Cheaper to buy water on the ship

[curlstravel]

Is it cheaper to wait until you get on the ship to order water for your room or is it just as cheap to buy it online? Thank you

[garycarla]

Cheapest way is to drink the water they make onboard. Which is better; bottle water or ships water?

 

Less cheap is to bring your own bottled water.

[Demonyte]

Which is better; bottle water or ships water?

 

Taste wise: bottled water or water from ship's restaurants or bars.

 

Purity wise: ship's water - even from cabin tap.

[dalgirl]

We just drink the water onboard - 10 years and we are still here;)

 

We also take a water bottle and fill it up before leaving the ship if we think we will be in a location that does not have access to a lot of water. Many excursions include a bottle of water, and many stops have stores to buy water - usually much cheaper than on the ship.

 

Buying water from the ship is convenient and easy, but not cheap.

[Tedj6050]

My experience with the water on the ships(Epic & POA) is very good.the water had no smell or taste.better than my local municipal tap water.just refilled the same bottle all week with glasses filled in the buffet.

[j-9]

Is it cheaper to wait until you get on the ship to order water for your room or is it just as cheap to buy it online? Thank you

 

How much is it to order on-line? I can't see it offered for my cruise yet.

[DinaS]

Is it cheaper to wait until you get on the ship to order water for your room or is it just as cheap to buy it online? Thank you

 

We always bring a few bottles of water (a six pack or so of one-liter bottles) and just refill them. We also bring a reusable thermal mug for easy filling from cups at the buffet.

 

Never fill your own cups or bottles directly from the buffet - always use a clean cup first, then transfer from the cup into your own bottle or thermal mug!

[thephillykid]

Best idea in my eyes if you don't want to drink the ship's water, which is pretty good, by the way, is to stop at a cvs or supermarket on the way to the ship and buy a 24 pack of spring water. When you get to the port just slap a luggage tag on the side of the 24 pack and it will get to your room no problem. You will pay under $4 for 24 bottles in stead of $4 for 1 bottle on board. Pretty simple.

Howard

[Da-Painter]

I recall it was $5 for a liter of water on the ship. :eek:

[shelly11]

It's cheaper to bring your own. The bottles on board are $5 each. It's a big bottle but I can find a whole case of water for $5 at home.

[HokiePoq]

My experience with the water on the ships(Epic & POA) is very good.the water had no smell or taste.better than my local municipal tap water.just refilled the same botle all week with glasses filled in the buffet.

 

This is what we do. Water has been fine on all the NCL ships we've been on. In fact on all the ships we've been on except one....Legend of the Seas. At first I thought the toilet was smelling like the sewer but it was the tap water. Apparently not lethal but awful. Ship's engineer advised us (when I asked) to drink the water from the buffet where it was filtered more.

[Demonyte]

My experience with the water on the ships(Epic & POA) is very good.the water had no smell or taste.better than my local municipal tap water.just refilled the same bottle all week with glasses filled in the buffet.

 

 

This is what we do. Water has been fine on all the NCL ships we've been on. In fact on all the ships we've been on except one....Legend of the Seas. At first I thought the toilet was smelling like the sewer but it was the tap water. Apparently not lethal but awful. Ship's engineer advised us (when I asked) to drink the water from the buffet where it was filtered more.

 

I have no problem with the water in the bars or restaurants, also on NCL ships it's carbon filtered there and has no odd taste.

 

The problem is filling water bottles from the cabin tap on which the water has definitive chlorine taste, I much rather pay couple of bucks and haul a case of bottled water to have in the cabin than have to fill couple of empty bottles at the time from buffet area's dispenser using a glass.

[silvercrikhix]

Buying water from the cruiseline is way spendy.

We bring on some bottled water at embarkation and we all have Brita filtering water bottles that we bring to filter the ships water even more and any potable water in ports, like drinking fountains, etc.....

We love our Brita filtering water bottles!

[CP Tech]

I have no problem with the water in the bars or restaurants, also on NCL ships it's carbon filtered there and has no odd taste.

 

The problem is filling water bottles from the cabin tap on which the water has definitive chlorine taste

 

I hate to say this but this is completely mental. The water purification system on board is the same for kitchens, restaurants, cabins and bars. It's all one system.

