ValidFill at Resorts

[SeanC]

Perhaps its part of the Living Character Initiative and continued personalization and pre-planning of all aspects of your trip.

Guests will be able to make drink reservations from the comfort of their homes or hotel room and have that programmed into their cup.

The soda machine will then say to your child:

Hello, Johnny,

You don't really want a Coca-cola do you? Perhaps a caffeine free Hi-C instead?

or

Sorry, you did not order a soda at this time, please return to fulfill your drink order at the appointed time as pre-arranged on your drinking schedule.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I could definitely see Disney moving this way, and the idea of tiered mugs sounds plausible as well. Forcing people to buy the mugs would make much more money than they would on the actual soda. The bigger issue however may be fitting readers into dispensers for items like coffee and hot chocolate, as they likely come from other vendors.

Coke provides the syrup for free, in exchange for being able to sell their product everywhere on property.

While a common tale, that could not be as The Coca-Cola Company had no other products to sell (bottle drinks) until just this past year when they acquired the North American bottling operations of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

 

[freakman]

Im willing to bet you would find that coke has a deal with Disney where the fountain soda is supplied for free and they pay a maintenance fee on the machines and agree to only sell their products. (See that with fast food restaurants...usually why you have to buy a drink with many coupons). The amount of soda being used is of no concern.

 

[SleepingMonk]

I didn't see the details on the link but this seems to only allow the machine to be active/inactive.

It doesn't seem to meter actual product.

So Mrs. Cheapmom buys the RFID cup, uses it to activate the machine and then holds the lever with her finger while the kids fill their cups.

We're back to square one.

 

[GrumpyFan]

They have a demo video of the system in use that shows multiple ways it can be utilized. Also, it looks like Dollywood and Royal Carribbean have already purchased the product and are using it. Sounds like something that has the potential of sweeping the industry. I hope they have it patented.

 

[GrumpyFan]

I didn't see the details on the link but this seems to only allow the machine to be active/inactive.

It doesn't seem to meter actual product.

So Mrs. Cheapmom buys the RFID cup, uses it to activate the machine and then holds the lever with her finger while the kids fill their cups.

We're back to square one.

Nope. It does meter. It can be set to only dispense a certain amount of product. Then it prevents the customer from using the machine again for 5 minutes. The amount of product and time limit are customizable by the owner. You should go to the web-site and watch the demo video it shows this and more.

 

[SleepingMonk]

Sounds great then.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Im willing to bet you would find that coke has a deal with Disney where the fountain soda is supplied for free and they pay a maintenance fee on the machines and agree to only sell their products. (See that with fast food restaurants...usually why you have to buy a drink with many coupons). The amount of soda being used is of no concern.

The deal I have always worked with at non-chains and one franchise is that the fountain equipment and vending machines and their maintenance is free, and the business then purchases the syrup and bottled drinks. The cost of syrup and bottles is always variable based on quantity purchased. Due to their size and central purchasing the cost per drink, while around $0.30 at a small place is probably negligible for Walt Disney World. So while the price per unit gets down into the fractions of a cent for a fountain drink, the still likely pay something for the thousands of gallons of syrup.

 

[puntagordabob]

Wish the cups were bigger....... I normally geta 44 ounce soda lol...... the resort cups are so small!!!!

I would pay for a cup that would work at all the parks and resorts......

 

[GrumpyFan]

Wish the cups were bigger....... I normally geta 44 ounce soda lol...... the resort cups are so small!!!!

I would pay for a cup that would work at all the parks and resorts......

Agreed, I don't understand why they haven't offered different sizes either. With this new system, they could easily add bigger (or smaller) cups and have different pricing structures.

 

[mp2bill]

Profit on soda is in the hundreds of precent. Soda syrup and carbonated water is very cheap and of all cost savings measures to worry about this has to be pretty far down the list.

Exactly what I was thinking.

 

[Biff215]

But what about people who have yet to check in, have checked out or are not even staying at the resort?

According to Disney's very unofficial policy, refills are only good at your resort for the length of stay. But you are correct that room keys wouldn't make sense to use as why would you prevent a non-resort guest from buying a mug if they wanted to?

I really hope they do something with this soon. While I don't sit at the drink machines and accuse others of stealing, it is a little annoying to see 10 year old mugs being filled up next to you after you forked out over $50 for a family of four. And it's not limited to the self-serve stations, as just last week I saw it happen at the pool bar at Coronado. Of course the CM could have said no, but I assume they have been told to avoid that confrontation. I just couldn't imagine handing over four faded resort-specific mugs and asking for refills!

 

[AEfx]

We know that Disney spends very little on keeping their fountain soda machines stocked, and that the profit margin on a soda (and mug) is HUGE. I would venture to guess that Disney doesn't spend as much time worrying about it as some people on this forum.

