Is starboard side OK?

[holdon216]

We booked a cruise for next spring on Carnival Radiance. The ports being Barcelona, Livorno Italy,  Civitavecchia Italy,  Naples,  Palermo,  Kotor Montenegro,  Corfu Greece,  Catania Italy, and Vallette Malta. 

When i booked there were no available PORT aft balcony rooms, only starboard. (Pretty sure at this point Carnival does not open up all rooms at the same time!) So now some port side rooms have opened up. With a moderate increase in price. Which is the side we prefer.

Question, anyone familiar with these ports, should i switch to port side room or does it not make much difference in the majority of these ports? I am aware port does not necessarily mean port when docked. And that some might even be tenders.

Thanks!

[euro cruiser]

Since there is no way to predict where or how a ship will berth in any given port, choose the cabin and/or side of the ship you prefer for cruising.

[PelicanLvr]

OP - Why do you "prefer" the port side?  

 

I do not know of any advantage to one side over the other.  

[Hlitner]

I guess some folks have a preferred side.  Personally, having spent far more than 1000 days on cruise ships (with many of them in Europe) I have no clue as to why they like one particular side.    As to which side a ship docks, that can vary for many reasons.  We have been on ships where the Captain will (with the help of the pilot) pick a particular side because he wants the crew to do some painting on one side (easier to access from a pier) or perhaps to just wash one side of the ship.  

 

Hank

[holdon216]

21 minutes ago, PelicanLvr said:

OP - Why do you "prefer" the port side?  

 

I do not know of any advantage to one side over the other.  

We prefer the port side because most of the time it will be the side facing the port when docked. (Not always but most of the time.) We enjoy looking at the land/scenery and the activity there. It also enables us to see how soon we’ll get the all clear to get off the ship.  And we can watch the runners.  

[Daisyloo]

OP,   I really don't think it will matter what side you choose.  The ship will probably be port side to the pier in some ports, and in others it will be starboard.  I don 't think there is any way of knowing which it will be for any given port.  Also, wind and tides could play a deciding factor in the way a captain chooses to dock.   

[CruiserBruce]

12 hours ago, holdon216 said:

We prefer the port side because most of the time it will be the side facing the port when docked. (Not always but most of the time.) We enjoy looking at the land/scenery and the activity there. It also enables us to see how soon we’ll get the all clear to get off the ship.  And we can watch the runners.  

Maybe it varies by cruise line, but I have actually kept track on several of my 21 HAL, Princess and RCI cruises because I don't think your theory is true. General results? It's closer to a 50-50 split on which side is to the dock. 60-40 occasionally. 

[d9704011]

On 5/20/2019 at 2:34 PM, euro cruiser said:

Since there is no way to predict where or how a ship will berth in any given port, choose the cabin and/or side of the ship you prefer for cruising.

Celebrity EDGE will be docking ‘port side to’.

[euro cruiser]

44 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

Celebrity EDGE will be docking ‘port side to’.

And you know this how?

 

There is no guarantee, conditions and traffic change causing the harbor master to alter even the best laid plans.

[GrJ Berkshire]

It really does not matter which side you are on, there are no guarantees as to docking. Equally on lower decks you do not know the state of the tide, so at what level you are compared to the quay, is equally uncertain. You might just have a concrete quay wall outside, this is often the case on smaller ships with the MDR windows.