Carnival Horizon: Aruba

It was hard to sleep last night as our cabin was very warm. At some point in the night I got up and and put the fan on. It helped enough that both of us could get back to sleep and get rested for our port day in Aruba.

Morning in Aruba

We woke shortly before 7 and headed for coffee at Java café.

Sister T had breakfast in the ocean plaza light food area. I went to the dining room when it opened at 7:30 am. Had omelet, hash browns and bagel.

Before we left the ship, I called guest services about our room’s lack of air conditioning. They said they’d let housekeeping know. More about this later.

The ship cleared about 9 am and we got off soon after. Our plan is to take the public bus to Eagle Beach. The walk to the bus stop was different than in the pre-pandemic video I saw.

There was no pizza hut and construction was going on there. We asked someone and got directions to go around the Keller Williams building to the bus station. The window to buy tickets is in a narrow opening between the office and a building. No issue buying them ($5 roundtrip) and we got right on a waiting bus that left 5 minutes later. The driver told me he would announce Amsterdam Manor.

Nevertheless we got off too early and had to walk a bit to find a place to settle (right next door as it turns out) at La Cabanas. We could use the hotel’s restrooms and the palapas were free. We just paid $10 each for much lower quality chairs than what the hotel guests were using. 🙂

There was beach service for food and drink. Sister T did get a soda there. I had brought a water bottle from the ship.

I swam a couple of times. Mostly we just enjoyed the beach, breeze and being outdoors. We decided to leave shortly after 12:30 and walked to the bus stop. One went by us as we started walking so we waited 20 minutes for the next one.

Once back at the bus station, it was a short walk back to the ship. There were the usual souvenir shops. The only thing I was interested in was a Dutch pottery ornament. They were $9. I really just wanted to get onboard and have lunch at this point.

Onboard in Aruba

Once onboard we went straight up to the Lido deck and got Guy’s burgers; mine with fries.

This was followed with ice cream cone and carrot cake for me.

Sister T had the raspberry gelato and hummingbird cake.

Then it back to the room to shower and take a nap. Unfortunately the room was quite hot and there wasn’t a card that they’d’ been there. We still fell asleep for a couple of hours thanks to the assist from the fan. My laundry was already back!

Then it was time to get ready for dinner at the steakhouse.

On the way out, I told our room steward about the problem with the air and he called his supervisor. That worked because our room was nice and chilled when we got back after dinner.

Steakhouse

Our reservation at the steakhouse was for 6 pm and we got there a few minutes early and were seated promptly at a table for two on the side close to the piano bar.

Our drink order was taken and then we were asked to pick the salt used on our entrees.

We had ordered Watermelon martini and 555.

After that it was the bread service and butters.

The green one had some kind of spinach on it.

Then we got a amuse bouche from the chef. It was some kind of salmon with a mousse.

It was a delicious bite. Sister T started with the lobster bisque.

I chose the French onion soup.

Both were quite good but mine was too hot. Still steaming when I gave up on it halfway through.

Then our steaks came quickly. Sister T had New York strip.

I had the surf and turf.

We both loved our choices. Our sides were baked potato and mac and cheese.

While eating the wall opened up behind us and the piano bar became part of the restaurant. We had delightful music the rest of the meal.

We decided to try the art of the table dessert.

All I can say is wow! You can watch it being made in the video below.

The dessert was good but the show was fantastic!

Our server let us know everything was compliments of the casino so no charge. I asked her to print us a zero ticket so I could add a tip. They absolutely deserved it for the fabulous service.

I went back to the cabin to spend the night binge watching food network while Sister T stayed out and about. This sheep was waiting for me.