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

jlsHouston

Well-Known Member
Your point about where does it all end is valid. I guess I kind of think that if a family is willing to pack their old mugs and walk down to the food service area just to get some pop. WDW should have a policy to let them. I think it's a pain in the butt to pack mugs and then try to plan my trips around the resort so that I can keep filling it up. I just buy pop and water and put it in our fridge for when we return. I don't carry around our mugs in the parks. We do the parks ninja style. Light and fast. Kudos to them for having the wherewithal to do so.

NINJA STYLE??? I love that ..:)
 

lobelia

Well-Known Member
Well to be more specific. We fill up our mugs with pop and I purchase orange juice when using the dining plan. Later on I also add vodka to the orange juice from the stash in my room.
 

JenniferS

Time To Be Movin’ Along
Premium Member
The key word that you used is "paying"! If they buy a mug then the extra they are getting is the ability to fill it up as often as they like during the duration of their stay. If they come back 6 months from now and stroll on up to the fountain and fill up that same mug, then they are stealing the product that they didn't pay for. Not much different really then walking up and taking things off the shelf at a department store and just walking out because you once bought something there, so they owe you.

The goods and service that they paid for at Disney are highly categorized. If you have paid money for a hotel room, the "pickle" as it were, would be maybe towel animals or and upgrade or something that is directly related to the resort itself. You pay a lot of money to get into the parks, that doesn't mean that you can go up to a cart and get a Mickey Bar for free. That wouldn't be a "pickle" that would be a cadillac. The "pickle" would be maybe a free Fastpass, or extra time with a Character or a favor done by a CM to make you time more fun. If you purchased a mug for the duration of your stay the "pickle" would be the free unlimited (other then a few minutes between fills) sodas for the trip. That "pickle" turns mighty sour when someone tries to carry it over to the next unrelated trip. And that is the reason why the system was instituted. Not to prevent current PAYING guest from having all they want, but to prevent the leaches of the world from thinking that somehow their money was far more valuable then anyone elses.
Quoted for truth. Preach it, Buddy!
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
They should get rid of the self serve fountains altogether.
Do like they used order food and a drink no refills either.

I am so sick of cheap people ripping off the system.
Also self serve areas are always disgusting because of people spilling and not caring less.

I know I spend $6000 for my vacation !!! I PAID FOR IT !!!!

Do not bother quoting me I know most people do not think like me and that is good.
Quoting me will not change my mind.

LOL I am going to quote you. Did you go to college? Most college residence halls have self service pop machines. Did you think the same way then?
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
LOL I am going to quote you. Did you go to college? Most college residence halls have self service pop machines. Did you think the same way then?

You need to stop thinking your world is everyone's...

I can tell you our college didn't have food in the resident halls.. you went to the dining hall for that. And while there were self-serve soda stations - none of them were free and none of them offered refills either.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
I think most people here don't think it's not actually "stealing", just that maybe Disney should pick its battles on what it spends money on enforcing?
That's the thing about having different departments. What other battles would the food service pick. It's their job to run as efficiently as possible. Those other battles are for someone else to fight.

I think that this is a much bigger problem then most are imagining otherwise they wouldn't have spent money on it. We think of it as nickels and dimes and I'll bet it's more like thousands of lost revenue. How many guests are there every single day of the year... it will surely add up. We've seen pictures of people filling gallon jugs from those places. It's more then just a minor issue at this point. An inconvenience for a few, but, the other alternative is to have the dispensers out of the reach of the public... now that would be some pickle wouldn't it? And all because some people feel that they are privileged and have managed to ruin it for everyone else by their greed.
 

Wilt Dasney

Well-Known Member
Pittsburgh is the Midwest;). Seriously, people there are generally very nice and the pace of life is less hectic. I consider Pittsburgh one of the best Midwestern cities even if it doesn't fit geographically.
Pittsburgh bothers me. It's in a Northeastern state, and across the state from a major Eastern city. But I can't shake the feeling that it's basically in the Midwest. it defies my OCD compulsion to cleanly categorize things.

WHY DO YOU DEFY ME, PITTSBURGH????


