Help!!water Caution @wdw???????

[Wish Upon A Star]

We drink the water when at WDW and its fine . . .we have never experienced any ill affects from it. My DS says it tastes like "banana water".

 

[bwvmary]

I have always heard that "distilled" water is what you want to buy if you are worried about what might be in bottled water. Not sure what the regulations are, but I guess that the distilling process will remove all the "bad stuff" that might still be in "spring" water. I've never had problems at WDW, and we drink a mix of bottled and tap water. Better safe than sorry, if you have a sensitive system.

 

[GeoffM24]

This thread has been very entertaining. Lets try to sort out some of the BS though.

1) Yes Florida water smells bad, you can even smell it in things like fountain Cokes etc.

2) Just because it doesn't smell wonderful doesn't mean it will make you sick.

3) Quite a few brands or bottled water are NOTHING MORE then charcoal filtered municipal water or PLAIN OLD municipal water (psychological benefits only), read the labels.

4) If it is so hot that you are drinking large amounts of water you could EASILY be suffering from dehydration, heat stroke or food poisoning, lets not forget mayo + sunlight equals upset tummy.

5) If it were THAT BAD Disney would do something about it and EVERYBODY would be sick.

6) The water is why the pizza tastes so bad

 

[tink2dw]

AquaFina is NOT bottled in Florida and contains 0 anything but water.

We were bothered by the water at WDW. But Aquafina from Walmart in Kissimme got us on the right track!!

 

[Conure]

As far as I know, the water won't hurt. I've been to Poland once, and Disney World six times, and believe me, the water in Poland will make you sick. Disney's will not. Any cramps are probably heat related, or travel sickness.

 

[Buz]

I just have to chime in here. My family and I have not gotten sick from WDW water, but we do not like the taste. We got the Brita fill and go bottles for our trip last year and fixed that problem.

That said......

We all spend a lot of $ to go to WDW to have a good time, not worry and God forbid, get sick. I am not a doctor, but my suggestions would inlcude:

1 - If you don't like the taste, use a brita or bottled water.
2 - If you think you will have a problem, bring, ship or buy water.
3 - Minimize the amount of caffeine you drink. It dehydrates you which will not help in the Florida heat.
4 - Practice 'Texas walking', stick to the shade!
5 - Take breaks in the airconditioning, see a show during the heat of the day.
6- Wash your hands often.
7- Ask your Dr for Cipro in case you get a bug from the water or off of a surface.
8- As the Boy Scouts say, "Drink lots and lots of water!"

I personally like GlennandAnn's suggestion, lots of beer!

Harold

 

[cottontail]

Hi: Great tips. I took an antibiobic with me, as I am from Canada and didn't know how hard it would be to get a prescription, drank lots of water. Anyways I did not need the antibiotic, neither did my daughter, so we were healthy the whole time, except for her regular migraines.

Deb.

 

[TinkerbellRules]

We have always brought in a bottle filled with water and refilled it at the parks. No problem for us and we've been 5x. Maybe someone was sick, probably a child, and put their mouth on the faucet. Gross, I know, but it does happen. I also order water in the restaurants. One of our local restaurants has horribly tasting water. They don't know why, but have had it tested. Weird.

 

[GeoffM24]

Well,
I thought I would post a little follow up to this. After speaking out so vocally on this topic in defense of WDW and their water I wanted to let you guys know how sick I got last July.

I NEVER get sick and on the third day of our trip I got the worst food poison/sickness I have EVER had. I couldn't leave the room. Was it the water? I don't know. All I know is that I was in very rough shape.

 

[luvflorida]

The water in the Orlando area, (not just WDW), definitely has a different taste to it, different than what we're used to anyway. In fact, it has become something of a running joke with our family. We forget what the water taste like until we take our first sip of it, usually in a fountain soda, and we just nod our heads and say, "Yep, we're in Orlando now!" Our last trip was at the end of January and we stopped at a Wendy's restaurant on the way to our hotel and we all had sodas with our meals and we all had that "Ahhh! Yes!" Florida water moment. Nobody in our family has gotten sick from the water, but we all agree that it has a rather 'funky' taste and it definitely changes the taste of fountain soda. We prefer to buy canned soda when visiting Orlando.

By the way, I know I said we joke about the water, but I'm sure it's no joke to anyone who gets sick from it. Please don't send any mean posts my way! And of course, I'd rather spend January in Florida drinking a strange tasting Cola than spending January in Maine drinking a familiar tasting Cola!

