Bottled Water vs Ship Water
 

I see a lot of posts in various cruise forums about bringing aboard bottled water. I know the ship sells bottled water and perhaps it is cheaper to bring your own. But other posters say the ship has good drinking water. So what is up with all that bottled water? I can see it is handy to take on shore excursions or around the ship but how about just getting one bottled water and then refilling it with ship's water?

"...how about just getting one bottled water and then refilling it with ship's water?"

That's what we do.

Linda

It's an interesting question as to why people feel they need to buy and drink bottled water. My personal opinion is that it's because the soft drink companies have done an exceedingly good job of convincing people in the country with some of the best water in the world that they need to spend huge amounts of money for something they can get for a fraction of the price from their own taps at home.

Bottled water is rarely a necessity.

Ships have completely suitable drinking water on board (it's filtered and good-tasting), and you can carry a refillable bottle (such as a Sigg bottle) and refill from dispensers in the buffet area or from the tap in your cabin's bathroom). It will save you many unnecessary dollars if you do this.

The way you tell an American these days is not because they are wearing athletic shoes and jeans but by the plastic water bottle in their hands and the constant sipping.

Doug is right. The artificial demand for bottled water is fueled by marketing.

For those who are paranoid, bring a water testing kit. If you don't like the test results, buy the bottle water. Chances are, your bottled water won't show much better test results, if at all. All the bottled water you buy from store shelves are mostly reverse osmosis (with a small percentage distill), which is a very similar process the ship uses (desalination) anywy.

For improved safety, drink only boiled water. We bring a thermos, get the hot water, after it cooled off, we pour it into our water bottle. DW likes to drink hot water anyway so it worked out perfect.

"how about just getting one bottled water and then refilling it with ship's water?"

we do this too :) and in the morning you can fill your bottle with juice or lemonade if you like, or tea, coffee, hot chocolate all day

Dayenu, just so you know, the lemonade and "juice drinks" are made from concentrates, that means adding ship's water to the syrup (concentrate), be it clean water or not. If you are 100% worry about the water safety, drink only boiled water. I've seen people bring their own kettles.

As an added point, ice cubes are also made from the ship's water, be it clean or not. So if you drink any mixed drinks and added ice, you will be consuming the ship's water.

If you don't like boiling your own water, there is another alternative: Drink only bottled beer and wine :) That will ensure that you are happy 100% of the time!

Some bottled water has added sodium and other "ingredients" which may not be what you want more of. We do what others above do, own a good water bottle and fill it with water from the ship. I doubt many cruise companies would be happy knowing people have kettles in their room, like irons, they could cause a fire. I would refill a regular plastic bottle a couple of times and then throw it away, they don't last forever without leaching stuff. Happy drinking.

Eschew, I only mentioned juices for variety.

As for bringing one's own electric kettles, isn't it forbidden due to the fire hazard?

I like your alternative :) Once I saw a t-shirt that said: save water, drink beer!

This is one subject that never crossed my mind on a cruise ship. Use bottled water for convenience and remember that all of the ship's food is being prepared using the ship's water. Seems more than a little paranoid to be boiling water to drink. I cannot imagine what you do when you go ashore.

There is increasing evidence that heat and acid can cause chemicals to leach out of "disposable" water bottles and studies that show nasty bacterial growth in the same if refilled.

I agree that media hype is responsible for Americans thinking we are all on the edge of dehydration and that tap water will kill you - but consider a non-disposable water bottle if you are going to refill or use anything other than water in it.

It is my understanding that ship water is desalinated sea water. The stuff from the tap has chlorine added and the water that is poured for drinking is filtered.
Can someone verify?

I am guessing that is roughly true. Also would think that the exact procedures would vary from ship to ship. Again, does it make any difference? I have never heard of any problems on any ship caused by bad water.

Here's how reverse osmosis works for desalination: http://science.howstuffworks.com/reverse-osmosis.htm

I recently read on cruisecritic that some of the ships are now starting to offer "Beverage Programs" that offer bottled water, (similar to the soft-drink programs).

I always found the ship's tap water from their reverse osmosis system quite good.

My suggestion was to drink boiled water, not to bring your own kettle. My mother (rest or soul) used to bring a travel water boiler (a heating element that pluds into a electrical socket and I think they have outlawed it due to fire hazzard)

My DW drinks hot water. We bring a thermos. We fill it with the hot water from the ship's buffet hot water (for tea). The next morning, the water would be cool and we fill it into a BHA free water bottle. I won't refill any plastic water bottle that is not BHA free. All bottled water bootles are for single use and not meant to be refilled.

Bookmarking to re-read this later. I wonder how much sodium is in the ship's drinking water - many people complain their feet swell on cruises, can water be the reason, or one of the reason?

I think it's the sodium in the food.

Mega cruise ships typically use desalination technology for their drinking water. There maybe tarce level of sodium. If you read your bottled water lable, quite a few conations 0.1% of sodium. Unless you are drinking distilled water, in-take of trace sodium from drinking water is unavoidable.

Complaining about feet swell on a cruise is a new one for me. Typically when you are "older", your feet swell. With the cruise passengers being older .... :D

There have been lots of other discussions on various boards regarding feet swelling. I will say that my ankles never swell at home but they do on a cruise if I am not careful, usually after 5 or 6 days. Some of it, I'm sure, is unnecessary salt in the food (I don't add it to my own cooking), but I also find that some of the bottled water on ships has more sodium than necessary as well. I always read the labels. Most cruise companies have more than 1 brand of bottled water available. Put your feet up as much as possible and just monitor what you eat and drink if this is a problem for you as well. We Americans are a bit of overkill when it comes to water and yes, it is great marketing and that is all. More wine sounds like a great idea.

All kidding aside, I do find that sodium content (especially on the sauces for the main course) rather heavy. At least I have not found MSG to be a problem so far as I get real thirty real quick after consuming food seasoned with MSG.

The sodium content in bottled water is very low and should not be any problem. Cutting back on high sodium food (such as bacon) maybe a better idea.

Ask for an extra pillow and put it under your feet when you sleep will help with the swelling.