Doing Away with Water Bottles

[JF - retired RRT]

On 10/2/2019 at 6:59 AM, Iamcruzin said:

I do drink bottled water at home and at sea. I'm not afraid of the tap water but I refuse to drag around a refillable water bottle and have to go to my room of buffet to refill it.  

I'm guessing that you could get a refillable water bottle refilled at any bar.

[tailspintom]

4 hours ago, MotownVoice said:

... scourge on our culture...

Wow.  A big statement with very little meaning. 

 

What culture are you referring to? It is a very big world out there with a plethora of cultures.  What exactly is the net danger of plastic packaging when compare to other life threatening dangers?  Does it save more lives than perhaps some other packaging that may not make food safe otherwise? Is plastic packaging more dangerous to the people of Detroit than inner city gun violence?

 

How exactly did plastic packaging make it a "scourge to our culture"?

[The Mikado]

8 hours ago, Ride-The-Waves said:

Bottom Line:  ship's tap water is better and cleaner than bottled water you bring on board.  Dasani is Coke's bottled water and Aquafina is Pepsi's.  Both are bottled from tap water in 6 or 7 locations around the USA, and also overseas.  

Dasani and Aquafina is RO water... which is a far cry from “tap water”. 
 

And I, personally, didn’t find the ships water particularly tasty. 

[MotownVoice]

On 10/4/2019 at 4:52 PM, tailspintom said:

Wow.  A big statement with very little meaning. 

 

What culture are you referring to? It is a very big world out there with a plethora of cultures.  What exactly is the net danger of plastic packaging when compare to other life threatening dangers?  Does it save more lives than perhaps some other packaging that may not make food safe otherwise? Is plastic packaging more dangerous to the people of Detroit than inner city gun violence?

 

How exactly did plastic packaging make it a "scourge to our culture"?

I’m waiting for you to get around to the “slippery slope” argument.

 

Aaaaaaany minute now.

 

I can make a suggestion, though.   If you’re having trouble understanding the consequential effect plastics have had on the Earth, on food, on the economy ... read.   Like the rest of us have had to do to understand it.  I’m not interested in arguing the dangers of fire with someone who only knows the comforts of a fireplace.

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by MotownVoice

[OzKiwiJJ]

On our recent 35 night cruise we took a water filter jug with us and refilled our bottles from that. The advantage of a jug is that there is always a decent quantity of water ready for use, as long as you keep it topped up. It worked very well for us.

 

However we did take some bottled water with us as some ports/countries, e.g. NZ, only allow sealed, commercially bottled water to be brought ashore for bio-security reasons.

[elliair]

On 9/29/2019 at 3:29 PM, pms4104 said:

Recent TV item about pasta straws ... wonder if also available gluten-free

I wonder if they're carb free, I might want to eat one. 😋

[elliair]

On 9/30/2019 at 5:39 AM, Potstech said:

As soon as this all out push includes countries like China and India then maybe I will start to get overtly concerned about plastics in the ocean.

Here's a chart of the world's worse polluters.  USA is at the bottom of the list.  I see recycling of plastic in the US as an everyday occurrence.  How are we going to get the countries listed on the bandwagon to quit polluting?  I understand that in India, only 50% of the population has indoor plumbing.  We have the homeless here in the US that doesn't give a whim about pollution, or who gets a disease. 

 

https://www.statista.com/chart/12211/the-countries-polluting-the-oceans-the-most/

 

 

[brisalta]

I was on the Grand Princess last week and they had not yet switched to cans of water.

The drinking straws were paper and help up well in frozen drinks,

The stir sticks were wood like they were many decades ago.

[Travlin grrl]

I just did  the Med this last summer and most people carried Hydroflasks.  I was so mad I forgot mine because it was hot and humid there. 

[caribill]

4 hours ago, brisalta said:

I was on the Grand Princess last week and they had not yet switched to cans of water.

 

 

The cans are useless unless they are resealable.

 

If they are like cans of soda, they cannot be resealed.

[Thrak]

7 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

The cans are useless unless they are resealable.

 

If they are like cans of soda, they cannot be resealed.

 

Probably more like cans of beer with the wide mouth screw top.

[Mike45LC]

35 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

The cans are useless unless they are resealable.

 

If they are like cans of soda, they cannot be resealed.

On Celebrity, this summer, the cans of water were wide-mouthed bottle-shaped cans with screw-tops.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Mike45LC

[terry&mike]

We sailed Hurtigruten's new ship, the Roald Amundsen, in July to Svalbard, and they are working hard to be as green as possible. In our room when we boarded we found 2 refillable Hurtigruten insulated water bottles as a gift from the cruise line. On each floor, there is a water bottle filling station similar to those found at some airports. This worked well for us, and we found it quite a good solution. 

[Steelers36]

13 hours ago, elliair said:

Here's a chart of the world's worse polluters.  USA is at the bottom of the list.  I see recycling of plastic in the US as an everyday occurrence.  How are we going to get the countries listed on the bandwagon to quit polluting?  I understand that in India, only 50% of the population has indoor plumbing.  We have the homeless here in the US that doesn't give a whim about pollution, or who gets a disease. 

 

https://www.statista.com/chart/12211/the-countries-polluting-the-oceans-the-most/

 

 

 

And Canada is even lower.  I have read/heard more than once that Canada's forests absorb more CO2 than we put into the atmosphere.  I wouldn't be surprised if the USA is pretty close to that.

[elliair]

16 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

And Canada is even lower.  I have read/heard more than once that Canada's forests absorb more CO2 than we put into the atmosphere.  I wouldn't be surprised if the USA is pretty close to that.