Anyway...since you brought it up and all...

:cautious:
 

Lord_Vader

Join me, together we can rule the galaxy.
For what it's worth.

During my two weeks this Christmas, 12/21-1/4 with most of the vacation at BWI and the last day at POFQ we had no problems with our mugs when used for counter service at resorts or otherwise. Not once did we run into any soda fountain that was not reading and requiring the RFID tags at BWI, YC/BC, POFQ, Poly, or CR. In fact, POFQ was the 15th day and our mugs had to be re-activated for the last day but were activated with no issues.

My observations:

Several guests during our stay tried using the machines with "old" mugs and simply shrugged and left. A few moved to tea, cocoa, or coffee and grumbled especially a family of seven with young children who were quite irritated that they were just there last year and had not budged for new mugs. I did see a few groups walk up and purchase additional mugs for their children after trying their old mugs, I would bet they are the primary target of the program.

Most guests had no issues with placing their mugs on the readers and pressing the fill button, only once or twice did we see a guest have any issues and they were using invalid mugs anyway. At BWI, the cashier explained the fill process immediately after we picked them up which I would guess eliminates many of the issues some have reported on this thread.

I am like another poster or two and drink a very high volume of beverages, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Light Lemonade, coffee and hot cocoa primarily with the mug. Only once or twice during the trip did I get denied a refill and had to wait a minute or so longer than I wanted to which could be irritating but nothing worth getting worked up about. I can easily drink a half gallon of water in a few minutes when hot or very thirsty so I am probably a more extreme case for refills.

I continued to see guests using all manner of cup, mug, thermal containers to fill up on tea, coffee and hot cocoa at the Bakery at the BWI and at no time did any CM say a word to them and I can't blame them.

Personally, bringing an old mug back shows intent to steal beverages knowing there is a cost associated with the new ones. Disney is an expensive place to visit and most people look for any opprotunity to save a little but reusing old length of stay mugs is stealing in my mind. If someone is luck enough to have purchased a lifetime mug, Disney should honor their commitment but I have only seen guests using the mugs from the past few years.

I complely understand wanting to save the $72.00 it costs for four mugs but a quick trip to Wal-Mart, Hess, Target to pick up sodas and put them in the fridge would likely save nearly as much and you don't have to make a special trip to the CS location in the resort. In addition to our purchased mugs, we saved our Coke Rewards points over the year and redeemed them for free 20oz Coca-Cola products, over 70 in all and redeemed them at an area Wal-Mart which cost me nothing except the time and gasoline.
 

Soarin' Over Pgh

Well-Known Member
Pittsburgh bothers me. It's in a Northeastern state, and across the state from a major Eastern city. But I can't shake the feeling that it's basically in the Midwest. it defies my OCD compulsion to cleanly categorize things.

WHY DO YOU DEFY ME, PITTSBURGH????


Anyway...since you brought it up and all...

:cautious:




BECAUSE WE CAN!!!! (But no seriously you're not the first person that I've heard similar stories from about Pittsburgh)

And if you ever wanna visit let me know. We have more than ketchup and sports.
 

Hot Lava

Well-Known Member
Pittsburgh is the Midwest;). Seriously, people there are generally very nice and the pace of life is less hectic. I consider Pittsburgh one of the best Midwestern cities even if it doesn't fit geographically.

I have never been to Pittsburgh, so I cannot speak directly to that (I know about the pop thing b/c I do have a lot of friends from there). But I agree that life in the Midwest is more laid back and less hectic. I prefer being a little more west that the Midwest proper (as it were), but you can always feel a big difference once you leave the 50 mile radius of DC. And the selfishness and rudeness considerably diminish and politeness skyrockets.
 
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disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
You need to stop thinking your world is everyone's...

I can tell you our college didn't have food in the resident halls.. you went to the dining hall for that. And while there were self-serve soda stations - none of them were free and none of them offered refills either.

Did I say my world is everyone's? NO! And sorry you went to a school that had a dining hall elsewhere on campus :) I am done with this conversation with you. Have a good one
 

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