 

Even the pools are originally fed from the same system then switched to a closed loop system to allow constant monitoring and filtering.

 

I know far too much about water quality via my job, you will never find me in a public pool.

[Demonyte]

I hate to say this but this is completely mental. The water purification system on board is the same for kitchens, restaurants, cabins and bars. It's all one system.

 

No it is not. This has been confirmed here also by an ex-employee that worked for years onboard NCL ships with enviromental systems.

 

The purification system itself is of course the same and produces all potable water onboard, but resulting water is chlorinated in order to keep the ship's clean water pipes etc clean. That chlorine taste is removed in food/drink handling areas by local carbon filtering that is not used in cabins or where said water might be used in pools, jacuzzis etc.

[cruise4kicks]

Is it cheaper to wait until you get on the ship to order water for your room or is it just as cheap to buy it online? Thank you

 

To get back to the OP's original question...

 

There is no option to purchase online or in advance. You can only purchase the water package once onboard.

 

If you find a way to purchase in advance, please let me know! I couldn't locate it online, and when I called NCL yesterday, neither could they. (...which wouldn't be the first time someone from NCL couldn't find the answer or was misinformed... ;) )

[Demonyte]

No, there is no way to pre-purchase. Water packages are like beer buckets, only available onboard but one can buy one from pretty much any bar.

[curlstravel]

Thanks for all of your responses

[4774Papa]

We just drink the water onboard - 10 years and we are still here;)

 

We also take a water bottle and fill it up before leaving the ship if we think we will be in a location that does not have access to a lot of water. Many excursions include a bottle of water, and many stops have stores to buy water - usually much cheaper than on the ship.

 

Buying water from the ship is convenient and easy, but not cheap.

I have been drinking tap water for 66 years and still going strong. To me bottled water is a necessity for third world countries, but the ship's water is not a problem.

[Froufie]

No, there is no way to pre-purchase. Water packages are like beer buckets, only available onboard but one can buy one from pretty much any bar.

 

wondering what the cost is? How many bottles? what type? thanks :)

[Demonyte]

wondering what the cost is? How many bottles? what type? thanks :)

 

I can't remember exactly because the bottled water onboard is so overpriced to begin with that even with little discount in a package it's still very overpriced and we haven't bought bottled water onboard other than on few first cruises as single bottles.

 

I think that the package price was 6 large bottles for a fixed price, to my recollection the price for (still) spring water and (carbonated) mineral water was pretty much the same. Like in US, in Europe they sold local water available for 20% for the price (or less) in grocery stores.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Demonyte

[Froufie]

I can't remember exactly because the bottled water onboard is so overpriced to begin with that even with little discount in a package it's still very overpriced and we haven't bought bottled water onboard other than on few first cruises as single bottles.

 

I think that the package price was 6 large bottles for a fixed price, to my recollection the price for (still) spring water and (carbonated) mineral water was pretty much the same. Like in US, in Europe they sold local water available for 20% for the price (or less) in grocery stores.

 

Are you able to bring bottled water/soft drinks onto the ship - either at embarkation or at the ports??? Doe NCL allow this?

[cruise4kicks]

Are you able to bring bottled water/soft drinks onto the ship - either at embarkation or at the ports??? Doe NCL allow this?

 

Yes, you can bring on any nonalcoholic beverage, free of charge. It's just that in some ports -- Tampa and New Orleans, I think? -- the porters will not take them as baggage; you'd have to lug it on yourself.

[stagetek23]

We always order a pitcher of ice water when we get room service for breakfast on port days. (I just write it on the form) then fill our water bottles from there to take ashore. Doesn't cost a thing and it tastes just a good as bottled...you would never know. Saves lots of money!

[Froufie]

Yes, you can bring on any nonalcoholic beverage, free of charge. It's just that in some ports -- Tampa and New Orleans, I think? -- the porters will not take them as baggage; you'd have to lug it on yourself.

 

thanks for the info - will be boarding in Barcelona then one stop in Madeira before crossing the Atlantic so hopefully can stock up in either of these ports!