Drinking the water

[tlbuckingham]

Okay this may have been asked before but my wife and i have a little debate. It's about drinking the water on the ship. She has the notion that it make you bloated as its filtered sea water? Now me being a man I don't understand how this is possible (or maybe not possible for men to be bloated).

 

So the question.. Is it possible for the water to make you bloated?

[not2soon2cruiseagain]

I've only been on one cruise (6 nights in Oct 2008), but I drank the water all week long and I don't think it made me bloated. I did notice things fit a little tighter at the end of the week, but if you avoid 2-3 ice cream cones a day, pizza, and whatever else you can eat...I think you'll be ok.

 

We were on the Carnival Victory and I thought the water was just fine.

[Caribbean Sunsets]

The water on Princess is filtered. It's the same if not better quality than bottled water.

 

Maybe it's more of a combination of air travel, different type of cooking (more salt), etc. that is causing your wife's bloating.

[JanineM]

The water on the ship is better than the stuff you get in bottles ...

 

A lot of people do retain water when they cruise. There is more sodium used in the food - that's part of preparing institutional food. And some people don't drink as much water as they would at home. I always make a point of drinking my normal amount of water plus more (so about 64 ounces per day) and haven't ever had problems with water retention. That's not to say that I don't gain a couple of pounds, but that's the fault of the desserts, not the water ;)

[paul929207]

My DW & I drink the tap water all the time. We have had no problems with it. I do try to make sure it is safe to drinkby adding a little Scotch on rare occasions. :)

[Kikkycat]

I'm fairly fussy about how my water tastes and was very pleasantly surprised by how good the regular tap water tasted on Royal Caribbean's Adventure.

 

I gained weight too, but I don't fault the water. I am not used to eating 3 course meals for lunch AND dinner at home. And soft-serve yogurt in the afternoon. Oh, and 3-4 alcoholic drinks a day. No crazy wonder I gained weight! (although I blame the tan for weighing more ... that's every bit as likely as it being the water).

[cb at sea]

The water is de-salinated---so, no salt!!! And it's good and tasty and very, very soft, so go easy on the shampoo---it will suds for DAYS!!!!! Better than bottled water!

[wrp96]

It's not just filtered. It actually goes through a desalination process (something to do with reverse osmosis I think but someone a lot smarter than me will have to explain it).

 

The bloating some people experience is usually a combination of the salt content in the food and other factors, not the water. Some people, though, are highly sensitive to salt and even the water does affect them.

[Vampire Parrot]

The usual method of producing potable (drinkable) water is to use "flash evaporators". Sea water is heated (usually using the exhaust gases from the engines) to around 80-90 degrees centigrade, then it's pumped into a chamber which is at lower than atmospheric pressure. Some of the water flashes into steam, which is condensed and stored. The now salter sea water (brine) is pumped into another chamber at a lower pressure, more water flashes into steam, and so on.

 

The end results are very salty brine which is pumped overboard, and very pure water, known as distilled or technical water. Some of the distilled water is then treated to give it the right level of chlorination, minerals are added, and it's pH level (acidity) is corrected if necessary. The water produced is tested, sampled and is now ready to drink.

 

Some of the distilled water is used for such things as filling boiler systems etc., some of it's used for washing, and so on.

 

A ship such as the Carnival Spirit, Zuiderdam, Arcadia etc. can produce approximately 1000 tons per day of fresh water!

 

You'll often find that the "cold" water isn't that cold, and it might just have a slight taste of chlorine to it. If that's a problem, just fill your drinking bottle before you go to bed & leave it in your refrigerator overnight with the bottle cap removed. Next morning, you'll have a bottle of excellent, cold drinking water ready to take with you on your excursions!

 

VP

[wrp96]

Thanks Vampire Parrot - as I said someone a lot smarter than me!!

[tlbuckingham]

I will tell you that even when we are vacation my wife is not on vacation from her diet. She is strict. Now I don't believe it bloats you but it does taste different to me.

[ViolaSwamp]

I can say for sure that the tap water on RCCL tasted much crisper and cleaner than that on HAL. The HAL tap water tasted "stale" - maybe that's not the right word but it definitely had an odd and not fresh taste - in our opinion. We thought the RCCL water tasted fine and dandy but the HAL water left a funny taste in our mouths for some reason... :confused: