One of my very first cruises (all by myself )I heard something all night long I did not know what it was? I could not figure it out and I didn’t know anybody on the ship to ask .. so the next day I went down to guest services and I asked them if there was a bowling alley on the cruise ?because I thought I heard what was bowling balls all night long going back-and-forth from one side area to another above my cabin …lol …later on I found out it was the stabilizers that I was hearing. I definitely have learned a lot in my 36+ cruises as of today ..
You are correct about the thin walls of the adjoining room doors. Our last cruise cabin had an adjoining door and unfortunately for us, the cruisers on the other side of that door were Swingers. 😳😳
I’m a solo cruiser and I tend to try to book cabins fairly close to an elevator, I just feel safer not having to walk down a super long hallway alone. I’ve never experienced issues with noise. 😊
We were on the Panorama in January in a Family Harbor Suite two doors away from the Family Harbor Lounge (made breakfast and snacks very easy to come by) and loved every minute of it. Twice the balcony area and two bathrooms!!! Very little motion, however our friends booked an aft balcony and they suffered with motion sickness. They also couldn't see much of the wake due to the way the back of the ship was built...there was a large ledge that blocked their view.
Me and my sister cruise together always Carnival and our primary concern is a great deal so we can afford more cruises....we have sailed in interior, ocean view, have an obstructed view balcony and portholes on our next two booked cruises. we have been on low deck and lido and in between...we don't care. With limited funds its nice to feel we can afford excursions etc and more cruises....we really don't spend a lot of time in our cabins and are often wandering around the ship early morning as well as late into the night....the life of retired folk! Great video though ! Good to know what those noises we hear might be...As you said, remember you are on a cruise...that's awesome!
We recently did a 2-week B2B. We were able to book the same stateroom for both weeks, meaning no need to pack and change staterooms. It was a balcony cabin midship on the portside. Overall, we were very happy with the location with 2 exceptions-it was directly across from a crew service closet and the outdoor smoking areas were portside. Overall, the crew was quite considerate, so noise wasn't much of an issue, however, depending on the direction the wind was blowing we'd catch a whiff of cigarette smoke when sitting on our balcony. Now, when booking a balcony stateroom, I'll ask what side of the ship the smoking area is.
I'm a disabled traveler so while I love all these tips, I'm limited to the 4 or 5 wheelchair accessible rooms available. Unfortunately they are not usually an aft-balcony or spa room. Happy for any room I can get! PS. Love your videos!
I feel you (ambulatory WC user). I have the luxury that I can stand for a moment & fold my WC (or on great days my rollator) to go through a narrow regular door if we have to book a regular room. Able bodied folx tend to forget disabled folx exist. Or worse, certain able-bodied vloggers promote *deliberately* booking an *accessible* cabin that they *don't need*, simply for the balcony size. 🙄💩 Thankfully, many cruise lines weed those people out by requiring PROOF of need.
My favorite cabin is a mid ship suite. Near the fancy elevators. The open area near that area where the sound comes up but it doesn’t make it to the rooms
I actually LOVE being near the elevators. We have never experienced unwanted noise. We are looking at a Panama Canal Cruise. We prefer GS on RC. All their GS are on deck 10, right below the pool/spa/windjamer deck......I'm not sure what to do about this....
We booked a room next to a crew closet on the Koningsdam after reading reviews that it wasn’t a noisy spot. Mostly linens. We chose it because the deck is double the width as it goes across the crew area. It is also deck 4 where the decks are double depth. So, in the end it’s double width, double depth, a HUGE balcony! Totally worth it in this case, but you need to do your research.
