It probably won't matter which side you select- you won't be spending much daytime cruising and when not cruising you'll be ashore and won't be spending much time in your cabin. Other than lights in the distance, you can't see much when cruising at night and sunset comes early. Also, when docked, you may be rafted along side another river boat sometimes one on each side though this is not as common on an XMAS Mkts cruises. FYI, regardless of direction of travel, river boats ALWAYS dock with their bows facing into the current- on the Danube when docked you will be facing generally northwest since the river flows northwest to southeast. When docked, the side facing land also depends which side of the river the town is located- on your cruise all the towns (the Altstadts) except Nuremberg, which is on the north side of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, are on the south side of the Danube.
Hmmm, looks like my comment did not go through. So if the original does appear, please forgive the repetition. There is not a lot of beautiful scenery between Vienna and Nuremburg and most of your cruising time will be after dark, so even less to see. You will also spend a lot of that cruising time negotiating the locks and once you've seen one or two, you've seen them all. Also be aware that the locks make the wifi very spotty unless Tauck has improved on its system. It is a great trip for visiting the markets. Have a wonderful time.
I'm currently on the cruise in a lower level Cat 1 cabin port side. Mostly it seems we've been tied up to the dock on that side which has limited what I could see. However as others noted there isn't that much time to view scenery in part due to the very short days and we have also had ships tied up to our other side. Basically doesn't matter. Choose based on cabin type.
The cruise itself isn't much to talk about, but it is the stops that you take over there to see the various Christmas markets and vendors selling their items on this particular cruise (I had been on the Danube and Rhine river Christmas markets in the past and I especially enjoyed the one on the Danube (many vendor along that river). :-)
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It probably won't matter which side you select- you won't be spending much daytime cruising and when not cruising you'll be ashore and won't be spending much time in your cabin. Other than lights in the distance, you can't see much when cruising at night and sunset comes early. Also, when docked, you may be rafted along side another river boat sometimes one on each side though this is not as common on an XMAS Mkts cruises. FYI, regardless of direction of travel, river boats ALWAYS dock with their bows facing into the current- on the Danube when docked you will be facing generally northwest since the river flows northwest to southeast. When docked, the side facing land also depends which side of the river the town is located- on your cruise all the towns (the Altstadts) except Nuremberg, which is on the north side of the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, are on the south side of the Danube.
Hmmm, looks like my comment did not go through. So if the original does appear, please forgive the repetition. There is not a lot of beautiful scenery between Vienna and Nuremburg and most of your cruising time will be after dark, so even less to see. You will also spend a lot of that cruising time negotiating the locks and once you've seen one or two, you've seen them all. Also be aware that the locks make the wifi very spotty unless Tauck has improved on its system. It is a great trip for visiting the markets. Have a wonderful time.
I'm currently on the cruise in a lower level Cat 1 cabin port side. Mostly it seems we've been tied up to the dock on that side which has limited what I could see. However as others noted there isn't that much time to view scenery in part due to the very short days and we have also had ships tied up to our other side. Basically doesn't matter. Choose based on cabin type.
The cruise itself isn't much to talk about, but it is the stops that you take over there to see the various Christmas markets and vendors selling their items on this particular cruise (I had been on the Danube and Rhine river Christmas markets in the past and I especially enjoyed the one on the Danube (many vendor along that river). :-)