Agreed - which is why I find it kind of doubtful that Disney would spend a great deal of money implementing RFID to save a few cents, especially since guests who purchase single-serve drinks use the same machines. Unless they are going to add RFID to them as well?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Agreed - which is why I find it kind of doubtful that Disney would spend a great deal of money implementing RFID to save a few cents, especially since guests who purchase single-serve drinks use the same machines. Unless they are going to add RFID to them as well?

As neoshinok, it is not so much the loss of syrup and water that would concern Disney, but the loss of potential mug sales. I think the single use cups may be a big part of what would be causing the delay.

 

[maxairmike]

Something else to keep in mind, I know that many places get the paper cups from Pepsi/Coke for either fractions of a cent or free, especially in that quantity. A church I used to go to was looking at possibly putting a fountain in our youth area (we had a snack shop), and the youth pastor knew someone at the local Pepsi bottling/distro place. If I recall right, the fountain would have been about $100, the cups absolutely free, and the syrup would have been like $0.20 for the small canisters/boxes (Disney uses the highly concentrated boxes). Since Disney is likely getting the syrup at little or no cost (I would lean towards bordering on free) and is probably paying Dixie pennies for the cups, I would imagine to retrofit their entire beverage system that they would have to be shown that the cost to them would have to be roughly the same. If it cuts too much into the profit margin per product, they would likely have to raise the price of the product to the consumer. And if the tags alone would cost anywhere from $0.05-0.10 in addition to the process of making them into the cups (or even just affixing labels, it still adds an extra process to the manufacturing), that could raise the cost per cup up to something Disney might not like, if they don't want to raise the consumer-facing prices.

I would bet that if we see this in a large scale at all, it will be confined to the (value) resorts so as to keep costs down, and possibly even giving the mugs their own dedicated refill station inside the register areas.

 

[erasure fan1]

Nope. It does meter. It can be set to only dispense a certain amount of product. Then it prevents the customer from using the machine again for 5 minutes. The amount of product and time limit are customizable by the owner. You should go to the web-site and watch the demo video it shows this and more.

Even with a 5min time limit its not like you cant still just wait the time then hold the cup up and refill some other mug. Cheaters gonna cheat and like others have said, this cheating and the cost of the fix does not seem to equal a good ROI.

 

[Master Yoda]

Even with a 5min time limit its not like you cant still just wait the time then hold the cup up and refill some other mug. Cheaters gonna cheat and like others have said, this cheating and the cost of the fix does not seem to equal a good ROI.

As it has been pointed out, loos due to theft is not the only factor. Loss of revenue due to people not purchasing new mugs is a factor as well.

 

[dreamfinder]

I don't know if I can see the park CS willing to give up that part of their profit margin. They still make $1-2 per soda sold. So if they install these new RFID dispensing mugs in the parks, the CS locations would lose a chunk of those sales. Yes, not everyone in the parks would buy a mug, but unless the cost was significantly higher ($50-75 or so) there would be a huge sales drops at the CS locations. Since many decisions seem to be driven by keeping profits up within a certain department not on property overall, I can't see F&B giving up that fight. At the resorts? Possibly, but I really don't think so at the parks.

I personally have a concern with a 5 minute delay. When I stop by on the way back to the room at night, or before heading to the parks in the morning I like to top off before I leave. Since the mugs are a bit on the small side, especially if you put ice in, having that delay would make it significantly more annoying to deal with.

 

[erasure fan1]

As it has been pointed out, loos due to theft is not the only factor. Loss of revenue due to people not purchasing new mugs is a factor as well.

Yea I can see that as well but as a whole, how much does it happen? I have no idea really. I just thought, what would stop someone from playing stupid and just walking up to the drink stations for the normal guests who buy drinks? Unless they plan to just do away with refills all together unless you get the mug, otherwise you are given your drink from a cast member when you pay. This whole thing just seems like way to much work for very little reward.

I personally have a concern with a 5 minute delay. When I stop by on the way back to the room at night, or before heading to the parks in the morning I like to top off before I leave. Since the mugs are a bit on the small side, especially if you put ice in, having that delay would make it significantly more annoying to deal with.

I see that as well. Is Disney willing to make the legitimate customers upset and then they stop doing it?

 

[Master Yoda]

Yea I can see that as well but as a whole, how much does it happen? I have no idea really. I just thought, what would stop someone from playing stupid and just walking up to the drink stations for the normal guests who buy drinks? Unless they plan to just do away with refills all together unless you get the mug, otherwise you are given your drink from a cast member when you pay. This whole thing just seems like way to much work for very little reward.

No idea what the numbers are but it is a fairly safe bet that the mouse does. As many of us have said they will only do it when it will put money in their pocket. One other thing to consider is that the newly revised dining plan now has a free mug with every level of the plan. That is quite a few extra mugs floating around that would not have been there before.