I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For Travellers. In this video I'm going to tell you
about ten cruise cabins that you absolutely should avoid if you want to
have a great cruising vacation. Now, before we talk about cabins to avoid
what I want to point out is there are four basic types of cabin. And
irrespective of which of these types of cabin you choose, the tips I am about
to give you will all apply. One of the four types of cabins and the cheapest
cabin on board is an "inside cabin". These are cabins which have no windows
or balcony. The next type of cabin is an "ocean view" and these are basically cabins
which have a porthole or a window. The next type of cabin is a "balcony cabin",
with some call "veranda cabins". These are the most popular cabins of all
on board cruise ships, and modern cruise ships try and have as many balcony
cabins as they possibly can. The fourth is "Suites". These can range from
just big generous sized cabins through to huge big luxurious, almost
apartment-like spaces. Whichever one of those four you choose, my ten tips on
what cabins to avoid apply to all of those. So let's take a look at the ten
cabins that you should absolutely avoid. The first of them is one of my big bug
bears, and that's adjoining cabins. Many cruise ships will have cabins with
interconnecting doors which of course allow families, or friends, to be able to
move between cabins fairly easily. If you're travelling by yourself with
just two of you an adjoining cabin can be a nightmare. There can be a lot of
noise. You can hear people talking. You can hear phones ringing and televisions.
It can really put a real damper on your cruise vacation. All the deck plans
will actually identify and tell you which are the cabins with adjoining
doors. The second thing to avoid is cabins
underneath the pool deck. Take a look at this cabin. It's a beautiful cabin.
It looks magnificent. However, on the cruise that I had on this particular
ship it was a nightmare! It was right underneath the pool deck and there were
chairs scraping, people walking past from very in the morning to late at night, at
lunch time there would be parties, lots of loud music and, because we were in the
Caribbean, late at night they would often be parties and dancing on deck which
kept me awake till all hours of the morning. So avoid cabins underneath the
pool deck. So linked to that, my next tip is avoid cabins underneath the promenade
deck. Many cruise ships have a deck which goes right around the ship so people
like to walk out there. People go jogging. So, for example, in this particular cabin
again it was a nightmare because it was underneath the promenade deck and early in
the morning of the be thump-thump-thump of people going running and there'd be
people walking at all hours of the night and day - and it was really quite
stressful being underneath the promenade deck. My next suggestion is very
carefully look at the deck plans and avoid cabins that are near big public
rooms. So particularly things to look out for are things like kids' clubs, where
they can be kids coming and going all through the day and into the evening with
lots of noise of families and kids excited and running about. Next to the theatre
or big auditoriums where events are held both during the day and at
night, because there'll be lots of people coming and going. Also those can be where
the excursion groups meet and are then set off from, so there'll be a lot of talk and
noise of people coming and going from those various venues. Another very
important thing to avoid is late night and loud venues. So take a look at where
the nightclubs are and where the party venues are, and avoid cabins above
or below those because you will have a vibration noise and that bass sound
pounding away till the early hours of the morning. So make sure you avoid night
clubs and discos. The next one that's very important one is take a look on the
deck plans and stay away from the laundry, because either side of the
laundry will be loud noise from the machines and also there'll be lots of people
coming and going and door slamming with lots of talking people coming and going all hours of
the day and, although most cruise ships have restrictions on when the machines
can start and to be switched off,
not everybody sticks to those. So avoid cabins on either side of the laundry and
just opposite the laundry. I also recommend that you avoid cabins that
look on to the centre of the ship. On very big ships there is a big
promenade that runs through the middle of them and there are cabins over looking the
promenade. In some ships there are also a few cabins are overlooking things
like the central atrium of the ship. I would avoid those partly because you
don't have a lot of privacy, because people can see into your cabins, but also
those promenades are often used for parties, parades and
music recitals, and so it can be very noisy. My next tip is avoid cabins
with obstructed views where the lifeboats and the tender boats are
hosted. Often you'll get a cheaper cabin because your look out and your view
is obstructed by the lifeboats and the tender boats. The reason I say avoid
those is particularly on an itinerary which has lots of tendering
you'll be woken up with lots of noise of the tenders being prepared. So
it can be fairly noisy. My suggestion is to avoid cabins near crew access
areas. These are sometimes much harder to identify and find out, so you
might want to either ask in various cruise related chat rooms or ask
your agent. People often complain if there are is a service door near them with the
crew coming and going because there can be banging, lots of noise as
people come on or off duty or doing room service etc. My next suggestion is to
avoid cabins that are on very low decks either right at the very back, near the
engine, or in the very front ,near the anchor. Lots of people who travel in those
cabins complain about the vibration and noise from the engine, and also being
woken up fairly in the morning as the anchor gets weighed. Also because
it's an area often with the crew coming and going and lots of work going on, so try and
avoid those. Well hopefully you found that helpful and it's given you some
guidance as you look at booking a fantastic
cruise and the right cabin for you. If you liked the video I'd love it if you
left a "like" and very importantly please subscribe to Tips For Travellers and get
more travel inspiration, advice and tips