Balcony on island side of the ship??

[Beeeeeford]

Is there a way to find out how my ship docks at the ports so I know if my balcony cabin faces the island during sail in and/or docking? I loved when we sailed into St. Thomas and St. Martin. We sat on our balcony and watched the coastline of the islands as we sailed in.

[Mark_K]

Typically, but not always, RCI ships back in. So if you can figure out where you dock, and look it it with google earth or something, you should be able to tell which side is most likely going to give you the best view.

[papaflamingo]

My experience is that in St. Thomas and St. Maartin the ship usually docks starboard side to the pier. Having said that, our Freedom Cruise over New Years was Port side to the pier in both of those ports. Go figure. It can be affected by lifeboat drills. If they need to lower lifeboats on the starboard side they'll dock port side to the pier.

Just for info, last year Freedom did back into the pier, but into St. Maartin, Independence went in bow first. Both ships were port side to the pier.

As for sailing into St. Thomas, you'll get the point with the Marriott Resort on the Starboard side. The ship (if it backs in) will spin in the harbor and slide into the pier.

St. Maartin will have Phillipsburg on the Port side sailing in.