Here’s 10 Cabin Locations You Should AVOID on ANY Cruise Ship!

There are so many different cruise ship cabins out there. Some have no windows, some do have windows, some have balconies and some have multiple rooms and are therefore often branded as a Suite. Regardless of the grade of cabin you’re planning to book for your future cruise, one thing is crucial: the location of it.

Over the course of this post, I’m going to tell you about 10 cabin locations that you’re going to want to AVOID booking on your future cruises. These cabin locations are commonly known as the worst onboard for various reasons, so it’s important to think about this, particularly if you’re new to cruising.

Before we jump in, it’s important to cover that there are two ways of booking a cruise ship cabin. Option 1 is to choose which specific cabin you’d like to cruise in at the point of making your booking. That means that, during the booking process, you’ll be presented with a deck plan of the ship, and you’ll be able to choose the exact room that you’d like to book. This means that you’ll know your exact cabin number from the second that your booking is confirmed. Think of this option like selecting your seat when you book a flight - you can pay a little extra to select your seat with most airlines, and this is exactly how this option for choosing a cabin works.

That’s option 1, but option number 2 is what I usually tend to do when I cruise, which is to allow the cruise line to allocate me a cabin closer to the sailing date. Using this method, I save myself some money as option 1 usually comes at a higher cost, but I do accept that I’ll be allocated one of the cabins that nobody else wanted to pay extra to reserve. This approach can sometimes put me in a great position and I get a cabin that’s much better than I’d expected, but it’s also resulted in me arriving to some questionable options over the years…

From my point of view, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially while I’ve been building my YouTube channel and my website, and trying to understand as much as I can about what makes a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ cabin. It’s also been really interesting to see how this approach doesn’t always land you with a ‘bad’ cabin, like you’d assume it might. Infact, this approach sometimes even results in upgrades, potentially due to the sell-through rate of cabins at my selected grade…!

So, what are the 10 cabin locations you should aim to avoid when booking your future cruises? Let’s get started!

Cruise ships have so many cabins onboard, but they’re not all great…

1. Avoid cabins that aren’t surrounded by other passenger cabins

When you’re on a cruise ship, you can have a whole range of different venue types beside (or near to) your cabin. Think about it - you’re on a ship with lots of bars, restaurants, a nightclub, multiple swimming pools, and so much more - these facilities are going to be close by some of the cabins onboard. We’ll come back to this shortly. Therefore, it’s important that, if you’re sensitive to noise, you look to book a cabin for your cruise that’s surrounded by other cabins.

This is really simple to do - ship ‘deck plans’ are available online, and they offer you great insight to what’s on each deck of a cruise ship, and where. You can use these plans, or the ones presented to you at the point of booking, to ensure that you’re not going to have any noisy venues directly beside, above or beneath your chosen cabin.

If you surround yourself with other passenger cabins, the ‘worst case scenario’ is that you end up with a noisy neighbour. If that does happen, the security team on the ship will be able to help you out, so don’t worry - that side of things operates just like a hotel on land, but a bit stricter in my experience!

If you’re choosing a cabin location, try to surround yourself with other passenger cabins!

2. Avoid booking cabins that are close to a ‘noisy’ venue. Check the deck plans and avoid these!

Following from point one, you’ll want to ensure that you don’t book a cabin close to a ‘noisy venue’ on your cruise. When people think about noisy venues, they often book a cabin that doesn’t have a late night bar or a nightclub above or beneath it, but they often overlook some of the worst offenders when it comes to noise.

Of course the onboard nightclub will be troublesome to sleep directly above if you prefer to be in bed by 10pm each evening, but would you have thought about the theatre? I’ve met so many people who book a cabin directly above the main theatre onboard, because they know that the evening shows take place at 7pm and 9pm, therefore meaning that their cabin will be really quiet after these times.

It’s worth remembering that cruise ship entertainment venues like a theatre run to a very tight schedule. You’ll often find that these venues are used in the morning and afternoon for things like lectures and talks, or even rehearsals for the show that evening. After the show finishes at night, I’ve seen it on multiple ships where the stage technicians then have to dismantle the set from that evening, and then assemble what’s required for the show the following evening.

