Cruddy Water In Cabin On QM2

We're currently on QM2 crossing the Atlantic and have had nasty black/brown water with lots of sediment coming out of our faucet in the cabin's bathroom.

Sometimes its bad, other times its OK, at least to the naked eye.

The worst was last night, I was brushing my teeth prior to going to bed and it was bad, so I took a glassfull down to reception where the lady on reception was just having a complaint about the same thing from a passenger on another deck - we're on 6 deck.

Anyway Room Service delivered a jug of water to us this morning and that's as far as its got.

Its the World Club Cocktail Party tonight - maybe I should take the glass of nasty water there and give it to the Captain? Maybe not.

But seriously, has anyone else had this problem? QM2 isn't very old, surely this shouldn't be happening?

I have had it happen on other ships before. Not sure what causes it.

We're currently on QM2 crossing the Atlantic and have had nasty black/brown water with lots of sediment coming out of our faucet in the cabin's bathroom.

Sometimes its bad, other times its OK, at least to the naked eye.

 

The worst was last night, I was brushing my teeth prior to going to bed and it was bad, so I took a glassfull down to reception where the lady on reception was just having a complaint about the same thing from a passenger on another deck - we're on 6 deck.

 

Anyway Room Service delivered a jug of water to us this morning and that's as far as its got.

 

Its the World Club Cocktail Party tonight - maybe I should take the glass of nasty water there and give it to the Captain? Maybe not.

 

But seriously, has anyone else had this problem? QM2 isn't very old, surely this shouldn't be happening?

I got off QM2 on Wednesday and had no problems with the water, but I was on 8 deck.

We're currently on QM2 crossing the Atlantic and have had nasty black/brown water with lots of sediment coming out of our faucet in the cabin's bathroom.

Sometimes its bad, other times its OK, at least to the naked eye.

 

The worst was last night, I was brushing my teeth prior to going to bed and it was bad, so I took a glassfull down to reception where the lady on reception was just having a complaint about the same thing from a passenger on another deck - we're on 6 deck.

 

Anyway Room Service delivered a jug of water to us this morning and that's as far as its got.

 

Its the World Club Cocktail Party tonight - maybe I should take the glass of nasty water there and give it to the Captain? Maybe not.

 

But seriously, has anyone else had this problem? QM2 isn't very old, surely this shouldn't be happening?

EEK! Sorry to hear that...hope you're feeling ok if you swallowed any of the off-coloured water.

Quite frankly, I'm a bit suprised an ample supply of bottled water was not delivered (gratis) to cabins affected by this water problem with a caution not to drink the tap water until the problem was corrected. BTW, was the shower water also nasty looking?

Regards,

Salacia

I did not have any sediment or discoloration, but Sunday morning there was some gasping from the faucets suggesting there was probably some flushing of the system going on. Not sure what's going on since that was before your problem.

I'm also on QM2 on deck 8 and noticed something similar...a very fine sediment which was visible floating around the edges of the toilet and sometimes heavy enough to sink. It didn't cloud the water, so I wasn't aware if it was also coming from the faucets and shower head...assume it was.

I've seen this on many ships; usually after the ships are six or seven years old. I think it has to do with pipe oxidation (rust) and collects in the bottom of holding tanks. I've noticed it on Holland America ships, Celebrity ships, Royal Caribbean ships. Not dangerous, but sure looks bad!:p

Kel

I've seen this on many ships; usually after the ships are six or seven years old. I think it has to do with pipe oxidation (rust) and collects in the bottom of holding tanks. I've noticed it on Holland America ships, Celebrity ships, Royal Caribbean ships. Not dangerous, but sure looks bad!:p

 

Kel

I think this is the most logical explanation… Their cleaning/re-coating may already be on the fall 2011 refit list. If not, I hope it will be added based on recent events.

Just a thought...I imagine Cunard must regularly test the tap water, so it seems to me that results of those tests should be available to passengers who enquire/complain about discoloured water. While we have the option of drinking bottled water to avoid the problem, there is also the matter of the water used for cooking, hot drinks, and drinks at the bar. Test showing that this discoloured water posed no health risk - should those test results be made available - would alleviate any passenger concerns.

OMG, the more I read the more I wish I hadnt booked!

We have sailed on over 20 cruises, and on some ships that were more than 10 years old. We have never experienced dirty water from the faucets or shower. If so, we would have expected the cruise line to provide us with free bottles of water to drink in the cabins. If the shower had dirty water, then I would expect to have free access to the showers in the spa (provided that the water there was clean). This is outrageous. I hope that Cunard is taking action to clean up this situation.

