Koningsdam Port or Starboard
- Thread starter WaldaSbl
- Start date
We did the inside passage cruise in June of 23 on the 4th deck, Beethoven. These cabins are “obstructed”. However, rather than the usual lifeboat in your face as you go onto your veranda, the lifeboat is visible below the handrail or you have a bit of the framework(post/staunch/winch…?) which holds the lifeboat above the deck below. This allowed great savings in the rising cruise price for a balcony.
We chose the unusual shaped 4042 (port/left) as we booked a month before and someone had released the cabin, plus 3 more regular cabins were available on that deck. We were worried that the position near the elevators would be noisy and we’d heard it was an early active area for stewards and their rumbling carts loudly greeting early risers… never a peep. The layout inside was similar to the majority of the veranda cabins. The bonus was having one about three to four sizes larger than the usual! However, rather than the end, the veranda door went off from the left side of the cabin and on colder days, you could also choose to sit inside on the wee sofa which was right against a very large window with no obstruction!
The only negatives were the sometimes smoke drifting from the casino on deck 3 as we exited the cabin (poor design on HAL putting the casino centrally with smoking allowed) and possibly less room to manoeuvre past anyone at the end of the bed but I’m not sure if the others are as narrow.
4044 and 4046 (and their counterparts on starboard) are also unusual shapes. We chatted with our cruise mates in 4044 and they envied our balcony for our lower obstruction as they had the post. However, if you want a larger cabin for less, they could have had a small dance party in their horizontally flipped cabin! I think 4046 is similar to this one but lacks one of their two tall windows Later models of this ship class are not the same and have different configurations, including more streamlined lifeboat lower posts which make the obstruction even less visible.
Now, port or starboard? We laughed on our cruise that every time the ranger commented on wildlife, it was on starboard but that would change uncontrollably at nature’s whim. If you are concerned about Glacier Bay, the captain does a 360 so that everyone has an equal view. As for docks, I’m not sure if they change depending on number of ships in but HAL has good locations in Alaska. We faced away from central town sites in all three ports. Sail away from Vancouver, you’d have faced downtown but we were on deck anyway. You’ll have island mountains during inland passage daytime outgoing ….. I really can’t think there is any real benefit to either but perhaps someone else might have another opinion.
We chose the unusual shaped 4042 (port/left) as we booked a month before and someone had released the cabin, plus 3 more regular cabins were available on that deck. We were worried that the position near the elevators would be noisy and we’d heard it was an early active area for stewards and their rumbling carts loudly greeting early risers… never a peep. The layout inside was similar to the majority of the veranda cabins. The bonus was having one about three to four sizes larger than the usual! However, rather than the end, the veranda door went off from the left side of the cabin and on colder days, you could also choose to sit inside on the wee sofa which was right against a very large window with no obstruction!
The only negatives were the sometimes smoke drifting from the casino on deck 3 as we exited the cabin (poor design on HAL putting the casino centrally with smoking allowed) and possibly less room to manoeuvre past anyone at the end of the bed but I’m not sure if the others are as narrow.
4044 and 4046 (and their counterparts on starboard) are also unusual shapes. We chatted with our cruise mates in 4044 and they envied our balcony for our lower obstruction as they had the post. However, if you want a larger cabin for less, they could have had a small dance party in their horizontally flipped cabin! I think 4046 is similar to this one but lacks one of their two tall windows Later models of this ship class are not the same and have different configurations, including more streamlined lifeboat lower posts which make the obstruction even less visible.
Now, port or starboard? We laughed on our cruise that every time the ranger commented on wildlife, it was on starboard but that would change uncontrollably at nature’s whim. If you are concerned about Glacier Bay, the captain does a 360 so that everyone has an equal view. As for docks, I’m not sure if they change depending on number of ships in but HAL has good locations in Alaska. We faced away from central town sites in all three ports. Sail away from Vancouver, you’d have faced downtown but we were on deck anyway. You’ll have island mountains during inland passage daytime outgoing ….. I really can’t think there is any real benefit to either but perhaps someone else might have another opinion.
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Just an additional suggestion to get visuals from cabin tours on YouTube by searching ‘Koningsdam cabin’ and even specific cabin numbers (and their counterpart cabin number on the opposite side as the layout will be the same.) You might be lucky to see the cabin you have chosen.
Out of Vancouver on a return cruise I ave never thought that one side was better or worse. But usually when facing a Glacier (if they get close) the captain does a complete circle and goes clockwise.. So if you were in your room Port would work out best. I agree on DEck 4 and if you come back and prove yourself as a true cruise @ddict I may get permission to give away a way better secret.
Thank you so much for your reply and the information is very helpful