Port or Starboard for Alaska Inside Passage

[CruiserDoc]

We are scheduled on the Oosterdam for an Inside Passage cruise roundtrip from Seattle. Do any past cruisers have insight as to whether it would be better to have a cabin on the Port or Starboard?

[jhannah]

Since it's a round trip, it won't matter. Your cabin will face the mainland one direction and the opposite view the other.

[CruiserDoc]

jhannah--

That was my thought, but the Holland America rep was trying to convince me the Starboard would be better. If anything, I would think Port would be better. ????

[minitor]

Is this the cruise that goes to Hubbard? If so, we had a cabin on the Starboard side. It was fine, except when we got to the Bay with the glacier. Had we stayed in our suite, we would not have seen the glacier up close since the ship came in and turned toward Starboard against the face of the glacier making the port side toward the glacier. This may not be the way it is each time, but that's the way it was for us. However, we were on the bow during this entire time...so it did not matter to us.

At ports: I think I recall at each port the Starboard side faced the town and the Port side faced out. Not necessarily bad because at Sitka, we were able to watch eagles along the beach from our balcony.

Hope that helps, and again the Hubbard tour approach may change due to ice, wind another ship etc.

[jhannah]

Well, since you'd face both west and east during the cruise, I can't see where one would be better than the other. I don't know why they'd recommend starboard over port. Our experience with the glaciers is that the captain turns the ship around so each side gets a good view. (And as minitor points out, if you're out on deck that won't matter, either.)

[minitor]

bump

[RuthC]

Six o' one, half a dozen o' the other. On a round-trip out of Seattle it really won't make a difference. Do you want sunsets on the northbound or southbound portion?

Especially on a round-trip out of Seattle it won't make a difference. You will be doing more the "outside passage" than the Inside Passage" when you do this route.

[dakrewser]

If an ything the port side is better. Both have essentially the same views (one northbound, the other southbound), but between Hubbard and Sitka the starboard side sees only ocean as far as you can see....