Call from NCL re: water

[Jane Don]

I haven't participated in the water/Coke debate because I don't drink alot of plain water (shame on me lol) and I do get free bottled water from the casino. At home I drink Coke Zero, but I won't die without it so I just drink Diet Pepsi on the ships.

 

That said, I do have an honest question. For all of the folks who are saying they cannot drink the ship's water and that is causes them health concerns, I am very curious if you need to do anything else on the ship to avoid their water? Do you not drink alcoholic or any other cold beverages with ice? Do you not eat food made with the water (baked goods, soup, salads and greens washed in ship water, soft ice cream, etc.)

 

I really want to know. I remember years ago when I visited Mexico everyone told me not to drink the water - which I didn't. I forgot that ice cubes are made with water and oops. LOL

 

So, are people saying that they can't DRINK ship water, but it doesn't bother them in ice or food?

 

So here is the issue. The ship's desalinated water still has a much higher sodium content than bottled or most potable water on land. When a person who is prone to peripheral edema (swelling in the tissues of the extremities), goes on a cruise, generally their sodium intake increases. Food is saltier, diet is less stringent, etc. All that sodium exacerbates the edema. When using sodium laden water as a main source of hydration it can create a vicious cycle and some people get ankles so swollen they can't even walk to enjoy the ports. It is a common cruise travel problem that can be mitigated by drinking lots and lots of bottled water, amongst other things.

[phoenix1181]

For those comparing with Royal, theirs changed:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/experiencetypes/category.do?pagename=onboard_cat_dining_options

 

Okay, so they changed their packages but they still offer bottled water with 2 packages and although the soda package doesn't offer bottled water, Dasani is available in the freestyle machines that most of their ships have..........

[TrickyRicky_n_JoJo]

"Water water every where ...

It matters not what cruisers think ...

We'll charge a pretty penny ...

For such a basic drink ... "

 

But wine is free in the buffet if that makes any sense.

[gtaylor]

But wine is free in the buffet if that makes any sense.

 

Huh?

 

gary

[fshagan]

Can't you just bring an empty' date=' smaller water bottle and pour in some from the 1 liter bottle? You'll get multiple fillings of the smaller bottle from the bigger one.[/quote']

 

That is one of the alternatives. Probably an easier one for us will be to invest in drink bottles and pack them in our luggage. Then we will request a water pitcher of ice water for our cabin that uses the filtered water we find OK (it is carbon filtered and removes the objectionable chlorine taste). That's a relatively easy and less expensive option for us.

 

Our concern is that if we take the bottle off the ship in port we won't be able to board again with it; they require you to toss water bottles into a bin on boarding, according to several people here. I'm hoping that doesn't include empty water bottles you have purchased and packed every time you visit a port.

[don't-use-real-name]

That is one of the alternatives. Probably an easier one for us will be to invest in drink bottles and pack them in our luggage. Then we will request a water pitcher of ice water for our cabin that uses the filtered water we find OK (it is carbon filtered and removes the objectionable chlorine taste). That's a relatively easy and less expensive option for us.

 

Our concern is that if we take the bottle off the ship in port we won't be able to board again with it; they require you to toss water bottles into a bin on boarding, according to several people here. I'm hoping that doesn't include empty water bottles you have purchased and packed every time you visit a port.

 

Should NOT have any problem with EMPTY water bottles returning to the ship !

 

It would be a sacrilege to take NCLs precious pricy water off the ship but the H2O police are only concerned with what is brought on board.

Returning to the ship just make sure the bottle(s) are empty -OR- if you want to give them something to fret about gulp (drink) it or open and empty in front of them - ah preferably in a suitable receptacle (trash).

But you need not trash or surrender the EMPTY bottles they can be reused !

 

At sea water water everywhere but not a drop to drink !

Reminds me of the movie producer that when filming in the desert did not like the texture color of the sand so he had some imported egads more sand in the desert !

And then in filming one of the Airport movies in Minnesota the filming required the set to be during a snow storm which mother nature provided -

but NO the snow had to be visible to the camera so they emptied several supermarket shelves of frosted flakes !

So if these are troublesome just think of what NCL is going through with the customer water wars - may the flow be with you !

[davecttr]

Should NOT have any problem with EMPTY water bottles returning to the ship !

 

It would be a sacrilege to take NCLs precious pricy water off the ship but the H2O police are only concerned with what is brought on board.

Returning to the ship just make sure the bottle(s) are empty -OR- if you want to give them something to fret about gulp (drink) it or open and empty in front of them - ah preferably in a suitable receptacle (trash).

But you need not trash or surrender the EMPTY bottles they can be reused !

 

At sea water water everywhere but not a drop to drink !

Reminds me of the movie producer that when filming in the desert did not like the texture color of the sand so he had some imported egads more sand in the desert !

And then in filming one of the Airport movies in Minnesota the filming required the set to be during a snow storm which mother nature provided -

but NO the snow had to be visible to the camera so they emptied several supermarket shelves of frosted flakes !

So if these are troublesome just think of what NCL is going through with the customer water wars - may the flow be with you !

Like it :D

[chengkp75]

So here is the issue. The ship's desalinated water still has a much higher sodium content than bottled or most potable water on land. When a person who is prone to peripheral edema (swelling in the tissues of the extremities), goes on a cruise, generally their sodium intake increases. Food is saltier, diet is less stringent, etc. All that sodium exacerbates the edema. When using sodium laden water as a main source of hydration it can create a vicious cycle and some people get ankles so swollen they can't even walk to enjoy the ports. It is a common cruise travel problem that can be mitigated by drinking lots and lots of bottled water, amongst other things.

