A balcony cabin is the most popular stateroom choice for a cruise, but one person regretted it immediately.
Among the various rooms on a cruise ship, balcony rooms tend to be the ones people book. In fact, any ship built in the last 30 years or so probably has more balcony rooms than any other room type.
But not all balcony cabins are made the same, and one person on Reddit found that out the hard way.
It serves as a good reminder of one our favorite cruise tips to verify before you book.
"I can't sleep this is beyond annoying"
CokeCanCowBoi posted on the Royal Caribbean Reddit complaining about the "paper thin walls" that prevented them from sleeping while cruising on Allure of the Seas.
Next to their room is a family with young children who are up crying throughout the night, which can be heard in neighboring cabins.
"I have a balcony room with a connected room to some family of 3 kids and its just constant crying and screaming at all hours of the night," CokeCanCowBoi posted.
They asked Guest Services to be moved to another room, but were told there are no open rooms.
They booked the wrong cabin
The title of the post asked if the walls were not soundproof at all, but the reality is they shouldn't have booked a connecting cabin.
Connecting cabins are wonderful choices for families, but a terrible choice if you didn't book both.
Many people that responded in the thread pointed out the fallacy in room choice.
"Never book a room with a connecting door unless you're also booking the other room too," wrote Living4nowornever. This is sage advice.
The connecting doors are not nearly as well insulated for noise as the walls are. Moreover, there are small gaps at the top and bottom of the door that can let sound in more easily.
How do you know if you picked a connecting room
The outpouring of advice not to book a connecting cabin prompted some to admit they had no idea this was a choice.
"In fairness, I would have no idea how to check that," posted Extra_Shirt5843.
Before you pick any cabin, look at the ship's deck plans on Royal Caribbean's website to determine if it's connecting or not.
Connecting rooms usually have a double headed arrow on connecting cabins.
Because of nuances like this, choosing the right cabin for you can be an exercise that new cruisers may not be aware of.
It's critical to know about noise, obstructed views, cabin size and room configuration (i.e. location of the bed to the balcony or extra bedding) before choosing a room.
It's quite easy and simple to pick up on, but you need to know what to look for in the first place.
We certainly advocate the right type of stateroom advice you may need, but a good travel agent can also greatly assist.
Travel agents have heard of stories like this one hundreds of times, and the good ones would immediately warn you about picking a connecting balcony room if you don't book both sides of the door. Heck, they probably wouldn't have quoted that kind of a room in the first place.
Soundproofing hacks for connecting rooms
Since knowing which cabin to book is too late for someone already in the cabin, Reddit shared a few tips for how to mitigate sound coming from the neighboring cabin.
One idea is to ask your stateroom attendant for an extra comforter. Then, use magnetic hooks that you bought pre-cruise (because it's one of the best cruise hacks the internet loves to share) to make a sound baffle. (this is an affiliate link that costs you nothing extra to use).
Another option is to ask for pillows and stick them in-between the connecting doors.
If you can't block out the noise, then drowning it out is another idea.
Buy a USB powered fan (do not bring one that plugs into the wall, because it's not allowed) that you put by your head.
This is one such fan that could work well (These links contains an affiliate links).
Don't book a guarantee cabin either
While it's tempting to book a GTY cabin to save money, this is usually how people end up on the wrong end of a connecting cabin.
Royal Caribbean uses guarantee cabin bookings to fill in unsold cabins, and connecting cabins are definitely undesirable rooms.
My advice is if you don't want to potentially be in this kind of a situation, pay more to choose your own cabin location.
