Pools - Fresh or Salt Water?

Although I've been doing lots of reading and looking at videos, I've always "assumed" that the pools on the Princess ships were fresh water. Then I saw two videos in a row that got me thinking otherwise. In the first, the ship was rocking and the water in the pool was splashing all about with a good amount of it going onto the deck. The other was funny. Some poor kid jumped into the pool and got a mouth full of water and was retching as if he was about to toss his cookies (but he didn't). A reaction I've seen people (and experienced myself) have when they get a mouth full of sea water.

So, my question is; Are the pools on the Princess, fresh or salt water? I'm now thinking they are salt water.

Although I've been doing lots of reading and looking at videos, I've always "assumed" that the pools on the Princess ships were fresh water. Then I saw two videos in a row that got me thinking otherwise. In the first, the ship was rocking and the water in the pool was splashing all about with a good amount of it going onto the deck. The other was funny. Some poor kid jumped into the pool and got a mouth full of water and was retching as if he was about to toss his cookies (but he didn't). A reaction I've seen people (and experienced myself) have when they get a mouth full of sea water.

 

So, my question is; Are the pools on the Princess, fresh or salt water? I'm now thinking they are salt water.

All princess pools are fresh water, except the Pacific Princess

Wow... so they have to be churning out a good deal of water then from their evaporators then. LOL, I suppose this is one big difference between the Navy and Cruise. In the Navy, fresh water was treated like it was gold and used sparingly for human use.

The pools on all but the one ship are fresh water. The ship makes its own water using an onboard desalination plant. They are able to provide enough fresh water for all uses on the ship. They do capture the moisture generated by the a/c refrigeration and use it as well. They have enough water unless all the pax decide to take a multi-hour shower every day. The water produced is constantly tested and recorded per USCG and international rules. Since it is distributed in their piping and not 50+ y/o pipes, it is very clean and cleaner than at home or in the bottles of water you buy.

On one of our cruises last year there were over 200 rugrats aboard and one parent could not read the warning of only potty trained allowed in the pool. I don't know who did it (and don't really care) but I saw the ship personnel fishing small brown "logs" out of the pool which was closed for the rest of the day. They had to dump it, sanitize the walls and then refill it. Of course it was the largest pool on the ship. I saw many times young children in the pool who appeared to be wearing swim diapers or they just had a fat butt. :rolleyes:

All princess pools are fresh water, except the Pacific Princess

Wow... so they have to be churning out a good deal of water then from their evaporators then. LOL, I suppose this is one big difference between the Navy and Cruise. In the Navy, fresh water was treated like it was gold and used sparingly for human use.

Quite a lot of differences between the Gray Funnel Line and cruise ships. :o

A cruise ship the size of Princess' ships will go through around 800-1000 metric tons of water/day, not counting pool make-up. (That's 260 USG/metric ton). As noted by satx, the ship will also reclaim upwards of 200 metric tons/day of condensation from the AC system, and use this for the ship's laundry.

Satx, I believe you meant to say that the potable water was tested per USPH, not USCG, as the Coasties have much more important things to look after than drinking water. :D

Another reason for the kid's reaction could be that ship's pools tend to be chlorinated at higher levels than many home or land based public pools (2-4ppm).

As has been said, the water in the pools on Princess is fresh water. We have gone on two Celebrity cruises (both on the Reflection) and the water was salt water. My wife noticed the difference immediately and much prefers the fresh water pools on Princess.