 

Sorry, this just isn't true. The ship's water is from 3 sources:

 

1. Water from the municipality at embarkation port. Miami/Dade water quality report last year reported a range of sodium content at 36-53ppm. NYC had a range of 9-63ppm.

 

2. Water distilled from sea water in flash evaporators. These units typically produce water with less than 1ppm sodium content, and will stop producing water and dump the product back to the sea when the content exceeds 10ppm.

 

3. Water produced from sea water in reverse osmosis units. These units will stop producing water and dump the product to sea when the sodium content exceeds 20ppm. The FDA recommends 20ppm as the upper limit for people on restricted sodium diets.

 

So, if the sodium content in the ship's water is too high, it is because the sodium content in the municipal water is too high.

 

Regarding chlorine, yes, this can cause water retention, but the chlorine levels in ship's water is 0.5ppm. Even this can be mitigated by drinking water from the water/drink dispensers, bar guns, or the water provided by wait staff in the dining venues, as this water has had the chlorine removed by carbon filters.

[Susandt]

So here is the issue. The ship's desalinated water still has a much higher sodium content than bottled or most potable water on land. When a person who is prone to peripheral edema (swelling in the tissues of the extremities), goes on a cruise, generally their sodium intake increases. Food is saltier, diet is less stringent, etc. All that sodium exacerbates the edema. When using sodium laden water as a main source of hydration it can create a vicious cycle and some people get ankles so swollen they can't even walk to enjoy the ports. It is a common cruise travel problem that can be mitigated by drinking lots and lots of bottled water, amongst other things.

 

i wonder if a brita filter gets rid of some of the water

[fshagan]

i wonder if a brita filter gets rid of some of the water

 

Brita uses an activated carbon filter and an ion exchange resin they add to remove chlorine taste and odor (and also zinc, and harmful contaminants copper, mercury and cadmium). Ship's water probably won't have zinc, copper, mercury and cadmium anyway as it is mostly "distilled" sea water (or sea water pushed through a reverse osmosis filter). So like every other carbon filtered water bottle the Brita will remove the chlorine taste and smell from the water. That will lower the sodium content a bit .... but I don't think it's actually the sodium causing the problem with edema.

 

I think it is the chlorine people are reacting to, especially if, like me, they never drink chlorinated water (my local municipality stopped using chlorine years ago in favor of another chemical, chloramines). In addition to chlorine in the unfiltered water, cruisers have other factors that cause edema: increased sugar consumption, salt from the foods, taking showers instead of baths if they normally take baths, etc. I don't think it is the tiny amount of extra salt the liquid chlorine the ship uses adds to the water.

 

But some say, filtered or not, they get feet swelling on a cruise if they drink the ship's water. Period. Drink bottled water and continue with all else that they do ... the increased sugar consumption, the extra salt at meals, etc. ... their feet don't swell. I can't argue with their experience, because it is happening to them. And because we are barely past the point to using leeches in medicine I trust their accounts. They need to have bottled water and their daily life provides them with enough n=1 experiment results to make it necessary.

 

I find the taste and smell objectionable and choose to drink water that doesn't taste and smell like the neighbor's swimming pool. But the filtered ship's water is fine for me.

 

But then my feet aren't swelling up either.

[MICHLEV1974]

We also got a very polite and lengthy phone call, in response to a lengthy (and hopefully polite) email we sent to several NCL execs.

 

 

 

We have started making deposits on other cruise lines, plus on some land trips, instead.

 

Did you really cancel your cruises because of the change to the water policy and how they delivered the information to you? NCL is not the only cruise line that has this policy. Hard to wrap my head around cancelling a vacation because of a change in policy. It's not as if you cannot drink the water on the ship and/or put in your own bottle when you get onboard. I am perplexed by this. Am I the only one trying to figure this logic?

[NLH Arizona]

Did you really cancel your cruises because of the change to the water policy and how they delivered the information to you? NCL is not the only cruise line that has this policy. Hard to wrap my head around cancelling a vacation because of a change in policy. It's not as if you cannot drink the water on the ship and/or put in your own bottle when you get onboard. I am perplexed by this. Am I the only one trying to figure this logic?

People cancel for a lot of different reasons. I always tell someone if something is so important to them (like being able to bring water onboard the ship) that it will ruin their cruise, the best thing to do is cancel and be done with it. I'm personally not the kind of person to cancel because of a few minor issues, it would have to be something really big, like them making me cook and serve my own food, for me to cancel, but thankfully we are all different, otherwise it would be a very boring world. I'm just hoping that those that say they are cancelling are on my December cruise, so it won't be so crowded.

[MICHLEV1974]

Well said! Unfortunately you're swimming against the current trying to point out the wasteful scam which is bottled water here on CC. It's been my observation that users here go cruising to drink bottled water and Coke products. Without these products, they'd rather stay home and post about the liquod threat to their very existence.

 

ok, this is seriously funny. thanks for the laugh. i agree.

[davesgirl51]

Communal showers might do it for me.

 

Hahahahaha !!

[Susandt]

Hahahahaha !!

 

 

:))))