We have one of the forward cabins booked on Discovery for Alaska in May 2025, our cabin is one of the two centre ones L102 on the lido deck which are slightly wider than those either side of !01 and 102. We had the same forward Suite L106 on two sailings in 2008 and 2009 on Ruby and the views were great being just behind the top of the bridge.
We booked L102 on Discovery for the views and the metal superstructure is not an issue to us, on the Ruby the access to the curved balcony is on the Port side and even on sea days if you sat mid centre of the balcony against the cabin wall there was little to no wind.
Poesia, Opera, Divina x 3, Orchestra, Preziosa, Seaside x 2, Meraviglia, virtuosa and Seascape booked for this year. Nothing less than 7 nights and three x 20 nights.
I saw a post a day or so ago from someone claiming to be onboard Virtuosa in Dubai that said people were smoking in the Casino! Cannot confirm that though.
And sadly there was your mistake, sailing on a bus stop cruise and not sailing on an MSC cruise that has no stops where others get on and off. totally different kettle of fish.
We've sailed on Cunard, stayed at a Hilton and Intercontinental, sailed around 25 cruises, 11 of which have been with MSC in various parts of the globe, prefer MSC to the other lines we have sailed on.