Why is Riviera tap water so hard

I have just completed a Riviera cruise which I enjoyed, apart from the fact that I have eczema on my hands, which is sensitive to hard water. Usually on cruises the water is very soft and I do not have a problem, but on this ship the water was so hard that my hands finished very raw with cracks, that on using the hand sanitiser, made me want to scream with the pain. Does anyone know why?

I can't really comment on your particular question = all I can say is that ships water is usually reasonably soft. It is acquired at various ports along your route and then, as is usual with all water on board, it goes through a softening cycle.

Maybe where they picked it up. I was not aware that they softened water aboard. The water they produce is naturally soft but onport intensive cruises they normally have to buy it.

When they make water onboard a ship, it is too soft to use -- so they carefully add minerals to get the hardness and ph to the level people like. But they can only make water when the ship is moving at a good speed, so on port-intensive itineraries they have to top up in port -- and then you get what that city has.

On a fairly recent Riviera cruise my hair just crumbled up into spent toilet paper dried! What a picture, LOL.

I was so upset I called my beautician from Italy. She said the desalienated water was very hard on the hair and I should used bottled water (the large bottles in the room) to rinse it. So the next cruse (fairly close) I did that and my hair was fine. Honestly the first time I thought I was going to lose every hair, but when I used the room bottled water it was all right.

It is probably the chemicals they use to make it desalienated.

It's not just Riviera which has hard water, I have had the same problem with hair washing on several cruise lines. Thanks, Caroldoll, for the tip on using bottled water for rinsing, will give it a go.

Thank you all, for taking the trouble to reply. I am pleased that I was not the only one to notice the hard water. My skin is beginning to settle down, but the experience has made me reluctant to book another Riviera cruise, which is a shame.

When they make water onboard a ship, it is too soft to use -- so they carefully add minerals to get the hardness and ph to the level people like. But they can only make water when the ship is moving at a good speed, so on port-intensive itineraries they have to top up in port -- and then you get what that city has.

So water is picked up in ports of call? Do they not do any processing until the ship is on the move? How clean is the water?

When they make water onboard a ship, it is too soft to use -- so they carefully add minerals to get the hardness and ph to the level people like. But they can only make water when the ship is moving at a good speed, so on port-intensive itineraries they have to top up in port -- and then you get what that city has.

While a certain amount of "minerals" are added to the water, it has nothing to do with how soft the water is. Distilled water is typically slightly acidic and this can cause electrolytic corrosion to the ships piping system. Additionally, the chlorine used to sanitize the water needs to have a narrow band of Ph to be effective, and this is slightly alkaline. Therefore, the ship will pass the water produced through a filter bed made up of calcium carbonate (the active antacid ingredient in Tums) to neutralize the Ph, but it has nothing to do with water hardness.

The speed of the vessel only affects flash evaporation water production, as this relies on heat from the diesel engines to boil the water. Reverse osmosis watermakers can be started once underway, outside 20 miles, and only require electricity to make water, so they don't rely on having a lot of engines running.

So water is picked up in ports of call? Do they not do any processing until the ship is on the move? How clean is the water?

I will describe the the USPH requirements for ships calling at US ports, but the EU's ShipSan program, and the WHO's passenger ship sanitation requirements are similar.

Water can be produced from sea water only when the ship is more than 20 miles from shore, to mitigate any local pollution. Water is produced on ships by two means: flash evaporation and reverse osmosis. Flash evaporation produces distilled water, with no minerals or anything else in it. Reverse osmosis produces water by forcing water molecules through a porous membrane under high pressure (3000+ psi) where the pores in the membrane are sized to only allow molecules the size of water or smaller to pass. This removes salt, and most minerals. This water, since it has not been boiled and condensed like the flash evaporation method is not completely sanitized, so it will pass through an ultra-violet light sterilizer. All water produced onboard is chlorinated before it gets to the storage tanks.

Unlike land water systems, the ship's water is constantly in circulation, and the chlorine content is monitored to ensure that at the farthest point from the water tanks, there is a residual amount of chlorine in the water to ensure proper sanitation. Chlorine is added continuously to ensure this.

Water taken on in port must be from a source that has met the WHO standards for safe drinking water, at a minimum, and has been tested within the last month, and certified. This means the exact hydrant used to provide water is tested, not just the generic municipal supply. This water is also chlorinated before it gets to the ship's tanks, and must be kept segregated from use until a bacterial test done onboard comes back negative, and this test takes 18-24 hours to cultivate any bacteria in the water.

Ship's water must be tested for bacterial count monthly, from six random sources around the ship (sinks, showers, galleys, laundries, medical, bars, dining rooms, hose faucets on the pool deck, you name it).

The chlorination process, whether of the water being produced onboard, the water being brought from shore, or the water circulating around the ship, is constantly monitored and recorded on charts, and all these charts along with the records of bacterial testing must be kept onboard for review by public health inspectors in every country.

They do not soften water onboard, in the sense that folks in the US think of home water softeners. Distilled water and reverse osmosis water are softer than shore water, so these are mixed to "soften" any hard shore water.

To answer the OP, it may just be the particular itinerary you were on, that required more shore water than normal, and where that water was taken, as every locale has harder or softer water. I would hate to disagree with the one poster's hairdresser, but the desalinated water is not the problem with her hair, it is the chlorine in the water, and this chlorine is not to desalinate the water, but to sanitize it.