I find it ironic that Princess is trying to go "green" yet they continued to pollute the waters of Alaska and who knows where else.   The cruise rates aren't going down, the passengers are going to pay for that $20 million fine and add $40 million more over deliberate acts of pollution.

 

snip

 

The cruise line giant Carnival Corporation and its Princess subsidiary have agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $20 million for environmental violations such as dumping plastic waste into the ocean. Princess Cruise Lines has already paid $40 million over other deliberate acts of pollution.

 

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/04/729622653/carnival-cruise-lines-hit-with-20-million-penalty-for-environmental-crimes

 

Another reason not to accept their recent offer to us ($800 more) for a mini suite.  We won't be spending any more money onboard, we'll use up the OBC before the cruise is over and call it good.  I laugh at Princess who all of a sudden is going "green" due to WHY they are doing it.  Money talks.

 

[Steelers36]

@elliair, money certainly does talk and the fines are enormous.  Got to hurt bottom line for long time to come.  They cannot just double cruise fares to make it up.  I'd like to know if the public will ever know what happens to the millions of dollars.  One would hope it is funneled into combating pollution and cleaning up water supplies, ocean garbage.  Something relevant.  But I won't be counting on that.  There ought to be a steward watchdog that makes sure fines like this get allocated to related projects.  Perhaps this does happen, but we never really hear about the rest of the story.

[elliair]

9 minutes ago, steelers36 said:

@elliair, money certainly does talk and the fines are enormous.  Got to hurt bottom line for long time to come.  They cannot just double cruise fares to make it up.  I'd like to know if the public will ever know what happens to the millions of dollars.  One would hope it is funneled into combating pollution and cleaning up water supplies, ocean garbage.  Something relevant.  But I won't be counting on that.  There ought to be a steward watchdog that makes sure fines like this get allocated to related projects.  Perhaps this does happen, but we never really hear about the rest of the story.

Yes I agree with you.  But it ticks me off that as a consumer and cruiser on Carnival Corp., ships, that the fines are passed on to the passengers - someone has to pay for it and it's going to be us.  So, the least amount of money I give to Princess is more money in my pocket. 

 

"We analyzed three years of federal fines at nine large agencies, totaling more than a billion dollars. What stood out in our limited review is how rarely corporate fines are earmarked for consumers or the agency that investigated."

 

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Where-Do-Those-Huge-Federal-Fines-Go-412751133.html

 

This is why we don't hear about where the money for the fines go.  IMHO, it's a government scam - a shakedown.

 

Edited October 6, 2019 by elliair

[MissP22]

37 minutes ago, elliair said:

But it ticks me off that as a consumer and cruiser on Carnival Corp., ships, that the fines are passed on to the passengers - someone has to pay for it and it's going to be us.  So, the least amount of money I give to Princess is more money in my pocket. 

Makes me wonder what other cutbacks they'll come up with to pay for the fines? In order to stay competitive in the industry I can't see them raising prices to cover it. 

[elliair]

4 hours ago, MissP22 said:

Makes me wonder what other cutbacks they'll come up with to pay for the fines? In order to stay competitive in the industry I can't see them raising prices to cover it. 

The cruise we're going on in November, the ship is around 1/2 full and Princess has a "sale" going on right now.  For us, we were offered an upgrade to a mini suite for $800 more, and no additional perks.  Also, there's a higher gratuity on top of the $800 plus tax.  We did not see any advantage to go with an upgrade, so Princess will find ways to increase their revenue with little advantage for the passenger.  Even our TA said it wasn't a deal, and our TA stood to make more money off of us as well as Princess.

[Jeter02]

54 minutes ago, elliair said:

The cruise we're going on in November, the ship is around 1/2 full and Princess has a "sale" going on right now.  For us, we were offered an upgrade to a mini suite for $800 more, and no additional perks.  Also, there's a higher gratuity on top of the $800 plus tax.  We did not see any advantage to go with an upgrade, so Princess will find ways to increase their revenue with little advantage for the passenger.  Even our TA said it wasn't a deal, and our TA stood to make more money off of us as well as Princess.

Yup. Don't do it. Definitely nothing special. Their days of the free upgrade fairy seem to be over. they try to give you these so-called up cells to shift you out of your cabin so they could get buyers on that more easy compared to getting buyers on a mini suite

[rtlk]

Error

Edited October 7, 2019 by rtlk
typos

[rtlk]

WATER FROM THE SHOWER HEADS

 

Folks, My wiFe is disabled, one of the things she requires to enjoy her cruise is to remain hydrated.  As such we bring on board a case of Arrowhead one gallon plastic bottle's, which lasts us both over a week at sea.  Each day during her shower in the roll in shower in the accessible cabin we reserve, without it she would not be able to cruise anymore.  I say all this to provide the bases for our comment on the water supply coming out of the shower.  As we use a number of towels during her showering and a few years ago I notice when I set the handheld shower head face down on the white towel on the shower seat.

 

When I picked it up to rinse her off, I noticed that an orange colored outline of the shower head water hole pattern was embossed on the towel  That trip was on the Crown or the Ruby, I will try to find the pictures I took.  That sure makes me wonder how good the water really is???  Each trip we go on, I do the same thing (we usually go on two trips per year) and the same pattern has appeared on the towel each time.  I will try to post when I find them.  I think we will continue to bring our own water  Try it next time you cruise to see what condition the water is.  I did report it each time we Cruised, even put it in the questionnaire each time they sent it out.  No action was taken that I know of.