I am a veranda-aholic. Therefore this will be mostly about my favorite verandas and why: 1. end of the hall verandas facing the side. Very quiet, and on your veranda you can see where you're going, and because you are so far aft, where you were... 2. I scope out side-view images of the ships so that I can see - really see- the verandas as they can differ. For instance on Princess Grand Class deck 8, the last mini-suite on port and aft have double wide veranda's. Same price you'd pay for a regular one too ! HAL has double deep veranda's aft and port on Deck 4 of most all their ships. They even have 2 double wide ones in the back aft-ish port side area. 3. we actually love being near a steward service area - we get ice quicker that way and have even been told to help ourselves LOL. 4. we are pool go-ers and on the Celebrity Solstice Class ships, deck 12 sports all of the pool action, great bar and the atrium-solarium pool. Deck 12 also has 1/3 of that deck dedicated to Concierge veranda and first level suite accommodations. What a wonderful thing it is to leave your room and you are bingo out at the pool and/or bar in no time flat. Vice versa, how great it is when you are all dripping wet, to never have to elevator up or down to your stateroom. 5, A room type to steer clear of and as mentioned by Sherri: we NEVER book be it on a cruise or resort - an interconnecting room. boo ! hiss ! very bad ! Don't care to hear other folk's domestic noises thank you very much :-) THANKS FOR A GREAT VIDEO !!!!!!!
I second about connecting cabins. I run a TV all night to sleep and had a complaint on one cruise that I had a connecting cabin. I got an extra blanket and stuffed it at the bottom of the door, and it helped. After that I make sure I do not have connecting cabins.
I like midship. On Allure we wanted to be on a strategic area and also wanted to be close to Central Park, so we booked deck 9 midship but close to the Aft. We had an elevator almost15 steps away. To me it was a good cabin, port side.
The worst cabin I ever had was an aft balcony! Didn't even know there was that small of a cabin! Couldn't see anything sitting down as the plexiglass was obscured by saltwater residue! Also had soot from the exhaust stack!
We just got off the Carnival Pride for our European cruise. We had a suite on the aft of the ship. It was wonderful. Huge deck and awesome view of the wake. Loved it.
We loved the aft balcony cabin, and we loved the interior cabin that faced the "secret" deck/walkway - the only problem with that interior location was its right above the where the anchor comes back on the ship - something came loose and for two nights all night long, either the anchor or the chain was slamming into the side of the ship actually shaking our cabins - they finally got it fixed after we stopped in Cozumel
I really like Havana deck on the Carnival Vista & Horizon. Access to the Havana pool deck was soooo worth the extra cost. However, they also have live music in the Havana bar and they go pretty late so that's something to consider. We're currently planning a cruise on one of RCI's Oasis class ships and are looking into the boardwalk balconies. The ones closer to the aft have a nice view of the wake and even the Aqua Theater, without having to pay the cost of an Aqua Theater suite!
My first cruise was a group and we couldn't choose our room we were at the front of the ship on deck 2. We heard the anchoring at every port of call so we woke up to that sometimes earlier than we wanted to. November cruise were in the front balcony, cabins below and above. We should be happy I hope.
Had a balcony first time hardly ever used it. Had a inside under buffet heard the automatic doors all night. Trying a window this time. My favorite was on the deck above lido. Close to things I liked the pool the outdoor area
A Lido deck balcony is our go-to but will be trying out an inside aft cabin on Princess (right next to the "secret door" by the Terrace pool in July! Avoid dance clubs above you and connecting door cabins no matter where they are! Lesson learned the hard way! :-)
Great Video! I only was on a cruise once so far. We had a midship balcony on Deck 6 (Upper) on Carnival Breeze. The location was okay but not ideal. Not a lot of motion even in rougher seas but having promenade deck & bars directly underneath can be bothersome at times. Unfortunately the neighbours were talking loudly late at night, but there's not much you can do about that, I guess.
We love your videos, very professional, fun and a pleasure to follow all your videos on different subjects. We just want to bring up one type of cabin to avoid, maybe you want to add it in the future. I am thinking about "obstructed view" cabins. Thank you, Pete & Connie
We always book a cabin in the middle of the ship. It can be either an inside or an outside cabin. We went on an Alaskan cruise with our cabin at the very front of the ship and got very seasick. Also try to stay away from any cabins with potential noise.
