If you have ever taken a cruise, you may have spent time in one of the many elaborate swimming pools provided by today’s luxury ocean liners.

You may have noticed some important differences between the pools on cruise ships and your home swimming pool in your backyard.

Pool Resurfacing Boca Raton — Salt Water vs Fresh Water

For one thing, many cruise ship swimming pools are filled with filtered, free-flowing seawater rather than with chemical treated fresh water.

There are a number of reasons for this. First, seawater is plentiful when the vessel is at sea. Second, the salt in seawater serves as a natural source of chlorine bleach that helps keep it clean and sanitary.

Once the ship is far enough from shore — approximately 12 nautical miles — the seawater is relatively clean and free of run-off pollution from land.

Pool Resurfacing Boca Raton — Dump and Refill

Cruise ship pools also are taken out of service for a portion of the day, usually very early in the morning just before sunrise.

Cleaning crews use this time to dump all the water out of the pool, sanitize the pool’s bottom and sides, and then refill the pool with fresh, clean seawater.

This ensures that the guests using the pool enjoy the purest possible water and avoid any impurities introduced to the pool from the people themselves.

Pool Resurfacing Boca Raton — Cruise Ship Pool Tips

When ships enter a port, if the cruise liner has a saltwater pool system, it’s best to avoid the pool. While chlorine bleach may be added to the pool to prevent the water quality from deteriorating too much, with no supply of fresh seawater, the pool may not be as pure as it is when the vessel is at sea.

If you want to go into the water while the ship is in port, a better option may be the hot tub, which is usually filled with chlorinated freshwater.