Why does Florida water taste so bad?

[Sophie_2003]

OK, I am not a water snob. I drink from the tap at home and from water fountains everywhere. But why is the water at WDW so yucky? I even started using bottled water to brush my teeth at the WL.

Is this a Southern thing or only a Disney ploy to get me to buy their bottled water? :confused3

[photobob]

I think it has a higher sulfur content. Odd thing though we've had good tasting water at one restaurant and bad at another. We've had ice that made soft drinks taste bad. It is not a southern thing, it is a Florida or living near the coast thing from my experience.

[BayouMickey]

Yes it is sulfer in the water. We have it in Northern Louisiana too (I hated visiting my Dad in Slidell) We called it "egg water"

[parrothead928]

It is just what you get used to drinking! I personally do not like the water up north!

[Tampa Mousekeeter]

It's for sure sulfer...when I don't run my water in my guest bath for a few days it stinks like rotten eggs....:confused: I think it may have to do with the high water table...at least that's what they tell us:lmao:

[sparkyboy]

I agree that the water does have a high sulfar taste to it. I use the bottle water for my hot tea but DH uses the tap water for making his coffee when we are at WDW.

[Bill From PA]

Alligator whizz.


Bill From PA

[Jerseygirl63]

Bill, You're a hoot:lmao: :lmao: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: :lmao: :lmao: :rotfl2:

[Mrs. Pookie]

OK, I am not a water snob. I drink from the tap at home and from water fountains everywhere. But why is the water at WDW so yucky? I even started using bottled water to brush my teeth at the WL.

Is this a Southern thing or only a Disney ploy to get me to buy their bottled water? :confused3

UGH, I ask myself that question every day! It tastes like toilet water! (Not that I've tasted toilet water, but if I did, it would taste like that.):rotfl:

Thank GOD for those Pur filters!!!

[Lynn5700]

I'm I think it has a higher sulfur content. Odd thing though we've had good tasting water at one restaurant and bad at another. We've had ice that made soft drinks taste bad. It is not a southern thing, it is a Florida or living near the coast thing from my experience.

I have noticed the same thing! When I stayed at SSR the water tasted fine..when I ate at certain restaurants some water had the funky taste and others didn't.

[yenttirb710]

Definitely not a southern thing, I live in Baton Rouge, LA and the water is IMHO way better than it is in Florida (or New Orleans, ew!!). So yeah... sulfur, haha :rotfl2:

But honestly, I think the water on property is better than the water off property... or maybe that's just me being completely brainwashed, haha! It's been too long...

[Peter Panic Attack]

When Walt first envisioned WDW, he knew it would never be economically feasible to build and operate his magical park unless he was able to use Disney characters wherever possible (federal minimum wage laws are not applicable to cartoonish employees.)

Ergo, the WDW water treatment plant is staffed entirely by Disney characters. Well, if you ever seen a Disney character try to operate a pen, I think you'll agree that their grossly oversides hands tend to create some fine motor skill problems. Fine motor skill problems combined with carefully measured chemicals often result in some....lets just say....interesting water.

It's true....check the handbook.

[NancyIL]

I never noticed the water at WDW tasted bad, and I drink from the water fountains frequently.

[Princess Pudding Pop]

When Walt first envisioned WDW, he knew it would never be economically feasible to build and operate his magical park unless he was able to use Disney characters wherever possible (federal minimum wage laws are not applicable to cartoonish employees.)

Ergo, the WDW water treatment plant is staffed entirely by Disney characters. Well, if you ever seen a Disney character try to operate a pen, I think you'll agree that their grossly oversides hands tend to create some fine motor skill problems. Fine motor skill problems combined with carefully measured chemicals often result in some....lets just say....interesting water.

It's true....check the handbook.

Hahahaha. Then again was there even a bathroom in Mickey & Minnies houses?
Probably not so all that rodent feces sinks back into the swamp anyways thats why the water tastes like it does. lol

[Lintasare]

I tend the think of Florida water as swamp water. A high water table combined with lots of swampy areas and rotting organic matter makes for some interesting water. Heck I lived just off property at one point near the prime outlet mall and if it rained really hard the water would smell very swampy.

However I do know that the restaurants and other food service places filter their water.

[marvin12]

Thank GOD for those Pur filters!!![/QUOTE]

Must agree with that.

[melancholywings]

I guess i'm a water snob, I couldn't drink it. Not even with the flavor packs because the smell would get to me. Thank god for bottled water.

[Peter Panic Attack]

Then again was there even a bathroom in Mickey & Minnies houses?


Certainly Mickey and Minnie have bathrooms. Cartoon folk....or "toons" to the layperson...are much like us....expect their heads and hands tend to be disproportionately large.

