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

[Lorix2]

I too had the same thoughts about the water, but anywhere I go really. I think you're system gets used to you're own water and when the levels of sulfur or whatever else is in the new water changes, it throws you off.

My DH has a chronic illness that leaves him with cramps/nausea daily (Crohn's disease), so I cannot leave this to chance. I am sending a package to myself with the Poland Springs water bottles we always drink here in NH. Although they just flouridated our water, with higher amounts than allowed, so I'm disgusted about that, so I buy the spring water. But - you can never tell what you're getting in there either, but so far this is the brand I like the most and tastes very good warm or cold.

I don't think anyone should panic, but consider where you 're taking the water from, public fountains are just thriving with germs, so while filling the bottles, the top touches the "fountain" where a million mouths and dirty hands have been and there you go - germ central.

Fairs that come to town are the places I worry about....they are usually on farm land where animal droppings can get into the water by runoff and where they tap in for drinking water, soda machines, etc...are not usually regulated and ecoli is present in the water, therefore making people seriously ill. I bring my own drinks for this reason, I'd rather hike them around than risk illness.

 

[D L and K's Mom]

7th dwarf Dopey. Thank you for asking the question!!! I am glad you did! DS is allergic to sulpher drugs and I never would have even thought about the water until it was discussed here. I am not happy about buying all that bottled water BUT, I would much rather have him healthy and happy. It is a very small price to pay. Better safe that sorry. So even though some posts wer "nasty" some had very valuable info in them and I have made a decision to buy bottled while there. So again, thank you for posting the original message.

 

[jfulcer]

I know Issa mentioned this before, and I was one of the people that recommended it to him, but try one of the Brita Fill N Go bottles. We take them with us ALL the time at WDW and use that to fitler the water from the tap. DW hates the smell/taste of the water and won't drink it any other way.

Now, I don't know if it removes ALL the sulpha, but an email to the people at www.brita.com should answer that question. It filters it well enough that we can't really tell the difference between it and bottles of water we bought sometimes.

Please note, I do NOT know if this works for people that are sensitive to the sulpha - you might have to resort to bottled water. But for those of us who just don't like the taste, it's an option.

 

[SueM in MN]

The water at WDW is not provided by the same water utility as Orlando is. It is part of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. If you would like to contact the water department there, here's a link to the RCID page with that information.
I also found their year 2000 water quality report. Click Here to for link. There is no mention of sulfer and when I checked the US government site (EPA), it is not something that is required to be measured.
Bottled water is also not necessarily any safer than tap water. It depends on where they are getting their water from. Link to 1999 story from ABCNews.. I couldn't find the stories, but remember reading a few years back about a taste test comparison of bottled water to some city tap water; New York City tap water won. There was also a scandal a few years ago about contaminated water (I think it was Evian) that had to be recalled. If you normally use bottled water, I would stick to the same brand. That should help.

 

[CapeCod53]

Just a note about Brita filters. They are a charcoal filter & work to remove some metals etc that affect the taste of water. But charcoal filters also trap certain contaniments as we discovered at our family's cottage when my mother became so sick. The filtration system on the water was charcoal based & we were told both by the state labs that tested the water for us & her doctor to get rid of the charcoal filter system. So Brita works when you don't like the taste of perfectly safe water, but not when there might be any bacteria, etc.

 

[Monica]

Just a note to Lorix2 I have Crohn's and have been at Disney during an extremely bad flare up in January. The water didn't not bother me at all, although it does smell bad. I did not really drink any of it (due to the smell) but having ice from it, brushing my teeth, ect didn't bother me at all. I used to live in a small city where even making ice from the water would really upset the Crohn's. My advice is to go ahead and bring your water but just be aware the first few time your husband brushes his teeth. ect.

 

[Sherrilatte]

While I didn't get sick during our visit, nor my family, I found the taste of any beverage not pre-packaged at WDW tasted like rubber!!!. I didn't drink anything that wasn't pre-bottled at WDW after a 2 or 3 drinks. We stayed at the Grand Cypress resort and the water did not have this rubbery taste. I just figured the machines that mixed the carbonated drinks at WDW all needed a good cleaning.

 

[tink2dw]

As I stated here in an earlier post It is about how deep the Wells are!! Really deep wells the water is fine, But if the well isn't that deep THEN the water is SMELLY and TASTES bad.

And with the DROUGHT in Florida the water table has dropped Drastically!! Affecting water quality! And as stated above they don't even test for SULFUR!! so it can't be stated that sulfur isn't in the water!! And what else don't they test for?? One town here found Birds nesting[and using the bathroom] in their Water Tank!! They were told to use Bottled Water till the water was ok!

While water companies do report the Quality of the water Every year or two,Do you know exactly what those counts mean????

This doesn't just affect Florida. Here in Oregon where I live,they switch between wells,and a reservoir and Each has a different taste!!! WE can tell by the taste!the very day they switch!!

For those of us who have returned recently[2001] I would heed our Cautioning Words!! WE were there during this bad Drought,and the Fires!!

