Forward Facing Balconies

[tvaud]

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with a forward facing balcony. We are booked on the Ocean in a forward cabin and balcony. Will we be able to use the balcony while we are at sea? How about sailing into and out of ports?

 

Thanks.

[NavyVeteran]

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with a forward facing balcony. We are booked on the Ocean in a forward cabin and balcony. Will we be able to use the balcony while we are at sea? How about sailing into and out of ports?

 

Thanks.

 

I think your question will have different answers depending on the ship, the specific cabin, and the specific itinerary. The Ocean Princess and the Pacific Princess may be much different than any of the other Princess ships.

 

We sailed in suite 7005 on the Ocean Princess on an 18-day trans-Atlantic from Civitavecchia to Fort Lauderdale in December 2014. Suite 7005 is a full suite with a forward-facing balcony on the starboard side of the ship - located on a fairly high deck directly under the bridge.

 

The first part of our cruise was port intensive in the Mediterranean. We used our balcony several times, and it was great for sailing in or out of port. The view was fantastic, and there's not much better than drinking a cognac (from one of the bottles in the mini-bar) and watching the land go by. On those days, we really loved it.

 

However, it was different on the trans-Atlantic crossing itself. There were several times when the balcony was completely unusable. We could not physically open the door to get out because of the wind and the water.

 

Our balcony door was not the typical sliding door you find on most balconies. It opened out. You had to push it out against the wind to open it, and it would not stay open. I can understand why it should be that way. It would not be good to leave that door open.

 

On one specific occasion, the water was coming over the rails on deck 7 and flooding our balcony. It was also leaking around the bottom of the door into the room. Our room steward placed towels against the bottom of the door to soak up most of the water. If you looked at the bridge cam, you could see the water against the bridge windows - the bridge was using its windshield wipers, and it was not raining. On this day, it would have been physically dangerous to try to open the balcony door.

 

Even on calm days, the balcony door could be somewhat difficult to open for someone with mobility issues.

 

When not using the balcony, we still had a great view forward through the balcony door from the living room and through a large forward-facing window from the bedroom.

 

The Ocean Princess has only 8 cabins with forward-facing balconies - 2 suites and 2 normal balcony cabins on each of decks 6 and 7. The suites have much larger balconies and each has a large window in addition to the balcony door. The other cabins would just have the balcony door. I don't expect there would be much difference between deck 6 and deck 7 except, if anything, deck 6 would be even wetter than we were on deck 7.

 

I had first planned on a midship mini-suite, but we received a great upsell offer for the full suite on the bow. I don't think I would book one of the forward-facing cabins on the Ocean at regular price, but the cabin itself was fantastic. Also, the service for breakfast at Sabatini's was the best I have ever had on any Princess ship.

 

The Ocean only has 10 suites - 4 on the bow and 6 on the stern. When they offered the upsell, the 4 forward suites were all available - all 6 of the aft suites had already been sold. So we did not have a choice of location - if we wanted to upsell to a suite, it was on the bow.

 

You did not say what itinerary you are on. If you are in one of the normal balcony cabins instead of one of the suites, you have choices at other locations. If you itinerary is port intensive and you are planning to use the balcony only for sailing in and out of ports, I would keep it. If you have a lot of sea days and you would like to use your balcony at sea, I would switch to another location.

[Colo Cruiser]

I agree, there is just no way to know whether the weather/seas/wind will cooperate. There will be times, coming into port when those balconies are fantastic. Wind will be the major factor when under way.

[tvaud]

We are booked in a regular balcony cabin...7000. The itinerary is all Caribbean.

[tvaud]

The ship is just about sold out, so we booked what we could get. Maybe a few side facing balcony cabins will become available around final payment time.