Ideas for good tasting, "all day cold" water...

[Crazy4mandms]

This sounds anal, but I just can't bring myself to drink "off-tasting" water. We are planning to take lots of our own bottled water to use in the parks, which leads me to my second peeve: I have to have VERY cold water to drink.....so, if I don't have a fridge in my room, can I have both good tasting and cold water to take to the parks (without paying $20 a day for bottled water in the parks)? The main problems I see is that the ice machines would use the "WDW water system" which I heard the water is nasty tasting so I wouldn't want to use it in my water bottles, and second, if I don't use that ice how in the heck can I keep my water cold all day in the parks!?!??!!! We are planning to bring my little cube fridge with us mainly just to use the freezer section of it for ice cubes (or else we could bring a reg cooler!) but I don't think I'll have a fun time fitting it in my rental Dodge Caravan! This is my last worry about our trip (beginning in 6 days!) becuz I am so against drinking nasty, warm water....any vets out there have another way of solving this dilemma??

 

[Coll0610]

The Brita filtered bottles do a pretty good job of making the water taste better, and most of the drinking fountains have pretty cold water. You could just fill the bottle when you get to a fountain and drink it. Or you put ice in the bottle because it will get filtered just like the water does.

 

[DMRick]

We fill a lunch size cooler (softside, fits in our back pack) filled with ice, with water bottles nestled in. I have had good luck getting the counter restaurants to replenish it as it melts. That way the bottles are on top or in the ice, but the yucky taste doesn't polute my water. If we know we are changing parks (we have a car), we leave some of the bottles in the car, and put them in our backpack when changing parks. I don't like soda, and really like good tasting cold water, so this does it for us.
Doris

 

[mhelsley]

I found a steel insulated sports bottle that said it could keep drinks cold all day. I didn't believe it would work so i put it to the test by filling it with chilled water no ice and setting it out in the august heat of Texas. I put it out about 8am and forgot about it until my husband came home and found it at 8 that evening. It was still like it had come from the fridge. It is a nissan sports bottle and you can find places that sell them by doing a google search.

 

[Muffy]

Thanks for the info on the nissan sports bottle.

 

[MrsPete]

You MUST keep yourself hydrated, and there's no perfect choice:

1. Buy cold bottled water at the parks (disadvantage: cost).

2. Carry an insultated bottle of water with you (disadvantage: it gets heavy, and you are stuck with it all day long). My kids have nice insulated water bottles (with neck straps) that they use for the playground, etc. Ours came from the scout store, but they sell similar things at Target. If you start with lots of ice you'll have cold water all day.

3. Drink from the water fountains and/or free ice water from counter service restaurants (disadvantage: not always convenient, some people don't like the tastes).

Here's the real question: which disadvantage are you most willing to put up with?

 

[Pembo]

Suggestion for combating the taste of the water. On our last trip I found Lemon Juice packets at the food court. I just grabbed a few to carry with me and squeezed them into the water.

Just a little bit of the lemon taste takes away that taste for me.

Another suggestion: grab a lemon wedge from the food court and put it in your water bottle. Then everytime you fill up, you get the lemon taste.

Good luck. I too love COLD water!

 

[Gillian]

It's good to plan ahead, but don't be afraid to taste the WDW water. We found the ice water you get at the restaurants (counter service) to be very good! Try it, you might just like it!

 

[guyzmom]

If you have the freezer space, something that works really well for COLD water is to just freeze the bottles of water themselves. They melt as the day goes on, and you always have COLD water. Ahhh, refreshing!

 

[Crazy4mandms]

guyzmom, I think that is what it is going to come down to for me. I think our cheapest bet is to just take along the cube fridge and take ice cube trays. I bought 2 of those 1 qt coleman bottles with the straps so we'll just load those with lots of ice and some bottled water. On most days we plan on doing a park from EE until about noon or 1 then go back to the hotel for some pool time. I was thinking that the 2 colemans would be enough for that length of time (2 adults 2 kids 7/11) and if not, if I had to buy one or two (yikes!) in the park occassionally I guess that wouldn't be too bad $$wise. Darn the tight budget and my fussy water taste!!

 

[guyzmom]

I'm not sure if I was clear in what I was trying to say.
Take a bottle of bottled water, and actually freeze the full bottle the night before you need it.
Take the bottle of solid ice with you the next day.
This really does work great, and in the heat it melts faster than you think.
If you freeze a bunch of bottles of water before your trip, and use them in your cooler instead of ice cubes, that works great too. They stay frozen longer than ice cubes, and don't get things wet when they melt.
Goodluck in your quest for hydration!

 

[Aubrey]

One bottle of water isn't enough to get you through even half a day in the heat and more bottles are too heavy and bulky to carry. We use the Brita filter bottle and have it filled with ice at the drink counters throughout the day. That way we only carry one bottle but get unlimited free fresh-tasting cold water all day. The only disadvantage is standing in line for the ice.

 

[robinb]

I agree with Aubrey.

Although the Britta bottles don't do much for lead and other microbial nasties, they do filter out chlorine and the bad taste of Orlando water. I carry a Britta bottle with me all day at WDW. I am usually not fussy about cold water, so I fill it up at the nearest water fountain. However, any of the counter restaurants that will sell you a cup of soda will also give you a cup of ice for free. It's really not a big deal to ask for some ice, I usually tell them it's for my water bottle and the CMs are always very friendly when they hand me a nice cup of ice. They will not fill your bottle directly for sanitary reasons.

 

[Danemom]

Have you seen the water bottles that have a frozen "ice pack" core? I've seen them at Target. I'm not sure if they would last an entire day but maybe combined with an insulated wrap? I was just thinking that they would require much less freezer space than the whole water bottle. You could have several of the ice pack cores in a small cube fridge's freezer. You might want to check them out!

Autumn

 

[scottygirl]

I just picked up two Brita water bottles at Kroger. They were on sale for $6.39, reg price $7.99. I think they are a great idea.

 

[edie w]

Please tell me more about these Brita filtered bottles. Do they sell them at Publix or anywhere else on the Hwy 192 between I4 and Hwy 27 (I only know this area)?

Or can you buy them in the UK? I have a Brita jug in my fridge right now, but have never seen bottles.

Tried the frozen bottles, which works well til they have been drunk (about 10 am!). We can't stand the sulphurous taste of the drinking fountain water, but trust the US laws about bacterial and lead content of drinking water are pretty similar!

 

[Aubrey]

The easiest way to get them is online. Drugstore.com has them and if you go to Funtasia.com first you can ususally find a free shipping code. I'm not sure if the free shipping covers the UK though.