Booked on Carnival Fascination, but very concerned ( Stabilizer noise? )

Good afternoon everyone,

Last year I went on my very first cruise. It was a gift, and we were on the main level of Elation.

All night almost every night, we heard this horrible noise.:( I went to the front desk, and explained

it, and they said it was the stabilizers working. Kept me awake a lot.

June of last year, hubby got us a cruise on a Royal ship, but I made sure that we

were on top of the boat. We didn't hear anything except from neighbors every now and then.

It was lovely and enjoyable.

Hubby just booked us a cruise on Fascination, and since he's treating both our kids and my son's

girlfriend, we need two rooms. Well, we are in room R185, bottom of the ship. :eek: I'll admit my heart

sunk when I found out we were in the bottom. Just THINKING about the stabilizer noise is getting

me very upset. I have a feeling I will not sleep. I hear that the stabilizers are in the middle of the ship,

but I can't confirm this. The room where are are is in the middle of the back of the boat, so we aren't

quite that close to the stabilizers if that's the case.

Just wondering if I have anything to stress over at all? I told hubby I really didn't even feel like going

if I wasn't going to sleep the entire time.

Thanks for reading.

Buy Cheers, hit your daily quota, you won't hear a thing.

Earplugs are your best friend!

Sent from my SM-G925V using Forums mobile app

I second the ear plugs. Not sure what itinerary you were on with Elation but Fascination's itinerary was very smooth sailing so I can't imagine they would have to use the stabilizers all that often.

Not sure how helpful this may be, but our family was recently on the Fascination, and we slept well. We were spread throughout out the ship (M94, M146, U228), the M cabin folks slept like rocks after having their fun for the day. I heard some negligible noise from being in the back of the ship with the wake and the engines, but was immaterial to me.

If you think you will sleep well, or think you will have terrible time sleeping, you're probably correct.

Good afternoon everyone,

Last year I went on my very first cruise. It was a gift, and we were on the main level of Elation.

All night almost every night, we heard this horrible noise.:( I went to the front desk, and explained

it, and they said it was the stabilizers working. Kept me awake a lot.

 

June of last year, hubby got us a cruise on a Royal ship, but I made sure that we

were on top of the boat. We didn't hear anything except from neighbors every now and then.

It was lovely and enjoyable.

 

Hubby just booked us a cruise on Fascination, and since he's treating both our kids and my son's

girlfriend, we need two rooms. Well, we are in room R185, bottom of the ship. :eek: I'll admit my heart

sunk when I found out we were in the bottom. Just THINKING about the stabilizer noise is getting

me very upset. I have a feeling I will not sleep. I hear that the stabilizers are in the middle of the ship,

but I can't confirm this. The room where are are is in the middle of the back of the boat, so we aren't

quite that close to the stabilizers if that's the case.

 

Just wondering if I have anything to stress over at all? I told hubby I really didn't even feel like going

if I wasn't going to sleep the entire time.

 

Thanks for reading.

This is from deckplangenius.com

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/data:image

if it's just the sound, a good pair of NRR33 earplugs will work but if it's vibration, nothing will work for that other than a few cocktails before bed - maybe. Is it too late to change room floors for one room if you are overly concerned?

I found this on deckplangenius.com

Carnival Fascination Cabin R185 Pros and Cons

Overview

Carnival Fascination Cabin R185 is on the lower deck on the ship. Passengers who are prone to seasickness should select cabins on lower decks

Pros

Lower decks on larger ships experience less motion (vs higher decks) when ships encounter rough seas.

Cons

There are no negative attributes that have been identified yet about this cabin.

This website told me about a cabin i was interested in and where it was located (above what, under what, near what) and if i would experience noise and heavy traffic.

Good afternoon everyone,

Last year I went on my very first cruise. It was a gift, and we were on the main level of Elation.

All night almost every night, we heard this horrible noise.:( I went to the front desk, and explained

it, and they said it was the stabilizers working. Kept me awake a lot.

 

June of last year, hubby got us a cruise on a Royal ship, but I made sure that we

were on top of the boat. We didn't hear anything except from neighbors every now and then.

It was lovely and enjoyable.

 

Hubby just booked us a cruise on Fascination, and since he's treating both our kids and my son's

girlfriend, we need two rooms. Well, we are in room R185, bottom of the ship. :eek: I'll admit my heart

sunk when I found out we were in the bottom. Just THINKING about the stabilizer noise is getting

me very upset. I have a feeling I will not sleep. I hear that the stabilizers are in the middle of the ship,

but I can't confirm this. The room where are are is in the middle of the back of the boat, so we aren't

quite that close to the stabilizers if that's the case.

 

Just wondering if I have anything to stress over at all? I told hubby I really didn't even feel like going

if I wasn't going to sleep the entire time.

 

Thanks for reading.

BTW, when are you sailing on the Fascination?

Thanks everyone,

I can hear everything through earplugs. I wish my eyes were as good as my ears. lol

As for alcohol, it's not my friend. I never got along very well with it, so I just avoid it most of the time.

Normally I would take a benzodiazepine to help me sleep, but my doctor has cut me off, even though I've been

extremely responsible about taking them. Someone in PA govt has decided they don't want doctors to prescribe

them any longer. I'm working on another plan now.

