Drinking ship water in Europe

My DW and I will be doing the Adriatic Sea cruise on the Oosterdam starting April 18. We are big water drinkers. I can go through 4-5 water bottles a day at a minimum myself. While I would never drink the water in the ports, is it safe to drink the water on the ship? I do have SBP so I know I can get water bottles there for when we are at port. Several years a go, my DW and I were in Israel for 2 weeks. Thought I could drink the water there but I got sick from it. Trying to be smarter this time.

We drank the ship water on Royal Caribbean's Legend of the Seas. The only caveat was when I came down with NOROVIRUS, our steward told me to drink only bottled water, and ice chips from room service.

He made a point of clearing out everything else.

I've used the ship's water (and ice) on every HAL ship, in pretty much every place they go---most of them more than once. This includes eastern and western Med. several times. I've never gotten sick from it.

Only once was there a foul taste, and that was when the ship on-loaded water at a particular port in South America. An officer blamed that on the chemicals used to treat it, and said it would dissipate in a few days.

I never drink bottled water unless it is off the ship in a locale where the water might be suspect.

I always drink the water aboard the ship. They must meet the requirements for water quality that the USPHS require.

My DW and I will be doing the Adriatic Sea cruise on the Oosterdam starting April 18. We are big water drinkers. I can go through 4-5 water bottles a day at a minimum myself. While I would never drink the water in the ports, is it safe to drink the water on the ship? I do have SBP so I know I can get water bottles there for when we are at port. Several years a go, my DW and I were in Israel for 2 weeks. Thought I could drink the water there but I got sick from it. Trying to be smarter this time.

How would you know it was the water that made you sick and not something else? I drank tap water in Israel, Europe and cruise ships and never got a stomach bug.

The ships water is safe and delicious no matter where the ship is sailing.

If for any reason the water should become less than it's usual high standard, there would be an announcement. That is not something that would be kept secret if the water was not safe.

How would you know it was the water that made you sick and not something else? I drank tap water in Israel, Europe and cruise ships and never got a stomach bug.

Well you really never know for sure but the symptoms seem to match what one would expect.

We drink the ship's water -- it is better than what we have at home coming out of our taps.

How would you know it was the water that made you sick and not something else? I drank tap water in Israel, Europe and cruise ships and never got a stomach bug.

When we were Israel, the ship warned us not to drink the water there unless it was in a sealed bottle.

Cunard gave each person as we left the ship a liter bottle of water -- no charge.

Understand that often the ships water is made onboard via desalination. On cruises with short cruising times they occasionally have to supplement the onboard water with water from a port. The issue is they use the heat from the funnels to desalinate so short distance between port or port days make it difficult to make water. I forgot which captain talked about this in a presentation but think it was on the Noordam.

The ship makes lots of the water but also bunkers in some ports.

My DW and I will be doing the Adriatic Sea cruise on the Oosterdam starting April 18. We are big water drinkers. I can go through 4-5 water bottles a day at a minimum myself. While I would never drink the water in the ports, is it safe to drink the water on the ship? I do have SBP so I know I can get water bottles there for when we are at port. Several years a go, my DW and I were in Israel for 2 weeks. Thought I could drink the water there but I got sick from it. Trying to be smarter this time.

Ship water is safe to drink no matter where they sre.

I'd say if the sbp is from Explore 4 then drink the bottled water all the time. You might be one of the few that can actually get 15 drinks a day unless I am goofed up about E4.

sightcrr

The water on HAL ships is always totally perfectly safe to drink.

Actually, I've been drinking tap water since 1961 on many ships and cruise lines -- never ever have had a problem! :)

LuLu

I often wonder how many people drink bottled water because they like the convenience of a sealed bottle? But with so many good available water bottles these days does it make any sense to pay several dollars for a bottle of water when you can fill up your own bottle for free?

Remember: Evian is NAIVE is spelled backwards.

Don’t let the bottled water industry fool you into thinking they care about consumers’ concerns regarding the safety of your municipal water. As mentioned before, they trick you into thinking their product is safer than tap water when, in fact, tap water is more heavily regulated, tested more often, cheaper than bottled water, and the preferred drinking water option.

But hey if you want to pay for something that most every expert agrees is no better and often not as good than what comes out of the tap it's your money.

Not to mention the environmental issues from all those plastic bottles!! :eek: I have never had a problem with ships water. I think the water is safe pretty much everywhere in Europe as well. However South America and Asia would be a different matter.

Regards

Jan

You are fine to drink the ships water.

I would avoid drinking water off the ship other then bottled water.

Keith

Ships water is safe to drink unless anounced otherwise. Not every country in Europa has potable tap water. You should check with the locals.

For sure, Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavian countries have potable tapwater.

In general the further south, the more chance of not having safe tap water.

I drink tons of water, always from the tap on HAL ships, and have never had any problem. I think it tastes just fine.

I will be the lone dissenting voice.:o I dislike the ship's water, for me there is an after-taste which is not pleasant. However, where I live we have pristine water, so it is not a good comparison. And especially after we had so many times where the water ran somewhat brown from the cold tap on our last cruise. I purchase the bottled water onboard.

The water in all EU countries is perfectly safe to drink or brush your teeth in unless explicitly mentioned ( some Greek Islands and hotels that use their own well water for example) and thankfully, water in the EU is devoid of Fluoride taste...

Cruise ships that sail from EU ports must meet the EU cruise ship sanitation regulations, very similar to the USPH regulations for US homeports. The ships are only allowed to take on water in ports where the specific hydrant used has been certified as potable to WHO standards, within the last month. The water bunkered in port is chlorinated to 4 times the level it is when circulating around the ship, before it goes into the tanks. The tanks that have been loaded in port must not be used until a coliform bacteria test is done onboard, which normally takes 18-24 hours.

So, long and short of it is, the water onboard is safe to drink. All water onboard is from the same system, there are no "special" water outlets. The water served in the dining venues (from the waiter's pitchers), at the buffet drink dispensers, the bar guns, drinking fountains, and ice makers will have a different taste (if the taste of the tap water isn't pleasant to you) because they use a filter to remove the charcoal so that this water dispensing machinery does not scale up. You can also use a Brita type water bottle or pitcher for your tap water, or simply leave an open pitcher in your fridge overnight, and the chlorine will dissipate naturally.

The yellow to brown water seen some times comes from chlorine scale, which lines the pipes. When the system is shut down for maintenance, the scale dries out and falls off the pipes, and will circulate around the ship for a little while, and sometimes is congregates in the non-flowing lines leading to your sink and shower, so running the water for a minute or two will generally clear it up.

As always,,,,, really helpful post.

Thank you.

So, long and short of it is, the water onboard is safe to drink. All water onboard is from the same system, there are no "special" water outlets. The water served in the dining venues (from the waiter's pitchers), at the buffet drink dispensers, the bar guns, drinking fountains, and ice makers will have a different taste (if the taste of the tap water isn't pleasant to you) because they use a filter to remove the charcoal so that this water dispensing machinery does not scale up. You can also use a Brita type water bottle or pitcher for your tap water, or simply leave an open pitcher in your fridge overnight, and the chlorine will dissipate naturally.

So are these inline filters, or separate units that are specific to ships?

I'm thinking about a way to address our shower scale problem when we replumb and re-tile. Are these units small enough (and affordable), for home application?

(Did you mean remove calcium instead of charcoal??)

The ships water is safe and delicious no matter where the ship is sailing.

If for any reason the water should become less than it's usual high standard, there would be an announcement. That is not something that would be kept secret if the water was not safe.

 

The ship's water might be clean but it's definitely not delicious in my opinion