RoyalUp- neighborhood balcony room, noise with a baby?

[LT4221]

We are cruising with our 17 month old and are currently in the smallest interior room possible on Harmony of the Seas, and it is going to be tighttt with a pack n play. We received our Royal Up offers today. One of the options we are interested in is the neighborhood balcony room. We are traveling with 8 other families and 5 of them are currently in the promenade balcony rooms. We like the idea of this room for a few reasons. 1) it offers us a balcony to sit on during nap time/when baby goes to bed. 2) the setup would be better with a pack n play and give the ability to have it on the other side of the room so we dont have to  maeuver around it to go to the bathroom. 3) the location is a little more narrowed down as opposed to an ocean view balcony which could be literally anywhere on this ship. I wanted to know how bad the noise is on the boardwalk side? I think we would be ok on the central park side but I also know we could end up on the boardwalk side. I'm not overly concerned with how noisy it is during the day as we wont be in the room much other than for our son to nap for an hour or 2 (we have a sound machine that will hopefully drown out enough noise) but what time does the noise wind down at night? We did already put in an upgrade request for an ocean view ultra spacious room but there are only like 8 total on the ship, so while we know where the exact area of the ship we would be (and we are fine with that area) I'm not too hopeful we will get the upgrade due to the small amount. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by LT4221

[firefly333]

I was the very last boardwalk balcony cabin and I thought they were noisy with sports, sometimes until 11 pm. Saturday they played college games, sunday the day we boarded was nfl. We also had a couple of days of soccer. They were so loud on allure, I could hear the broadcaster calling plays with the door closed. Of course we also had movies and the aqua show a few nights, which I expected. I didnt expect football until 11 pm. 

 

Didnt ruin my cruise but it was louder than I expected. I loved the view though of the aft. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by firefly333

[RFerrington]

Not sure what you are referring to with "Promenade Balcony".  No such thing.  Could be a Promenade interior, which has no balcony or could be one of the inward facing balconies (Boardwalk or Central Park).

 

Both of the inward facing balcony options have their share of noise issues but if I had to choose 1 which I would think would be the quieter, I would go with the Central Park balcony.  The noise on the Boardwalk can be significant at a variety of times of the day and night. In CP, you will have some noise from the pool decks during the day and in the evenings could be some music from down below but generally, pretty tame.  On the Boardwalk, you could have the Aqua Theater noise blaring or noise from the raucous on the Boardwalk.

 

Frankly, the quietest of all the options would be an oceanview balcony but as you noted, they could be located in a million different places all over the ship.

 

Good luck with the RoyalUp.

[Ashland]

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

I was the very last boardwalk balcony cabin and I thought they were noisy with sports, sometimes until 11 pm. Saturday they played college games, sunday the day we boarded was nfl. We also had a couple of days of soccer. They were so loud on allure, I could hear the broadcaster calling plays with the door closed. Of course we also had movies and the aqua show a few nights, which I expected. I didnt expect football until 11 pm. 

 

Didnt ruin my cruise but it was louder than I expected. I loved the view though of the aft. 

We also (once) had the last four aft cabins on the Harmony Boardwalk. Movies until sometimes well after 11:00pm. We won't book this category again.

 

But for the OP they might give it some serious thought as having the balcony and extra space for the Pack-n-play would be nice vs an interior cabin and since they will have a sound machine I think they will be fine.

[firefly333]

3 minutes ago, Ashland said:

We also (once) had the last four aft cabins on the Harmony Boardwalk. Movies until sometimes well after 11:00pm. We won't book this category again.

 

But for the OP they might give it some serious thought as having the balcony and extra space for the Pack-n-play would be nice vs an interior cabin and since they will have a sound machine I think they will be fine.

Lol I think I paid extra, about $250 to book that last cabin. It wasnt part of group space and cost extra. I had had a ov balcony on oasis but never a neighborhood and when allure came to Galveston prices were elevated. I paid double last dec to try it than a park balcony this sept after the shine worse off. 

 

I wouldnt pay extra again, but I do have one coming up, either bella2 or bella2.5 they had boardwalk in the group prices. Rare. I wouldnt say I wouldn't do it again, but I wouldnt pay extra. 

[hazeleyes46]

1 hour ago, RFerrington said:

Not sure what you are referring to with "Promenade Balcony".  No such thing.  Could be a Promenade interior, which has no balcony or could be one of the inward facing balconies (Boardwalk or Central Park).

 

Both of the inward facing balcony options have their share of noise issues but if I had to choose 1 which I would think would be the quieter, I would go with the Central Park balcony.  The noise on the Boardwalk can be significant at a variety of times of the day and night. In CP, you will have some noise from the pool decks during the day and in the evenings could be some music from down below but generally, pretty tame.  On the Boardwalk, you could have the Aqua Theater noise blaring or noise from the raucous on the Boardwalk.

 

Frankly, the quietest of all the options would be an oceanview balcony but as you noted, they could be located in a million different places all over the ship.

 

Good luck with the RoyalUp.

Was just going to say the same thing. The Promenade rooms don't have balconies. They have windows that show the promenade. The only balcony rooms are ocean view, central park or boardwalk. We have had CP and loved it but getting BW this time and not really worrying about noise. From experience of just being on the BW the most noise is during the day. We won't be going to bed before 11 anyway and they say if the door is closed it really is not that noisy.

 

[Ourusualbeach]

2 hours ago, LT4221 said:

We are cruising with our 17 month old and are currently in the smallest interior room possible on Harmony of the Seas, and it is going to be tighttt with a pack n play.

If you want a bigger room then it's best to book it yourself and pay the going rates rather than relying on the Royal Up.  With ships sailing full very few are awarded.  If you are going to go the Royal up route then bid above the minimum to at least stand a slim chance

[LT4221]

3 hours ago, RFerrington said:

Not sure what you are referring to with "Promenade Balcony".  No such thing.  Could be a Promenade interior, which has no balcony or could be one of the inward facing balconies (Boardwalk or Central Park).

 

Both of the inward facing balcony options have their share of noise issues but if I had to choose 1 which I would think would be the quieter, I would go with the Central Park balcony.  The noise on the Boardwalk can be significant at a variety of times of the day and night. In CP, you will have some noise from the pool decks during the day and in the evenings could be some music from down below but generally, pretty tame.  On the Boardwalk, you could have the Aqua Theater noise blaring or noise from the raucous on the Boardwalk.

 

Frankly, the quietest of all the options would be an oceanview balcony but as you noted, they could be located in a million different places all over the ship.

 

Good luck with the RoyalUp.

Sorry about that i meant the central park rooms not promenade

[LT4221]

1 hour ago, Ourusualbeach said:

If you want a bigger room then it's best to book it yourself and pay the going rates rather than relying on the Royal Up.  With ships sailing full very few are awarded.  If you are going to go the Royal up route then bid above the minimum to at least stand a slim chance

the prices are so much higher now than when we booked, it would cost us 2k more to do the upgrade on our own which is more than what our total was originally 

[Loracpin2]

12 minutes ago, LT4221 said:

Sorry about that i meant the central park rooms not promenade

Granddaughters had a central park balcony room on the Oasis last month and never mentioned an issue with noise!!

[orville99]

3 hours ago, RFerrington said:

Not sure what you are referring to with "Promenade Balcony".  No such thing. 

On Oasis class ships BW balconies are referred to as Promenade balconies when you do a RoyalUP bid.

 

[orville99]

2 minutes ago, Loracpin2 said:

Granddaughters had a central park balcony room on the Oasis last month and never mentioned an issue with noise!!

CP tends to be quiet. Boardwalk not so much