Ship in Port Question

[cantgetaname]

When a cruise ship (this case Royal Caribbean) docks in Spain (Malaga, Cartagena, Valencia & Palma)  Does the ship usually dock with a particular side of the ship facing port?   I'm on the starboard side.

[marazul]

No.  Large ports have multiple piers where the ships can dock on either side.  Docking only on one side is true in small ports with only one pier.  Ports can be approached from one direction or the other, so if there is only one side to dock you could be facing either way.  You can look at the satellite maps of the ports in Google maps.  BTW - the view from the pier in large ports is usually other ships, cranes, trucks, etc.  

[MeHeartCruising]

Also, unless forced to dock in a particular orientation by the geography (which isn’t common, as marazul indicates above) ships will dock using different sides now and then to accommodate various ship operations (refueling, cleaning, life boat tests, etc).   You generally cannot know in advance which side will face the pier or the water. 

Edited April 7, 2022 by MeHeartCruising

[samavarcruiser]

11 hours ago, cantgetaname said:

When a cruise ship (this case Royal Caribbean) docks in Spain (Malaga, Cartagena, Valencia & Palma)  Does the ship usually dock with a particular side of the ship facing port?   I'm on the starboard side.

 

I am just curious 🙂  what would change?

 

[John Bull]

3 hours ago, samavarcruiser said:

 

I am just curious 🙂  what would change?

 

 

For us tightwads with cabins down near the scuppers, a cabin facing the quay is like looking out on a grey prison wall - facing the sea is so much nicer.

That said, it's something we don't really worry about - even if we did, as others have posted the ship would probably switch.

 

There are a very few itineraries where we'd consider which side of the ship to book, and they'd be to do with

- the sun (south & west) vs shade (north & east) on one-way cruises( on out and back cruises that tends to level-up).

- or very specific sail-away views - for instance port out of Southampton and Venice, starboard out of Rio. Tho' if your cabin is on the "wrong" side, out on the deck does the job - and is usually a better view than from any cabin. 

 

Just MHO as always

 

JB 🙂