Club Cool--possibly going the way of the Christmas lights?

[Jason71]

I noticed last Saturday at least 3 or 4 "drink stations" were not working at all, and those that were had missing flavors. Now the Sentinel confirms...

http://thedailydisney.com/blog/2009/11/epcot-is-coca-colas-club-cool-going-flat/

Also, article missed it but it looked to me like most of the Coke/American Idol specific merchandise has been pulled and replaced with generic Mickey/Disney merch.

Anyone heard anything? Just sloppiness on the part of Coke, or is this the next EPCOT cutback?

 

[safetymom]

It seems it has been doing that quite often ever since it became Club Cool.

 

[doconeill]

Yeah, that sounds like normal operations to me...

 

[mitros]

Yea, things have just not been the same since they changed the whole concept of the place. It USED to be a pretty neat place to explore with the ice room and all. Now it's a big dud. Not the least bit interesting. Go ahead Disney, close it, you know you want to...................

 

[ChrisFL]

If it wasn't for my unhealthy obsession with Smart Watermelon, I wouldn't mind too much, however it would be one more thing they take away from the guest experience if they decide to close it down, which seeing how Epcot has been run lately is a very bad trend.

I wouldn't miss the constantly sticky floors though!

 

[Jason71]

I agree the operations have been spotty for years now, but went again last night, and it's definitely the worst it's ever been. Also, as I said, all the AI stuff seems to be gone, and other than some Christmas items, not a lot of Coke-branded stuff left.

 

[mitros]

Even though I do not expect to get an honest answer, I'm going to ask someone next week when we take our regular monthly 2 day trip, what the heck is going on there.

 

[Stumpy]

I watched a special last night on MSNBC about Coke and one of their new products in development is a dispenser that uses a touch screen LCD for people to make their selections. The flavors are pre-loaded cartridges similar to the technology you would see with your home PC printer. The dispensers have a very large variety of drinks that can be "loaded" and the machines can even offer Coke real-time feedback on product sales.

It is only a dream, but this would be an ideal place to offer such machines. It would fit nicely into Epcot's futuristic and technologically advanced themes, and the machines could be tested for functionality and durability at Epcot. Most likely, though, Coke may be looking to scale back their expenditures given flat sales (no pun intended) over the last decade. As far as pulling the Coke and AI merchandise, did it really sell to begin with?

 

[WDWKOOK]

Even though I do not expect to get an honest answer, I'm going to ask someone next week when we take our regular monthly 2 day trip, what the heck is going on there.

Good for you for setting your expectations really low.

I'll be on the lookout for your non-committal, rather unhelpful, the-DIS-boards-know-more than-the-CMs answer!