i thought i would throw my 2 cents into this since i worked @ All star sports and blizzard beach for a couple months this past spring on the collage program as a Quick service foods host...
first the article is sorta wrong, the new barcode stickers are at Blizzard beach, not TL.
At AS Sports there were posters on the wall in the back, and little ads up the registers that advertised the mugs. In little print at the bottom of the poster it says "length of stay only". But it is hard to tell if they bought them that trip or not since the design has only changed once.... But if someone went to fill up the older style mug at the foutians, no cast member would say anything to them. (the only time i saw another cast member say something to them was when the security bracelet was still on the handle, so she went up to them and asked to see if they paid for it, because cashiears have been knowen to forget to cut it off)
The bar code system works pretty well at blizzard beach, it has cut down the lines alot. It takes a couple minutes to figure out how to work it, but after you figure it out.. its easy.