Barcelona/Rome - Port or Starboard?

[caroak]

Our original booking was Venice/Rome and our TA recommended starboard but we've now decided on Barcelona/Rome and stayed with a starboard cabin not considering the new itinerary. Now it looks like the port side would give us optimum land viewing on this cruise especially since St-Tropez and Monte Carlo both have 11 p.m. departures. We booked a veranda cabin and would enjoy sitting out facing the land/harbor not the open sea.

 

Also, which side would get the afternoon sun? Our last cruise was with Crystal (Athens/Rome) and we had a starboard cabin and land views. We didn't have a veranda so not sure about the sun issue. What I remember is people saying it was too sunny to sit out on their veranda (not sure which side) but I would think the afternoon sun would be the best especially in mid-May when the weather would be milder.

[CintiPam]

We chose starboard for all three of our Oceania cruises because we were traveling east to west most of the time on all three. On our most recent cruise, Venice to Barcelona on Regatta in May, we found that it really did work out great for us as we sailed up the west coast of Italy. However, many people say it does not really matter because: (1) a lot of the Oceania itineraries do most of their sailing after dark so there is nothing to see anyway; (2) you mostly are sailing far from shore; (3) when you are closer into port when you depart, you are in the shower or at cocktails or dinner; (2) if you have a lot of tender ports rather than dock ports, the ship will be moving around a lot on its anchor during the day so both sides get their views; and (3) if you are like us inveterate sightseers, we practically are never in our cabin, truly just to shower, change or sleep! (As inveterate sightseers, I know nothing at all about the afternoon sun from our veranda.) BTW, on our May port day this year in Monte Carlo, we were at anchor because there were many ships there that day, but the year before, in June, we were docked on the western side of the harbor, so starboard indeed had some nicer views but we chose to be on deck to enjoy the entire panorama when we departed for our next stop.

[winegirl]

On our recent cruise from Barcelona to Amsterdam, we disembarked from both sides of the ship. In some ports, it was Port, some were starboard, two were tendered. There were great views from either side of the ship.

In Bordeaux, the Medoc was not on "our" side as we sailed in but was on "our" side as we sailed away.