It’s a question I am often asked…

Which side of the ship is best? Which side should I book? which is best for the Fjords or Alaska? Isn’t is to do with POSH? So yes, lets start there …

POSH supposedly comes from the old phrase ‘Port Out, Starboard Home’  - referring to the better cabins on P&O steamship voyages to and from India. It wasn’t anything to do with the view - it was that those were the cabins that would get the most shade in the hottest part of the journey. Nowadays with air-conditioned cabins its not really relevant, in fact for the best sunbathing on that voyage you’d want it the other way round!
Or actually maybe we should start further back?

Port and Starboard - which is which?

OK, so if you’re on a ship and you face the the front,  the side on your LEFT is Port and the side on your RIGHT is Starboard.  I remember that by thinking “Oh dear there’s no red port Left’. Other people have different ways of remembering - I’ll make a fun list and post it at some point - but I like my way because it also helps to remember that the lights on the Port side of a ships bow (front, pointy bit) are Red and those on the Starboard ( thats right - both meanings of….) are Green. As are all the buoys that tell the Captain

where the channel is - and the lighthouses - and the lights on every little boat you see…

So LEFT is RED PORT and the other one is green - which you don’t actually HAVE to know at all but now you do!

Why the stupid names? 

Well actually it helps avoid confusion - if you just said the right or left side then you would have to specify either which way you were looking or which way the ship was heading. Port and Starboard relate to the bow of the ship, not the direction it is moving - the side stays the same if the ship is in reverse!  The two words actually comes from early ships - think Viking - which were steered by a long oar on the right hand side at the stern (back) of the ship. The side without the ‘steer-board’ was the side that was tied up against the ‘port’ and thats how things came to be! No-one has come up with anything better in the hundreds of years since (*** actually this isn’t strictly true but I’ll come back to it in a minute!), so Port and Starboard it is!

So you get a better view in Port from the port side?

Well no, because nowadays,  a ship can tie up on either side and could face either into or out of the port - so one side does not consistently have better views in port. You will always meet someone who says ‘Oh, you must be on starboard to see Vesuvius when you dock in Naples’ because that worked when they were there, but it might be different when you arrive - depending on how many other ships are in port, what the weather is, the size of other ships in port… honestly its really not worth trying to micro manage to that extent! If you can’t see Vesuvius from your stateroom ( cabin, bedroom) balcony you will definitely see it from the deck.

What about at sea?

Once you're in the open ocean, the view will be pretty much the same on either side - ships really don’t often sail that close to shore. If you’re arriving into port or cruising near somewhere amazing  - past  Stromboli volcano for example - then you want to be up on deck, looking forward to see the all ocean around you, to make sure you get the full experience!  For this you can either go high to the top decks or search out a lower viewing deck that’s open to passengers - talk to Customer Services about your options - the helipad at the bow is very popular but you may need an invitation or a pass. 

When Cruising in an inlet - say into the Fjords, Kotor or parts of Alaska - the ship will go in facing one way and come out facing the other, so both sides will get the best view at some point! And for some ‘scenic cruising’ such as in Hubbard Glacier the ship actually turns gently in a full 360* circle so everyone will get the same view from their balcony. 

So basically it doesn’t matter?

Well it depends on what’s important to you. I love sunsets and am fairly unlikely to even see the dawn so on a passage  - a cruise that start in one place and ends in another - there will generally be a side that will get better sunsets. On these itineraries, choose a port side cabin for sunsets if you're sailing north or west, or to see sunrise if you're sailing south or east (or choose starboard for the opposite). But most cruises go out and round and back to where they started so then it really won’t matter at all!

There are a couple of specific places it could make a difference …

The Suez Canal is more interesting on its western bank - the other side is basically desert. So thats port side heading north and starboard heading south. On the other hand it takes about 12 hours to pass through and you’re unlikely to spend that all sitting on your balcony so TBH I wouldn’t be too worried!

The Panama Canal runs south (Pacific side) to north (Atlantic Side) so heading north you would have the morning sun on the Starboard side and shade in the late afternoon - vice versa on Port or heading south! Again the entire transit takes about 10 hours so I imagine it isn’t crucial either way!

Venice, if you are actually heading into the Venice Lagoon (and many ships now don’t) then there will be amazing view of St Marks Square on the Starboard side - opposite if you’re leaving Venice of course - but its not as if there isn’t anything else to see and again I would get dressed and out on deck for the full experience as soon as possible!

New York, arriving early in the morning on a transatlantic crossing you need a cabin on the port side in order to see the Statute of Liberty in your PJs - when leaving you need to be drinking champagne on your Starboard balcony!

So none of this matters and I shouldn’t worry about it?

Pretty much -  on an out and back cruise it really won’t matter at all and even on a passage I think you have to be a pretty experienced or fussy cruiser for it to make a material difference on the whole journey. For example I worked out my best side for sunsets on a passage from Rome to Abu Dhabi and was totally happy but it turned out to be completely the wrong side to see Stromboli in my dressing gown - did it matter? Not at all!! 

Do try and remember Port and Starboard though - it can be helpful on board! If I haven’t fried your brain already, you might like to know that the convention on cruise ships is for cabins on the PORT side to have EVEN numbers and those on STARBOARD to have ODD numbers. This is extremely useful if you come out of a lift on a big ship and can’t remember which side your cabin is on!!

*** By the way that exception I mentioned is the beautiful new Virgin Voyages ship Scarlet Lady which has done away with  a thousand years of Port and Starboard and chose to have sides A and Z. The cabin numbers on each side run consecutively and are the same just differentiated by the addition of the letter A or Z. Confused? I was! Also a bit lost and fruitlessly trying a key card on the wrong door at two in the morning, when I worked it out  - so be grateful you’re pre-warned - I bet you never thought that you’d think Port and Starboard simpler!!

I hope you’ve found this helpful, as always it would be great if you commented below! There are also some small affiliate links there which help towards the running of the website - if you click through and buy anything from them it gives us a few pence but doesn’t cost you any extra! It’s a great help and thanks to all those who do!

Happy portExploring!

Cathy 

xx

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