Starboard or Port?

[kyleg2949]

Looking at getting our first balcony. Any advantage to which side of the ship you are on? Thanks. 

[coevan]

depends which way you are going? 

[Aplmac]

Luck of the Draw!

You can never tell how the ship will dock.

 

Put another way..

Some days you're the pigeon - some days you're the statue!

.

[elcuchio24]

We always choose the Port. Dont ask me why, we just always have. The only exception is if we are doing transatlantic...in which case we follow the sun :-)

[RWolver672]

My theory is if I don't see it on the way, I'll see it on the way back.  It's a crap shoot when docking.  Sometimes the back in, other times they go straight in.  Sometimes the pier is 90 degrees from the island, other times it's parallel to the island.  You never know until you get there.  

[beachbum53]

15 hours ago, kyleg2949 said:

Looking at getting our first balcony. Any advantage to which side of the ship you are on? Thanks. 

 

We booked our very first cruise, way back in 1997, through a travel agent. It happened to be an ocean view on the port side. Ever since then, we've always booked our cabin on the port side. There's no way of knowing ahead of time which side of the ship will be tied to the dock while in port. I have discovered though that the ocean looks exactly the same on both sides. There may be a slight advantage at sunrise as to which side of the ship you are on. If you're on the side that's facing the morning sun, good luck trying to sleep in for a little while. 

[summersigh]

DH spends a lot of time on the balcony in port so I research this. 

I goggle images for the ports we're going to be at.  I look at A LOT of images for each port and and make a guess which side faces the pier most often at each port.  There is no cut in stone rule (like Nassau can be either way) but I "play the odds". 😀

[bury me at sea]

You also might check to see what's above and below the cabins you are considering.

[Butterbean1000]

We're like port side also.  But just like everyone says,  it's a crap shoot as to which is better for different ports. 

[SadieN]

Can never tell how you'll dock.  We've sailed to Ensenada too many times to count.  Sometimes we've dock Port and other times Starboard.  

[coevan]

15 hours ago, RWolver672 said:

My theory is if I don't see it on the way, I'll see it on the way back.  It's a crap shoot when docking.  Sometimes the back in, other times they go straight in.  Sometimes the pier is 90 degrees from the island, other times it's parallel to the island.  You never know until you get there.  

 

 

Exactly, the Captain does not even know until he is assigned a pier. It all depends on the other ships as well, when they dock, when they depart, so they are told by Port Authority " dock bow out, port side" 

[RWolver672]

On 2/13/2019 at 5:57 AM, RWolver672 said:

My theory is if I don't see it on the way, I'll see it on the way back.  It's a crap shoot when docking.  Sometimes the back in, other times they go straight in.  Sometimes the pier is 90 degrees from the island, other times it's parallel to the island.  You never know until you get there.  

 

9 hours ago, coevan said:

 

 

Exactly, the Captain does not even know until he is assigned a pier. It all depends on the other ships as well, when they dock, when they depart, so they are told by Port Authority " dock bow out, port side" 

 

And there's a possibility that there could be another ship docked on the other side of the pier.  Have had this happen more than once.

[mpcaruth]

I remember a few ships having a smoking area outside on one of the lower exterior decks on the port side.  The Sunshine had this on deck 3, Lobby.  So, you may want to research this to see if this is the case for your cruise ship and plan accordingly.  We chose the starboard side to avoid the potential of drifting smoke.