Docking: Usually port-side or not?

[trump]

Hi - new to Viking Ocean. Considering a 7 day Mediterranean East cruise (from Venice) on Neptune.  Re: port or starboard stateroom:  have you found Viking Ocean ships TYPICALLY dock port side or does it vary ?  (On my Royal Caribbean cruises - it was always mixed, but it was mostly port side).   Thank you.

[FlyerTalker]

I have no authoritative answer, but I know that a number of ports require ships to dock in a certain manner.  So the port/starboard would be a function of the port conditions, not the cruiseline choice.  Can't speak to particular ports on your itinerary (and won't bother to look them up).

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, trump said:

Hi - new to Viking Ocean. Considering a 7 day Mediterranean East cruise (from Venice) on Neptune.  Re: port or starboard stateroom:  have you found Viking Ocean ships TYPICALLY dock port side or does it vary ?  (On my Royal Caribbean cruises - it was always mixed, but it was mostly port side).   Thank you.

On our 5 Viking Ocean cruises, nearly all of them docked starboard side.   I often wondered about this and was told that most of the ports we'd been to were geared more to starboard docking, but sounds a bit odd, why not 50/50?   I can remember only a handful of times it was on the port side, for what it's worth.  As such, we always try to get the starboard side, since love to watch them dock and can look out and see what the status of the gangway and people getting off is.

[JeriGail]

I remember reading a post about this that stated that Viking's ships have a larger door for loading supplies on the starboard side.

[Jim Avery]

It varies for sure.  We have had port side cabins and it seems as many port as starboard sides to the dock.  (248 day sample) Then when we were starboard side to, often the fuel tanker was tied up to our side with their exhaust stack near our balcony.  Either side works.

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, trump said:

Hi - new to Viking Ocean. Considering a 7 day Mediterranean East cruise (from Venice) on Neptune.  Re: port or starboard stateroom:  have you found Viking Ocean ships TYPICALLY dock port side or does it vary ?  (On my Royal Caribbean cruises - it was always mixed, but it was mostly port side).   Thank you.

 

The Viking ships are set up for storing on the Stbd side, as the M1/I95 only has a storing shell door on the Stbd side, aft by the storerooms.

 

While many factors impact whether a ship docks port or stbd side, the Master will endeavour to dock Stbd side alongside, if the ship is loading stores. However, many factors may require a Port side docking, which may include:

• requirements of the local Harbour Master,
• current issues - vessel will normally dock bow to the tide,
• proximity to navigational hazards when the wind blows,
• ease of departure, especially when storms are forecast

[njhorseman]

We've been on two Bermuda cruises (not Viking) with multiple port days that switched from port to starboard, or vice versa, during their stay in port. As I recall it took about an hour to bring in the gangway, release the lines, turn the ship, make fast on the other side and redeploy the gangway.

This was done because  lifeboats on the original side the ship was docked had to undergo their mandatory periodic test runs, but the ship had to initially dock on that side because of wind, tide or weather conditions at arrival.

Edited October 9, 2021 by njhorseman

[CCWineLover]

16 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The Viking ships are set up for storing on the Stbd side, as the M1/I95 only has a storing shell door on the Stbd side, aft by the storerooms.

 

While many factors impact whether a ship docks port or stbd side, the Master will endeavour to dock Stbd side alongside, if the ship is loading stores. However, many factors may require a Port side docking, which may include:

• requirements of the local Harbour Master,
• current issues - vessel will normally dock bow to the tide,
• proximity to navigational hazards when the wind blows,
• ease of departure, especially when storms are forecast

Thank you Andy!  I knew there had to be some very good logic and reasons behind the choice of Starboard and Port.   And it helps explain somewhat why we seemed to get more starboard docking in our past cruises (all other things being equal, they would prefer that for stores)

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

Thank you Andy!  I knew there had to be some very good logic and reasons behind the choice of Starboard and Port.   And it helps explain somewhat why we seemed to get more starboard docking in our past cruises (all other things being equal, they would prefer that for stores)

 

The various storerooms are all in the vicinity of the stbd aft shell door, so it just makes it easier for stowing the stores. If Port side alongside, they have to run the pallets down the busy M1/I95. A tad inconvenient and takes longer.

[Janet&David]

We have a slightly different approach. We look at a map of the itinerary and try to decide which side of the ship will have a better view of the coasts we are passing to have a greater chance of seeing something other than sea from our balcony. As others have said, it's difficult to predict which side the ship will dock in port (whereas it is quite easy to predict where countries will be) - and also the view across the port is often at least as interesting as the view of the dock.