Port and Starboard

What they mean

The classic memory trick: "port" and "left" both have four letters. A second one sailors use: port wine is red, and a ship's port running light is red at night. Once it clicks, you won't forget it.

The words are old sailing vocabulary — starboard comes from the "steering-board" (steering oar) historically mounted on the right, and port is the side a ship turned to face the dock to load, since the steering oar was in the way on the other side.

Why this matters for new cruisers

Port and starboard aren't just sailor's trivia — on a cruise they're a cabin-booking decision input. You pick a side for the view you'll get, and that depends on the itinerary and the ship's direction of travel. On a one-way Alaska sailing, or any route that hugs a coastline, one side faces land and scenery while the other faces open water — and which side is which flips depending on the direction the ship is heading.

Cruise lines list cabins by side on their deck plans, so knowing that port = left and starboard = right lets you read a deck plan and choose deliberately instead of guessing. (Motion and seasickness are a different decision — those come down to how far forward or aft you are and how high up, which we cover on the aft, bow, midship, forward page.)