Alaska - Front Facing or Rear Facing balcony on the Sun

[wilmingtech]

We are booking a 10 day on the NCL Sun in August of '24 and we have a choice of a rear facing B1 or a Front Facing B4.

 

We really wanted the rear facing balcony but the M1's are sold out and the one Aft balcony left on the 10th floor, the balcony looks tiny. 

Where as the family room balcony looks pretty big.

 

Has anyone sailed these cabins before?  What did you think?

 

If you haven't sailed these cabins, which one would you pick and why?

 

Thanks!

[www3traveler]

I would be leery of a forward facing balcony on the Sun especially if you are directly under the Bridge.  Forward facing balconies tend to be exposed to wind and weather sometimes making the balcony so you may not be able to use it much.  Also balconies under the Bridge have special rules for nighttime.  Your curtains need to be tightly closed and your balcony light turned off.  The Bridge needs total darkness to operate at night.  During the day, all those standing watch on the Bridge have a clear view of your balcony.  Having coffee on your balcony wearing only your bathroom would not be a good idea.

[wilmingtech]

24 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

I would be leery of a forward facing balcony on the Sun especially if you are directly under the Bridge.  Forward facing balconies tend to be exposed to wind and weather sometimes making the balcony so you may not be able to use it much.  Also balconies under the Bridge have special rules for nighttime.  Your curtains need to be tightly closed and your balcony light turned off.  The Bridge needs total darkness to operate at night.  During the day, all those standing watch on the Bridge have a clear view of your balcony.  Having coffee on your balcony wearing only your bathroom would not be a good idea.

 

Just curious if you have been in a forward balcony and if so what floor/room/ship?

 

Im aware of the rules requiring lights to be off around the bridge at night.  In the summer, there is no reason for us to ever have a light on the balcony after 10pm.  If we were on our balcony that late we would be stargazing.  Also the only front facing B4 cabins are on deck 11 and I've been on the Star and if I remember correctly the observation/sun deck on 12 has a very high angle railing that prevents you from looking down below and the only view is just the bow of the ship.  So I don't think that would be an issue with us.  So having coffee in my birthday suit shouldn't be a problem.  

 

[www3traveler]

Yes, on the Sun to Alaska but very early in the Season.  Might consider it for a Panama Cruise or Caribbean cruise but not Alaska.  It was under the Bridge-- do not remember what the cabin number was.

 

I love being on the Sun.  Great small ship with lots of interesting restaurants and public spaces both indoors and outdoors especially all the deck space at the rear of the buffet space.

[jrsrosey]

We did alaska on the jade in an aft balcony on 10th level and it was one of our best holidays ever. Views were fantastic, no wind no obstruction. It’s not the same ship but this location was just perfect. 

[got2havefun]

Aft balcony if you want to see more marine life as have seen dolphins jumping in wake in Alaska.

[BirdTravels]

7 hours ago, wilmingtech said:

We are booking a 10 day on the NCL Sun in August of '24 and we have a choice of a rear facing B1 or a Front Facing B4.

 

We really wanted the rear facing balcony but the M1's are sold out and the one Aft balcony left on the 10th floor, the balcony looks tiny. 

Where as the family room balcony looks pretty big.

 

Has anyone sailed these cabins before?  What did you think?

 

If you haven't sailed these cabins, which one would you pick and why?

 

Thanks!

I don’t think that there are any forward facing balconies. Forward facing suites are the absolute best rooms for an Alaskan cruise. 

[wilmingtech]

1 hour ago, BirdTravels said:

I don’t think that there are any forward facing balconies. Forward facing suites are the absolute best rooms for an Alaskan cruise. 

We ended up booking the forward family balcony on the 11th floor.  There are 2 of them 😉 1002, 1102

 

 

Here is a video review of 1202 -

 

It was a decent deal with the 3 cruise certs and a 10% FCC for a 10 day cruise.  It was only 25$ pp ($50 total) more than a standard BB balcony.

