Has anyone been in a D8 cabin, and are they much worse than other inside cabins, or would they be very noisy late at night?

However, if you like to retire early, the locations above the Royal Court would be best, since the shows end early (before midnight.) The Queen's Lounge is likely to have dancing and music later at night, and if you're concerned enough to consider bringing your own decibel sound meter, you should not book a cabin there.

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Originally posted by PC:
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If it gets really noisy, the decibel meter will aid in any argument I might have [...]

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If you are concerned don't book those cabins.

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Originally posted by PamM:
I thought the forward cabins were over Illuminations. I would not worry about noise from there or the theatre.

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Pam, you're right, the few D8 forward cabins are over Illuminations. The cabin I took for that crossing was actually a D6, more mid-ships, over the Royal Court Theatre.

In Hong Kong, the noise stipulates that after 11 pm, a noise level greater than 75 decibels entitles one to call the police to come and do something about the noise in residential buildings.

If it happens that the noise from an upstairs or downstairs public place far exceeds some reasonable standard, I will complain to the ship's purser, and with a decibel reading, one's complaint about noise will have some scientific support. And I think I am diplomatic enough to sense when and how I introduce a decibel reading into the discussion, if it ever came to that.

It may be a simple thing for some to say, book a different cabin, but I opted for a flash promotion price which stipulated a D8 cabin, plus I have to pay a 100% single supplement, and on top of that, also pay for an air ticket from Hong Kong to New York, and back. So my overall cost is like 5 times what the base cost is per person for double occupancy. Thus what may be a simple decision for others in the US to opt for a higher price room, say double the flash promotion price, turns out to be an additional US$1,500 to $2,000 for me.

I like Cunard ships because of the superior quality of ballroom dancing/instruction on their ships, which no other cruise industry line or ship can rival, even Crystal which is not bad for dancing. So it makes no sense for me to select another cruise line.

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Originally posted by PC:

If it gets really noisy, the decibel meter will aid in any argument I might have with the ship and maybe, they will move me if other rooms are available?

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Good luck with a move. Most lines seem to fill every available cabin.

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Originally posted by PC:
I got the decibel meter to aid in my discussions with an air conditioning company over whether their A/C's units turned on at night is too noisy for sleep. The standard for a very quiet A/C fan unit on low fan is Samsung units, at about 30 decibels. The meter is a very simple unit and merely captures the highest rating of noise in the room, and reads out the decibel.

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Your description indicates that you do not really seem to know what you are talking about. At which distant did you measure? What do you actually mean with dB? (as you might know, dB is a unit for ratios - 30 dB relative to what?) Which frequency weighting is your meter using? Is it actually calibrated?

Mind you, a random noise like e.g. the sound of the waves of the ocean might be less disturbing at higher intensities than music or people talking you might hear from a room next to your cabin at much, much lower intensity.

-> There is much more to that than simply measuring a sound pressure averaged over a range of frequencies (assuming that this is what your 'deciblemeter' does). With a simple measurement like you have in mind you won't achieve what you have in mind and it seems as if you neither have the equipment nor the knowledge to do what you call a 'scientific' measurement that would be meaningful in an argument you seem to look forward to.

Your perception is what is relevant here and your ears are the far better 'instrument' than your 'decibelmeter'. If you hear something annoying you can describe that to a crew member or you might have a crew member listen to that. This is far more effective and convincing than a phony, amateurish measurement with an instrument that give a number you do not really seem to understand.

Also, don't you think that it is a bit odd to book a cabin in a category where you consider taking a equipment with you since you anticipating trouble? Why don't you simply book another cabin and avoid the problem firstplace? Especially as it simply might not be possible to move you to another cabin (because the ship might be full) or because it might not be possible to reduce the noise (do you really think they won't have any shows in the theater or shut down a nightclub just for you?).

Maybe nothing will come of this -- maybe I'll get a cabin assignment where noise will not be a problem. All I'm doing here is asking a simple question as to whether anyone has stayed in a D8 cabin before, and in the event that the worst cabin is assigned, what I might do if the noise became unbearable. How difficult is that to understand?

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Originally posted by PC:
I think I am diplomatic enough to sense when and how I introduce a decibel reading into the discussion, if it ever came to that.

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Much more of an issue was the cabin next door. 4190 was a connecting room, and I could literally hear the conversation in the cabin next to me and their TV (they were an older couple that talked very loudly). For this reason, I recommend avoiding any connecting cabins. I always try to do this but this cabin assignment was out of my hands.

And when I've done several thousand readings, guess what? I can do a full statistical analysis on the numbers -- range, mean, median, variance, standard deviation, and maybe see if I still remember how to do regression analysis to see if there are any or spurious correlation between the readings and other factors, like days of the week, time of evening, which band is playing, number of guests in the club, etc.

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Originally posted by PC:
Ernst, what's it to you why or how I use or not use the meter? [...]
You gave your advice. Fine, and I intend to ignore it. Maybe that will get your ire up even more.

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Look, all I am saying is that you very likely will embarrass yourself A LOT presenting such a measurement to the crew. They are hopefully professional enough not to let you know what they are thinking but I can assure you, presenting them such a 'measurement' will not only be ineffective but you will declare yourself as troublemaker to them - and that's usually not very helpful in such a situation.

QM2 has been in service for quite a while, she has been accepted by Cunard form the yard that built her and thus she very, very likely not only complies with regulations but also with the requirements of Cunard (which of course does not mean that your cabin is 'perfectly quiet') and you think you can 'build a case' with an unprofessional measurement?

We won't know here whether you are finally going to do that or not and frankly I don't care whether you consider well meant advice or not - as you pointed out in your posting, it's finally your choice. However, you should not complain about people replying to your posting since you actually started the thread with this rather strange proposition.

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Originally posted by greybeard:

Doesn't sound like that to me. Wonder whether Ernst would agree?

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I have a feeling that no matter what size dinner table you're assigned, after a few days it will be a table of one.

When you travel solo, you really travel solo!

A poor man's version is to take a table fan, put a pillow case on the cage. It makes a low frequency hum and masks the most annoying frequencies.

My brother who has keen hearing never travels without one.