Mickey's bathroom is downstairs....in the rec room.......just past the Charlie's Angels pinball machine...on the left.

Again...it all in the handbook.

Oh....and don't steal any of his abnormally large handsoap...Mickey hates that.

[disnut8]

To put it into perspective, the water tastes the way it does because it's clean. How tap water is cleaned varies from state to state, area to area, even city by city. I live near a huge dam and our water needs to be treated a lot more than someone living in downtown Atlanta. We get more crud up here than they do downstream. And I can tell you that it's not the best water. I'd rather have Disney's water than stuff that leaves black remnants behind if you don't wipe it up right away.

[laceemouse]

Have lived in Florida, D.C., Louisiana, Virginia, and Chicagoland and all of that water was fine for me straight from the tap. Moved to the north Dallas burbs 3 years ago and can't drink the water for the life of me, it tastes like DIRT! It is not north versus south, water is different from city to city. IN Dallas the water is fine, they have a better filtration system!

If you really want to taste some nasty stuff come to Plano!!

[DanMedix]

Most of my family doesn't care for Florida's tap water, although I don't mind it. Where I live, we run off of artesian wells that has some of the best water in the U.S. (Pity that's the ONLY thing that the Memphis area has that's good.....)

[tarheelmjfan]

I'll agree that WDW's water isn't very good & I'm a FL resident. Our water, in the North Tampa suburbs, is much better than theirs. :confused3 That said, I grew on natural spring water in NC, & everywhere I've been the water tastes bad compared to that.

[summertime_girl]

So you buy the $2.50 bottled water.

[bytheblood]

It is mostly gator poo. ;)

[Racknack]

it is a Florida ...thing
I always find threads about Floridia water tasting bad a bit funny, especially since so much of the bottled water sold in this country comes from Florida in the first place.:rotfl:

[BuzzBiteyear]

I've wondered about this from time to time at WDW. It's as if there's no rhyme nor reason to some fountains being fine, while others tasting bad. Perhaps we should start a thread for us to list out good and bad water fountains.

Good:

Epcot - Inside of Honey I Shrunk the Audience

[Rora]

It is just what you get used to drinking! I personally do not like the water up north!
I agree. I'm from FL and I don't taste this icky water you taste.. now when I go up North, you can't get me to brush my teeth with tap water!:eek:

[seadd67]

Ya I have notice a diffrence, but it did not bother me it was fine and i drink alot of water. I think it has to do with people that drink bottel water to tab.more for me:lmao:

[parrothead928]

This is from the FDA, EPA, and the SDWA regarding tap and bottled water. I cut and pasted this off of a website in regarding water in Florida.

The red bold print deals with the FDQ which covers bottled water.

How safe is tap water?
The public water supply is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). All municipal water systems serving 25 or more people are tested regularly for up to 118 chemicals and bacteria specified by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Individual states may require additional testing. Everyone who gets their tap water from a public system is therefore assured of regular testing and certain standards. And, when testing indicates a problem, corrective actions are instituted. These actions include notifying residents about the problem and informing them of any special precautions that may be necessary.
How is bottled water regulated?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets standards for bottled water if the water is bottled in one state and sold in another. FDA requirements are generally less rigorous than those of the SDWA. The FDA has standards that regulate microbiological, physical, radiological, and chemical characteristics of the water. When the EPA promulgates a standard for a chemical or microbial contaminant for public water, the FDA must either adopt the same standard for bottled water or find that the standard is unnecessary for bottled water to maintain the safety of the water. The FDA also inspects bottled water plants and collects and analyzes samples of bottled water.

[dr28326]

Isn't the water in the park filtered..or is that just if you get it from a food stand? I have some Culligan bottles with filters in them, should we take those for the parks?

[dburg30]

So you buy the $2.50 bottled water.

Darn, beat me too it.. Should've posted it when I thought about it :goodvibes

[Sophie_2003]

ok, ok...sulfur, alligator poo and rodent feces! lol

At least I know I am not alone! For the record DH does not mind it at all. But he totally would drink toilet water!

[Jacklynn]

I guess it just depends on what area you are from. I live about half an hour from Disney World and I've NEVER been able to drink tap water my whole life because of the taste, (in VA, IL or IN) but I do drink our water from the tap here in our apartment. I've always been a bottled water person "water snob", but our water here tastes fine.

