shape. I can’t contest that, the corridor carpeting could
stand to be replaced. However, overall the ship appeared to be in very clean
and in great shape. I sailed the Horizon in I believe 1990 for the first
time and I think that Celebrity has done an excellent job of maintaining
her. We had no complaints about the ship or cabin condition though the air
conditioning did seem a bit less than cold at times but not really a
problem.

SUMMARY: Great cruise, waiter should apply for Carnival and take his
assistant with him. Butler, cabin steward did fine job, room service
excellent but it should be with a butler. Staff friendly and service
generally excellent. Casino staff wonderful as well.

I didn’t comment on ports of call since Horizon will finish out her
celebrity days this summer doing Bermuda from Norfolk.

DISEMBARKATION: Instead of announcements everyone gets an assigned lounge to
wait in then that lounge is notified they can disembark. Celebrity now
offers room service the morning of disembarkation which is one of the best
innovative changes most lines have started in years! When you are getting up
super early for departure day it is wonderful to be able to have some
coffee, syrupy or not and a roll or something delivered while you get ready.

We were scheduled to arrive in Norfolk at 10 am but were at the dock by 7 I
think. It had been previously announced that we would be arriving early.
Disembark was easy and no problem, porters were available which is good
because it is a bit of a walk to the circle where you can get picked up. The
line for taxi’s was a city block long and moving slowly. Those that bought
bus passes to airport from Celebrity did much better as their luggage was
placed on bus for them and considering shortage of taxi’s were probably
happy to ride a bus. We elected to drive home which turned out to be the
best option. Our travel mates had decided to fly, the first flight available
was after 3 pm. Due to weather in NY they actually didn’t leave until after
5. We rented a car from Hertz on Monticello Ave in Norfolk, they picked us
up and we were on the road by 10 am. We actually arrived at home 15 minutes
after our flying friends. An added bonus, we had all our luggage arrive with
us. The airline lost one of their cases but did deliver it the next morning
to their house. Our cost with gas $148, theirs not counting transportation
from airport to home almost $500. Plus we had a lovely crab cake lunch in
Delaware on the way.