This can result in noise well into the night, as the crew and cast prepare for the next day

Are you thinking that it’ll be quiet to be located close by the Theatre? Well, you might want to think again…

Some of the props in cruise ship shows require lots of assembly time. Believe it or not, this plane actually flew around the theatre onboard Symphony of the Seas!

3. Avoid booking cabins with blank spaces on the deck plan nearby (unless you know what it is…).

Okay, we’ve covered venues that generate noise, but what about when you see a blank or empty space on a deck plan - is that a great cabin to book, or one to avoid? Well, in my experience, this can be incredibly unpredictable. You can sometimes find that this blank space is an empty section of corridor where the housekeeping teams might store things like their trolleys while they’re attending to cabins nearby, which really isn’t an issue.

However, you can sometimes find that these blank spaces exist because there’s a crew access door here. I’ve stayed in cabins in the past where this does cause issues, because the crew on ships tend to operate on a very different schedule to me as a passenger. This can mean that the door is opening and closing all through the night, and conversations are being had on the other side of the wall, probably because the assumption is that they’re not disturbing anyone as it’s a ‘crew only’ area.

The other issue that these ‘crew only’ areas can cause is that this could be where they’re manoeuvring trolleys or equipment around the ship. I’ve had it before where the room service teams were based on the other side of the wall from my cabin, and it created a level of trolley noise that I’ve never heard on a cruise ship before!

In short, don’t assume that you’ve won the jackpot when you see that there’s no cabin through the wall from you - try to understand what the space is before you make your booking! There’s an example of a blank space on a deck plan in the image below.

Here’s an example of a blank space on a deck plan, extracted from the plan of MSC World Europa.

Are you booking a cabin beside a ‘crew only’ door? Try to understand what’s on the other side before you book!

4. Avoid booking cabins next door to Guest Laundry rooms!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that I absolutely love when a cruise ship has passenger laundry facilities. This is where the cruise ship has a room housing washing machines, tumble dryers and also irons, and it’s usually all free of charge for passengers to use throughout their cruise.

This is great if you’re going to be onboard for an extended period of time, or if the cruise is only part of your trip. Perhaps you’ve been travelling prior to boarding the ship, in which case it’s brilliant to be able to wash all of your clothes at the start of the cruise.

The other huge positive about these facilities is that they allow you the option of washing your clothes towards the end of the cruise, to then return home with no dirty laundry. Sounds ideal, doesn’t it?

While these laundry rooms are great to have on ships, they’re not always great to be located directly beside. You’ll find that they’re a hub of activity - people will be bringing their laundry to the room, others will be taking theirs away, and others will be killing time waiting for their machine to finish. At the same time, you’ll maybe even have some people in the room doing some of their ironing, so it can be a busy place! While all of these people are there, they’re probably going to be making conversation with each other, and that noise can build and also travel.

The other reason you probably don’t want to be directly beside one of these rooms is that the machines can be operating for most of the day. Things like washing machines aren’t light pieces of equipment, and they can really rumble through something like a cruise ship cabin wall - do you really want that noise and vibration while you’re trying to nap in the afternoon?

Now, don’t worry if you have booked a cabin beside a laundry room and you’re just reading this now - you’ll typically find that they’re not open 24 hours a day, so you’re not going to be kept up all night with your fellow passengers making small talk, but it could become annoying during the day!

Laundry rooms are great, but they also have their down sides…

You’ll often find that people will wait in these rooms for their laundry to finish…

5. Avoid booking cabins directly underneath external decks

When I say ‘external decks’, there are two main sections of the ship to consider. Everyone always thinks I’m talking about the top deck of the ship, which I am, but I’m also talking about the Promenade Deck, which you’ll find on most cruise ships. Let’s start with that.

The Promenade Deck will typically be around where the lifeboats are on a cruise ship. This deck allows you to walk distances far easier than you might be able to on the top deck, as people tend to use that space for sunbathing or relaxing poolside. The other great thing about the Promenade Deck is that it gets you much closer to the water than the top deck does, particularly on the much larger cruise ships. This makes things like wildlife spotting so much easier!

This deck can be very popular with walkers, and that noise can sometimes travel downward into cabins below. It’s for this reason that most cruise ships with cabins directly underneath a Promenade Deck don’t permit jogging or running out in that space, as it would be much louder in the cabins below.

