Water Package?

[tvguy]

These are from either an RCL or NCL ship a while ago. Not mine, but another cruise mate's who happens to be a long-time cruiser too.

That said, decades old ship plumbing isn't a democrat vs republican reasoning excuse. It's a fact.

Very few ships that are in service are decades old thankfully. And ALL have to meet water quality standards now.

 

[tvguy]

Actually I believe they use evaporators to change the sea water to fresh water on Disney Cruise line. At least they used to. Here's a small clip from Disney Parks blog in 2016.

And then it is run through a reverse osmosis filtering system.

 

[Intr3pid]

Very few ships that are in service are decades old thankfully. And ALL have to meet water quality standards now.

Both Magic and Wonder are more than two decades old, and the so-called Maritime "water quality standards" for a ship registered in Bahamas are quite different than those required to put a case of bottled water on your grocery shelf in Florida.

 

[mcrowder1978]

I went ahead and ordered a case of water for my daughter and her boyfriend through the onboard gifts page so that it was there when we got on board. It ends up being 2-3 a piece each day and that's not bad. I'd just rather order them ahead of time as opposed to one at a time. And on the plus side we should be able to bring a few with us when we go on the excursion or onto the island.

If you wait you can also get a six pack of them plus a cooler bag when you get off on the island. I can't remember the price but what I can say is that the cooler bag is fantastic. I use the one from our last cruise two years ago all the time. It even kept most of the ice frozen when we had a 12+ hour drive from North Carolina to New York last summer. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

 

[tvguy]

Both Magic and Wonder are more than two decades old, and the so-called Maritime "water quality standards" for a ship registered in Bahamas are quite different than those required to put a case of bottled water on your grocery shelf in Florida.

Well, I've seen enough stories on bottled water to make me feel safe with ship water. Nestle has a big water bottling plant here in Sacramento. 100% filtered City of Sacramento tap water.
All drinking water on Cruise ships calling on U.S. ports of call must meet U.S. health standards as well as those of the World Health Organization.

 

[Intr3pid]

Well, I've seen enough stories on bottled water to make me feel safe with ship water. Nestle has a big water bottling plant here in Sacramento. 100% filtered City of Sacramento tap water.
All drinking water on Cruise ships calling on U.S. ports of call must meet U.S. health standards as well as those of the World Health Organization.

Yes, we have seen cruise ships use those standards to dump all kind of stuff in Alaskan waters before. Or what happens with municipal plumbing like it did in Flint. And, seriously, someone here actually thinks that WHO has any jurisdiction on what happens on a cruise ship?

Take a hard look at that picture above, and remember it the next time you consume tap water on board. Speculating about standards isn't going to turn that old plumbing new or make that heavily treated water "pure".

 

[tvguy]

Yes, we have seen cruise ships use those standards to dump all kind of stuff in Alaskan waters before. Or what happens with municipal plumbing like it did in Flint. And, seriously, someone here actually thinks that WHO has any jurisdiction on what happens on a cruise ship?

Take a hard look at that picture above, and remember it the next time you consume tap water on board. Speculating about standards isn't going to turn that old plumbing new or make that heavily treated water "pure".

FYI U.S. Health officials inspect cruise ships that call on U.S. Ports twice a year.

 

[Intr3pid]

FYI U.S. Health officials inspect cruise ships that call on U.S. Ports twice a year.

Under the PVSA, yes, I very much agree - but these ships are not governed by it.

For a non-PVSA ship, the US coast guards have a right to board any ship in the US waters and see if it's fit for operation in these waters. Similarly, the CDC has standards in place that govern the health of the crew and guests on board and prevent a communicable disease from entering the US borders. Beyond some of these key parameters, only the country of registry - as agreed under the international maritime law (in reciprocity, BTW) - has any jurisdiction over how the ship operates.

There are 1000s of such non-PVSA ships - mostly commercial - entering the US waters every year. The US government has very little (if any) capacity to do health and safety inspections. This is the primary reason why the Carnival/Princess dumping debacle carried on for years and needed a whistleblower in the end.

All that said, I very much respect your opinion on how to drink your water. My apologies if I came across as patronizing! My post is simply designed to inform others why there is a market for the use of bottled water on board.

 

[tvguy]

Under the PVSA, yes, I very much agree - but these ships are not governed by it.

For a non-PVSA ship, the US coast guards have a right to board any ship in the US waters and see if it's fit for operation in these waters. Similarly, the CDC has standards in place that govern the health of the crew and guests on board and prevent a communicable disease from entering the US borders. Beyond some of these key parameters, only the country of registry - as agreed under the international maritime law (in reciprocity, BTW) - has any jurisdiction over how the ship operates.

There are 1000s of such non-PVSA ships - mostly commercial - entering the US waters every year. The US government has very little (if any) capacity to do health and safety inspections. This is the primary reason why the Carnival/Princess dumping debacle carried on for years and needed a whistleblower in the end.

All that said, I very much respect your opinion on how to drink your water. My apologies if I came across as patronizing! My post is simply designed to inform others why there is a market for the use of bottled water on board.

Funny, as a 64 year old who spent my first 24 years living in houses that had their own water well, clean, untreated water, and had a hard time getting used to municipal water when I bought my house, I am defending treated water. LOL

 

[insureman]

Most bottled spring water isn't chlorinated and is sanitized using ozone and UV light, neither of which leave any kind of taste residue. It is then filtered through carbon filters, and sometimes reverse osmosis, before being bottled. The tap water on board is treated heavily. If you are used to a certain brand of water - Evian, Voss, Fiji - you will find the tap water on board very flat in the mouth but with a noticeable residual treatment taste.

