Can't bring soda on board anymore

[Crusin6]

I know for instance my mother likes to have a bottle of water to take her meds with in the morning. She would rather do this in her cabin, rather than taking all her meds up to the buffet. Or getting fully ready, leaving the cabin, getting water and then returning back to the room. Generally we don't bring on water, but when we chose to buy the pack from Carnival once they lowered the price it was quite convenient. Also the ability to carry off a bottle when doing excursions, etc. We drink water with our dinners, but I don't drink the water straight out of the bathroom sink. I also don't drink out of my own bathroom sink at home, other than rinsing my mouth after brushing my teeth.

 

 

If she is using bottled water for her meds just spring for a large bottle or 2 from the ship throughout the week...keep it on ice and in the refrigerator so it there

 

 

Alternately do what we do....

 

When we end our evenings on board around 11 pm we go to the buffet and each bring a glass of ice back to the room. It's still cold in the morning

 

Since we are not big drinkers or users of the mini bar we rarely get our ice buckets filled but the ice buckets bother me for some reason. Yuck

 

 

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Edited July 8, 2016 by Crusin6

[Crusin6]

The water out of the bathroom sink is the same water as everywhere else!

 

 

I guess you havent read thru the thread because it isn't

 

 

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Edited July 8, 2016 by Crusin6

[omajo]

If you buy a six pack of soda on shore can you take it back on the ship?

[DorothyB]

If you buy a six pack of soda on shore can you take it back on the ship?

 

Not any more

[drvalo]

I am in agreement with everyone that the price NCL charges onboard for a case of bottled water is ridiculous. But I'm not understanding the mentality that people (most of whom don't have any apparent medical issues) think they will simply DIE if they don't have their bottled water.

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the water onboard. Why do people keep suggesting it is "not clean"? I get that people might "prefer" bottled water, but the pearl clutching over the fact that the ship's water isn't clean is ridiculous.

 

For people that refuse to drink the ship's water, what do you do at the restaurants and bars? Are you bringing your own bottled water to the dining table? For your alcoholic drinks, are you forgoing the ice? Because that ice is made from ship water. Do you skip the soups? Because those are made with ship water. In fact, almost ALL of the food onboard has ship water in it. Water is used to wash vegetables. It's used to make sauces for stir fries. Etc etc etc

 

The ship's water is filtered by reverse osmosis and is almost certainly better than the water you get in a restaurant on land. When you go to restaurants on land, do you bring your bottled water or do you drink their water? Because I think most restaurant water simply comes out of a kitchen sink tap.

 

Actually, I have no doubt that the water is good and safe to drink, but it still has a very high salt content. You may notice how hard it is to feel like you rinsed all the soap off of you in the shower because of all the suds. Well, that is also why you see people with cruise ankles. And what you can't see if what effect that has on blood pressure. So, while drinking some of it is not a bad thing, the fluid retention it does cause for some people is a bad thing.

[NMLady]

...

 

I brought a case of bottled water on board (worried about tummy problems in Mexico), because I did not want to pay $67.00 for 24 bottles of water that we bought on sale for $4.00!!! Ridiculous! I don't care how much money the average person has, you still do not want to be ripped off! Lower your prices of water NCL if you are going to go through with this policy!!!!

 

The cases of water sold on NCL are liter bottles, not the half-liter bottles sold by case in stores. I do agree though that it is still a ridiculous price and needs to be lowered. I think filling empty water bottle in buffet, using a glass for transfer, is going to have long lines.

[RDC1]

Actually, I have no doubt that the water is good and safe to drink, but it still has a very high salt content. You may notice how hard it is to feel like you rinsed all the soap off of you in the shower because of all the suds. Well, that is also why you see people with cruise ankles. And what you can't see if what effect that has on blood pressure. So, while drinking some of it is not a bad thing, the fluid retention it does cause for some people is a bad thing.

 

It does not have a high salt content. It is distilled using flash vaporization or reverse osmosis. As a result it contains pretty much zero salt and other minerals. It has to be run through calcium carbonate granules to add some minerals back in. Bottom line is most bottled water would contain more salt.

[fshagan]

It does not have a high salt content. It is distilled using flash vaporization or reverse osmosis. As a result it contains pretty much zero salt and other minerals. It has to be run through calcium carbonate granules to add some minerals back in. Bottom line is most bottled water would contain more salt.

