Taking water on excursions

We are counting down the days to our first ever cruise on Costa Luminosa - but have more questions....

We have the Brindiamo drinks package - which we understand will get us free drinks by the glass on board.

At each port we have a shore excursion planned. However we would like to take a bottle of water with us.

I assume that bottles of water are not available as part of the Brindiamo package ?

Am I right in understanding that a water dispenser is available ? If so, is this in the buffet area only ? Is it frowned upon to fill bottles of water up with this ?

I understand that at check-in there are checks to see if you are bringing food and drink on board. Is this for alcohol only ? Could we bring bottles of water on board ? Also, are there checks at the end of shore excursions to see if you are bringing food and drink (water) on board ?

Does anyone have any tips, suggestions, ideas for aquiring bottled water (I assume those that Costa see will be expensive) and taking it on shore excursions ?

Thank you

We’ve recently returned from Dubai cruise On Mediterranea so might be able to shed some light on your questions.

You’re right, all drinks packages are ‘by the glass’ and bottles of water were charged at €1.70/2.50 +15% per 50cl/litre. Sometimes there was someone offering it at debarkation, other times not and we had to go to a bar for it.

We were never challenged when returning to the ship with water. Sometimes they never even scanned our bags, though that could have had something to do with it being virtually impossible to buy any bottles of alcoholic drinks at our ports of call around the Persian Gulf (not that we were looking for it anyway).

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As far as filling up at dispensers, my wife saw this happening in the buffet but from previous experience on RCI & Celebrity it is strictly forbidden. Carnival were happy to let us carry on as much water/soda as we could carry but Costa do make a point of saying no drinks of any kind but in typical Italian style they seem relaxed when it comes to enforcement.

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Buy a couple of bottles, (6 euro's ) use them to fill your smaller bottle which you are taking ashore. Always get a glass of water before going to bed from bars.

Filling bottles at the buffet is not good.

We often bring a partly drunk bottle of water/orange juice back with us either in our pocket or back pack, never once been stopped, this also applies to boarding first day.

Filling a bottle to take ashore is not the problem. I do it all the time. But you MUST use a clean glass to fill your bottle - people think they can just put their dirty old bottle up to the dispenser spout and fill - no wonder they were told NO, Not allowed!

Some people are just clueless - I do not want the bottle that was on anyone's mouth anywhere near my next glass of clean water.

I was only once asked to empty my bottle upon retuning to the ship (sorry I do not remember what ship I was on when that happened).

We had the Pui Gusto package on the Deliziosa and no, bottled water was not included. We knew this before sailing so were resigned to it but we were surprised that we were allowed to bring bottled water back on the ship from shore! Just one each (at a time) We only ended up buying water on ship twice. Happy sailing!!

Bring a reuasable water bottle....or reuse a emtpy bottle and fill from a fresh glass at the buffet. Someone recommended using a wide mouth refillable bottle, fill with icecubes, then pour in water. Ice water all day. Think of the good you are doing the environment. Have you seen the huge mass of plastic (mostly plastic bags and water bottles) in tje middle of the Pacific?...the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Bring a reuasable water bottle....or reuse a emtpy bottle and fill from a fresh glass at the buffet. Someone recommended using a wide mouth refillable bottle, fill with icecubes, then pour in water. Ice water all day. Think of the good you are doing the environment. Have you seen the huge mass of plastic (mostly plastic bags and water bottles) in tje middle of the Pacific?...the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Off topic I know.

I see you sailed with Strand cruises in 1977. I sailed with them in 1976. 14 day Caribbean from Barbados. Ship was a Greek ship Delphi 350 passengers.

Also sailed on the Delphi 1971 West African Canary Island cruise from Tangier. Think before Strand cruises took it over.

No luxuries or perks in those days but wonderful experiences.

How penny pinching can you get. You spend hundred / thouands of $-€ on a cruise yet you cannot spare a Euro to buy a bottle of water, costs even less when bought on land.

He cruisers talk about reuseable bottle being environmentaly friendly - but how about the health risk of you spreading your germs and bacteria to a tight packed large group of passengers, totally unsanitary unacceptable.

How penny pinching can you get. You spend hundred / thouands of $-€ on a cruise yet you cannot spare a Euro to buy a bottle of water, costs even less when bought on land.

 

He cruisers talk about reuseable bottle being environmentaly friendly - but how about the health risk of you spreading your germs and bacteria to a tight packed large group of passengers, totally unsanitary unacceptable.

Did you miss the part about using a clean buffet glass to fill the bottle? Let's assume enviro friendly folks can also be health safety conscious as well. Both can be practiced successfully.

Off topic I know.

 

I see you sailed with Strand cruises in 1977. I sailed with them in 1976. 14 day Caribbean from Barbados. Ship was a Greek ship Delphi 350 passengers.

 

Also sailed on the Delphi 1971 West African Canary Island cruise from Tangier. Think before Strand cruises took it over.

 

 

No luxuries or perks in those days but wonderful experiences.

Pretty darned luxurious for a 19 year old little town girl on her own....but nothing like the new ships. I think I would take Ithaca again in a heartbeat.

I do not consider not wasting a new plastic bottle every time I would like a drink of water being cheap. I do not believe in using all that manufactured plastic to get a fresh drink of water. I buy as few bottles as possible - I have seen the floating islands of garbage in the ocean - mostly plastic - that never goes away! I will continue to try to help the environment and use my own bottle for water whenever possible!

I often fill my bottle in the room and if I have a mini fridge chill it before taking it ashore.