The tap water also has to run through miles and miles of sometimes old ship plumbing and tanks. And sometimes that plumbing doesn't work so well.

View attachment 643342

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Personal preferences aside, drink plenty of clean water. We don't see many doing it on board, and sometimes taste is one of the reasons. Not that you have to drink water, but we like to. Low water consumption can lead to all sorts of problems - particularly when substituted with sugary stuff - so we like to use any incentive that we can find to drink it!

I think these photos are a bit extreme and don't represent any experience we have seen with DCL potable water.

 

[insureman]

Funny, as a 64 year old who spent my first 24 years living in houses that had their own water well, clean, untreated water, and had a hard time getting used to municipal water when I bought my house, I am defending treated water. LOL

We are from the same generation and I'm actually still amazed that people buy bottled water. I don't even remember it being sold in supermarkets when I was growing up!

 

[emilymad]

I read on these boards that the tap water on board has a much higher sodium content than bottled water or tap water on land, and therefore can cause bloating from sodium retention (something I do not wish to experience since I am bloated enough on a cruise from the food!) I wish someone could confirm if this is true.

We like the taste of bottled water so normally order the water package. But on my October cruise they changed to metal bottles and the water tasted like medicine so we will have to come up with a new plan for our next cruise. (Maybe the brita bottles someone mentioned.)

I have no idea if the sodium content being higher is true but if I drink the tap water on the ship (DCL or other cruises) I definitely get bloated. I will drink it in the dining room but I don't really like the taste. We bring a case of water in our wheeled carry on every cruise. A regular size carry on bag fits a case of water almost perfectly.

 

[Scalemaster34]

Are they still doing the small coolers with ice and water bottles on Castaway Cay?

 

[MomOTwins]

Do people who say they will not drink tap water on the ship also decline ice water in the MDR then too? Or any soda or alcoholic drinks with ice in them? Because I doubt that’s any different from the water in the tap.

If I didn’t trust Disney not to adhere to high standards for safety, I wouldn’t sail with them.

I used to buy bottled waters for the stateroom not because of safety concerns but because I liked to pack it in a bag and take it on excursions. The metal water bottles do taste metallic though—I can’t tell if it is something in the water or just because I taste metal from my mouth touching the lip of the bottle when I drink. But regardless I dislike them a lot.

On the last trip I thankfully heard about the metal water bottles on these boards so skipped the water package and brought along my own refillable water bottles and filled them with paper cups of ice water from the fountain machines on the pool deck or water from my stateroom tap. Tasted great and was not brown!

 

[Freeman867]

Most bottled spring water isn't chlorinated and is sanitized using ozone and UV light, neither of which leave any kind of taste residue. It is then filtered through carbon filters, and sometimes reverse osmosis, before being bottled. The tap water on board is treated heavily. If you are used to a certain brand of water - Evian, Voss, Fiji - you will find the tap water on board very flat in the mouth but with a noticeable residual treatment taste.

The tap water also has to run through miles and miles of sometimes old ship plumbing and tanks. And sometimes that plumbing doesn't work so well.

View attachment 643342

View attachment 643343

Personal preferences aside, drink plenty of clean water. We don't see many doing it on board, and sometimes taste is one of the reasons. Not that you have to drink water, but we like to. Low water consumption can lead to all sorts of problems - particularly when substituted with sugary stuff - so we like to use any incentive that we can find to drink it!

Let's be honest here. If ANYONE looked at this water and said "Hmmm... they said it was safe to drink, so here I go!", they're just not very smart. If some how, some way, water looked like this on a DCL ship, I'm pretty sure they'd be apologizing and giving us bottled water free of charge. This is such an extreme example of what could be wrong and far from reality of the situation here.

 

[coronationday]

I don't drink anything else except water, can I just buy a package of bottle waters (like at Walgreens) and bring it with me to the ship?

 

[tvguy]

We are from the same generation and I'm actually still amazed that people buy bottled water. I don't even remember it being sold in supermarkets when I was growing up!

I sure don't remember bottled water in the stores in the 1960's. I do remember owning a refillable bottle in Junior High School that I bought for the field trips we took in the wilderness. But like I said, I grew up in a house with it's own domestic well. No water district where my parents lived. The cost of water was hidden. You paid for electricity to pump it out of the ground, and in 53 years my parents owned that house I think they replaced the pump once, and the storage tank twice. When I bought my house in 1983 I was shocked to have to pay a flat rate of $50 a YEAR for water. Now we have water meters, in the winter our bill is $50 a MONTH and about $100 in summer.

 

[TinkLoverSam]

I don't drink anything else except water, can I just buy a package of bottle waters (like at Walgreens) and bring it with me to the ship?

You can, as mentioned previously water must be carried aboard and not placed with checked luggage.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I don't drink anything else except water, can I just buy a package of bottle waters (like at Walgreens) and bring it with me to the ship?

Yes.

 

[LeiaOfAlderaan]

People who bring a refillable water bottle on board, how do you wash it?? I wouldn’t feel comfortable drinking from a bottle for 5-7 days that hadn’t been washed at minimum every other day (at home we wash them every day). I don’t really want to bring soap and a bottle scrubber in addition to the bottle, I am already an overpacker as it is! I’m wondering if there is a hack for washing bottles while traveling.