In an ideal world, your cruise ship cabin neighbours are generally respectful, obliging and quiet.

However, some unlucky cruisers encounter bad neighbours, being loud, breaking the rules and being outright rude.

The Noisy Neighbour

Loud and obnoxious neighbours can make you frantic and hostile

The people in the cabin next to you can set the tone for your whole cruise.  Quiet uninterruptive neighbours will aide in your peaceful cruise experience, while loud and obnoxious neighbours can make you frantic and hostile.  While cruise ship walls aren’t paper thin, they are definitely thin enough for sound to travel through.

Stumbling down the corridor at 3am and then when in their cabin, you hear “Oh My God Yes, Yes, Yes!” and your neighbours are not praying.  Or a heated argument is taking place.  If you do hear your neighbours fighting, my advice, take action immediately as you can never predict how quickly it could escalate, or if violence will ensue.

A simple word to your cabin steward may help and if that doesn’t cut it, request to be moved to another cabin. 

Earplugs may help or downloading a white noise app on your device to drown out the sound.

Left Overs in the Hall

Call housekeeping to clear away the tray, then ask your steward if he or she can kindly let your neighbours know the hall isn't the place for their tray

Some hotels ask you to leave your room service tray outside your door in the hall. 

This act is actually frowned upon on cruise ships.  It’s not a good look having old food near your cabin and it may be a bit on the nose.  Always give your neighbour the benefit of the doubt as first timers may not realise the etiquette.

Call housekeeping or room service to clear away the tray, then ask your steward if he or she can kindly let your neighbours know the hall isn’t the place for their tray.

 Smoking on the Balcony

For cruisers that do know the rules and yet will still disregard them, call security who will resolve the issue

Smoking is prohibited in cabins and balconies on almost all cruise ships.  Apart from the smell of cigarette or cigar smoke, it is a fire hazard. 

Unfortunately, you may encounter some neighbours who will go against policy and light up on their balcony, creating a nuisance and putting themselves and their fellow travellers at risk.  Often, one warning is all they need as they may be novice cruisers who are not aware of the rules regarding smoking.

For cruisers that do know the rules and yet will still disregard them, call security who will resolve the issue. 

Until then, you may have to reschedule your balcony time to avoid the smokers.

If you’re unlucky enough to encounter a bad neighbour on your cruise, don’t confront them yourself.  Let’s avoid an awkward or intense situation by taking the appropriate action. 

That way, you and your testy neighbour can continue to enjoy the cruise and relax in the knowledge that in the end, we’re all only human and sometimes just need a bit of guidance.