Distilled Water available on Holland America?

[avian777]

... As far as reimbursement from health insurance, my distilled water at home costs me .99 cents a US gallon, which last about 2 weeks. On the ship, 5 liters costs $2.95 delivered to your cabin, and lasts 3 weeks. If I put a claim in with my medical insurance for .99 cents or $2.95, I think i would ridiculed out of existence. Also, in addition to your luggage, who wants to be schlepping a 7 pound jug of water around town until you board the ship ? If you can afford the thousands of $$$ to cruise, pay the $2.95 and stop complaining. HAL does the schlepping for you !!

 

Spot on, TAD2005!!! Always refreshing to "hear" the voice of reason ...

Smooth sailing ...

[chengkp75]

The distilled water comes from the desalination process where they get all the ship's tap water. To bring you distilled water, as I understand it, somebody sticks the bottle under the faucet in the desalination machine before they add the minerals. Can anybody confirm this understanding? That's why I think it's okay to use the ship's tap water.

 

Posts from a practicing ship engineer not only do not confirm your understanding, but refute it.

According to cheng75, the ship is more likely than not bringing on water from a port where it has been purchased, as that is cheaper than desalinating sea water. Also, minerals are not added to desalinated water, contrary to what has been posted.

 

Since his information is always so complete, well explained to those not in the business, and consistent, I tend to give it credence.

 

Ship's water comes from three sources: municipal water loaded in the turn-around port (if the itinerary doesn't allow enough time at sea to make enough water for the cruise), evaporators that turn sea water into distilled water, and reverse osmosis units that turn sea water into drinking water (note, not distilled water). These three sources are mixed onboard, so you can never be sure what kind of water you get from the tap, but in most cases it is fine for occasional use in CPAP's. You should let the water sit for a couple of hours in an open container before using in the CPAP, to allow the chlorine to dissipate.

 

What you purchase onboard as distilled water is bottled ashore. What I believe GE mom is referring to, is my statement on another thread that at NCL we frequently had guests asking for distilled water (they had run out), and their cabin attendant would be friendly with one of the engineers, and they would bring a gallon jug to the engineer, and we freely filled it straight from the evaporator. Not sure how this works on other ships, but hey, we didn't really care about the revenue from a gallon of water.

 

The only "minerals" added to the ship's water that is produced by the evaporators is calcium carbonate (the ingredient in Tums) as an antacid, to control the pH of naturally acidic distilled water.

[donaldsc]

Spot on, TAD2005!!! Always refreshing to "hear" the voice of reason ...

Smooth sailing ...

 

No argument on the thought that filing for such a small amount is rediculous and not cost effective.. However, some of the people on this thread seemed to feel that paying $4.00 for distilled water was outrageous so I was just presenting a possible alternative to paying $4.00 for water.

 

DON

[avian777]

No argument on the thought that filing for such a small amount is rediculous and not cost effective.. However, some of the people on this thread seemed to feel that paying $4.00 for distilled water was outrageous so I was just presenting a possible alternative to paying $4.00 for water.

 

DON

 

Don,

Sorry if you took my Post the wrong way, as I was not commenting on your insurance suggestion but rather was agreeing with TAD2005 that " If you can afford the thousands of $$$ to cruise, pay the $2.95 and stop complaining." No offense intended.

[WA Bubbles]

We had bought a gal of d-water before our cruise and used is at the hotel the night before. We had packed it tightly sealed in our suite case and when we got to out room all the whole suitcase was wet. The TSA inspection agent at the dock opened the bottle and didn't seal it (on purpose?).

 

Anyways lesson learned don't put the opened bottle in your suitcase. Since then we learned on long cruises we bring a water filter jug and filter the water for both machine as well as drinking (I am sensitive to water taste), this works perfectly. The jug is so inexpensive if we can't fit it on the way back (too much souvenirs), we just leave it for the crew.

[Natmar]

As of this morning the price via HAL Ship Services Department for a gallon of Distilled water for my Cpap machine was $2.95 and must be pre-paid. What I found strange was I was told that I couldn't bring my own small extension cord onboard the ship to plug in my machine if my cord wasn't long enough (I was told it would be taken away from me even if it was packed with my Cpap machine) so the nice lady put on our reservation that an extension cord needed also. I guess one less thing to pack - now I have to worry about remembering to take it out of my Cpap bag before our cruise in September and hope that it isn't needed pre or post cruise in hotels.

