shade228

We're on this cruise, too. It's been appearing and disappearing off the website for about a week, but when it shows up, there's no actual availability. Looks sold out to me.

Assuming that a cruise ship's potable water system works like those I worked with in the Navy, it's pretty simple. Any sink, shower, water fountain, or drink machine (including the flavored water and soda, which are mixed with water) use the same water. Any filtration that takes place happens as part of the reverse osmosis/distillation* process. I highly doubt there's a filter before water and drink stations on the buffet or anywhere else; that would be ridiculously difficult to install and maintain. There might be built in filters in the drink stations, but they're not there to remove chlorine or anything like that. Those filters are going to be much further down, probably before water goes into the tanks and then after it comes out of the tanks and into the loop of the drinking water system.

Pier/city water goes straight into the loop; unless the ship aligns to fill their tanks (which they might; you don't want to make water within 3 nautical miles of land, because then you have to filter out a lot of sludge) it doesn't go through any onboard filtration system. I'm not entirely positive that it would go through filtration even if they do fill the tanks, though. I'd have to see system drawings to know for sure, since ships are always built a little differently from one another.

As for "brown" (probably gray) water, you're never going to find a faucet of any type that spits it out. Gray water is drainage from sinks, dishwashers, showers, etc. Why align it so that it can come out of anything (except a pipe if it breaks)? There's no use for brown water, and once you're a certain distance from land, in accordance with international law, you can pump brown water right over the side. Black water is CHT (sewage), and that goes straight into a tank or over the side, again depending on how far from land you are. Any crew member who thinks you can get brown or black water from a sink has been misinformed or doesn't understand that the drain in that sink is going to brown water; the sink isn't providing it.

*I would actually be surprised if there are any cruise ships left with flash-type distillation systems such as evaporators. They're murderously difficult to maintain and even the US Navy has finally started replacing all of the evaps with RO machines (and the Navy is always behind the technology power curve). Reverse Osmosis is much lower maintenance, and ROs are smaller and much more reliable. Evaps break all the time, and the last thing any cruise ship wants is to tell their passengers that they're running out of water.

I went on my first cruise while on active duty. I just put my home address as my leave address, and then let my boss know that I would be on a cruise and gave him the emergency number in case they absolutely had to contact me.

I don't know what your husband's rank or position is, but if he's an officer who generally gets a lot of calls and is expected to do some work while on leave (like I was), make sure he lets his boss know that he'll be completely out of contact except for actual emergencies. Also have him tell his boss that there is no Wifi on the ship, otherwise they might expect him to check his email regularly. (Yes, I've fought this battle in the past).

If you google "city noise ordinances re cruise ships", you may find that my statement is correct.l

I did just google your terms, and I've found several lawsuits relative to noises coming from cruise ships - but none of those complaints actually list use of the ship's whistle/horn when you get into the actual legalese. That's because a port city legally cannot restrict a seagoing vessel from using them. Use of the whistle is required by international law and by US law (the US has an inland version of the International Rules of the Road, but the requirements are nearly the same and they only apply within US territorial waters, which is 12 nautical miles out).

Bermuda, incidentally, does not have a tailored version of the Rules of the Road/COLREGs and operates its ports under the International Rules. Thus, ships are required to use their whistle. The same thing goes for any city ordinances against noise in any country in the world, unless their inland rules are different (which I have never heard of, and I have navigated ships in and out of harbors of at least 20 different countries). Noise ordinances can't trump national or international law.

Also, cruise ship mariners are some of the most professional and knowledgeable in the business. Breaking the Rules of the Road is a great way to lose your license, and that's the last thing any of them want to do. They'll sound that whistle as required by law and let any unhappy cities call corporate.

The balcony sizes are different:

 

DAWN balcony sizes:

12020/12520 = 98 sq ft

12022/12522 = 110 sq ft

12026/12526 = 110 sq ft

12028/12528 = 77 sq ft

12030/12530 = 58 sq ft

 

We've got 12526 booked for Jan 2017. We picked it because it was one of those with the largest balconies.

Thanks for the info! We've got 12526 booked for October, and it's lovely to know that we'll have a big balcony to hang out on!

Some ports do not allow the ships to sound their horns.

This is incorrect. The International Rules of the Road (COLREGS) require one prolonged blast on the ship's whistle (which some people call a horn) prior to getting underway from port or anchorage. No port can restrict this. Three short blasts are also required when operating astern propulsion (such as backing away from the pier).

Ports can restrict a ship's ability to sound the whistle in non-emergency, non-required situations, but they can't outright ban it. That, and any mariner worth their pay always does a test of the whistle prior to getting underway (it is required to be functional at all times), so the ship could write a "warning to passengers" blast off as that.