Is it possible to purchase the novelty glasses from Trader Sam’s outright?

[Phineas]

Good morning, everyone. I’m currently throwing together last minute plans for a trip to WDW-I’ll be going at the end of February.


I’m planning on where to eat/etc and saw that Trader Sam’s has this great Nautilus tiki mug, but it’s meant as a drink for 2, and my party and I aren’t the biggest drinkers in the world.

Has anyone ever gone to just purchase one of their glasses? Is it frowned upon to do so? 20k is one of my favorite movies, and it’d be nice to have.

 

[JIMINYCR]

You can explain to your server that you want the mug but not the drink. You will have to pay the normal price they are charging, but if you want the souvenir glass bad enough...I did this at LTT once for their souvenir mug but didnt want the slushie drink.

 

[DryerLintFan]

I'm sure you could request a non-alcoholic drink alternative as long as you were still willing to pay the listed price.

 

[Jon81uk]

I'm sure you could request a non-alcoholic drink alternative as long as you were still willing to pay the listed price.

Apparently they will not serve other drinks in the souvenir drinkware as it makes it harder for servers to ensure alcohol is not served to minors. I think you can get the drinkware empty but you may end up paying full price, so might as well enjoy the drink. Although expensive I don't think it is a large quantity between two people.

 

[larryz]

I’m planning on where to eat/etc and saw that Trader Sam’s has this great Nautilus tiki mug, but it’s meant as a drink for 2, and my party and I aren’t the biggest drinkers in the world.

It's not as big as it looks. One person could drink it and get tipsy. Two could drink it and barely feel it. Take your time, eat something with it, and you should be fine.
In my experience, the Nautilus you drink out of is bar stock. The Nautilus you'd get to take home would be new in a box made for traveling.

 

[G00fyDad]

You can explain to your server that you want the mug but not the drink. You will have to pay the normal price they are charging, but if you want the souvenir glass bad enough...I did this at LTT once for their souvenir mug but didnt want the slushie drink.

We purchased our LTT mugs at the front when you walk in without a drink.

 

[Kate Alan]

I'm sure you could request a non-alcoholic drink alternative as long as you were still willing to pay the listed price.

I would be very curious as to whether they will do this now (and I hope that they do).

When I was last at Sam's, at the end of 2015, there was a BIG issue when I made that request (I'm allergic to alcohol). It turned into a very bizarre evening, with the management not only refusing to put a nonalcoholic beverage in the souvenir mug for the same price, or to sell the souvenir mug on its own - they in fact in the end wouldn't even sell me the drink with the alcoholic beverage inside (at that point I was so frustrated and near tears I was just going to order a regular drink in a souvenir glass, and a separate water, and just drink that) because they now "knew I wouldn't be drinking it". The only way they'd sell it was by making my friend drink the beverage, which meant her consuming more alcohol than she wanted to that evening (to say that we were both extremely uncomfortable with the situation is an understatement). Our server was totally flummoxed and couldn't understand why management was being so unreasonable, and did his best to cheer us up (he was honestly a gem).

When I got home from that trip, I ended up emailing Disney about it (the first time I've ever had to contact them about anything), and they had someone call me to apologize and tell me that they were going to retrain their management staff, because an incident like that should never happen (no kidding). So I REALLY hope they learned from that in the almost 5 years it's been, because that was honestly the worst experience I've ever had at Disney, hands down.

 

[Jedi Stitch]

Where is the best place to get the souvenir glasses when you are not there? I went to Trader Sams at DLR and they were out of everything, for the 3 days that we were there. They were sold out and the restock shipment wasn't going to come till the day after we left. You just got served in a plastic to go style cup, it didn't even say Disney or Trader Sams on it. It was like someone in the stock room, just went, wait till we are out then reorder.

 

[Jon81uk]

I would be very curious as to whether they will do this now (and I hope that they do).

When I was last at Sam's, at the end of 2015, there was a BIG issue when I made that request (I'm allergic to alcohol). It turned into a very bizarre evening, with the management not only refusing to put a nonalcoholic beverage in the souvenir mug for the same price, or to sell the souvenir mug on its own - they in fact in the end wouldn't even sell me the drink with the alcoholic beverage inside (at that point I was so frustrated and near tears I was just going to order a regular drink in a souvenir glass, and a separate water, and just drink that) because they now "knew I wouldn't be drinking it". The only way they'd sell it was by making my friend drink the beverage, which meant her consuming more alcohol than she wanted to that evening (to say that we were both extremely uncomfortable with the situation is an understatement). Our server was totally flummoxed and couldn't understand why management was being so unreasonable, and did his best to cheer us up (he was honestly a gem).