 

[dianna112198]

I went down to Disney Wold last August and I got EXTREMELY sick from drinking the water. How do I know it was the water? Well, first of all, I shared a room with my best friend. We ate the same food, spent the same amount of time outside (ruled out heat stroke)...we did everything the same.....Only difference...I ordered water everytime we went out to eat, he ordered soda. Plus, my father is a DR and I explained to him what happened to me and he said it had to be from something that I ate or drank. It was horrible. I have never been so sick in my life. I had the thermostat turned down to 60 degrees in my room and I was still sweating due to my high fever! Yuk! what a horrible memory of Disney World....but I would do it again in a heartbeat....6 wonderful days in Disney World for one day of being really really really sick. I'll risk it again!:

 

[starwood]

It sounds like everybody had the same disease that was going around on the cruise ships this fall. Maybe it wasn't the water at all but a virus.

 

[Chloesmom]

Something else to think about...I never drink or let my DD drink from a fountain. This includes filling cups or bottles. I have seen people put their lips straight on the whole water faucet deal and ...yuck. Lord only knows what kinds of funky germs are being brought to disney from all of the travelers. Think about a single drinking fountain being used by hundreds ( maybe thousands) of people on any given day. YUCK!

 

[Pienut]

I'm not too sure about the water but here is my experience. I went with my family the youngest being 3. It was hot and we all drank alot and we all had some stomach complaint not major and not enough to really tell everyone but after a day I noticed my daughters poop turned green...like bright weird green. Well I went out and mentioned it to everyone in a hah isn't this funny and well her older brothers had had the same problem for a few days but didnt' mention it! So out came the bottled water and the green went bye bye. Now it definately could have been something we all were eating too...but enough was enough. I think it tastes funny. I don't think it will kill you it probably just has to do with what you are used to but if you come from well water you should probably skip it.

 

[deirdrefitch]

My family has gone to Disney for the past five summers, and are headed that way again in June. We buy bottled water to carry with us to the Parks. This is only to keep everyone hydrated, and because the Pediatrican told me years ago that all the cold drinks could poss cause a kidney infection if you are not used to ingesting this amount of caffeine. When our water bottles become empty, we refill our water bottles from the fountains at Disney and Universal. We replace these bottles daily. We have never had stomach problems on any of these trips. The water did have a funny odor a couple of years ago, and a native floridian advised us it was due to the drought and low water levels.

 

[crazymomof4]

This thread is making me nervous! I've got an upset stomach just thinking of one (or more) of my kids getting sick on our trip.
I've always read that to save $$ carry water bottles and refill them at WDW fountains. I would imagine a lot of people do this and don't get sick. We had planned on doing this.
Something I thought of has already been mentioned: food poisoning. When in WDW most persons are eating in restaurants much more than they would in a whole year at home. Everytime you eat in a restaurant you are taking a chance. Sad to say, many foodservice workers are not as aware of food handling safety as they should be. I'm sure Disney is no exception here. Esp. during busy times restuarant employees may leave food at room temp for extended periods or use a knife on raw meat and then cut lettuce for a salad. Inspectors can put up a dozen posters in a restaurant kitchen, but when rushing, workers cut corners.
BTW- The Sulfer in the water is not a microorganism, ie: virus or bacteria. If you had a fever it was caused by one of those two, not Sulfer. (I learned this when I got sick drinking lake water in Canada.)

 

[Hawk]

This post is making me sick!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Norrisca1235]

I'm not a water scientist, but I think since I'm used to drinking my own tap water at home, I will bring a few liter bottles of my own tap water for brushing my teeth and for my daughter who only drinks water or juice. That way I'm sure of what were drinking.......and there won't be any problems.

 

[blackshirt]

The water in Orlando is different than what we are used to and it does have an unpleasant odor. We always freeze bottled water before our trips. These act like ice cubes in the cooler and as they are used more space develops in the cooler. On an unrelated note, the water at Universal and Disney is pathetic. The water is usually warm and smells bad. The water pressure of the fountains is usually weak. Call me cynical but something tells me this might be a ploy to raise the sale of beverages within the parks. BTW the water at Wet and Wild is wonderful. Its cold and tastes pretty good(can't comment on Seaworld). Go figure, the ONE park that has decent water is probably the one that needs it the least. Just an amazing coincidence I guess!

 

[rachael95]

My sister lives in WinterPark, very close to Disney. She said her neighbor had gotten so tired of her water tasting bad, she decided to have it and her pool water tested. Guess which one had less cholrine. The pool had 1/2 the amount of chlorine in it than the straight tap water.

When we go, we're bringing bottled water that we bought from Sam's in a 24 pack case.

My sis also says Florida is supposed to run out of drinkable water soon because of too many people living there. One reason they're getting so many sink holes is because they've drained so much of the wetlands to support new residents.