The end for refillable mugs?

[Dwarful]

I wondered why the resort mugs aren't like the ones we have at he Water Parks.... I think the ones at the water parks have a barcode that is scanned to activate the drink fountain

People still cheat that system. We have stood behind people at the soda machines who scan their barcode...yes they either bought the mug or the sticker for the day...then they repeatedly scan their bar code and fill up a variety of other cups...I've seen people bring in big plastic dollar store cups, cups from the 'other' parks, & resort mugs to name a few. Yes they bought one cup or rebought a sticker for it but they are filling up more than one drink so they are cheating that system as well.

I for one don't mind the scan system but I wouldn't want to be told I could only have x number of refills in one day...unless they make the cups larger like the old resort specific mugs. I doubt they'd go for a park/resort wide mug because they make lots of money selling drinks in the parks now.

 

[bjlc57]

when we were at Pop Century in March.. it seemed like every one had "new mugs"..

and if you bought a "lifetime mug" well then you should get your "LIFETIME WORTH"... because that's what it was sold as..

rules change.. but I saw few if any "old mugs" at the Pop Century this year..

and no I didn't buy a mug.. I went to Walmart and bought a couple of 12 packs of soda.. and they lasted me right to the end of the week.. one for me and one for my wife.. for 8 days..

plus gatoraide...

I think the mugs are a "bad deal"... I bought coffee two days at the food court and two days at McDonalds.. and a cup or two in the parks..

sorry but at $14 dollars a mug, I have a very hard time feeling sorry for Mickey if you think that some one is "stealing drink" by bringing a mug back to the park..

what do you think Mickey would rather have.. You returning to the park in a quicker fashion.. meaning maybe twice in a year.. and reusing a mug..

or not coming back for 2 to 5 years and buying new ones.. ?

those few pennys hardly add up to the dollars of a return trip..

 

[CRO-Magnum]

Sorry to break it to you...

Incorrect, the refillable mugs have always been for your length of stay only. I don't remember seeing anywhere where it said you could bring the mugs back for years to come for free refills. So that is an incorrect assumption on your part, so the abuse is by you and only you for assuming a $15 mug would get you free refills for life. :brick:

...but you couldn't be more wrong if you tried. The original mugs that were sold did NOT have a length of stay restriction. It's not as if there is a written contract, however when they were sold it was clearly stated that you should bring the mug back on future visits. My wife and I purchased mugs at Dixie Landings in 1995 during our honeymoon and decorated them to reflect our marriage (obviously for fun). We brought them back several times over the next few years and on one occaision met the general manager. He thought it was great that we enjoyed his property so much, thought it was cool we decorated the mugs as a keepsake, and came back a few minutes later with a couple of his managers to show them our decorated mugs.

When I was on one of many consulting gigs at WDW I brought a second mug I had from Port Orleans. They had made the switch to the length of stay mugs so one of the cast members tried to stop me. I told them to talk with their manager who they brought over and used my mug to explain it was always valid and distinguishable by its shape. I brought this up to the Disney team I was working with on Project Tomorrowland and they commented that it was a sore point and caused alot of confusion.

Finally I sent a letter (I'm travelling but will see if I can find it and scan it) to a friend (Disney Exec) for their policy on the mugs. She replied with their official policy which, although it reserved the right by Disney to change their minds whenever, clearly states the mugs could continue to be used at the resort of original purchase. She also commented Disney issued a public statement around the time of the switchover to the same effect in response to public letters.

They may have changed the policy now, but if they don't communicate anything how would we know?

The honeymoon mugs now sit on a shelf in my office and only one of our others still exists but to no avail as we don't stay at that resort since they changed the name from Dixie Landings. I like what Tyhpoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach do with the stickers - we have mugs dating back 10yrs if my memory serves me correct and we save a couple bucks reusing the mugs.

Any questions?

 

[DisneyCane]

Not only that, but their cost for the fountain drinks is basically nothing.

