Forward facing balcony on Prima…Iceland and Norway

[gregandamy]

Booking a Norway/ Iceland cruise on the Prima for next summer and looking at one of the forward facing balcony cabins or suites. Does anyone have any experience with one of these cabins? Because of the weather will we be able to be out on the balcony while the ship is moving… especially while going through Fjords etc…

[laudergayle]

We had 13100 on Prima.  We thought how cool it would be to sit on the balcony and watch the ship going forward.  Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.  The solid barrier at the bottom doesn’t allow for you to sit and see anything but the barrier.  You could stand, but it’s really windy.  We determined that we wouldn’t do forward facing balcony again.  If you’re looking at the suites on the corner, you would have both a forward snd side balcony which would be okay. You can zoom in on the photo and see the balcony.

 

 

it was no issue to keep drapes closed at night as you could see nothing outside on the balcony at night.

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by laudergayle

[www3traveler]

Where is the forward facing balcony in relationship to the Bridge?  If it is right below, you would have to keep your curtains closed tightly at night as the Bridge needs totally darkness to operate.

[Pitzel]

We had a forward facing suite on the Prima earlier this year. While we loved the size of the balcony, we probably wouldn't do it again. As another poster mentioned, the balconies in the front are solid, not glass. When you are sitting down, you really can't see much of anything. Also, there is a large windscreen of glass to minimize wind and spray coming into the cabin -- but it also minimizes your ability to see out and is uncomfortable to stand behind.

[dexddd]

Who came up with the crazy clown mural?

[BirdTravels]

We kinda had the best of both worlds. We had a forward facing club balcony/mini suite. The balcony door faces the side of the ship and the balcony wraps all the way around forward.

 

History: We always loved the forward facing suites on the small ships. Yes, they are hull balconies so that the solid steel hull sweeps the wind up over your head as you sail. They are our absolute favorite on small ships. 

 

Prima: we loved the room. The balcony was narrow and you had to maneuver to get out of the wind, but the views were spectacular. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BirdTravels]

30 minutes ago, dexddd said:

Who came up with the crazy clown mural?

Butterflies 

[gregandamy]

2 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

We kinda had the best of both worlds. We had a forward facing club balcony/mini suite. The balcony door faces the side of the ship and the balcony wraps all the way around forward.

 

History: We always loved the forward facing suites on the small ships. Yes, they are hull balconies so that the solid steel hull sweeps the wind up over your head as you sail. They are our absolute favorite on small ships. 

 

Prima: we loved the room. The balcony was narrow and you had to maneuver to get out of the wind, but the views were spectacular. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gregandamy]

BirdTravels, do you remember what cabin # you had? What was your itinerary? Did you have cool weather?

[Turtles06]

5 hours ago, www3traveler said:

Where is the forward facing balcony in relationship to the Bridge?  If it is right below, you would have to keep your curtains closed tightly at night as the Bridge needs totally darkness to operate.

We’ve sailed in forward-facing suites directly under the bridge on the Jewel-class ships. Same rule about keeping the curtains closed at night if you have lights on in your cabin. This is no big deal — it’s not as though you can see outside once it’s dark out. IMHO it’s not a reason not to book a cabin in that location.   (There may be other reasons, depending on the ship and cabin configuration, the itinerary, etc.). In fact, the darkness in the bow makes for great star-gazing (weather permitting.) 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Turtles06

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, gregandamy said:

BirdTravels, do you remember what cabin # you had? What was your itinerary? Did you have cool weather?

We were in Stateroom 12106. Club Balcony Class M2 (forward facing). 

 

On this voyage, we were on Prima's first North American cruise from NYC to Bermuda in mid-October 2022. So, the weather in NYC highs around 63 degrees and lows around 50 degrees. So, it was cool, but not cold. Bermuda was high around 80 and low around 75. 

 

Here's a link to my live post. Contrary to the post, we did not call in Norfolk, sailed directly to Bermuda and spent an extra evening there. 

 

[laudergayle]

4 hours ago, dexddd said:

Who came up with the crazy clown mural?

LOL…I can’t unsee the clown now.🤣

Edited July 23, 2023 by laudergayle

[ggTexasGal]

16 hours ago, gregandamy said:

BirdTravels, do you remember what cabin # you had? What was your itinerary? Did you have cool weather?

We were assigned room 9100 (an MB).  Typically we don't book forward facing, but we loved this 2- person mini suite on our 11-day ABC's cruise!

[KeithJenner]

18 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

We kinda had the best of both worlds. We had a forward facing club balcony/mini suite. The balcony door faces the side of the ship and the balcony wraps all the way around forward.

 

History: We always loved the forward facing suites on the small ships. Yes, they are hull balconies so that the solid steel hull sweeps the wind up over your head as you sail. They are our absolute favorite on small ships. 

 

Prima: we loved the room. The balcony was narrow and you had to maneuver to get out of the wind, but the views were spectacular. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s nice to see those pictures. We were booked in a corner mini suite for the Amsterdam to Reykjavik cruise which was cancelled, so I never got to see the balcony.

 

If does look very nice.

[MissBreezy]

We just finished this itinerary at the beginning of July in a forward balcony cabin 11710 and we LOVED having the balcony. We are Canadian but IMO we had the most beautiful amazing weather, not even any rain in Geiranger . The only day we really didn't care to use our balcony was the day we crossed the North Sea from Norway to Iceland and only because of the wind. Even on the days were the seas were a little rougher we barely felt any movement, we felt it more in the aft than anywhere else.

 

TRUST ME you want a balcony for the fjords, plus with such high mountains on each side you don't get much wind in that passage at all the water was like glass it was incredible. It was nice not having to stay up late/get up early in the mornings and stand on Deck 8 to watch sail in/sail out, we got a Starbucks or a cocktail and enjoyed the view 🙂

 

I think our coldest day was in Akureryi, it was 10C with some wind and every other day I was sweating to be honest, even Reykjavik was 17C and sunny 😳