Edited November 10, 2023 by wilmingtech

[TheDawg79]

Aft balconies are much better as front ones get cold and windy when the ship is moving and can have use restrictions. I have seen restrictions include not being able to be in your balcony at night and other times you cannot be on your balcony at all if the ship is at sea. Aft balconies have no use restrictions and are more pleasant to use when at sea

[wilmingtech]

13 minutes ago, TheDawg79 said:

Aft balconies are much better as front ones get cold and windy when the ship is moving and can have use restrictions. I have seen restrictions include not being able to be in your balcony at night and other times you cannot be on your balcony at all if the ship is at sea. Aft balconies have no use restrictions and are more pleasant to use when at sea

Thanks @TheDawg79  After a discussion and weighing the pro's and cons, we ended up booking this specific front balcony for a few reasons. 

(This is more for me to convince myself I did the right thing 🤪)

 

1. The main reason we chose the front balcony was the size.  We really wanted an AFT cabin, I was hoping for an M1 but the only AFT cabin left was the smallest  AFT cabin available.  We have 2 friends that will be cruising with us and it looks like there would be room for 2, possibly 3 chairs/loungers on the smaller AFT balcony but we could easily fit 4 on the Front balcony.  We have had a large balcony before and it was nice being able to hang out on the balcony without having to get up each time someone enters or exits.

 

2. Its on a 10 day Alaskan Cruise on the Sun with quite a few short travel days of slow rolling inside passage.  Day 3 is Juneau, 4 is Skagway, 5 is Haines.  Day 7 is Sitka, 8 is Icy Straight  and hoping on day 9 we take the inside passage from Icy Straight point to Ketchikan.

In all that I'm believing that we will have plenty of time on those days to sit on the balcony and enjoy the views.

 

3. We are on the 11th floor, 1 level up from the bridge.  From what I can tell, being out on the balcony will have no affect on the bridge below.  There is a chance that we might need to keep our balcony light off and our curtains closed but honestly if we do go out after 10pm we would not be inconvenienced by having to leave our balcony light off. 

 

4. Pricewise it was about 1400.00 more for the AFT cabin.  The AFT cabin is definitely smaller and the balcony is smaller and other than the view from the back of the ship, the value for the money spent didn't seem worth it to sacrifice space for a different view. 

 

5 Here are some pictures to compare both spaces.  You can easily see the see difference in the balconies.

AFT BALCONY SUN ROOM 0266

 

AFT BALCONY SMALL - 

 

AFT BALCONY with PERSON

 

FRONT BALCONY SUN CABIN 1202

FRONT BALCONY LARGE - notice the railing is 3 sections across as opposed to 2 on the smaller aft balcony.

 

FRONT BALCONY with PERSON - Notice the depth of the balcony compared to the aft balcony.

[spotfish]

I have stayed in a forward penthouse and aft penthouse on the Jewel to Alaska, If you don't mind the wind even on nice days the front is the way to go now if it's raining you're probably not going to stay out on the balcony very long. The aft on the other hand is very seldom windy and the balcony is always usable in my opinion, but slow sailing into port or a glacier there's nothing like that forward WOW factor! 

 

Either way you'll love Alaska!

[wilmingtech]

13 hours ago, spotfish said:

I have stayed in a forward penthouse and aft penthouse on the Jewel to Alaska, If you don't mind the wind even on nice days the front is the way to go now if it's raining you're probably not going to stay out on the balcony very long. The aft on the other hand is very seldom windy and the balcony is always usable in my opinion, but slow sailing into port or a glacier there's nothing like that forward WOW factor! 

 

Either way you'll love Alaska!

Thanks @spotfish That's exactly what I was thinking!  Going through a bunch of videos on youtube and it seems that getting the "Captains View" on the approach to the glaciers, through the fjords and coming into port seems to be pretty amazing.  We were also thinking that if there is any wildlife in the ocean or otherwise we would get the first chance to see it on either side of the ship.  Im not discounting the AFT cabins in any way and would have taken one had it been one of the larger ones but I don't think I'll be too disappointed with the forward facing balcony.  

 

As for the rain....meh, it's just water.  No such thing as bad weather.  Only bad clothes 😁

[df5250]

I was in a forward facing penthouse on the Jewel in August. It was amazing! The glacier viewing was one of the best experiences I’ve had on a cruise ship!  I too wanted aft facing but it wasn’t available so I chose forward facing and I would do it again!  Here’s our Hubbard Glacier view sitting on the balcony, wrapped in a blanket eating warm chocolate chip cookies and sipping hot cocoa! 

