Carnival Horizon on board with beer and barbecue
Carnival Cruise Line likes cooking up beer on board its new ships.
Carnival Vista boasted the first on-board microbrewery for North America and the soon-to-arrive sister ship Carnival Horizon will serve up the brews too, but this time with barbecue.
The line recently debuted the four planned microbrews that will be served in a new barbecue dining venue from Food Network star Guy Fieri coming to the ship that is debuting in April and arriving to PortMiami this September.
While Fieri’s Pig and Anchor has a shoehorned (yet tasty) presence on four other Carnival ships, Carnival Horizon will give it its biggest stage yet in the form of Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse | Brewhouse.
“We wanted to do something different and unique, but we knew we wanted to make sure we had craft beer brewed right on board our ship to offer our guests really the freshest, most local craft beer you can get.” Carnival Vice President of Beverage Operations Edward Allen said. “We started working with our longtime partner...Guy Fieri...we wanted to do something great with him.”
Pairing his barbecue menu with beer just made sense, Allen said.
Once again, the beer is the brainchild of Carnival Brewmaster Colin Presby, who heads up the microbrew operations on board Vista and has come up with four new offerings for Horizon.
“We went back and forth with some beer ideas, started to formulate some recipes, and I think we’ve got four pretty tasty beers,” Presby said.
The names of the brews are all under the branding of ParchedPig including the Smoked Porter, Farmhouse Ale, Toasted Amber Ale and West Coast IPA.
For the Smoked Porter, Presby explained the flavor that includes notes of molasses and hickory smoke.
"We're able to take malt and smoke it right here on board," he said. “It lets us have more control and get a really nice smoky flavor to go with the barbecue.”
Both ales are smooth and the IPA has a scent of citrus and pine.
The food offerings from Fieri include smoked-on-board brisket, Memphis-style back ribs, dryrubbed chicken, pulled pork, cedar-smoked salmon as well as traditional sides like macaroni and cheese and a lot of sauce work.
Dinner menu items are offered a la carte while a free, self-service lunch buffet will be available on embarkation day as well as sea days.
Other restaurants on board include a teppanyaki restaurant (a first for Carnival), Italian Cucina del Capitano, Fahrenheit 555 steakhouse, BlueIguana Cantina, Pizzeria del Capitano and Seafood Shack.
Horizon will debut April 2, 2018 sailing the Mediterranean until May when it makes its way on a 14-day transatlantic voyage to New York for summer sailings to Bermuda and the Caribbean. Starting in September, Horizon will reposition to PortMiami for six- and eight-night Caribbean trips and one special two-night cruise to Nassau on Sept. 20.
The 133,500-ton Horizon, like Vista, will feature the suspended bike track attraction SkyRide that lets riders get quite the view while racing one another around half the ship. Also on board, just like Vista, will be an IMAX theater, the SportSquare outdoor recreation area and ropes course. The ship’s WaterWorks will be themed to Dr. Seuss on top of the existing Seuss at Sea program, Dr. Seuss Bookville reading and play areas, and of course the The Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast.
Horizon at double capacity will hold 3,934 passengers, which is slightly less than Vista. Horizon, like Vista will feature two special cabin areas on board, a Family Harbor area with its own lounge that's designed for large families, but also the Havana Cabanas, which won't allow any children under 12 and has its own lounge and pool.
Horizon will be the 26th ship in the fleet.
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