This topic always cracks me up...every time I've seen it come up you have people who absolutely think taking water in suitcases is a great idea and then you have just as many people who simply can't imagine doing it. And invariably it ends up turning into a discussion of how much water weighs, if it weighs more when it's frozen and does a pound of one thing weigh more than a pound of another thing.
It's just water!! Who cares??? If you want to take it in your suitcase then take it, if you want to have it shipped then have it shipped and if you want to buy it once you get there then that's ok too!!
And for the record...1ml of water weighs 1g (grams). A common size of water bottle is 500ml (half a litre). One pound is 454g so a 500ml bottle would weigh 500g which is just over 1 pound (454g). So a case of 24 bottles would be right around 25lbs.