 

The calcium carbonate isn't to add minerals back in; it's to adjust the pH. Distilled water has a neutral pH of 7.0 and chlorine is more effective at about 7.2.

 

The chlorine they add is liquid sodium hypochlorite (same chemical you use as household bleach). It contains some salt, but I don't know how much sodium is in water treated to .5ppm with sodium hypochlorite. My guess is very little. There's probably more sodium in a dessert.

 

My municipality uses chloramines to sanitize the water, and it has less taste impact. I suspect that's why I find the ship's water "out of the tap" so objectionable; it always seems like drinking pool water to me. Filter it and it's pretty good, as it is served in the MDR and buffet.

 

Someone needs to take a TDS meter and chlorine tester on board and test the water to see if the info given by the engineers here is still valid.

[daka]

I can't believe how much discussion this has created

Point one.....NCL is grossly overcharging for bottled water

Point two..... Does ANYONE have any FACTS about the sodium or mineral content of the ship water?

And, someone pointed out the Bathroom water is not the same as Kitchen water;

what kind of plumbing do you have, it's the same all over in my house...

We live in Fort Lauderdale, the water alway has a slight smell, so, I installed a double filtration system to clear it up we drink that tap water.....(and our refrigerator has and additional filter!)

Another point, some people do order bottled water in restaurants...and some restaurants do filter their water...

Oh, and I personally don't drink soda....now getting back to the terrible coffee.....

Edited July 9, 2016 by daka

[KyleClark]

I would like to say a few good things about NCL,

 

[Cubechick]

Bottom line. This is yet another change that negatively affects their customer base.

 

Heck I was an NCL loyalist with over thirty cruises under my belt.

 

We just sailed Celebrity and despite the hype, I think the cruise lines, once on board, are more similar than not. There were things we loved about Celebrity and things we thought NCL did better.

 

BUT my Celebrity cruise was the first time ever that we got money back (due to OBC ) at the end of the cruise! I can't imagine this happening with NCL.

 

31 cruises and I get no more respect from NCL than someone with 3 cruises that worked the points to their advantage. (Can't wait for my picture frame when I hit 500 points!)

31 cruises and every time I turn around NCL is raising prices and scrounging around for every extra dollar they can get...ala carte pricing in specialty restaurants, but no increase in product quality...room service fees...the most expensive beverage package I have seen offering the least to the consumer (no bottled water, no specialty coffee). Charging taxes on those "included" packages!

 

NCL truly equals "No Customer Loyalty" and without change I will be taking my vacation dollars elsewhere.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Cubechick

[seashells]

After 16 cruises on NCL this year will be our last.

People have a taste in water. It's not about cost for us but taste and we hate Evian.

The CEO who doesn't listen to his customers deserves to be fired or at the least suffer the loss of customers.

Not going to debate it, but we like to bring our OWN water for our own taste onboard.

It's our cruise and we thought that was NCLs motto.

Apparently not.

[RDC1]

The calcium carbonate isn't to add minerals back in; it's to adjust the pH. Distilled water has a neutral pH of 7.0 and chlorine is more effective at about 7.2.

 

The chlorine they add is liquid sodium hypochlorite (same chemical you use as household bleach). It contains some salt, but I don't know how much sodium is in water treated to .5ppm with sodium hypochlorite. My guess is very little. There's probably more sodium in a dessert.

 

My municipality uses chloramines to sanitize the water, and it has less taste impact. I suspect that's why I find the ship's water "out of the tap" so objectionable; it always seems like drinking pool water to me. Filter it and it's pretty good, as it is served in the MDR and buffet.

 

Someone needs to take a TDS meter and chlorine tester on board and test the water to see if the info given by the engineers here is still valid.

 

Yes and no. The chemical reaction that adjusts the ph also hardens the water and dissolves some calcium into it. Which is what I meant by adding some minerals back in. In particular calcium so at that point it is no longer distilled. So it does adjust the ph, via a chemical reaction.

 

One of the features of desalinated water, the same with distilled water that you might buy at home is that it less tasty and less thirst satisfying.

[RDC1]

The calcium carbonate isn't to add minerals back in; it's to adjust the pH. Distilled water has a neutral pH of 7.0 and chlorine is more effective at about 7.2.

 

The chlorine they add is liquid sodium hypochlorite (same chemical you use as household bleach). It contains some salt, but I don't know how much sodium is in water treated to .5ppm with sodium hypochlorite. My guess is very little. There's probably more sodium in a dessert.

