Port or Starboard ?

It is very close to Christmas now and a New Year approaches which made me think of my New Year Cruise on P&O Ventura in December 2015. This was the mini cruise to Amsterdam and Bruges.  I had done the same trip a couple of years before and the highlight for us all was the fireworks display in Amsterdam on New Years` Eve that went on until the early hours of the morning.

I never really thought about which side of the ship was best to be on, port or starboard, until planning the same trip again when we realised that we had been lucky being on the port side as that had the best view of the fireworks. With 8 of us travelling I decided the safest bet was to book 2 cabins on either side just to make sure ! Perfect. The only problem was the ship never made it Amsterdam due to the wind and we spent New Year in the north Sea with not a firework in sight!

Choosing port or starboard is a bit of a minefield though. Most people assume that if you choose port side then you will dock looking at the port, and so get better views of the land. This is not necessarily true, especially on a river cruise where both sides get equally beautiful views. Budapest is the perfect example when we had a cabin on the starboard side and the views were wonderful. I`ve also been on several ships who arrived into port ready to berth on the port side and then changed there minds at the last minute.

However there are some sailings where port or starboard needs to be carefully considered, transatlantic to New York on Queen Mary 2, or anywhere Westbound.

Having done it, and been on the wrong side, you do really need to be port side out and starboard side back. Apart from the fact that the sun makes port warmer out and starboard back. On New York sailings you will also get a better view of the Statue of Liberty when arriving or leaving.

Apart from that does it really make a huge difference ?