Island Princess Deck Plans

[islandwoman]

Which deck or cabin do you recommend on the Island Princess for the best view of the Northern Lights (should they appear) or for the easiest and quickest access to the public outside decks?  Looking at the deck plan on princess.com, it seems that the Lido and the Promenade decks would be best, in spite of all of those cabins being aft.  But I can't tell for sure where the door from the cabin area to the outside Lido deck is.  I'd like to book a Penthouse Suite on the Lido deck, but in addition to being very expensive they're already sold out for October 2020 😲 

[skynight]

I would think that during northern lights displays the captain would dim the lights in certain areas of the ship and you would have to go there for the best views. These areas would most likely be the upper decks. If you are thinking about sitting on your balcony then probably any nice balcony on one of the upper decks would be work. I don't think the views would be very good from the promenade deck, it's fully covered and probably would have some lighting so people could get around. The doors from the cabin area to the Lido deck is at the forward end of the halls into the elevator area and then through the side doors to the outside areas. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

We saw them twice last month. Both times leaving Skagway. We were on a B2B. Since we had an aft cabin (facing the wake aft) and the ship was sailing south we set our phone to wake up at midnight and between 12:30 and 1:45 am we sat on our deck and were amazed. University of Alaska has a website that predicts the visibility of Northern lights and where.  

https://www.gi.alaska.edu/monitors/aurora-forecast?

 

The lights are not dimmed on the ship for this. It might be different if you are in Northern Europe in a Northern Lights Cruise. 

 

A local in Skagway said if the prediction is even 3 its worth getting up for to watch. When we were there it was a 4. It wasn’t National Geographic worthy but man oh man it was definitely beautiful and worth being up for. 

 

Essentially you you have to be able to have good view north. From what the locals said midnight to 2 am is a fairly good bet if you’re going to see them. Worked for us!  

 

Deck 8 has an aft exterior public viewing area. 

Edited June 19, 2019 by HaveDogWillTravel