Carnival Horizon - 9-Day Carnival Journeys Eastern Caribbean

Where this cruise calls, day by day

6 ports and 4 sea days over 9 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Miami, FL

   United StatesDepart

   PortMiami is the busiest cruise port on earth and behaves like it: a lettered row of terminals strung along Dodge Island - A for Royal Caribbean, B for Norwegian, C for MSC, D through F for the Carnival brands, V for Virgin. Traffic funnels in over the Port Boulevard causeway or through the tunnel under Government Cut, and on a Saturday with six ships turning around, both back up.

   • Ocean Drive and the Art Deco district in South Beach, 20 minutes across the causeway
   • Wynwood Walls and the warehouse murals around it
   • Calle Ocho in Little Havana - a cortadito and the domino tables at Maximo Gomez Park
   • Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, a 1916 bayfront villa in Coconut Grove

   Getting ashore

   Terminals A-G and V sit on Dodge Island, reached by the Port Boulevard causeway or the PortMiami Tunnel; Miami International is about 8 miles west, usually 20-30 minutes but longer on a heavy turnaround morning.

   Best months

   Nov-Apr (Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season and August ashore is punishing)

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Grand Turk

   Turks and Caicos IslandsPort

   Grand Turk is seven miles of scrub and old salt ponds with a resident population smaller than the ship calling on it. Carnival's cruise center is a self-contained beach compound — pool, bar, Margaritaville — with good sand at the pier and a wall that drops into deep water a few hundred yards offshore. Cockburn Town, the actual settlement, is quiet, weathered and a short taxi away.

   • The beach at the cruise center, running into Governor's Beach
   • Wall diving and snorkeling on the offshore drop-off
   • Cockburn Town's Front Street and the Turks & Caicos National Museum
   • Gibbs Cay stingray excursion

   Getting ashore

   Docked at the Grand Turk Cruise Center with a beach at the gate; Cockburn Town is about 10 minutes by taxi.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; the island is dry and low-lying year-round, with Aug-Oct hurricane risk

4. Day 4

   Puerto Plata

   Dominican RepublicPort

   Two purpose-built cruise terminals serve the same north-coast town: Carnival's Amber Cove, a self-contained resort compound east of the city, and Taino Bay, which opened in 2021 much closer in. Both are designed to keep you inside them, and many passengers never leave. Puerto Plata itself — Fort San Felipe, the gingerbread houses around Parque Central — takes a taxi and some initiative.

   • Mount Isabel de Torres cable car to the Christ statue and botanical gardens
   • Fortaleza San Felipe on the waterfront
   • 27 Charcos de Damajagua, a canyoning route of waterfall jumps
   • Playa Dorada or the beach at Sosúa

   Getting ashore

   Both are docked berths but neither is in town — Amber Cove is roughly 20-25 minutes by taxi from Puerto Plata, Taino Bay about 10.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr; the north coast is wetter than the south year-round and Aug-Oct carries hurricane risk

5. Day 5

   San Juan

   Puerto RicoPort

   The piers sit directly under the walls of Old San Juan, which makes this one of the few Caribbean calls where you step off and are already somewhere worth being. Blue cobblestones, 16th-century Spanish fortifications, and a working city rather than a shopping arcade. It is also a major homeport, so a call often lands in the middle of turnaround traffic.

   • Castillo San Felipe del Morro on the headland
   • Castillo San Cristóbal and the city walls
   • Casa Bacardí distillery, reached by the Cataño ferry
   • El Yunque National Forest, about an hour east

   Getting ashore

   Most ships dock at Piers 1-4 in Old San Juan and you walk straight into the historic district; the largest ships use the Pan American piers on Isla Grande, a short shuttle or taxi ride out.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr is driest and busiest; Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season

6. Day 6

   Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

   U.S. Virgin IslandsPort

   The busiest shopping port in the Caribbean, and it feels like it — four to six ships on a peak day and duty-free jewelry stores stacked end to end along Main Street. What saves a call here is everything outside town: Magens Bay's long sheltered crescent, and the ferry to St. John, where about two-thirds of the island is national park.

   • Magens Bay
   • Ferry to St. John for Trunk Bay and Virgin Islands National Park
   • Coki Beach and Coral World Ocean Park
   • Skyride to Paradise Point above the harbor

   Getting ashore

   Most ships dock at Havensight, about a mile east of town — a mall at the pier, a cheap open-air taxi, or a 20-minute waterfront walk; Crown Bay is a similar distance west.

   Best months

   Dec-Apr dry season; Aug-Oct is hurricane season

7. Day 7 · At sea

8. Day 8 · At sea

9. Day 9 · At sea

10. Day 10

    Miami, FL

    United StatesArrive

    PortMiami is the busiest cruise port on earth and behaves like it: a lettered row of terminals strung along Dodge Island - A for Royal Caribbean, B for Norwegian, C for MSC, D through F for the Carnival brands, V for Virgin. Traffic funnels in over the Port Boulevard causeway or through the tunnel under Government Cut, and on a Saturday with six ships turning around, both back up.

    • Ocean Drive and the Art Deco district in South Beach, 20 minutes across the causeway
    • Wynwood Walls and the warehouse murals around it
    • Calle Ocho in Little Havana - a cortadito and the domino tables at Maximo Gomez Park
    • Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, a 1916 bayfront villa in Coconut Grove

    Getting ashore

    Terminals A-G and V sit on Dodge Island, reached by the Port Boulevard causeway or the PortMiami Tunnel; Miami International is about 8 miles west, usually 20-30 minutes but longer on a heavy turnaround morning.

    Best months

    Nov-Apr (Aug-Oct is peak hurricane season and August ashore is punishing)