WE aren't going to Make you BUY water[I know I don't own any stock in water,so it's no skin off my nose!!]

All we are doing is OFFERING A WORD OF CAUTION BASED ON OUR OWN LIMITED EXPERIENCE AND OUR GENUINE CONCERN,SO OTHER FAMILIES CAN HAVE A HEALTHY HAPPY DISNEY VACATION!!! then You decide how your Family will preceded!

 

[loki]

the britta water bottles made a world of difference the water had NO bad taste and NO bad smell after being filltered... maybe my stomache is sensitive to sulfer but i know it made me sick with a fever... only lasted a little over 24 hours...

Now to respond to people getting upset...well heck ya im upset!!! He belittled my situation when the thread was just opened... oh look now not just one family huh!! All im saying is be careful.. The water is not the best quality!

 

[nab486]

We buy Sams brand water from Wal Mart. It is filtered by reverse osmosis ( the same filtration system they use for kidney dialisys--squeezing one molecule through at a time). It is cheap and it is the same filtration system we paid a lot of money to put on our tap before we found out we could get this. Anyway, it tastes good and I am picky about water.

And 7th dwarf/ ... don't let negative posters bother you.

most people on this board are very nice and will nicely respond to any question.

Jamie

 

[vmkids]

I have to go with don't drink the water. We felt light headed after we draNK IT AND CRAMPS IN THE BELLY. We did sooo much better drinking gatorade. I would say take lots of it. We even had problems with fountain pop and koolaid mix, slushies ect. I will pack way more gatorade next trip.

 

[Buckleybunch]

I have to say I have noticed the water smelling.. and the water from the tap being BAD! We have started buying bottle water and using that even when we brush our teeth. We were at Cont, when we first notice that it tasted bad. We had froze some water in bottles and the next day at the parks we tasted it and tossed it just as quick.. I haven't noticed the bottle water that you buy at the parks to be bad or make you more thirsty that I can recall. I know a few times I had gotten water and wished I would of gotten a coke instead..

 

[MAKmom]

If the water comes from wells. I wonder if each resort has its own well. Last Nov we stayed at the GF. We drank the water with no problem, but it was cool out so we were not drinking alot of water. We are staying at AKL & BWI in June I will take note of the water smells. If you stay Concierge they will give you bottled water & juice boxres to take to the parks.

 

[DawnCt]

The water at Disney is treated and clean. It may not taste the same as your water at home because the only water that is truly tasteless is distilled water and you probably wouldn't want to drink it because it is tasteless. I personally do not like the water at Disney. It doesn't taste good to me. That doesn't mean that it is contaminated or tainted. It just means that the naturally occuring minerals and perhaps chlorine is something different from what I am used to. Florida isn't a third world country. Also, someone mentioned an allergy to "sulphur drugs". Sulphur, the element is very different from the class of drugs called "Sulfa" drugs or sulfonimides and the terms are not interchangable. If you think the water will make you sick..it probably will. If you think it won't...you will be just fine.

 

[Alice in Lawyerland]

This is really starting to make sense to me now. I have stomach problems and just thought that my getting sick was....well....just me getting sick again! Now that I think about it, I always got sick after drinking things with ice in it. I never drank the water, or the bottled water. I tried, but that Zephyr Hills stuff is terrible - sort of like swallowing chlorine water from the pool! So, for the past two years, I have been shipping bottled water (Poland Springs - what it means to be from Maine!) by UPS down to the hotel. We ship 2 cases and it costs us $25.00. The hotel holds it for a few days until we check in and then we just grab a bottle when we leave the room.

This wasn't because I thought the water was bad, just because I didn't like the taste of it. This year I'm going to try drinking things without ice and see what happens.

 

[tink2dw]

I really think the drought must be reasonsible for the worsening of the water!! I know when we went in '90 we drank alot from the fountains and none of us got sick.

but when we went mar.2001 my Dd and I both got sick,we were the 2 forcing water intake to advoid dehydration and we were the 2 that puked and puked!!

 

[loki]

I drink poland springs as well funny thing is I hear its not the greatest either...but hey it tastes fine right

 

[akdisneyfan]

I live in Alaska, which has the best water, and while the water tastes awful at WDW it has NEVER made me or any of my family sick from drinking it. I am sure that there is no actual problem with the water causing illness or Disney would have taken care of it to avoid any kind of controversy or complaint. If you are really worried about it, go to Walmart and buy bottles of water to carry into the park with you.
Kim
DVC member since '93

 

[Sean23]

I go to WDW world at least twice a week and drink the water. I have never been sick from the water, I try to find a fountain that in the shade it seems to taste a little better cold. The water in Orlando does not taste that great even if I am not at WDW.

 

[MICOL]

Our family of 4 used the Brita filters and we were all fine never a problem and used the fountains at the parks and drinking water at AKL. I even checked with Reedy County the water supplier for Disney and they had a recent test that was very good. I checked due to my Sulfer alergy.