Just a thought...I imagine Cunard must regularly test the tap water, so it seems to me that results of those tests should be available to passengers who enquire/complain about discoloured water. While we have the option of drinking bottled water to avoid the problem, there is also the matter of the water used for cooking, hot drinks, and drinks at the bar. Test showing that this discoloured water posed no health risk - should those test results be made available - would alleviate any passenger concerns.

I never drink tap water on the ship. Only bottled water. Not that it's unsafe, just the chlorine taste.

I think the term is 'get a grip!'.

These things happen - even in your own home! Sediment collects in water and tanks, and sometimes something unsettles it. You won't die - just don't drink it.

Take a look in your pipes and tanks at home and I'm sure that they are far worse than QM2!

I think the term is 'get a grip!'.

 

These things happen - even in your own home! Sediment collects in water and tanks, and sometimes something unsettles it. You won't die - just don't drink it.

Pardon me?

Tap water on Cunard ships is supposed to be drinkable. In all restaurants tap water is served.

"nasty black/brown water with lots of sediment" is certainly not adequate for drinking or cooking.

If it happens ones, indeed things happen, and if Cunard takes immediate steps to solve the problem, fine, but it is not acceptable to be a permanent state or to be put off to fall 2011 or any other future date.

Test showing that this discoloured water posed no health risk - should those test results be made available - would alleviate any passenger concerns.

May I please have a cup of coffee and a glass of water? Oh which of the black/brown fluids is the water and which the coffee?

Sorry, any such "test result" would nor alleviate my concerns.

Pardon me?

 

Tap water on Cunard ships is supposed to be drinkable. In all restaurants tap water is served.

 

I have always assumed that the 'tap' water served in the restaurant is from a different source than that supplying bathrooms - as would be true in standard British plumbing. I drink tap water drawn in my kitchen but wouldn't dream of drinking a glass of water from a bathroom tap. Is it different on QM?

I have always assumed that the 'tap' water served in the restaurant is from a different source than that supplying bathrooms - as would be true in standard British plumbing. I drink tap water drawn in my kitchen but wouldn't dream of drinking a glass of water from a bathroom tap. Is it different on QM?

I cant imagine that your house plumbing is any different from "standard" and if you think about it there is one main feed into your house, it then splits to a hot and cold. The water from the hot tap wouldnt usually be used for drinking water as it may come from a storage tank, hence sediment possibilities. But on saying that it is still safe as it is still treated water. All your cold water taps have exactly the same water coming out of them, but i am just a mere woman with some common sense so could be wrong. If you have a well then you use your own chosen process of purifying, but usually goes through the same pipe system one for hot one for cold!

Just so you know, the lemonade and "juice drinks" are made from concentrates, that means adding ship's water to the syrup (concentrate), be it clean water or not. If you are 100% worry about the water safety, drink only boiled water. I've seen people bring their own kettles.

As an added point, ice cubes are also made from the ship's water, be it clean or not. So if you drink any mixed drinks and added ice, you will be consuming the ship's water.

The process ships use is similar to the bottled water process as far as i know:-

The newest state-of-the-art cruise ships transform salty sea water into fresh drinking water by a process known as desalination.

The desalination process on a cruise ship uses either flash evaporators or osmosis. Flash evaporators boil sea water and re-condense the steam vapor, producing fresh drinking water. This method is similar to the natural water cycle, where sea water is heated by the sun, rises as steam to form clouds, and then falls back to earth as rain. The second method, osmosis, filters sea water through a fine membrane to separate pure water from salt and other minerals. Cruise ships do not desalinate water near ports or close to land, because coastal waters are the most contaminated.

After desalination, the water is passed through a mineralization plant, which adds minerals. This is necessary because the healthy minerals naturally found in drinking water have been removed by desalination. At this stage, the water is also checked for impurities, sanitized, and the pH is corrected. The water is then sent to massive storage tanks on board the cruise ship. On the Grand Princess, for example, these storage tanks hold up to 500,000 gallons of fresh water.

Next, the water is routed to hot and cold systems. Miles of distribution pipe move the water around the cruise ship.

After the water is delivered through a sink or shower, and used by cruise ship passengers or crew, it must be treated again before it can be discharged. All cruise ships must follow strict environmental laws in the treatment of waste water. Even after treatment, the water is not immediately released, but is held in special storage tanks when the ship is close to land, in port, or other sensitive environments.

It's a complex process, but necessary in order to ensure the health of cruise ship passengers and the natural environment.

