Bottles of Water

[ShipsAhoy508]

Taking my first NCL cruise in 10 days on the Escape. I like to buy a 12 pack of water for my cabin. Looking on my account I see the price of a 12 pack is $47.14. Am I seeing it correctly? It can't be that much. Carnival was much less.

[ryarger]

That is correct. However, the bottles provided are MUCH bigger than the ones you get from Carnival. They are the large 1 Liter Aquafinas. So a pack of twelve is several gallons of water.

 

It's still overpriced compared to land, but like 3x overpriced, not the 10x+ that it seems at first.

[Two Wheels Only]

On NCL, bottled water is about $15/gallon for a 12 pack. :o

Edited August 24, 2016 by Two Wheels Only

[ShipsAhoy508]

Wow is all I can say. :eek:

 

I thought these tired eyes were playing tricks on me. What the heck NCL, do you put liquid gold in the water?

 

I know I can't bring water on board but is there anyway around this hefty price without getting in trouble?

 

Any of you regular NCL cruisers have ideas?

[triptolemus]

I know I can't bring water on board but is there anyway around this hefty price without getting in trouble?

 

Any of you regular NCL cruisers have ideas?

 

Yes. Some options:

 

1) Drink the ship's water. It is fine and you will be fine.

 

2) Stuff your bladder with bottled water in the ports. They can't stop you from bringing it back on that way.

 

3) Water snobs will bring a filtered Brita bottle or pitcher and fill it with the ship's water either in their stateroom, or at the beverage stations. Not for any other reason except it makes them feel like they've done something. (See #1).

[gergles]

$47 for 3.2 gallons of water is easily 10x more than you'd pay for it on land...

[ShipsAhoy508]

Will they let me bring an empty water bottle in my tote and fill it at the buffet and bring it to my cabin?

[takeadip]

Wow is all I can say. :eek:

 

I thought these tired eyes were playing tricks on me. What the heck NCL, do you put liquid gold in the water?

 

I know I can't bring water on board but is there anyway around this hefty price without getting in trouble?

 

Any of you regular NCL cruisers have ideas?

 

I heard some rumblings from the office of NCL cruiseline pres FDR... lets listen in:

 

FDR:"okay...so your telling me that we can load the top 2 sun decks on a bunch of our ships with 4 X 8 sheets of plywood? "

 

NCL Board of Directors: "Yes that is exactly what we are saying"

 

FDR: "and your saying we can sail about 3 days in front of any future hurricanes and tropical storms at a safe distance and get to these places where there will be mass property destruction following our arrival?

 

NCL Board of Directors: "Yes, it will be a great way for us to promote NCL in helping these places that without our plywood would surely be destroyed by water damage and extreme high winds..People would commend our community outreach and maybe forget about all of our recent negative publicity"

 

FDR: okay...I hear what you are saying but I have a serious question...is there any way we could charge people for the plywood? I mean..plywood in bulk will cost us about $2.00 per sheet"

 

NCL Board of Directors: Well..we could try to charge people for the wood..yes..how much were you thinking??

 

FDR: "well.. cant we just move the decimal two places?

 

NCL Board of Directors: "you mean... like what we did with the cost of a case of water?

 

FDR: Exactly!!

 

NCL Board of Directors: Mr. President..with all due respect..NCL's cost of a case of water in bulk is only .78 cents so we moved the decimal two places and are charging our loyal lifelong passengers $78.00 per case

 

FDR: Go on..

 

NCL Board of Directors: so with that math.. if we move the decimal on a bulk sheet of plywood that would cost these poor innocent people about to get pummeled by a tropical storm $200.00 per sheet!!!

 

FDR: And your point is..?

 

NCL Board of Directors: Wont that lead to a mountain of negative press for not only NCL but you as well sir?

 

FDR: "There is no such thing as bad press...consider this meeting adjourned!!

[ryarger]

$47 for 3.2 gallons of water is easily 10x more than you'd pay for it on land...

 

Sure, but not for 3.2 gallons of Aquafina 1 L bottles.

 

Go ahead and search and tell me the best price you find. The best I could get was $1.25/bottle. That's $16 for the case, or around a 3x markup for NCL. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect for hotel/cruise pricing.

[AlanFromFL]

Imagine the laughter in the boardroom at Coke and Pepsi just a few years ago..."Hey, let's put TAP water into a bottle and sell it for the same price as a soft drink, people will actually buy it!".

 

:D

[Deep68]

I did this on my cruise I just came back from.

I bought collapsible water bottles from Amazon. Then filled then up with glasses of water from the buffet. You are not allowed to fill up water bottles directly from the dispenser in the buffet for hygiene reasons. I would then place them in the fridge to ensure the water stayed chilled.

The other option is to use the melted ice in your cabin. It is made with filtered water.

 

In only one port did they ask me to empty the water bottle before I re-boarded the ship.

 

We did this for convenience as at many of our ports we would not be able to stop in a store to buy water prior to our excursion. Also I prefer to not use plastic water bottles if I can avoid it for environmental reasons.

 

 

Will they let me bring an empty water bottle in my tote and fill it at the buffet and bring it to my cabin?

