balcony -- port or starboard?

[markser]

We are planning on booking a cabin with a balcony. I have read here to try to get one that will be in the shade the most. That would mean that we want our balcony facing east in the afternoon so that the sun will be on the other side of the ship in the afternoon, when we are most likely to use it. However, I'm having trouble figuring which side that would be. We are doing the Society Islands & Tuamotus cruise.

 

Does it make much difference what side we are on in terms of island views? I have read that we anchor in lagoons more than we dock.

 

Thanks for everyone's help with this question and my many other recent ones. I'm a PG newbie and I can't help myself.

[Silver Sweethearts]

We can only speak from our cruise six months ago (Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society Islands), but most of the ports did indeed require anchoring offshore. That allowed the ship to drift around while at anchor, providing an everchanging view and alternating sun and shade on the balcony as we drifted.

 

As to the bedding and balcony size/furniture questions, PG headquarters might be the best place to inquire about that. If they can't tell you right away, they could contact the ship and find the answers. Remember the ship will be refurbished in January, 2012, and that may/may not mean some differences in the cabin after that. Worth asking about. We chose a cabin with the twin configuration and asked for separate duvets as well as the given fact of separate sheets. The beds were only inches apart, but we were each able to have our own bed.

 

We really enjoyed our butler. We like to have breakfast in our cabin. Our butler brought it and set everything up each day. He took our laundry to the cleaners; made restaurant reservations; brought hors d'oeuvres every evening and generally took care of whatever we requested. His command of the English language was also better than that of the stewardess, so we had no trouble communicating successfully.

[MightyQuinn]

I agree with Silver Sweethearts - it won't matter whether you are port or starboard. The ship anchors in virtually all ports and drifts around its anchorage so both sides have the same vantage point. The ship docks in Papeete and Raiatea and there may be some advantage to being starboard.