When I got home from that trip, I ended up emailing Disney about it (the first time I've ever had to contact them about anything), and they had someone call me to apologize and tell me that they were going to retrain their management staff, because an incident like that should never happen (no kidding). So I REALLY hope they learned from that in the almost 5 years it's been, because that was honestly the worst experience I've ever had at Disney, hands down.

See I kinda get the fact they may not wish to put a non-alcoholic drink in the souvenir cup as it could cause issues with minors and also people might get served the with-alcohol by accident etc.
But not allowing you to pay the full menu price for the drink and just receiving the mug empty seems completely non-sensical!

 

[Kate Alan]

See I kinda get the fact they may not wish to put a non-alcoholic drink in the souvenir cup as it could cause issues with minors and also people might get served the with-alcohol by accident etc.
But not allowing you to pay the full menu price for the drink and just receiving the mug empty seems completely non-sensical!

I could almost understand that myself (although honestly - any decent server should be able to keep straight what drinks are going to what tables, and have some sort of system in place to indicate if a drink is alcoholic or not, so even that doesn't really wash). But to refuse to let us pay full price and get the mug empty didn't make any sense. And to then refuse to let me order the standard mug with alcoholic beverage, because they "now knew I wouldn't drink it" and tell my friend she would have to drink it if we wanted to place the order was just completely out there. There are a number of reasons why someone may not be able to drink alcohol (allergic like myself, pregnant, alcoholic, etc.), but still want to participate in the magic of the effects at Sam's, and their collectible mugs. The whole thing was bonkers.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Mind you, this was Dec 2017, but we were offered the option of buying the holiday drink option without buying the actual drink.

 

[larryz]

See I kinda get the fact they may not wish to put a non-alcoholic drink in the souvenir cup as it could cause issues with minors and also people might get served the with-alcohol by accident etc.
But not allowing you to pay the full menu price for the drink and just receiving the mug empty seems completely non-sensical!

Disney won't -- can't -- serve you something you just told them you were allergic to.

 

[Jon81uk]

Disney won't -- can't -- serve you something you just told them you were allergic to.

But charging you the full menu price and serving you the empty boxed glass should not a problem if you so wish to pay the price.

 

[unmitigated disaster]

Serving a drinkless - or filled with water - souvenir mug at full price should be a no brainer; they save the price and inventory of the booze. That said, I've asked to buy soda souvenir sippers in various Parks and have confused them when I don't want soda in it. Even "could I just get water, please?" threw one cast member for a loop.

 

[Gainesvillain]

When all else fails, you can always find TS's tiki mugs on eBay @ ridiculously inflated prices!

 

[dreamfinder]

The staff will most definitely sell you the mug at full price. Walk up to the bar (don't bother with a table) and tell the bar tender you want to just buy the mug. They will most likely charge you full price, and then just hand you the receipt. You take the receipt to the host/hostess at the door, and they will give you the boxed mug. If there is a line, it would most likely be faster to do this outside with the staff there, and then go inside to "redeem" your receipt.

I know this happens because we were at the bar 2 years ago, someone wanted to buy just the Christmas elephant mug, but didn't want the drink, and the CM said the guest can take the drink or not, but they had to sell them the drink as part of the transaction. I jokingly said you can just give it to us, and the guest said sure, give it to them. So we had a free drink, and the other guest had an overpriced new mug waiting at the door.

Yes, they are quite particular about what glasses they will put alcohol/non-alcohol in, especially before they go 21+ only. Otherwise it's way to hard for them to keep track of if any minors are drinking anything they shouldn't be.

 

[Phonedave]

Yes, they are quite particular about what glasses they will put alcohol/non-alcohol in, especially before they go 21+ only. Otherwise it's way to hard for them to keep track of if any minors are drinking anything they shouldn't be.

There should be no issue with putting non-alcoholic beverages in an "adults only" glass. An adult can drink whatever they like from that glass. What should be explained is that you cannot give that glass to a minor to drink from, even if it contains a non-alcoholic beverage.

Clearly putting alcohol in a kids drink cup should not be permitted either.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

If you walk into any Disney establishment and want to spend money. Disney will gladly take it. They may overcharge you for the item. But they'll take your money. That I wouldn't worry about.