Please dont take this information as fact as i could be wrong:D

Julie

I cant imagine that your house plumbing is any different from "standard" and if you think about it there is one main feed into your house, it then splits to a hot and cold. The water from the hot tap wouldnt usually be used for drinking water as it may come from a storage tank, hence sediment possibilities. But on saying that it is still safe as it is still treated water. All your cold water taps have exactly the same water coming out of them, but i am just a mere woman with some common sense so could be wrong. If you have a well then you use your own chosen process of purifying, but usually goes through the same pipe system one for hot one for cold!

 

Just so you know, the lemonade and "juice drinks" are made from concentrates, that means adding ship's water to the syrup (concentrate), be it clean water or not. If you are 100% worry about the water safety, drink only boiled water. I've seen people bring their own kettles.

 

As an added point, ice cubes are also made from the ship's water, be it clean or not. So if you drink any mixed drinks and added ice, you will be consuming the ship's water.

 

The process ships use is similar to the bottled water process as far as i know:-

 

 

The newest state-of-the-art cruise ships transform salty sea water into fresh drinking water by a process known as desalination.

The desalination process on a cruise ship uses either flash evaporators or osmosis. Flash evaporators boil sea water and re-condense the steam vapor, producing fresh drinking water. This method is similar to the natural water cycle, where sea water is heated by the sun, rises as steam to form clouds, and then falls back to earth as rain. The second method, osmosis, filters sea water through a fine membrane to separate pure water from salt and other minerals. Cruise ships do not desalinate water near ports or close to land, because coastal waters are the most contaminated.

After desalination, the water is passed through a mineralization plant, which adds minerals. This is necessary because the healthy minerals naturally found in drinking water have been removed by desalination. At this stage, the water is also checked for impurities, sanitized, and the pH is corrected. The water is then sent to massive storage tanks on board the cruise ship. On the Grand Princess, for example, these storage tanks hold up to 500,000 gallons of fresh water.

Next, the water is routed to hot and cold systems. Miles of distribution pipe move the water around the cruise ship.

After the water is delivered through a sink or shower, and used by cruise ship passengers or crew, it must be treated again before it can be discharged. All cruise ships must follow strict environmental laws in the treatment of waste water. Even after treatment, the water is not immediately released, but is held in special storage tanks when the ship is close to land, in port, or other sensitive environments.

It's a complex process, but necessary in order to ensure the health of cruise ship passengers and the natural environment.

 

Please dont take this information as fact as i could be wrong:D

 

Julie

Interesting. The way my plumber explained it to me the bathroom water, cold as well as hot, comes from a storage tank which may contribute to impurities (although as you say perfectly safe) and only the cold water piped directly to the kitchen taps is strictly drinking water. I am pretty sure there is some difference as when there was a mains malfunction last year water stopped in the kitchen immediately whereas we were able to draw from the bathroom cold tap for quite a while (fortunately!) Quite a few hotels/public buildings display notices which state that the bathroom water is not drinking water both here and even more commonly in France, so I have always assumed this was standard but maybe not. All the water on the ship is desalinated (undoubtedly contributing to the drying effect on skin which is noticeable on longer voyages).

Not all bathroom plumbing is the same! Some people will have a tank in their loft holding cold water for the bathroom. We do not. Some bathrooms will have a direct feed of fresh water. We were always told not to drink the bathroom water at home as there may have been dead birds etc in the tank but I would think ship water from the bathroom is exactly the same as all other sources on board.

Depending upon the ship and location it is matters.

Some run out as in South America.

Some have two systems of water , one for drinking and one for washing etc...

Know before you go on your cruises what systems the ship has.. will benefit you.

If you have to take aboard your own supply of drinking water in bottles as part of your luggage.

Have you thought about with the desalinization plants on ships they use SALT to purify it and as well HIGH SODIUM Levels persist?

For people with a Low Sodium and Salt Diets and regulated by your Medical Doctors... need to watch the levels your taking..so yes you may have bring your own aboard and/or purchasing this commodity on the ship and/or Ports of Call is a must.

:eek:

It is your own responsibility to ask and know your own needs ...

How do you actually know that there is a problem? Couple of posts...? Also how do you know if they haven't tested and identified the problem? How do you know that they are waiting til 2011 to sort the problem?

Trouble with these boards... Chinese whispers... doesn't make it true, right or correct.

Think that i'll leave Cunard to do what they do best - running a ship - and i'll do what I do best - enjoying my cruise.

Whatever the problem - doesn't bother me - stick to the G&T!

Last week our plumber shut the main town water pipe in our house for 10 minute to a put new fitting. When he reopened, rusty water came through our faucets for few minutes and then disappeared. I assumed similar thing happened in QM-2 probably when they shut down to fix a leaky pipe and reopened it.