 

My municipality uses chloramines to sanitize the water, and it has less taste impact. I suspect that's why I find the ship's water "out of the tap" so objectionable; it always seems like drinking pool water to me. Filter it and it's pretty good, as it is served in the MDR and buffet.

 

Someone needs to take a TDS meter and chlorine tester on board and test the water to see if the info given by the engineers here is still valid.

 

This references a paper on the subject and why I referred to it as adding minerals

 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/suncam/npdocs/118.pdf

[Love.II.Cruise]

WOW = what a thread! I haven't posted in awhile.

 

With regard to beverage packages we have sailed on Regent, Oceania (when Del Rio was in charge), Windstar and Princess. We've also sailed on Celebrity - just not with a dink package.

 

We were happily surprised to get a UBP with our current NCL cruise - this is our first NCL cruise. However, at the time we did not know that bottled water or coffee drinks were not included. We think that is really weird! Please correct us if we are wrong. It won't bother us on this next cruise, but we will think about this the next time we book a cruise.

 

We are extremely excited about our first NCL cruise and we won't let this bother our cruise.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Love.II.Cruise

[Feelin' Nauti']

With all the articles written about banning carry-on water/soda

along with your emails, calls, comments on all NCL's social media sites,

this thread, you would think NCL would respond, comment, something.

If they thought about customer satisfaction, wouldn't they have by now?

This does not project a good image on their part.

NCL if you are reading this remember -

Customers will remember this, they will remember bad service even more.

[Frick_&_Frack]

31 cruises and every time I turn around NCL is raising prices and scrounging around for every extra dollar they can get...ala carte pricing in specialty restaurants, but no increase in product quality...room service fees...the most expensive beverage package I have seen offering the least to the consumer (no bottled water, no specialty coffee). Charging taxes on those "included" packages!

 

NCL truly equals "No Customer Loyalty" and without change I will be taking my vacation dollars elsewhere.

 

While I don't have the number of cruises you have with NCL, I'm just tired of all the changes. A lot never impacted me directly (or I was just willing to "suck it up"), but they all caused me concern since it was always just a matter of time before one would.

 

I did something I can't believe I ever would - I canceled my two 2017 cruises and replaced them last night. (Only time ever I canceled cruises was when Bob passed in 2014.) It took a lot to cancel since I had always loved the NCL experience. I know my two little petty cancellations will mean nothing to them (though two nice corner after H6s are now available ;)). But, time to check out another experience for a while.

 

Sad part is, I'm not even looking forward to the Escape cruise like I was. I'm sure it will be a nice enough cruise and I'm sure I'll like it, but the excitement is just gone from it.

[Bellaloomp]

I don't understand the gratuity issue. We were just on a sailing on NCL Breakaway with a free at sea special. All gratuities for the UBP were included. Only while in port in NY, we had to pay extra taxes and that was explained to us very clearly. We wanted to trade the bad champagne (lol) in for something else, they offered us two bottles of water. The BA staff were amazing. They sometimes even offered us things such as port, etc. explaining that if it is under $15, we can get it under our UBP.

[beerman2]

I don't understand the gratuity issue. We were just on a sailing on NCL Breakaway with a free at sea special. All gratuities for the UBP were included. Only while in port in NY, we had to pay extra taxes and that was explained to us very clearly. We wanted to trade the bad champagne (lol) in for something else, they offered us two bottles of water. The BA staff were amazing. They sometimes even offered us things such as port, etc. explaining that if it is under $15, we can get it under our UBP.

 

Up to a certain date( which I don't remember) you did pay any extra on the free perks.

 

Now you pay 18% gratuity on the "free perks". It was another change NCL made that ticked people off.

Edited July 9, 2016 by beerman2
Misspelled should be didn't instead of did

[Loralye]

The calcium carbonate isn't to add minerals back in; it's to adjust the pH. Distilled water has a neutral pH of 7.0 and chlorine is more effective at about 7.2.

 

The chlorine they add is liquid sodium hypochlorite (same chemical you use as household bleach). It contains some salt, but I don't know how much sodium is in water treated to .5ppm with sodium hypochlorite. My guess is very little. There's probably more sodium in a dessert.

 

My municipality uses chloramines to sanitize the water, and it has less taste impact. I suspect that's why I find the ship's water "out of the tap" so objectionable; it always seems like drinking pool water to me. Filter it and it's pretty good, as it is served in the MDR and buffet.

