Rapid Fill Mug Program Fails (at more ways than you might think)

[Nemo14]

Have you had Moxie?, Some would consider Beverly nectar compared to it It's definitely an acquired taste..., This is the area that calls Soda Tonic, Think Northern NH and Maine.

My mother is a big Moxie fan. It's definitely an "acquired" taste.

 

[GrumpyFan]

Back on topic of RapidFill, I wonder how much the price comes in to play.
Some might find this peculiar, but we usually get the mugs when we go, but only bought them when we had 3 days on our last trip remaining because I couldn't justify paying $18 for them. However, we neglected to take advantage of the free coffee and tea on the days we didn't have the mugs.

 

[jlsHouston]

Because people shouldn't and generally don't expect 'free refills' just because the machine is there. This is the classic 'well they didn't stop me...' entitlement attitude. "there was no sign saying I COULDN'T just take the apple...'

hmmmm... well alot of people do assume that if the machine is out where you help yourself refills are free. People are use to free fountain soda/tea/coffee refills at Chilis and Olive Garden even

One other thing... if you're staying at two or more Disney resorts during your stay, your mug should work for the "length of your stay" across the different resorts. What difference does it make if you're staying 5 days at the Contemporary and 5 days at the Poly or 10 days at the Poly? One "length of stay" mug should work for 10 days in both circumstances. As it is now (according to what we were told), you have to buy a separate mug for the second hotel stay, even though they are both Disney resorts. I wasn't about to pay for two mugs for every member of my party.

Hmm well that wasn't explained to me in that manner. I bought my mugs at WL and paid for unlimited during our stay and they worked all the way thru to the end day at BWV. I had a split stay too in November

 

[Pixie VaVoom]

I have stuck up for the idea of MM+ before; I've said that the current FP system with being able to pick a specific window from your phone on the day of instead of running all over the park would be heaven. Touch to pay is harmless. But I do feel safe in calling the system we got "a hammer to kill a fly".

To Cosmic Commando - don't take offence - but I would call it a "HumVee to kill a fly" !!

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

The real dumb part of this is that your unable to reuse the mug for returning trips and lately they have been using the same design for nearly 3 or more years now.

They could at least have a reactivating fee for a cheaper deal rather than throwing the flippin mug away and having to blow another $20 to get another one each and every trip...I swear will be seeing hundreds of the Mugs at Resale shops in the near future..

 

[pax_65]

Hmm well that wasn't explained to me in that manner. I bought my mugs at WL and paid for unlimited during our stay and they worked all the way thru to the end day at BWV. I had a split stay too in November

Thanks. The cast member we asked must have told us the wrong thing. Our first resort was for 3 nights and the 2nd was for 10, so we weren't going to buy it if there was even a chance we couldn't use it at the 2nd resort. To be honest, we didn't really miss them all that much... but we'll consider buying them next time if we can use them for our entire length of stay.

 

[jlsHouston]

Thanks. The cast member we asked must have told us the wrong thing. Our first resort was for 3 nights and the 2nd was for 10, so we weren't going to buy it if there was even a chance we couldn't use it at the 2nd resort. To be honest, we didn't really miss them all that much... but we'll consider buying them next time if we can use them for our entire length of stay.

Honestly who knows, I could have been told the wrong thing. But we used our mugs at the BW Bakery almost every day and once over at the BC too

 

[carolina_yankee]

It is worse. A mesurable percentage of people simply are not buying sodas at all any more.

In terms of the American diet, that really can't be a bad thing, regardless of what it does to the Disney bottom line. So, guests are drinking fountain water with their meals? Hmmm.

Dirk

 

[Goofyernmost]

That's a new one to me!

Not New England as a whole... just the Boston area.

 

[Millionaire2K]

Because people shouldn't and generally don't expect 'free refills' just because the machine is there. This is the classic 'well they didn't stop me...' entitlement attitude. "there was no sign saying I COULDN'T just take the apple...'

No its not. EVERYWHERE you go when a company puts the machine out in public they offer free refills THE END!! Just ask them and they will tell you. Disney I guess does not understand this.

 

[Millionaire2K]

They'll raise room rates irrespective of whatever happens with the coke machines.

Exactly. So just raise it $5 for the coke.

 

[Millionaire2K]

The company is just trying to combat theft. If people didn't try to steal drinks they wouldn't have this cockamamie system.

If they didn't put the machines in the middle of a huge room with a ton of people with cups in it then they wouldn't have this problem. Everywhere else you go access to the soda machine = free refills.

 

[ford91exploder]

Do you have one of these? Can you post a photo? I'd love to see it. I have mugs from just about every year from '91-2000... they are resort-specific from different resorts but none of them are "lifetime" mugs.

This was the first year we didn't get the mugs. But that was more because of the price increase than the changes to how the program works. Ironic because I was complaining about the abuse for years (crazy to see people filling up pitchers with soda). But I wouldn't have a problem with just making soda "free" to all resort guests and just putting the $ in the cost of the room. But I'm sure that will never happen.

