When it comes to book a cabin in a cruise, there are some places you should avoid.
Do not take a room that is near a 24 hour pizzeria.
It can happen that due to a wooden deck, you will hear chairs and tables being moved back and forth between 11pm and 5am while you are trying to sleep.
In general avoid cabins that are under kitchen areas.
For those light sleepers, always make sure that you have cabins above and below.
Another place to avoid is near the service elevators, because you will hear a lot of loading and unloading at 5am every morning.
Avoid cabins that are above or below the show lounge, because you will feel the floors vibrate plus the noise late into the night.
If you travel with small children, trying to get them to sleep will be very difficult.
Even if the agent tells you that ships are build better these days and that you won't hear a thing, better stay away from these areas.
In addition, it will depend on the time of the year that you are going in a cruise.
If it is spring break, you can expect to hear the music up until 3 or 4 in the morning, so have this in mind.
Avoid cabins under the pool deck; you will probably hear every sound from above.
Sometimes they will not move you to another cabin, even if you complaint, because the ship can be full.
The best thing you could get for a complaint is probably a future rebate coupon for your next cruise.
Stay away from housekeeping areas and the doctor's office.
You will get either lots of dry cleaning racks in front of your door or lots of people going to see the doctor.
Also avoid being directly under the gym, otherwise you will get disturbing noises from machine weights in it.
Basically try to book a cruise cabin that is surrounded by other cabins and that is not near any public place or service area.