Balcony Side

[beeandkmon]

I usually book inside rooms as they are so much cheaper and we are usually only in our room to sleep. However, the Norwegian Jewel is offering upgrades for fairly reasonable and I am tempted to change to a balcony. However, if you do the upgrade you don't get to pick your room/side of the ship. Our boat will be cruising Hubbard Glacier, Sawyer Glacier, and the Inside Passage. My question is- is one side of the ship so much better that the other side becomes pointless in regards to views? I don't want to pay the money and then end up not using it. We've had a balcony before on a free upgrade but only in a very port intensive cruise where we didn't really use it. 

[geoherb]

The captain will turn the ship to give both sides a chance to view the glacier. On my recent Princess cruise, it was about 30 minutes per side. You'll want to be outside in a public area when the ship is turned to the other side.

[CruiserBruce]

This is an extremely frequently asked question here. The answer is it doesn't matter. You aren't locked in your cabin, you will be out and about. The best viewing is frequently on an outside deck. The scenery is "big picture"...you don't have to be in one special place to see it. As mentioned, when at glaciers, the ship will turn so both sides can see just fine.

 

We spent 90 minutes at Hubbard Glacier last month on HAL's Amsterdam. The glacier was calving almost non-stop. When it was turned to our side of the ship, we were on our balcony. When the ship turned the other side, we went to the stern outside deck. It was awesome.

[masterdrago]

Not concerning the glacier viewing, I suggest a port side balcony if going southbound. We had a starboard side balcony and mostly saw either only open water or piers/loading docks in May on Radiance of the Seas. I recently looked at future cruises and discovered that port side balconies were either in very short supply or priced ~$600 more. I'm not sure on northbound cruises but would expect the view to be somewhat better on the starboard side when cruising. Don't know how the boats dock of other cruise lines. I wish we had been with CruiserBruce. We got zero calving on a spectacular sunny day at Hubbard.