For those that don't like the taste of ship's tap water ...

[Kiwi Kruzer]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

We have never been told about not bringing water ashore, whereas they nearly always say to no to taking food off the ship.

Some ships we have been on sold bottled water at the door as you were leaving for your day ashore. 

[Aus Traveller]

12 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

 

Some ports are only allowing sealed bottles of water ashore these days. Not sure exactly where, possibly some NZ ports, and ports in other parts of the world. It's never been an issue for us as we used to buy bottled water onboard to take ashore when needed, or bought water on shore.

I have read that in the Princess Patter on several cruises, but so far no-one has asked to see our water bottles. I feel it might be 'scare tactics' similar to the ones about booking independent shore tours. BTW, we never take food ashore, but I cannot see any danger to the local environment in taking ashore ship's water that we will drink. It is even purer than shore-based tap water and may be purer than bought bottled water.

[Aus Traveller]

1 hour ago, Kiwi Kruzer said:

Some ships we have been on sold bottled water at the door as you were leaving for your day ashore. 

We see that very often.

[MicCanberra]

2 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

We see that very often.

Most cruise lines do it.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I can't remember if it was something I read on one of the forums here or someone mentioning it on one of our cruises. I thought it might have been on the Celebrity cruise which is why I mentioned NZ ports as possibilities - NZ is very tight on biosecurity.

[GCHAN]

15 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We used to always do that, and take some slabs of water on when departing from Sydney, and have used the water package a couple of times, but Princess has put the price up on bottled water along with most other drinks so it would get quite expensive over 6 weeks, especially as I drink a litre or more overnight. That's why I looked for an alternative. I'm planning on taking one or two slabs on for use on port days so I have sealed bottles to take ashore but the rest of the time I'll use filtered water.

We are the same and the water filter bottles or jug are a really easy and good option.

 

On one of our cruises staff off the ship told us that they don't drink the water because it had a white powdery substance in it. You could see this if you let it sit for a while.

 

Also the water was warm sometimes and tasted bad in my opinion.

 

This part might seem tight but it is easy to fill a bottle from the filtered water to take on your day trips. Saves paying 4USD for a small bottle of water. In our case we just take our filter bottles.

Edited June 14, 2019 by GCHAN

[OzKiwiJJ]

38 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I can't remember if it was something I read on one of the forums here or someone mentioning it on one of our cruises. I thought it might have been on the Celebrity cruise which is why I mentioned NZ ports as possibilities - NZ is very tight on biosecurity.

It was NZ. From Celebrity Today for the Dunedin port stop the quarantine notice stated: "Only commercially bottled water is permitted to leave the vessel without the permission of the MPI Quarantine Officer." 

 

That sentence wasn't in the quarantine notice for Hobart or Melbourne though.

 

I didn't notice any bag checks when we went ashore but NZ now has laws allowing instant fines of $400 for anyone found not comllying with their quarantine regulations.

 

It's cheaper to buy a few bottles of water!

[MicCanberra]

True, but then any bottle of water from a ship would be commercially bottled.

[OzKiwiJJ]

11 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

True, but then any bottle of water from a ship would be commercially bottled.

Yes, and I don't know whether they would check to see if the bottle was still sealed when leaving the ship, rather than opened and refilled.

 

But prices for individual bottles of water onboard are increasing. Princess is now charging $3.25 for a 500ml bottle. For less than the cost of three bottles onboard you can buy a slab of 24 x 600ml bottles at Woolies or Coles. Which is what we'll be doing.

Edited June 14, 2019 by OzKiwiJJ

[NSWP]

19 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

You can on HAL, P&O, Royal and X but it is not so much a package but just buying bottled water for onboard.

Yes, I preordered a slab of water for Noordam, pricey though, because it was Evian, only one available.

[NSWP]

4 hours ago, Aus Traveller said:

We see that very often.

'Water to go.'  

 

Our MDR waiter was selling it near the tour departure point one day, seeing me, he yells out 'Gluten Free Water, Mr Les.'  lol.

[MicCanberra]

I like that alternative water stuff too, full of grapy flavour.

[GUT2407]

8 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

We have never been told about not bringing water ashore, whereas they nearly always say to no to taking food off the ship.

Remind as me of a barmaid who was always trying to f8nd new ways to describe my Diet Coke, “Virgin Scotch and Coke, lite”  “Diet Nuevo Cuba, in the virgin form” etc, this went on for about 25 days.

[MicCanberra]

Skinny Coke?