I suffer from anxiety, and one sound out of that dang stabilizer would keep me up for hours expecting to hear it again.

I'm a very light sleeper. My husband said we will bring a blue tooth speaker to hook up some sleep sounds. The

cruise is nearly booked solid and I don't think we can change rooms at this point.

Sometimes I expect something to be horrible and it turns out not so bad, and other times I expect it to be great, and

it bites. So, we'll see.

We are cruising sometime in July, but I'm unsure when.

I found the deck plans and reviews online and didn't see anything about stabilizer noise, but I'm truly a one of a kind person.Things that bother me don't seem to bother anyone else. LOL

We're in the back half of the ship, mid way.... if I could call Carnival and ask them, I wonder if they would know where the stabilizers are on this boat. I could only find that there is a set of them, but no idea of where.

If you think you will sleep well, or think you will have terrible time sleeping, you're probably correct.

Good advice....same goes with having a good time....if you think you will or you think you won't, you are correct.

I usually sleep with earplugs on a cruise. I also take a herbal sleep aid, something non addictive and gentle. Both help me sleep well.

Keep telling yourself that it was only that ship. You may not need stabilizers at all. And if you do, you may not hear it. Consider it "white noise". Relax. Don't think the worst until it happens.

OP, I completely understand where you are coming from. I'm the same way - super light sleeper and once I hear a noise the anxiety will keep me awake. I'm assuming you booked a guarantee cabin, hence why you didn't realize you would be near the bottom? I sorry I can't help reassure you, I refuse to book guarantees and oceanviews for just this reason and always book insides or balconies on higher decks. Good luck!

Why book an old clunker???

Thanks everyone,

Normally I would take a benzodiazepine to help me sleep, but my doctor has cut me off, even though I've been

extremely responsible about taking them. Someone in PA govt has decided they don't want doctors to prescribe

them any longer. I'm working on another plan now.

I also regularly take benzodiazapine to help me sleep (Xanax). Last month I switched to these gummies I found on Amazon:

Vitafusion Extra Strength Melatonin Blackberry, 5mg,

and found them to work nearly as well.

(Just thought I'd share since I had previously tried melatonin and it had not worked for me, but these do.)

Where is your room? Are you forward, middle, aft? I did a VERY forward Riviera room on the Freedom & heard lots of noise when we were pulling into ports. I also had a midship Riviera room on Splendor in October & didn't hear a peep.

As usual, I would discount anything said by the front desk personnel with regards to technical issues as pure speculation. If you could describe the noise, perhaps I could point out the real culprit, as the stabilizers make virtually no noise whatsoever, no banging, no clanging, no vibration, no sound.

We just sailed on Fascination last week. We were on deck 6 (Upper) and slept great until reaching port each morning. The noise begins about 30 - 60 minutes from port: A lot of noise including horn blowing and the whole boat shaking... a lot. I'm not sure if it was engine noise, propellers reversing (I'm pretty sure we backed into most ports), stabilizers or a combination of all. Also, we had a balcony room and my neighbors found it necessary to let their exterior door slam shut as they went in and out of the cabin. We were courteous and held our door so it would close relatively quietly. My mornings began every day (except sea day) at about 5:45.

I have no idea if it was a guarantee cabin. My husband booked it without consulting where I'd like to be. Turns out there were very few rooms left on the ship. I don't even know the age of the ship or anything like that. We were on the Elation ( first ever cruise ) and it was noisy, very noisy. I actually made the noise when telling the customer service, and she said "OH! That's the stabilizers!" Oh, great. -_-

I noticed that when we were in the river, out of the ocean, that the noise stopped completely.

I have tried melatonin gummies, and they do not help. I have been emailing my doctor back and forth, but she will not prescribe me any more anti anxiety meds. I have no idea what to do now. :/

We are in R185, the second half of the boat, but in the middle of the second half. Ocean view.

Hubby took us on an Alaska cruise last year ( two week cruise tour through Royal ) and we simply

won't spend on another vacation like that one for quite some time, especially paying for 5 people's

airfare, hotels the day before, and 5 cruise fare.... just isn't going to happen. As much as I'd like to

be up top on a balcony, plus there just weren't rooms available.

Since my wife can't sleep with intermittent noise, we always carry an electric noise machine. Works great. However, the first night on a cruise, the dang thing stopped working. Two hours of listening to toss and turn and griping! Had a brilliant idea. The cell phone search found an APP ! 20 minutes later, nice peaceful snore and then I could go back to sleep. Now, we just use the cell, less to pack

LOL!! We use an APP too! Drives my son crazy though. It's TMSOFT Sleepsounds! :)

uhhhhhhhhhhhh.......whaaaaaat?

uhhhhhhhhhhhh.......whaaaaaat?

You've never heard the stabilizer noise? It's terrible! :loudcry:

You've never heard the stabilizer noise? It's terrible! :loudcry:

I've never heard it, and the crew sleep lower down than passengers, and I've spent a few thousand days on cruise ships. A stabilizer makes no more noise than your hand when you trail it under the water as you are paddled along in a canoe.