Are refillable mugs worth it?

[bicker]

For hot coffee, if you drink a lot of it, I could see it being a decent deal for an extended trip, though a better deal at some of the more compact resorts than at some of the more spread out resorts, just because of the length of the walk to get a refill. For cold drinks, especially at the deluxe resorts and moderates, where fridges are standard equipment now, I think folks are always better off just stocking the fridge.

 

[Tiggerbell05]

We got the mugs at the BC, mainly as souveniers. You might want to wait and see how far your room is from Beaches and Cream because to fill them we had to go there and stand in line. I think the mugs are much more convenient at resorts with food courts!

 

[iliketoby]

We stop at a grocery store and get some pop and stick it in the fridge. It's much cheaper, and we don't have to wash the mug.

 

[blessedby3]

We felt like they were worth it. I think my son ate his weight in blue slushie. He had one every chance he got and we used it for apple juice in the am for the kids and coffee for DH anytime during the day. Soda during the day/pm and hot chocolate. There were lots of choices for filling the mugs.

 

[ZoZo]

I think it depends on how many meals you plan to eat at your resort. We spent most of our times at the parks, and only ate breakfast at our resort. I found the mugs to be a hassle - if you use them at breakfast, you either have to run back to your room to drop them off before going to the parks (a big pain, depending on how far away your room is) or lug them with you all day (a bigger pain).

We hardly used them at all - but I'm not a coffee drinker. Since our only meal at the resorts was breakfast, I wasn't about to drink pop (unfortunately, you can't use the mugs for milk or juice).

This last time, we just bought pop and water to keep in the fridge in our room.

 

[FSUGrad97]

I think they are worth it. We stayed at the WL, and we would fill ours up when we came back for a break and in the evenings. In fact, it was cold one of the nights, so I filled it up with hot chocolate to take to the parks.

Plus, it's a nice memento of your trip, and the soda seemed to taste better!

 

[christinou]

When we stayed at the Beach Club, our room was as far away from the store as could be, we were basically in Epcot, I ended up buying 2 liter bottle of soda, and keeping them in the fridge and making coffee in the coffee pot in the morning, it just seem too long of a hike to go get soda.

 

[goodeats]

I think they are a pain in the butt and not really worth it unless you want the souvenier. I guess if you're going to hang out at the pool everyday or eat many meals at the resort, but otherwise no. We usually only eat breakfast in the food court and I don't like to drink soda before lunch and I don't like the coffee at Disney. Then what do you do with your mug? We usually go straight to the parks after breakfast, so running back to the rooms would drive me bonkers. And carrying it around all day would be even worse! Plus I wouldn't think I could get it clean enough to go from coffee to soda and back again without dishwashing soap. And no, I'm not bringing soap! Although I've heard they're coming out with coffee flavored coke so maybe I could test it out!

So, I guess it depends on your 'style'. With the baby you may be at the resort a lot. Plus you'll have the stroller to tote things around in.

 

[PoohMommy]

I would say they're ABSOLUTELY worth it, but it probably does depend on how far away you are from the food court/refill stations! We've stayed at the WL 3 out of our last 4 times, and we've gotten refill mugs every time. (Well, ok, actually we've only bought mugs on two trips because, on the middle trip, we were still allowed "lifetime" refills. Then in 2003 we bought new mugs because the policy had changed to free refills for the duration of your stay.)

Anyway, we used those mugs a LOT and probably saved a great deal on drinks. We'd get coffee every morning...we'd take a mid-day break back at the hotel and get sodas...and then we'd get at least one refill at the end of the day (sometimes 2 or 3...soda and then hot chocolate). So we'd get 15-25 refills per person over a 5 day trip...Definitely saved us a lot of money!

On the other hand, when we stayed at POR (then Dixie Landings) back in 2000, we didn't get the mugs because the food area was quite a walk from our room.

 

[nbodyhome]

It depends. If you are just wanting soda, it would be cheaper just to bring your own, unless you were there for maybe 10 days or more (or drank a LOT of soda). I just drink water most of the time - from the tap - so it's not a value for me, I can bring a few packets of hot chocolate when it's cold.

What I'd think about with refillable mugs (and the dining plan) is - are you eating/drinking a lot more than you normally would? I have lost 60 pounds so far, and it really doesn't do any good for me to buy anything that would encourage eating/drinking a lot more than I normally would.

Oh - the mugs do make nice souvenirs, a lot of guests like getting them for that reason alone.

Denise

 

[jann1033]

cost wise per drink yes but we don't use them cause we rarely eat dinner at our home resort and they are a pain to carry around the park all day if we had our morning coffee in them ( imo, if it does not fit in a pocket usually it doesn't go with us) so we had to get extra cups for morning coffee,each morning and transfer the mug coffee to a disposable just a pain

if i drank enough refills of pop in the evening to make it worthwhile i'd have to sleep in the bathroom

however we basically just sleep at the resort so i don't think we used them once except for morning coffee. and i agree, once coffee is in them everything tastes like coffee to me... coffee flavored coke? blech

 

[Ashes8380]

I got one last trip and would do it again. It was nice to not to have to worry about how much you were spending on all those drinks. My last trip was with my best friend and we were on a shoestring budget so $12 for the whole week's worth of drinks was good. I drank at least 2 drinks a day, so that alone would be a minimum of 28 dollars. It was nice to not have to worry about it.

 

[jtlover]

Can anyone tell me where the refill place is for AKL - could decide then whether it is worth it for us when we stay in February - thanks!

 

[bicker]

The Mara.

 

[Mad4Dizne]

And what exactly can you get, coffee, how about tea??? hot chocolate?? soda, any other drink option????
Believe it or not we got one last trip just as a souvenier, never filled it with anything!!!!
We plan on getting a few this trip--mostly just to bring home, but will be filling them as we are planning a few days around the resort.

How can you find out where you can fill them at the resort you stay at???

TIA!!!!!!!

 

[crisi]

Can anyone tell me where the refill place is for AKL - could decide then whether it is worth it for us when we stay in February - thanks!

The Mara is close to the pool, which was about sixteen miles from where our room was on the far end of the resort. A mug would have not been worth it there for us, unless we had a trip with lots of pool time.

However, the Mara is one of the best Deluxe counter service locations - large enough, good food....

 

[bicker]

Deb's web site lists all the locations for the refillable mugs:

http://www.allearsnet.com/din/mugs.htm

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

We think the mugs are worth it. No telling how much we would have spent on drinks had we not bought these. I also like looking in my cabinet when I get home and seeing a WL mug looking back at me!!

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

Sorry, thought my previous post didn't go through.

 

[FSUGrad97]

We think the mugs are worth it. No telling how much we would have spent on drinks had we not bought these. I also like looking in my cabinet when I get home and seeing a WL mug looking back at me!!

I totally agree! It made the transition back to work a little easier when I drank my morning coffee from it on Monday morning.