The newest and biggest Carnival Cruise Line has to offer is making its way to Florida.
Carnival Horizon is set to begin service from PortMiami on Saturday for year-round Caribbean sailings.
A sister ship to Carnival Vista, it’s the biggest the cruise line has to offer at 133,500 gross tons. Vista, though, is headed to Galveston to make way for the new ship.
Just like Vista, Horizon offers the signature SkyRide, the suspended, smooth-riding bicycle-powered attraction that lets riders race halfway around the ship.
Also like Vista on the top deck is a water park with two signature slides, except Horizon’s has by far the more whimsical theme, courtesy of Dr. Seuss.
The themed WaterWorks will feature the The Cat in the Hat slide, which takes riders on a raft down 450 twisting feet of a visually stimulating alternating translucent and opaque, red-and-white colored enclosed tube; and a second, speedier slide for single riders called the Fun Things slide, named after Thing 1 and Thing 2. That slide takes riders down 213 feet of an enclosed tube with its own visual polka-dotted effects into a splash zone at the end.
The play area will also have a 150-gallon tipping red-and-white patterned bucket, like the Cat in the Hat’s hat as well as a bevy of splash zone features and Seussian artwork and statues.
Also on board, just like Vista, will be an IMAX theater, the SportSquare outdoor recreation area and ropes course.
Unique to the ship is Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse | Brewhouse from celebrity Guy Fieri, which pairs beer brewed right on the ship with barbecue. The ship also has the line’s first teppanyaki restaurant.
Horizon has slightly less cabin space than Vista with a 3,934-passenger capacity based on double occupancy. The cabin choices, though are similar to Vista, including two special areas on board, the Family Harbor with its own lounge that’s designed for large families, and the Havana Cabanas, which won’t allow any children under 12 and has its own lounge and pool.
Horizon will sail on a special two-night Bahamas preview cruise on Thursday before beginning six- and eight-night Eastern, Western and Southern Caribbean sailings. Horizon will be joined in Miami by Carnival Magic while Carnival Breeze moves to Port Canaveral.
Horizon is the first of five new ships to call Florida home in the next few months. The ship will be followed in November by Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas and Norwegian Bliss in Miami followed by the November debut of Celebrity Edge out of Fort Lauderdale, which will also see the December arrival of Holland America ms Nieuw Statendam.
For more information about itineraries, go to carnival.com or call 1-800-227-6482.