[RuthC]

What I found strange was I was told that I couldn't bring my own small extension cord onboard the ship to plug in my machine if my cord wasn't long enough (I was told it would be taken away from me even if it was packed with my Cpap machine)....

I keep two extension cords, of two different lengths, packed in my tote bag for just that purpose. I use them in the pre-cruise hotel, if the outlet is across the room (as it so often is), and have them for the cruise.

 

I've never had a problem (which I know does not preclude the possibility in the future). Now, they are merely extension cords, and clearly have no surge protector---which is typically the concern. Why not leave yours packed, and take your chances? They will be returned at the end of the cruise if there is some reason they are taken. That way you will at least have them in the hotel.

[jj8]

I just asked HAL about this today. The lady said distilled water was $3 for a gallon. I'll bring my own, with my Cpap. Krogers in Seward sells it for 90c? I do like the idea of putting a room number on it - but they do puncture or crack easily. 
And my sleep doc agreed - tap water has things your respiratory system may not handle. I used tap water for 5 years before I was told that reason. Never had a problem. So will a week matter? Probably not, but it's a risk. 
But then, as cheap as I am - maybe another $2 isn't worth shlepping 7# aboard?

[em-sk]

On 1/11/2017 at 4:27 PM, RuthC said:

Posts from a practicing ship engineer not only do not confirm your understanding, but refute it.

According to cheng75, the ship is more likely than not bringing on water from a port where it has been purchased, as that is cheaper than desalinating sea water. Also, minerals are not added to desalinated water, contrary to what has been posted.

 

Since his information is always so complete, well explained to those not in the business, and consistent, I tend to give it credence.

 

Here is another article on the topic:  https://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=4278

 

I suspect practices can be different from ship to ship.   

 

Most of the information I have seen is that drinking water on ship is sea water distilled on ship with minerals added.   The non-drinking water (used for toilets, showers, etc.) is sometimes sourced from shore or if the shore water has been used up is also distilled water.  In the western world we all use a lot of water.  There is no way a cruise ship will have the space to hold the amount of water required to support a full complement of passengers on a multi-day voyage.  

 

[MAVIP]

11 hours ago, jj8 said:

I just asked HAL about this today. The lady said distilled water was $3 for a gallon. I'll bring my own, with my Cpap. Krogers in Seward sells it for 90c? I do like the idea of putting a room number on it - but they do puncture or crack easily. 
And my sleep doc agreed - tap water has things your respiratory system may not handle. I used tap water for 5 years before I was told that reason. Never had a problem. So will a week matter? Probably not, but it's a risk. 
But then, as cheap as I am - maybe another $2 isn't worth shlepping 7# aboard?

Bold is mine: my answer is: no, it isn't worth carrying.  Ordered in advance (and, on top: delivered in your stateroom 😉 it will cost you:  Distilled Water - One Gallon
Delivery Details: Sep 7, 2019 - STATEROOM Quantity: 1	US$2.95

[BJzink]

On 1/9/2017 at 8:25 PM, Cruise'nMaMa said:

They charged us $2.95 for a bottle for our cruise next week on the Koningsdam.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Seems pretty reasonable to be able to avoid all that other hassle!

[TAD2005]

19 hours ago, jj8 said:

I just asked HAL about this today. The lady said distilled water was $3 for a gallon. I'll bring my own, with my Cpap. Krogers in Seward sells it for 90c? I do like the idea of putting a room number on it - but they do puncture or crack easily. 
And my sleep doc agreed - tap water has things your respiratory system may not handle. I used tap water for 5 years before I was told that reason. Never had a problem. So will a week matter? Probably not, but it's a risk. 
But then, as cheap as I am - maybe another $2 isn't worth shlepping 7# aboard?

I hope you are not considering putting your cabin number on the thin, plastic gallon jug of distilled water and trying to get the port baggage handlers to bring it onboard.     That would be a disaster, and soaking your luggage and all other bags around yours.   The cost is $2.95, delivered to your cabin.   Why hump around a 7 pound fragile jug of water when for $2.05 more than Kroger, you can have it delivered ?

[VennDiagram]

20 hours ago, jj8 said:

 

But then, as cheap as I am - maybe another $2 isn't worth shlepping 7# aboard?

 

For me, the $2 would be easy to spend, for the significant convenience.  When paying for something makes my life substantially easier --  heck yeah I will pay 😄