Granted there is high profit margin but it doesn't cost them "nothing". Even if they are getting the syrup at Coke's manufacturing cost it still has some cost.

The Bulk CO2 has a cost. The water has a cost. The water filters have a cost. The electricity to make the ice is not free either.

Even if a mug only costs Disney 15 cents to fill, if you have enough people abuse it, it will add up. 15 cents x 1,000,000 is $150,000.

 

[bradk]

They also patented several incarnations of the fastpass system a little more than a year ago and nothing has come of that so while it might mean something to someone it does not mean that it will ever be used.

with all due respect, it's a bad example. because there aren't 30 different patents for FASTPASS, there are only a couple (and one of them was just approved after about 8 years too).

yes, the FASTPASS patent contains more options than are currently in use, but that's one of the objectives of a patent: to cover as much area and potential as possible. Not everything the patent covered is in effect, but the essence of the FASTPASS patent is and now Disney has the rights to enact other portions of it should they ever feel the desire to.

So it's not as if they went as far as to obtain a patent to never use it, at least as far as FASTPASS goes.

It's always possible management could kill any such plans to actually enact an identity based drink dispenser and it never sees the light of the day, but it's far more likely that it will see the light of the day, it just probably won't use biometrics like the patent covers in part.

 

[rodman1369]

Just a memory

When I bought my mug...It was refillable forever. I even remember the bus driver talking about them on the ride to the airport. I've never used it after the first time...don't drink a lot of soda (unless it has Crown Royal in it) :fork:

 

[rcapolete]

Correct me if i'm wrong but i remember reading some where that Disney does not pay coke anything for their product. That Coke makes the money from the free advertisiment that they get from placing their name all over the parks at no cost to Coke. There for Disney loses even less if you re use your cup

 

[Timmay]

I gave no numbers unless you want to dispute 365 days in a year.

Maybe you should look at your post again.

You gave a vague reference to the "number of people in this post" as well as multiplying that by "several thousand." Those clearly look like numbers to me...unless the public school system failed me.

 

[unkadug]

Maybe you should look at your post again.

You gave a vague reference to the "number of people in this post" as well as multiplying that by "several thousand." Those clearly look like numbers to me...unless the public school system failed me.

Obviously it did. So sorry that you feel that abstract figures are hard numbers.

Good day sir.

 

[Tater48]

Does anyone have a picture of one of the "lifetime" mugs?

 

[DisneyMusician2]

Massive?? Really?

After the number of times I saw it happening at my own resort this April for only a week, I would have to say massive is the proper descriptor.

 

[PurpleDragon]

A few points...

Anyone who argues about how "little" this theft of soft drinks is costing is either short sighted, or attempting to justify someone stealing from Disney (which is what it is, petty theft maybe, but still theft).

The cost in question is the cost of the mugs and not the soda. This is a bigger problem that people might think. If anyone can walk up and just take free soda using an old cup, the "value" in purchasing a new cup every trip is severely reduced and eventually the problem will continue to grow.

Disney does not like to confront guests with issues like this, unlike Universal (one of the few things I DO like about Universal). Disney's patient and calm response to things often gets misinterpreted by jerky people as lack of caring. I believe they do care, they just go out of their way not to point out how pathetic and cheap the guest may or may not be. By installing these chips, Disney is actually be rather passive about enforcing the rule, but simply making it impossible to reuse the mugs, rather than telling people they can't.

For those who claim to have a mug that was issued as a lifetime mug, my suggestion would be to contact Disney directly and see what they will do. If they offer to do nothing, then either get over it or stop going. But in any event, let's stop these hypothetical arguments.

I think Fractal put it best in this post. Disney has always been very passive with their enforcement of policies, they aren't in your face about it because that would detract form the magic of being in WDW and may possibly deter people from returning to WDW, which means a loss of future profits.