You can see the Promenade Deck in the above photo directly underneath the lifeboats. Note that there are cabin windows directly underneath.

Next, let’s move on to look at the top decks, and why you probably don’t want to be directly underneath them.

The top deck spaces on cruise ships have lots going on. There are often swimming pools, water slides, burger bars, pizzerias and so much more up there, all of which will generate noise throughout the day. I’ve stayed in cabins directly underneath these decks before, and to be really honest they were nowhere near as bad as reviews often brand them.

One thing that I do struggle with in cabins directly underneath these decks is the setting up of sun loungers and seating in the early hours of the morning. For obvious reasons, cruise lines don’t leave all of the chairs and loungers out all night. Instead, they’ll stack them in groups, and leave them off at the side.

This means that, every morning of the cruise, there will be a team of crew members responsible for setting all of the chairs, tables and loungers out on the decks, usually before any of the passengers might wake up and want a lounger to relax on. It really is a military operation to watch if you’re ever wandering around the ship early in the morning.

If you imagine your cabin being directly underneath the deck, you’ll be able to hear all of this furniture being set up - not the quietest of tasks. As I said, I’ve stayed in these cabins before, and they’re really not a disaster from a noise perspective, but you certainly need to be mindful of this.

If you’re a light sleeper (I’m not, thankfully!), then you might benefit from packing a set of earplugs if you’re staying directly beneath one of these spaces!

Large cruise ships have LOTS of loungers to set up, so this can be noisy for anyone directly underneath!

Cruise lines won’t leave tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture out all night - they’ll stack it away and set it up again the following morning.

6. Avoid booking cabins that are beside elevators

That’s right - if a cabin’s beside an elevator, I’d always recommend against booking it. Believe it or not, it’s actually not the noise of the elevators themselves that I find frustrating (although I’d imagine this could drive some people mad!) - it’s the noise created by my fellow passengers.

Think about it - if you press for an elevator and you’re travelling with someone, or if you meet someone you’ve seen around the ship, you’re probably going to strike up a conversation while you wait for your ride to arrive. It would surprise you how much this noise can travel, and also how ‘not sound proofed’ lots of cruise cabin doors are - I’ve stayed in cabins where I’ve been able to hear every single word!

On the point of elevators, the ‘best’ cabins to book if you’re looking for one that should be fairly quiet are the ones that are half way along a corridor. In theory, passengers will always aim to use their closest elevator, so booking at the mid-way point should mean you have less people passing by your cabin. Of course, the term ‘in theory’ is the key point, as people always seem to get a little lost on cruise ships…!

Being directly beside the elevators can be an annoyance - best to avoid if you’re unsure…

Staying on the topic of elevators, you might not find this an issue if you’re travelling on a smaller-sized cruise ship. If passengers don’t have far to travel to reach where they’re trying to go, they’re less inclined to use the elevators, and will instead opt to use the stairs.

However, if you’re cruising on a huge modern cruise ship, most passengers will use the elevators to avoid climbing 10+ flights of stairs before their breakfast…! Look at how many decks there are in the below example…

This cruise ship is HUGE, so passengers will be far more likely to travel using the elevator than taking the stairs…

7. Avoid Cabins near family-exclusive sections if you’re not travelling with children.

When I started cruising, I had no idea that this was even a thing! Did you know that some cruise ships have dedicated sections with family facilities?

I first came across this while cruising with Carnival Cruise Line - they have an area called ‘Family Harbor’, and it’s where you’ll find lots of the family cabins, and also a lounge for families to enjoy time away from the main hustle and bustle of the ship.

If you’re not travelling with children, you might find this part of the ship a little louder than some of the other parts, largely due to the fact that you’ll have a higher percentage of the cabins here being occupied by more than just the typical ‘double occupancy’ - there may be families of three or four people nearby.

That said, if you’re reading this post and you’re planning to cruise with children, you might want to explore concepts like this!

Have you come across ‘Family Harbor’ from Carnival Cruise Line? I hadn’t before my first cruise with them!