[NayRN]

I sailed forward facing PH on the Sun on my second cruise to Alaska - and I would do it again in a heartbeat! The wind wasn’t too bad and the balcony was huge! We left our sliding door open and turned up the volume on the television so we could hear the Ranger talking about Glacier Bay. If we got chilly, we just went into our room for a couple minutes to warm up. It was amazing!

[DMH15]

I cruised in a corner aft suite on Sun for South America and the Chilean fjords very similar to Alaska.  Loved it.  

[Turtles06]

On 11/9/2023 at 4:23 PM, www3traveler said:

Also balconies under the Bridge have special rules for nighttime.  Your curtains need to be tightly closed and your balcony light turned off.  The Bridge needs total darkness to operate at night. 

 

Based on my personal experience, this is not a negative, and in fact is a plus.  Once it's dark out, having your curtains open does nothing when you have lights on in your cabin -- you can't see out, you'll just see reflections of the lights in your windows.  It's no big deal to close your curtains.

 

And, weather permitting, the darkness in the bow makes for great stargazing from your balcony.  

[Turtles06]

On 11/10/2023 at 10:49 AM, TheDawg79 said:

I have seen restrictions include not being able to be in your balcony at night and other times you cannot be on your balcony at all if the ship is at sea.

 

We've sailed in forward-facing suites on four cruises, and have never encountered such restrictions.   When the ship is underway, you need to be especially careful opening the sea door, and make sure you hook it to the bulkhead behind it once it's open.  As for being on the balcony at night, that's fine too.  See my comment immediately above about star gazing. 

[NayRN]

5 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Based on my personal experience, this is not a negative, and in fact is a plus.  Once it's dark out, having your curtains open does nothing when you have lights on in your cabin -- you can't see out, you'll just see reflections of the lights in your windows.  It's no big deal to close your curtains.

 

And, weather permitting, the darkness in the bow makes for great stargazing from your balcony.  

I agree with everything you said! Once it gets dark out, the stargazing is amazing - and there’s no light from the bridge interfering! I was on the Sun in Alaska and the balcony wall was steel - we would move the loungers closer to the balcony wall to block the wind while underway and just lay there, covered with a blanket for hours looking at all the stars. 

[wilmingtech]

I was looking for other similar "Front Facing" balcony rooms from other cruise lines and never realized how rare they are.  I think other than the Mardi Gras by Carnival and a handful of suites, specifically the Celebrity Apex and Edge Iconic suites, there are very few ships with front facing balconies.

 

 

[Pola]

Somewhere I read that forward facing penthouse balconies on the NCL Sun do not have plexiglass, but rather solid barriers. This apparently caused problems if you want to see when seated. 
Can anyone confirm this?

TIA

[BirdTravels]

15 hours ago, Pola said:

Somewhere I read that forward facing penthouse balconies on the NCL Sun do not have plexiglass, but rather solid barriers. This apparently caused problems if you want to see when seated. 
Can anyone confirm this?

TIA

It is a solid hull balcony to sweep the wind up and over your head. We have never had any problems seeing (unless you want to look straight down and see what your downstairs neighbors are doing on their balcony). We consider the forward facing penthouses the best rooms on the ship and try to always book one. 

Edited April 15 by BirdTravels

[Pola]

Thank you, BirdTravels!

For Alaska would you recommend forward facing over aft facing on the Sun? If so why?

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, Pola said:

Thank you, BirdTravels!

For Alaska would you recommend forward facing over aft facing on the Sun? If so why?

So, we have sailed in forward facing suites multiple times. We sit for hours watching for sea life (whales, dolphins, seals). It is magical. We much prefer Deck 9 with the large balcony. We have both chairs and loungers.

 

Yup, when the ship is underway, full speed, it will be windy if you stand at the rail, but the hull sweeps the wind over your head if you are seated or standing back from the rail. 

 

And Yup, there will probably more people saying that they like aft facing rooms. 

 

Forward facing you get those unlimited views of where you are going and can track things (like pods of dolphin) as they get closer to the ship. We had an aft-facing suite in 2022 and if you saw something, it was moving away from you before you figure out what it was. 

 

While we sit comfortably on our balcony, everyone below on the bow are crowing to try and see over the front rails. 

 

 

And you always have the heated, warm view from inside the room every day. 

Edited April 15 by BirdTravels

[BirdTravels]

But, you will still have great views from an aft-facing room