What I couldn't get used to, were the footsteps of children running, running, running -- all day, all night. It must be how the inner structure of the ship is built or something, that carries the echoes. I could hear them running on the floors above and below us as well. When my two year old toddled from one of our adjoining staterooms to the other, it sounded like a pack of dinosaurs! I was really tired of those footsteps by the end of the trip, to tell you the truth.
We've only been on the one cruise so far, so I don't know if I'd have had a different experience on a different deck/section of the ship.
We've been about halfway down the hallway from the elevator/stairs on Disney and have also had huge issues with kids running down the hallways, and it's like they've picked up maximum speed/noise by the time they go by our cabin! I'm booked near the elevator on my next Disney cruise, and I hope the running issue will be less because the kids will either be starting or ending their run near the stairs or elevator so I'm hopeful that it will be quieter.
I've now sailed on 4 other Royal Caribbean cruises and haven't had this issue at all on any of them, and there have been kids on some of those cruises.
Just don't know why parents think that it's OK for kids to be running down the hallways on Disney cruise...