8. Avoid booking cabins that are at the very front of the ship.

We’re leaving noise behind for this one, and we’re thinking about a topic that everyone tends to worry about before their first cruise - motion! If you think about how a cruise ship moves in relation to the waves, you’re going to feel more movement towards the front. This is where you’re more likely to feel the ship ‘rising and falling’ in the water.

For most people, this isn’t much of a problem. I’ve actually stayed in cabins that are as far forward as the Bridge (in other words, right at the front), and they’ve been fine, but you can REALLY feel the ship moving if the weather’s rough and you’re in that location.

These rooms at the front of the ship aren’t ‘all bad’. They can offer you some of the best and most unique views onboard the ship, often overlooking the front of the ship. Sometimes, it’s worth taking the risk from a movement point of view to get some incredible vantage points out to sea…

If you’re looking for a cabin that should help you to feel less motion, then you’re going to want to book one towards the middle section of the ship. That’s one of the reasons that these cabins are often among the most expensive to pre-book - everybody knows this fact, and therefore they come with a premium price tag on most ships.

Cabins in the middle section of the ship are usually the best option if you’re looking to minimise movement!

9. Any adjoining cabin - don’t book one unless you specifically want to be in one.

When it comes to cruise ship cabins, a similar logic applies to many aspects as when it comes to regular ‘on land’ hotels. When I check into a hotel, I never like being allocated to an adjoining room, for a couple of different reasons - the primary being that the sound-proofing is never as good.

I’ve been in situations before where I’ve been able to hear my neighbours having regular conversations with each other, and I’ve been in others where I’ve been able to hear every word coming under the door from their television - it’s so frustrating!

My general rule is that, unless you need one, try to never book a cabin with an adjoining door when you cruise.

You’ll often find on cruise ships that some family suites are broken down into smaller rooms when they’re not booked as a full suite. For example, I took a cruise where the cabin next door to mine would be considered the main bedroom, and the cabin that I booked would be the second bedroom. When these rooms aren’t booked together, they’re available as two separate cabins.

Cabins with adjoining doors are really clearly labelled on deck plans, so it’s always worth checking. You’ll be getting the picture by now - those cruise ship deck plans are important!

If you don’t need one, try to avoid booking an adjoining cabin!

10. Avoid booking cabins that are close to the gangway!

Okay, this is quite a big one for lots of people. Personally, I think it depends hugely on the ship that you’re cruising on, your cabin setup, and a few other things. I’ll tell you why in a second.

When a cruise ship docks, it’ll require some form of gangway to allow passengers to go ashore. Sometimes, this can mean attaching a metal ramp to the side of the ship, which passengers can then walk down to leave the ship. Other times, it’ll feel a little more like an airport, and an airbridge (or similar) will be electronically manoeuvred out to meet the ship. You’ll find that the latter is the case at most large cruise ports - the former is more the case on smaller islands, or cruise ports that aren’t really used for large-scale embarkation/disembarkation processes.

Being beside the gangway presents the obvious noise of passengers as they’re leaving and re-entering the ship, which won’t be too problematic on most cruise itineraries (after all, you’ll probably be awake anyway, as you’ll want to head ashore rather than stay in bed!).

Where problems can arise is when your cruise ship is docked in port overnight, and passengers can ‘come and go’ all night, if they’d like to. This can result in passenger noise all through the night, which won’t be ideal for many.

The other noise that can be problematic in these cabins is the noise that comes from the gangway itself. You’ll often find noise from the gangway teams as they’re attaching it to the ship, noise from the dock as it’s being moved into position, and maybe also noise throughout the day/night. I’ve heard horror stories of constant squeaking and creaking in cabins close to the gangway while the ship is docked, which would be so frustrating.

Going back to my earlier point, I do think it depends massively on your cabin setup in this situation. I took a cruise with Margaritaville at Sea, a small cruise line based out of Florida. During the first and last days of my cruise, we were docked at the Port of Palm Beach, and my cabin was directly next door to the gangway.

I was actually cruising in a suite, which meant that my living area was next to the gangway, but my bedroom was actually in the next room. Believe it or not, I had almost no noise in the bedroom area, which was great! Here’s a photo taken from my cabin on that cruise - talk about close!

Be careful with booking rooms close to the gangway locations - these can be noisy at times!

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Happy cruising!