 

Someone needs to take a TDS meter and chlorine tester on board and test the water to see if the info given by the engineers here is still valid.

 

Not trying to be funny... Sounds the same as maintaining my pool water.

 

I'm curious if someone will bring back a bottle of ship water and have it tested. Most places (universities, commercial water businesses, etc) offer free water testing. If so, please share your findings.

[Mr Six]

I just made final payment for my October cruise on the other cruiseline. When I ordered my $3.99 case of water from them I noticed that I could add up to 99 cases to my online shopping cart for that price. I am so tempted to order $70.74 "worth of water" (the price of one case on NCL) just to see what that looks like, I would bet that I couldn't move around in my cabin.

[SteveH2508]

I just made final payment for my October cruise on the other cruiseline. When I ordered my $3.99 case of water from them I noticed that I could add up to 99 cases to my online shopping cart for that price. I am so tempted to order $70.74 "worth of water" (the price of one case on NCL) just to see what that looks like, I would bet that I couldn't move around in my cabin.

 

Top Tip - large amounts of water are not welcome inside a ship - it usually means something has gone wrong big time!:rolleyes:

 

BTW - love the username.

[welove2cruise*]

Cruise lines all have revenue targets. They vary to some degree in their strategy and business model. NCL largely competes with CCL and RCCL, with an attempt to upscale a bit with Haven (which initially kicked off the entire concept of private areas for suite guests on mainstream lines). The primary difference in business models between those lines started with NCL going with their free style model, where the primary difference was in dining. Since that change they have always depended upon more on board spending then the other mainstream lines.

 

When you want to analyze company behaviors look at the numbers. The following is a comparison between NCLH, and RCL (Norwegians and Royal last 10k stock filings)

 

NCLH / Percentage from on board sales / net margin

2015 / 27.9% / 9.8%

2014 / 30.4% / 10.8%

2013 / 30.5% / 4.4%

 

RCL

2015 / 27% / 9.4%

2014 / 28% / 5.9%

2013 / 27% / .02%

 

So with NCL last year they had a noticeable change in where their revenue came from with a drop from normal in their amount coming from on board revenue. The high net margins for both lines the last two years has been the result of low fuel prices. Not surprised to see them take steps to beef up on board revenue based upon the numbers.

 

With that said cruise lines will monitor impacts of policy on revenue. If they see impacts such as carry on of drinks remaining low enough they will let it slide. If they see a growing trend that has the potential to impact revenue models they will take action to stop the trend before it gets out of control.

 

We have seen NCL take action on the currency exchange loophole where they were allowing very generous currency exchange rates for purchase of onboard credit, when people started taking advantage by turning it into an arbitrage and put far more money in then they intended to spend on board and then cashing out the excess. A practice that some posted on CC to spread the word on how to take advantage of the system.

 

We are now seeing the same thing take place on the practice of taking drinks on board. Bottom line is that it has grown to where the cruise line has decided to stop the trend and kill the practice.

 

I also suspect that what they are saying is correct in that the number of drinks being carried aboard is impacting security check time as they are screened. That does not mean that there are not other reasons, including economic ones, only that the security check time is probably correct as being part of the reason.

 

With one of their primary competitors (RCCL) having adopted a similar model, it is not surprising that they feel that they can also make the same move.

 

I am really wondering if the numbers are a result of the "free beverage" packages. I am betting they are not including the cost of the UDP in the revenue line for beverage income as it is a prepaid fee.

[Seminole1975]

I have a question.

 

Someone hundreds of posts ago mentioned that water bottles can be bad for the environment. We recycle at home: newspapers, bottles, cans, etc.

 

I wonder if NCL recycles or if they just throw all that stuff away? :confused:

[mking8288]

... When I ordered my $3.99 case of water from them I noticed that I could add up to 99 cases to my online shopping cart for that price. I am so tempted to order $70.74 "worth of water" (the price of one case on NCL) ...

ROTFLMAO, why not - order 2 or 3 extra cases - if your ship is going to be docked alongside a NCL ship in ports.

 

Cart them off the gangways and you will be welcomed on the pier, "sharing" them for just a $1 fee as a service (away from the gangway & security area, of course.) NCL passengers heading for shorex would be happy for such a deal and save $$.

 

Just kidding. Maybe not.