Also I think it may be possible that the issues is less about people using old mugs purchased from past trips, and more about people using ice buckets, 64oz Quick Trip cups, McDs cups, old coke bottles, water bottles, coolers(yes a cooler), etc... People see an open unguarded soda fountain and feel they are entitled to take as much as they want in any container they choose since they paid to stay at the resort and since "Soda is so cheap it won't matter". The blatant abuse of the system is a slap in the face to Disney and is a bad example for others staying on property, especially little ones.

The stealing of soda, however small an impact it may have on Disney's bottom line, is still an issue. Enough so that they have moved forward with a patent on a new system that if used, will put a halt to this issues of theft once and for all. I'm sure the soda theft problem has been a thorn in WDW managements side for quite some time, but it wasn't enough of a problem to drop everything and fix so they've been trying little things here and there over the past few years to see what works without getting in the face of guests.

 

[DisneyCanadian]

Not true - purchased in 2001 at Roaring Forks, WL. This was the advertisement posted and many took advantage of it.

http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/RefillableMugs.shtml
http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2009/08/12/disney-resort-refillable-mugs-faq/
http://allears.net/din/mugs.htm

Three different sources that show, it is only to be used on the trip purchased, not for life. One of those sites, even has a sign that shows this.

So no, you don't get refills for life.

 

[sittle]

The deal when we purchased our mugs was that they had unlimited refills and could be brought back year to year.

If they change the policy they have sold me a mug (from 10 years ago) under false pretensions. Even though I only refill it once per day - the abuse is by WDW - not me - the end user.

It's amazing .... simply amazing how people can condone and justify stealing...

 

[Fractal514]

I honestly thinks that this is no longer a discussion, but rather a debate between two sides.

Those who do not take advantage of the situation and therefore don't care about this change.

VS

Those who DO abuse the system and are now worried about losing "free" soda.


If you are one of the people who have the "lifetime" mugs, then you will probably fall into one of these two categories once Disney either addresses and confirms or dismisses and denys your magic mug's existence.

 

[Eyorefan]

I honestly thinks that this is no longer a discussion, but rather a debate between two sides.

Those who do not take advantage of the situation and therefore don't care about this change.

VS

Those who DO abuse the system and are now worried about losing "free" soda.


If you are one of the people who have the "lifetime" mugs, then you will probably fall into one of these two categories once Disney either addresses and confirms or dismisses and denys your magic mug's existence.

I think you have sumed the tread up rather nicely. To me the appeal of the mugs died when they stoped making them resort spacific and then did not change them year to year.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I think there's more danger from the coke evaporating from all the hot air on this thread.

But lets hunt down the coke criminals in their Walmart clothing, I bet they take more than the regulation two trips to the buffet too.

 

[Kamikaze]

I gave no numbers unless you want to dispute 365 days in a year.

To be fair, you did say 'thousands'. Yes, some people do this.
But most people don't even think to bring back their mugs. The percentage of people that do so on a Disney message board is going to be much, much higher than the gen pop.

Granted there is high profit margin but it doesn't cost them "nothing". Even if they are getting the syrup at Coke's manufacturing cost it still has some cost.

The Bulk CO2 has a cost. The water has a cost. The water filters have a cost. The electricity to make the ice is not free either.

Even if a mug only costs Disney 15 cents to fill, if you have enough people abuse it, it will add up. 15 cents x 1,000,000 is $150,000.

Its a lot less than $.15 per drink. Your local McDonalds fills a fountain drink with all costs for less than $.10. Disney's cost is lower than that.

 

[harryk]

http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/resorts/RefillableMugs.shtml
http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2009/08/12/disney-resort-refillable-mugs-faq/
http://allears.net/din/mugs.htm

Three different sources that show, it is only to be used on the trip purchased, not for life. One of those sites, even has a sign that shows this.

So no, you don't get refills for life.

Not talking about the current policy and current mugs. Mugs we have are considerably larger and are not auto-mugs. Find something 10 years older which shows we are wrong.

 

[Lucky]

Walt gave me an autographed mug and told me I could use it forever.