1. It sounds like you mean you have a popcorn-acoustic-ceiling. Heavy texture wouldn't change with a water-scrape method.
2. Usually, there's insulation in your ceiling. Pulling down the drywall for a quick-fix sounds like a quick-disaster. You should be able to lay bead board over whatever texture you really have going .. the overall surface should even out when placing a 4x8 1/4" sheet of material over it.

Thanks for the response Cindy. Even the real estate agent said this was some of the heaviest texture she has ever soon on a ceiling. Not regular popcorn texture, thicker. But of course you are right about the insulation, although there is a bedroom above the ceiling in question, and a lot of sound transmission. Ceiling in only 8'.

Why take it down? I had popcorn texture in my home and hated it. We just nailed new drywall right over the top of it. We made sure the drywall was screwed into the joists and not just into the ceiling. Covered the seams and drywall screws with compound, painted it and now have a nice smooth ceiling without a lot of mess.