RAPID FILL MUGS

[disney4life2008]

My wife and I went into The Electric Umbrella a few years back to have lunch. I'm not particularly fond of standing in line so I chose to hang back while my wife ordered our food. I stood by the soda station by the entrance for about 15 minutes and I witnessed at least 10 people who just popped in the door and filled whatever cup or containers they had from the drink station. A couple did just get water, but most filled up their bottles, cups or thermoses with Coke products and just walked right back out the door. This, my friends, is one of the reasons why they changed the system to limited refills with chips in the cups.

I am sure it is only a matter of time before the open pop machines are removed. But it would be hard to have that type of system in the parks though I think Dollywood has it

 

[Dwarful]

We were at Pop May 31 - June 8th. We saw a lot of issues with the cups and with the paper cups at the drink stations. It didn't help that they seemed to constantly have at least one station 'down' and couldn't keep up with the ice situation. My girls were more patient to go back and do refills, for me it was too much of a hassle...my husband and I just switched to iced tea. It was easier and no time limit.

 

[Annalise Davis]

I'd like to reference the children's book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff at this point.

 

[AndyS2992]

I think paying $99 for admission is ridiculous but you don't see me hopping the fence because Disney is making so much money anyway

 

[ArielLover]

the $99 price thing is ridiculous, who goes for just 1 day? a 10 day ticket brings the price to about $40 a day.

 

[AndyS2992]

who goes for just 1 day?

A ton of people believe it or not. I usually stay for 14 but have stayed for 21 days a couple of times.

 

[cw1982]

the $99 price thing is ridiculous, who goes for just 1 day? a 10 day ticket brings the price to about $40 a day.

You'd be surprised. People here have reported that they know others who have bought several one-day tickets instead of buying multi-day tickets because they thought it was cheaper that way. And given that I know people who don't understand the difference between the Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World, let alone that Uni and WDW are not owned by the same company, I'm not exactly shocked.

 

[inDiG3nCe]

Glad nobody has brought up the "lifetime" refillable mugs the resorts sold 20 years ago.

 

[kasey1988]

We used the rapid fill for the first time in September, and personally I could care less if they had it or not. I personally buy or have a mug included in my dining plan on each trip. Personally a 3 minute wait between refills is not a big deal, as it usually takes me longer then that to drink one mug..

My only complaint regarding the time limit is, at that point it still had a few kinks to work out, it filled my cup only half full sometimes and wouldn't let me full any more for the time limit (3 minutes), which isn't a lot, but is annoying when your standing there with a tray of food.. Or when one flavour was empty, and same issue it wouldn't let me pour about kind when I dumped out the watery mix for another 3 minutes.

 

[G00fyDad]

We used the rapid fill for the first time in September, and personally I could care less if they had it or not. I personally buy or have a mug included in my dining plan on each trip. Personally a 3 minute wait between refills is not a big deal, as it usually takes me longer then that to drink one mug..

My only complaint regarding the time limit is, at that point it still had a few kinks to work out, it filled my cup only half full sometimes and wouldn't let me full any more for the time limit (3 minutes), which isn't a lot, but is annoying when your standing there with a tray of food.. Or when one flavour was empty, and same issue it wouldn't let me pour about kind when I dumped out the watery mix for another 3 minutes.

It never fills completely because it assumes you wanted ice. Or maybe you had ice and it was just messed up.

 

[kbmum]

How much does a refillable cup cost and how many refills do you get over what period of time?

 

[AndyS2992]

How much does a refillable cup cost and how many refills do you get over what period of time?

Depends how long you stay but will generally be $17.99. You can have as many refills as you want during that time span however once you have filled your mug you must wait three minutes before you can fill it again.

 

[kasey1988]

I had ice.. Also overflowed if I had to much ice!

It never fills completely because it assumes you wanted ice. Or maybe you had ice and it was just messed up.

 

[kbmum]

Depends how long you stay but will generally be $17.99. You can have as many refills as you want during that time span however once you have filled your mug you must wait three minutes before you can fill it again.

Thanks for the info. I'd like to know what it costs to buy a paper cup to be used with the machines and how many refills the paper cup has. I'm trying to figure out if the cost of the mug is worth it, based on the number of times I'll be willing to walk from my room to QS just to get a drink.

 

[disney4life2008]

I think the cost of a paper cup is $2.99 with 3 refills max.

 

[Tuvalu]

Thanks for the info. I'd like to know what it costs to buy a paper cup to be used with the machines and how many refills the paper cup has. I'm trying to figure out if the cost of the mug is worth it, based on the number of times I'll be willing to walk from my room to QS just to get a drink.

I think the cost of a paper cup is $2.99 with 3 refills max.

You get 4 refills in an hour.

 

[kbmum]

I think the cost of a paper cup is $2.99 with 3 refills max.

You get 4 refills in an hour.

Thanks! So that's basically a beverage every 15 minutes for an hour. It's more than I'll be able to drink, but better than I expected.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

All the talk about the rapid fill mugs have gotten out of hand. Just think for Disney to be so cheap as to try and block guest from using the drink machines, just think how cheap those drinks are. Soda fountain drinks containers are so cheap that one canister can serve about 175 to 250 drinks. Most of the mugs that are used are already given away when you purchase the meal plan so come on DISNEY go back to your old ways! Most guests don't stand by the machines and just guzzle drinks all day.

I don't think the majority of people buy the dining plan, not unless it's given away as part of a promotion. Tbh, for many it's not really a significant savings and really is quite restrictive in that you have to eat at Disney to get your money worth. The other issue they are preventing is just the outright theme from people refilling cups not even bought at Disney.

Yes soda is very cheap, but not when you multiple it up to millions of people each year.

However, the issue isn't the reuse of refillable mugs, it's people taking liberties refilling the paper cups too

You get 4 refills in an hour.

Do you mean 4 fills, i.e. 1 fill and 3 refills......though in my head I thought it was 3 fills over the course of an hour. Then when the hour is up, no more.

 

[Tuvalu]

Do you mean 4 fills, i.e. 1 fill and 3 refills......though in my head I thought it was 3 fills over the course of an hour. Then when the hour is up, no more.

At Pop in February, after our first fill the message said "4 refills available until [end of the hour period]" or something similar like that. We bought mugs for stays in April and June, so it is possible the current limit is one fill and 3 refills.

 

[Dwarful]

I agree with Tuvalu at Pop in June with the paper cup it was one fill and then 4 refills. The paper cups were having issues with the scanners not always recognizing them. I saw a lot of CM's helping people. I don't know why it has the time limit. They didn't have a limit at the water parks with their scan system.
At the water parks I could scan, fill, drink, refill then go sit down and eat. Here it was scan, fill, drink, take the tray to the table, go back up, refill, go sit down and eat, get up refill. I wish they had larger cups like other parks (I'm thinking of my favorite to go mug from Silver Dollar City...same style as the old WDW cups narrow at bottom, wider at top but holds 24 oz).