 

 

 

Have you thought about with the desalinization plants on ships they use SALT to purify it and as well HIGH SODIUM Levels persist?

 

For people with a Low Sodium and Salt Diets and regulated by your Medical Doctors... need to watch the levels your taking..so yes you may have bring your own aboard and/or purchasing this commodity on the ship and/or Ports of Call is a must.

:eek:

 

 

It is your own responsibility to ask and know your own needs ...

 

 

In my experience [former Damage Control Assistant / Auxiliary Engineering Officer] salt is not used in either evaporator or reverse osmosis water makers.

What the original poster encountered was most likely sediment dislodged during repair or maintenance. [e.g. repacking a leaky valve]

How do you actually know that there is a problem? Couple of posts...? Also how do you know if they haven't tested and identified the problem? How do you know that they are waiting til 2011 to sort the problem?

 

Trouble with these boards... Chinese whispers... doesn't make it true, right or correct.

 

Think that i'll leave Cunard to do what they do best - running a ship - and i'll do what I do best - enjoying my cruise.

 

Whatever the problem - doesn't bother me - stick to the G&T!

Britcruiser 81

While I agree these incidents may currently be isolated and that we shouldn’t all jump to the conclusion that there is a bigger problem at hand; but at the same time I do understand that it creates concern for those who do decide to drink from the taps in the cabins.

You are correct in saying that some of the information on the board is speculation, but most rely on and value first hand reports of things going wrong ( and well) onboard. They are not meant to start a panic, but merely a dialogue which we hope will end with the correct information being revealed.

My thoughts regarding a major tank inspection and recoating during refits is a rational one as it requires the tank(s) to be taken offline for a decent amount of time. Some of the many water (brown, black and fresh) tanks were inspected and/or recoated during the 2008 refit as per maintenance schedules. Please refer to the interview of Trevor Lane, the Staff Captain of QM2 at the time by the Richard H. Wagner http://www.beyondships.com/QM2-refit-1.html

Now this is not to say that urgent work cannot be carried out while the ship is underway, it happens all the time. So if there is a bigger problem it could be very well being handled now and not on hold until 2011, but sometimes things are forced to wait until she is taken offline.

PS: I agree when in doubt, have a G+T, but in this case hold the ice ;)

Apparently, the popular (mis)conception is that all QM2's (tap) drinking water is produced on board, but that is apparently not the case, according to this quote from Brian Watling:

When she is on her transatlantic runs, QM2 makes all of her own fresh water. This is done using

three Alfa Laval Multi Effect Plat Evaporators, each of which can produce 630 tons of water a day

"which is far in excess of what we actually consume". When the ship is doing a cruise, the time at sea

tends to be less and thus there is not as much time to make water. As a result, QM2 does have to

purchase fresh water in some ports of call.

Quoted from http://www.beyondships.com/QM2-art-Watling.html

I am glad you have experience. The US Navy is wonderful.

Your probably very correct in your analogy of the O.P. too.

In my posting I was also showing readers who do not have knowledge a gain so to benefit them in Consumption of Hydrogen Di Oxide aboard.

As you well know some do not know the difference in element SODIUM ( Na 11 )and the Compounds which are SALTS.

Sodium ion is soluble in water in nearly all of its compounds, and is thus present in great quantities in the Earth's oceans and other stagnant bodies of water. In these bodies it is mostly counterbalanced by the chloride ion, causing evaporated ocean water solids to consist mostly of sodium chloride, or common table salt. Sodium ion is also a component of many minerals.

Do you know who the General with the most bases commanded ever was? He was the actual first Governor of California and Arizona too. He is buried in Rockland County , NY overlooking what is now the (NYT ) Tappan Zee Toll Bridge.

If your a P.E. they are going to maybe finally do something at that structure.

His sons Admirals and Generals are buried beside him.

The man we did IPO's with on the street, has the patents, lives just under where that American General is buried near what was the major crossing in the American Revolution on the Hudson River. ( They want to take water now from the PCB Ladden Hudson and use it for drinking *YUCK* )

Do you know the Patent holder ? I do.

Have you ever heard and been with UWR :NYSE ( Old Trading Symbol ) the French own it now.

Having cruddy water in the cabins is not just muddy.. the taste as well the composition of it matters.

Salt aboard commercial vessels as well residents homes is also used to soften the Hard Water.

In my experience [former Damage Control Assistant / Auxiliary Engineering Officer] salt is not used in either evaporator or reverse osmosis water makers.

 

What the original poster encountered was most likely sediment dislodged during repair or maintenance. [e.g. repacking a leaky valve]