[mhelsley]

and i do but then again i live in Dallas and if our lakes get low it seem they have to add more clorine and then i can't stand to drink even my tap water. Here is what i find really bad the Velda milk they sell in Florida. I tried it and it tasted spoiled so i checked the lable nope no were close to expiration date.
So I though i got a batch that maybe sat out and went bad. So to see if the above maybe happened when we got on our ship we tried it again nope spoiled taste. Then latter when we were leaving a lady sat down at the airport with us and we couldn't help but watch as she tried it and then take a good look at the expiration date. I asked her and she said it to tasted spoiled. I can take off tasting water but milk that taste sour no way. Ohh and DH did finish it only due to the fact that it cost him $$$ and did not get sick so i don't think it was truly spoiled just bad taste.

[RockNRollerGator]

Walter at WDW is enriched with magic. Contrary to popular belief, magic doesn't taste very good.

[deej696]

Perhaps its not the water, but rather your taste buds that dont function properly;)

[DVCajun]

Perhaps its not the water, but rather your taste buds that dont function properly;)

:confused3 You've clearly never tasted WDW tap water.

[iheartaladdin]

I've lived in Orlando my whole life and never had a problem with the taste of the tap water. Maybe I'm just used to it? Or maybe it's just a northern thing;)

[deej696]

:confused3 You've clearly never tasted WDW tap water.

I gulp down a glass every night before I go to bed, 2 or 3 nights a month for the last 3 years. But as the previous poster said, I've lived here my whole life, so perhaps I'm not the best judge;)

[Sophie_2003]

I gulp down a glass every night before I go to bed, 2 or 3 nights a month for the last 3 years. But as the previous poster said, I've lived here my whole life, so perhaps I'm not the best judge;)

Trust me, I wish I would like this water. I HATE shelling out $$$ for water!

[labdogs42]

Yes, the water tases "weird" to those of us who aren't from the Orlando area. The taste is a function of the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in the water. TDS is basically a fancy name for dissolved minerals. The minerals may be different (more sulphur) or just higher than you are used to drinking, so the water tastes "funny".

FYI -- even Florida bottled water can taste weird if you buy Spring Water (e.g. Zephyrhills brand). Since it is bottled SPRING water, it tastes like the natural Flroida water (to me, nasty!). So, when in Florida, drink bottled purified water (e.g Dasani) which by its nature, has had some of those "tasty" minerals removed.

Water with high TDS is safe to drink, there is nothing "bad" about it except we Northerners (I'm from PA) aren't used to it.

Why do I know way too much about this? I was once a Quality Control Manager at a Nestle Waters plant (bottlers of such brands as Deer Park, Poland Spring, Ozarka, Arrowhead, Ice Mountain, and Zephyrhills). I learned more about water than you can imagine!

[Disneyfreak508]

I totally notice that! I hate drinking out of the water fountains! :upsidedow

The water rides like Splash Mountain and POTC have a certain smell to it to. (I love that smell, but i'm sure it would taste awful)

[Jamie77]

I tasted the water for the first time 2 weeks ago. It tasted like there was too much magnesium in it. TMI: The aftertaste was the same as citric of magnesia - a laxative.

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Theme Parks Community board. :)

[Cat0727]

I tend the think of Florida water as swamp water. A high water table combined with lots of swampy areas and rotting organic matter makes for some interesting water. Heck I lived just off property at one point near the prime outlet mall and if it rained really hard the water would smell very swampy.

However I do know that the restaurants and other food service places filter their water.

that's what my boyfriend calls it, too! :lmao:

during my most recent trip their tap water was really inconsistent...some places it'd taste pretty bad, other places it would taste fine.

[suzyqn]

We live less than an hour from WDW and our water tates nothing like the water there.

[inkkognito]

We live next door to WDW and when we moved here, I resigned to having "swamp water." When we used to travel from Chicago to WDW, one of the things that said "Disney" to me was the smell of that water. We use a Pur filter in our house...I can fill a water bottle from the Pur and fill one directly from the tap, leave 'em both for a couple of days, and the Pur one is fine while the tap one smells like something died in it. But ironically, when I go back to Chicago now, the tap water there smells like a bottle of chlorine to me. I also can't stand the smell of gas when using a stove since most of the houses in our FL area are all electricity.

[krissy2803]

I have noticed the sulfer smell in the water at WDW too. My DH does not. :confused3

[pilesoflaundry]

It's the Florida in general water. My mil lives in St. Pete and I won't even brush my teeth with her sink water. Bleh!

The water from the disney fountains is even worse. The water from the shades of green sinks is ick but not bad enough that I can't brush my teeth with it. Their ice tastes fine though so go figure. The ice from counter service in disney wasn't bad the one time I got it.

The only place I've seen just as bad or worse water was when we lived in Wichita Falls, TX. In the spring and summer, it smells and tastes like swamp or dirt. Ick.