I used have a couple cannot find any longer may have been tossed due to wear, A friend of mine has a few but those mugs don't go to Disney any longer too old and fragile and his family likes them better as souvenirs.

 

[DManRightHere]

Everywhere else you go access to the soda machine = free refills.

You mean like restaurants? If I buy a soda at mcd's I'm not going to go back a week later and get a refill (sadly I have even seen signs addressing free refills are for day of purchase). If people have that thought pattern it is still theft.

 

[flynnibus]

No its not. EVERYWHERE you go when a company puts the machine out in public they offer free refills THE END!! Just ask them and they will tell you. Disney I guess does not understand this.

1) never deal in absolutes
2) There are plenty of locations that do not - so you can drop that fantasy

 

[lobelia]

TDO should learn from Bob Farrell's customer service training in "Give Them the Pickle".

It's a little outdated but I think he presents it well.

 

[Goofyernmost]

No its not. EVERYWHERE you go when a company puts the machine out in public they offer free refills THE END!! Just ask them and they will tell you. Disney I guess does not understand this.

The difference is that anywhere you go, you do not expect that what you purchased with free refills carries over from visit to visit. McDonalds has free refills, but you buy a new drink every time you go in. One doesn't bring back a paper cup from last April and just walk up to the dispenser and fill it up. At Disney people come back year after year and because of something that happened years ago they think applies now, no matter how many times Disney has told them that they didn't buy a fill for life container. Sorry, but that is stealing and if this system is what it takes to stop the entitlement of people with no common sense, then the principle of the thing is enough to justify it.

We all tend to think of this on an individual basis. We feel that Disney won't lose any money if I have a couple of free drinks. Understood... now multiply that by 10's of thousands of people and it gets expensive. We think that they make enough money already, but, we do not run that business nor to we determine what they feel they need to make. It isn't up to us to determine how much they charge. We can do that by just not buying the drinks, then they have to lower the rate, otherwise, stealing it causes it to become shrinkage and that is a problem that must be addressed differently. Lowering the price will not stop the pilferage in this case.

In reference to the "pickle" that happens after they have purchased a meal that included a pickle and they asked for an extra. His presentation would have been completely different if that person has just walked in and said give me a free pickle. Then they are not the CUSTOMER, then they are the person that just wants free stuff.

I hate to say it but us older people are terribly guilty of this. My mother used to fill her purse with sugar packets, ketchup, mustard and relish packets when they would go in for the FREE coffee. She didn't see anything wrong with that, but, everyone else did. I went to an AARP convention not to long ago. Every vendor/exhibitor gave away little trinkets to people that came up to their kiosk. I watched as people brought wheeled suitcases in and literally pulled arms full of those items into those cases. Something that was meant to be one for one person became hundreds of free things to one person. Why do they feel entitled, because of Free Pickle guy. He gave it out as a small customer service and it became an expected gift every time.

 

[GoofGoof]

Maybe I missed something, but I didn't think the rapid fill mug system prevented you from getting a refill on your drink. There is a 2 minute window, but after 2 minutes you are free to refill again. If you have a length of stay mug you can keep refilling every 2 minutes. The 2 minute window is intended to prevent someone from using 1 mug to continuously fill other cups or containers not to stop people from getting a refill. If you have a paper cup instead of a mug I was under the impression that there is both a time limit (same 2 minutes) and a limit on the number of refills (maybe 3). Is that not correct? If it is then why are we talking about refills?

 

[pax_65]

Honestly who knows, I could have been told the wrong thing. But we used our mugs at the BW Bakery almost every day and once over at the BC too

Just to clarify... it's not an issue that the mugs can't be used outside of that one resort. The issue (as I understand it) is that the mugs get linked to your reservation. We had two separate reservations at two Disney hotels (actually one was cash and the other was DVC points, not sure if that makes a difference). So the mugs were linked to our first reservation, and so they would only be good for the "length of stay" of the first reservation.

I would think Disney could link the two reservations to solve this problem, but there was some doubt from the cast member we spoke to... so we didn't want to chance it since the first reservation was much shorter than the second. We planned to buy the mugs at the start of our second resort stay but by then we were learning to live without them so we just kept going that route.

 

[JimboJones123]

Maybe I missed something, but I didn't think the rapid fill mug system prevented you from getting a refill on your drink. There is a 2 minute window, but after 2 minutes you are free to refill again. If you have a length of stay mug you can keep refilling every 2 minutes. The 2 minute window is intended to prevent someone from using 1 mug to continuously fill other cups or containers not to stop people from getting a refill. If you have a paper cup instead of a mug I was under the impression that there is both a time limit (same 2 minutes) and a limit on the number of refills (maybe 3). Is that not correct? If it is then why are we talking about refills?

It is three refills, but only on what Disney thinks a refill size should be after you have the "proper" amount of ice. So a 20 oz cup only gives you 14-16 oz of soda.