[takeadip]

Imagine the laughter in the boardroom at Coke and Pepsi just a few years ago..."Hey, let's put TAP water into a bottle and sell it for the same price as a soft drink, people will actually buy it!".

 

:D

 

Alan,

I just laughed so hard at my desk after reading your post that my coworker came in my door and said "dude, you better share whatever you are laughing at" he now knows about cruise critic!!!!

 

Bravo Sir..Bravo

[suesings]

Will they let me bring an empty water bottle in my tote and fill it at the buffet and bring it to my cabin?

 

Yes. Brita makes sports bottles that filter water and you can fill it up anywhere.

[ShipsAhoy508]

Thanks to all that took the time to answer. :)

[luddite]

Imagine the laughter in the boardroom at Coke and Pepsi just a few years ago..."Hey, let's put TAP water into a bottle and sell it for the same price as a soft drink, people will actually buy it!".

 

:D

 

:) Just remember... the first bottled water was Evian.

Spell it backwards and the problem is easy to solve.

[jm485]

Water packages on other lines, you say?

 

RCI's bottled water packages are about as expensive, but the water is Evian. And bottled water is included in the beverage package, as are specialty coffee and juice.

 

HAL includes bottled water and specialty coffee in its package. It costs about 40% less than NCL's but with $8 per drink limit (covers most basic drinks) and a daily drink limit.

 

X includes water & coffee in at least one beverage package.

 

Basically, NCL has the most expensive and least inclusive package. And is one of few (if not the only) line that charges a service charge to many passengers who opt for the "free" beverage package.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TonyFred]

Fun to follow this conversation. Folks pay thousands and thousands for a cruise but let the fact that bottled water costs more on the ship than at a club store onland drive them bonkers.

You have two choices.

Pay for the water.

Get a cup and drink the ship's water.

And so many posts complaining about paying gratuities on a free beverage package. If that upsets you so much, then decline the package and pay for the drinks AND gratuity.

Or just find another cruise line.

[fshagan]

Fun to follow this conversation. Folks pay thousands and thousands for a cruise but let the fact that bottled water costs more on the ship than at a club store onland drive them bonkers.

You have two choices.

Pay for the water.

Get a cup and drink the ship's water.

And so many posts complaining about paying gratuities on a free beverage package. If that upsets you so much, tIhen decline the package and pay for the drinks AND gratuity.

Or just find another cruise line.

 

Well, you really have more than two choices, and in order to make an informed decision you have to know exactly what the cost is for YOUR cruise. If bottled water is important to YOU then knowing the price is important, as is exactly how the water is delivered. NCL only provides 1 liter bottles; that's fine for in the cabin but is too large to carry around with you on an excursion. We would bring water bottles to dispense it into and carry with us.

 

For us, the filtered water at the buffet is fine and we will bring water bottles for it instead. We can get the filtered water there or have the room steward bring us a pitchur of it. We won't drink it out of the faucet in the crapper because of the chlorine content. If NCL provided smaller bottles of water like other cruise lines do, even at the same markup, we would buy it.

 

We might even pay the gratuity charged to north Americans (but not Australian or British) on the beverage plan if it included bottled water as it does on some other lines. We don't drink enough to make the booze plan pay for the gratuities, so we do decline it.

 

Our main problem with NCL is the rate of change which hasn't yet abated so we have no idea what clumsy, ham fisted change the babboons in charge over there will implement next. We still like the product now, but have no idea what it will be in 6 months. So we are only looking at last minute deals with NCL and will book with other lines for cruises more than 60 days out.

[sparks1093]

Will they let me bring an empty water bottle in my tote and fill it at the buffet and bring it to my cabin?

 

Yes.

[Lorey2007]

NCL only provides 1 liter bottles; that's fine for in the cabin but is too large to carry around with you on an excursion. We would bring water bottles to dispense it into and carry with us..

 

The person who called be back when I sent my email complaint said I could purchase 20oz bottles of water at the bars, customer service and some other places on the ship for $2.50 a bottle.

[vince_g]

The person who called be back when I sent my email complaint said I could purchase 20oz bottles of water at the bars, customer service and some other places on the ship for $2.50 a bottle.

 

Do not mean to stir anything up here, but I wonder if there will be an 18% gratuity if you purchase bottled water at a bar. I say this because their case of 24 comes in around $3 a bottle.

 

Sorry, just noticed you said 20 oz. bottles...

Edited August 25, 2016 by vince_g
Additional note

[sparks1093]

Do not mean to stir anything up here, but I wonder if there will be an 18% gratuity if you purchase bottled water at a bar. I say this because their case of 24 comes in around $3 a bottle.

 

Sorry, just noticed you said 20 oz. bottles...

 

Yes, it would come with an 18% gratuity just like any other bar order.

[fshagan]

The person who called be back when I sent my email complaint said I could purchase 20oz bottles of water at the bars, customer service and some other places on the ship for $2.50 a bottle.

 

Thanks! That is a better size for us. Buying a few of those and then refilling from the buffet would be a good choice for us without having to buy 12 1 liter bottles.

[NMLady]

The person who called be back when I sent my email complaint said I could purchase 20oz bottles of water at the bars, customer service and some other places on the ship for $2.50 a bottle.

 

And you believe that a phone rep knows what they're talking about??