This last week I had some wonderful ladies (I have mentioned them in a previous post) in the office and we were going over their cruise for next October. The cruise line they were going to book was offering a lot of “free” items if you booked now. One of those was a beverage package which gave them pretty much unlimited alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and specialty coffee beverages. But it doesn’t give them bottled water.

Now I have never had a problem with the tap water on a cruise ship but these ladies found this to be a very important item that they were truly surprised not to be included. To be honest, so was I. Not sure why it isn’t, but it isn’t. But I told them how they could get unlimited bottled water on board pretty much every cruise ship.

Step 1—Take an empty water bottle with you. You know, a reusable bottle.

Step 2—Head for the gym. This is where the “pretty much” comes in. Some ships (notably river cruise boats) don’t have gyms.

Step 3—Once you get to the gym, look for the bottled water dispenser. It will look just like a big Sparklets bottle. Like the one that is probably in your office. Like the one in the picture. Take the aforementioned water bottle and fill it.

There you have it. Bottled water at no charge for the price of a short walk to the gym. And hey, since you walked to the gym, maybe you should go ahead and work out. You don’t have to but you could. Then you could eat more. Isn’t that why we work out when we cruise?

There are only three things women need in life: food, water, and compliments.

— Chris Rock