We booked last minute & got an inside room on deck 5. Unfortunately we didn’t realize we would hear the attendant carts in a crew area all day! You just never know😂 My favorite will always be a cabin close to an open deck on a deck with not many staterooms to lower the hallway traffic and avoiding carts! I also look to see if I can get a cabin that doesn’t have a cabin across from mine. Something about running into your across the hall neighbors 🤦🏼♀️🤷♀️
We had a spa cabin on the NCL encore. Thermal spa was amazing but our room was on the floor beneath the spa. It was very noisy went the crew was cleaning and moving things around this was usually in the middle of the night.
well cruise tip i have done 18 cruises i think i did pretty good cause all the cabins i picked were good one except the last cruise on the panorama 2020 i chose the cabin with the portholes very front was sleeping big noise woke me up it was the big anchor and chain coming down but other then that was all good i have never had a balcony because being a single cruiser way out of my budget
I love listening to these even though I have yet to be able to really apply them to my life. We cruise in Grand Suites only (so far) and those are limited and usually only in the central area of the ship and only on decks 7 and up (cuz of the balcony). So we can only really think about how close we want to be to pool/buffet vs promenade and up until our current cruise, we generally chose being super close to the buffet because we spent a lot of time there. On our current cruise on Allure we're kind of equidistant between the boardwalk and pool deck so I'm interested to see how that feels in comparison.
My first cruise is a month away and I still don’t know what cabin I’ll be in. My friends booked it and it’s a GTY adjoining room so I have no idea when I’ll know my room 🤷🏻♀️ I keep checking so I know where I’ll be. At least I know it won’t be strangers next to us!! 😂
Hi Sheri, This is the first of your videos that I’ve watched for a while, but now that crushing is back in Australia I’m back watching cruise videos 😂 I LOVE the top you’re wearing in this video. Can I ask where you got it from/what brand it is?
I love Carnivals Family Harbor area, and 2nd floor Oceanview. I prefer to visit the decks instead of having a balcony. It seems every balcony cabin I've had came with very noisy neighbors who party in their balcony late at night and stinky cigar smoke, which isn't allowed but they do it anyway. So Oceanview for me!
Beware of cabins above or below the CASINO. They are open really late and the host uses a microphone for the games and contests. Sounds carry through to surrounding cabins.
We are looking forward to our aft balcony to Alaska in July! We love when we can get the aft balcony. Watching the wake when the ship is underway is so relaxing.
Carnival Mardi Gras avoid room KS suite room # 10209 !!!! All that money spent extended balcony once you sat down you could not see the ocean whatsoever so waste of time also every time we were going to port the bow thrusters we’re like underneath your room ,well felt like it it shook our whole room and whatever you had in your cabin shook !! Was so disappointed ….
Hi how are you this is good information my first cruise in August on the Mardi Gras and my room is on deck(5) 5223 Oceanview made by a travel agent. Is that a good area 🤔 I am concerned I have no idea what it could be close too or it's around I would appreciate it if you knew thank you. I like watching your videos.😊👍💯
We were recently on a new cruise with the discovery princess ship and the people that were next-door to us …who we did not know and who we never saw …I do believe they slept with their TV on at the highest volume !occasionally we would come back to our room around midnight after seeing a show and enjoying the ship life and their TV was really loud I am a late sleeper so I would read until 2 AM ..sometime and their TV was still blasting and my husband being an early riser at six or so a.m. he would also hear the TV still going from the night before LOUD. I did not know what to do …I didn’t know about knocking on the door or anything ? but one night at 3 AM I could not stand it anymore so I called guest services within 15 minutes I heard security come and knock on their door next-door and told him to turn their volume down on their TV because it was direct disrupting other passengers !! after that night we never heard a thing ..I asked guest services if they wanted me to go knock on the door and they said ..NO … that they would handle it immediately… it was a great trip after that!
Well done! Good choice calling the staff! We did that in a regular hotel last year. Drunk girls were yelling into their phones late at night for hours. Glad we called guest services who silenced them rather quickly.
cabins to avoid. Lower decks. Lower decks are usually cheaper and it is alittle more affordable for families with kids. The kids slam the doors....all the time. Slam...slam and slam
