Planning a cruise to Alaska. Do we book a room on the left or right side of the ship?

halfmonkey

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
We're interested in booking a cruise to Alaska for the first time and we're planning on going with RC instead of DCL because of the cost. DCL is just wayyyyyy too expensive to go to Alaska. We planning to go on a cruise that starts and returns to Seattle On the Ovation of the Seas.

As far as booking a room, can anyone tell me if it's better to book the left or right side of the ship? This is in regards to cruising and seeing the ice bergs. I know the ship sails to Tracy Arm Fjords and I'm not sure if we dock and have an opportunity to take shore excursions or not. As far as I understand, it just hangs out there but please correct me if I'm wrong.

If the ship doesn't dock does the ship stay stationary the whole time or does it rotate for the left side to view the glacier and then switch to the right side to view the glacier? I'm asking because we're planning on booking a balcony room and so it'll be easier to view the glacier form our room rather than deal with the crowds up on deck so I'm wondering if our room needs to be on the left or right side of the ship?
 
Sorry, but can't address your question at this time.

We have a cruise to Alaska soon and resolved that issue by going with DW's sister and her husband. We have starboard w/veranda and they have port w/veranda. :teeth:
 
The ship does not dock in Tracy Arm. It will pull in, sit for a few minutes and then rotate 180 degrees and sail back out. I do not remember which direction the ship rotates. From your room you will be able to see other glaciers as well as small waterfalls no matter which side of the ship you are on.
 
The ship does not dock in Tracy Arm. It will pull in, sit for a few minutes and then rotate 180 degrees and sail back out. I do not remember which direction the ship rotates. From your room you will be able to see other glaciers as well as small waterfalls no matter which side of the ship you are on.

This is good info. We ended up booking starboard towards the front of the ship on deck 10. Hopefully, we'll have a good enough view where we can just check out the glaciers from our balcony and not have to go to the top deck and deal with the crowds.
 


For the RT cruises what you miss on the way up because it is on the other side of the ship will be visible on the way back. Honestly don’t think it matters much unless there is something specific you want to see. We did port side last August largely because we wanted Vancouver Island off our balcony on the last day heading to Victoria. Ended up being incredible With humpbacks popping up all over the place for about an hour and a half in the middle of the afternoon.
 
The ship does not dock in Tracy Arm. It will pull in, sit for a few minutes and then rotate 180 degrees and sail back out. I do not remember which direction the ship rotates. From your room you will be able to see other glaciers as well as small waterfalls no matter which side of the ship you are on.
A few minutes? Really? When we sailed the Radiance to Alaska the Hubbard Glacier was an entire day - hours of which were spent basically just "rotating". There was plenty of time to see as much as one wanted of the glacier, watch and listen to it calve, observe one of the lifeboats take a trip out to harvest ice for carving, etc. They also had a big bbq lunch and deck party that day. I'm so glad we didn't take the Tracy Arm itinerary if all of that isn't included.
 
Side of the ship only matters slightly if you are doing a one way cruise. Going from Alaska to Vancouver for example is a Southbound cruise. The Port ( or left side if you are on board facing the bridge) is better because if you are traveling down towards Vancouver , the land would be on the left side.

However, in researching this personally, the concensus is that it isn't that big of a deal. For the most part, when the ship has a Glacier day (Glacier National Park is way up there as far as the best viewing BTW), the ship indeeds slowly turns.

Also, those who have been say it is a good idea to get off your balcony and go where you can get a more comprehensive view - you will be surprised how much more you can see - and bring binoculars !
 



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