Is the soda watered down?

[eskimo]

My DH drinks a lot of soda every day. He KNOWS the mug program is definitely going to be worth it for him, however, he is concerned on how it tastes, since it is not in a can! He is concerned that it will taste like movie theatre soda (all water with a drop of syrup). Can anyone give any opinions on the TASTE?

Also, do they serve diet coke CAFFEINE FREE? or just plain diet coke?

Thanks!

 

[Chattyaholic]

I'm a big Diet Coke (caffeine free preferred) fan myself, but did not purchase the mug on our 7-day cruise. I just felt $35 was too expensive for a couple of Cokes a day. You can order soda at dinner, so that's when I had my "Diet Coke fix for the day."
The rest of the time I just drank iced tea, coffee and water and really didn't have any "withdrawal" symptoms.
Also, I read someone else's post that said when a person took their mug up to the bar to be refilled, they used a different spigot than the one they used for people purchasing a soda, this poster thought the "Coke" used to refill mugs was an "off brand" and not REAL Coke, so you may want to confirm that before you purchase the mug. As for the soda being "watered down", I didn't find that at all at dinner, don't know about the mug though...the "Diet Coke" wasn't caffeine free though.

 

[eskimo]

Thanks for all that info! I was telling DH what your post said and when I mentioned MUG he got all mad saying what happened to having a sticker on the card?! I don't want to lug around a stupid mug all day! LOL! I think he's trying to be difficult!LOL!

 

[Timon]

DH and I are HUGE Diet Coke drinkers. We brought a case on board, which we used for the daytime, it was gone in 3 days. We had diet coke with dinner every night and we also ordered a few from the bars in Beat Street and at Castaway Cay.

The ones we had at dinner were VERY watered down, but they got us through. The ones from the bar (payed for) were not as watered down but did not taste very good at all. The ones from Castaway Cay seemed fine but it was HOT and I think we would have drank just about anything

When we stopped in St Maarten, we bought another case of DC to do us for the rest of the trip. We had big plastic glasses from our WDW trip the week before and filled them with ice and then poored a can into it..PERFECT! and they tasted wonderful!

We are cruising next year and we will probably be bringing two cases on with us

 

[albiats]

I can taste the diference between the soda fountain drinks and the canned drinks and I definitely prefer the cans. This is true not only on DCL and WDW but at most places in general, including non Coke products too.

On our January cruise, my DW and I had the Refillable Mugs as a benefit from booking with the AAA and starting in the middle of the week, I did buy a can of soda for each of us every evening just for the increased taste.

hope that helps

 

[gdulaney]

I am a Coke-aholic and can taste the difference cold or warm between Coke/Pepsi/Double Cola/RC...you name it. Luckily we never had any water-down colas. I think Conrad (our asst server) understood that I needed my cola-fix and so he kept my drinks fresh.

We took a 12 pack of Coke and two 2-Liter bottles, since we knew that we could get soda with breakfast, lunch, and dinner (only at sit-down restaurants).

The DCL dispensers may be "coded." One spigot is used (for cost accounting) vs another spigot for "refilled drinks." If I was going to measure the popularity (and the amt of cola used) of the mug program, I would need some way to tell the two dispensed drinks apart. That may be the reason for the two different spigots?

 

[jlmcantwait]

Hi!
I think what happens sometimes at dinner....because the soda is comp and I would assume a lot of people order it, they pre-pour a lot at one time so the waiters just have to grab it not stop and pour. If you get the tail end of the 200 pre poured sodas I bet they taste REALY waterd down from the ice melting. Just a thought! L

 

[eskimo]

Thanks to you all! Originally, we were just bringing on board our own (his DC and my beer). I guess this is what we will do and skip the mug program. Thanks again!

 

[disneyholic family]

the diet coke served in the restaurants and at the bars tasted fine to me....
but i'm used to european coke which might make a difference... (supposedly coke has different formulas for different regions of the US and the world) ....

 

[erikthewise]

Diet Coke and other diet soft drinks (I presume) from fountain outlets are not 100% Nutrasweet (aspartame). They are about half-and-half aspartame and saccharin. Nutrasweet doesn't hold up well under those conditions. That may account for some of the taste problems. From many years experience drinking Diet Coke at fountain outlets (which I seldom do anymore), some taste OK and others are just awful. I suspect the syrup supplier used makes a big difference.

I try to drink from cans whenever possible.
When I die and go to heaven I'm going to get it from 16 oz glass bottles with 100% cane sugar, as in my youth.

 

[albiats]

Originally posted by gdulaney

The DCL dispensers may be "coded." One spigot is used (for cost accounting) vs another spigot for "refilled drinks." If I was going to measure the popularity (and the amt of cola used) of the mug program, I would need some way to tell the two dispensed drinks apart. That may be the reason for the two different spigots?

I understand the logic of what you're saying and it makes sense, but they would have to have a second spigot for all flavors of fountain drinks. I'm not sure what they all are, but I know they have Coke Classic, Diet Coke, Sprite, and maybe a Root Beer or something like that, so it would almost mean a duplicate fountian.

Another guess as to what it could have been is that they have more than one spigot used by the more popular flavors. For instance, the fountain machine has 6 spigots, they have 4 soda flavors, and the remaining two are used for the more popular ones. So maybe there are 2 for Coke Classic and 2 for Diet Coke and one each for the other flavors.

 

[DISNEYGATOR]

I don't know for sure, but I doubt DCL has two soda dispensers, one for those who pay, and one for refills. Soda supply really is pretty cheap, especially when you have a contract with the company. Equipment wise it would be more expensive to have twice as many dispensers, and to have to double your stock and waste all that storage space. Business wise it wouldn't make sense to me--twice as much production, and two contracts to negotiate... besides I am sure because of the rights they have with Coca Cola, they couldn't have another soda supplier. I mean, at WDW, even the non-disney gas stations on property only sell coca cola products. Want a pepsi at WDW? Gonna have to bring your own, or go off-property.

I think it just taste watered down because of the amount of ice that is put in.

 

[aalan]

i drink several diet cokes a day, and to me, the cokes at dinner (and sit-down lunch) were very good. i had at least 3 with every meal! i also doubt that they refill the mugs with an off brand: not only would this be expensive to have 2 different brands going, it would upset coke a great deal if they knew something like that was going on...i didnt buy a mug because $35 is just too much. i did take a six pack of 20 oz. on board, and bought some cans at st. maarten as well. they do have caffiene-free available, but it'll cost you $1.65 each since its not a standard soda from the fountain.

 

[pjkds]

We (two adults and two 17-year-olds) used four mugs and drank regular Coke (with sugar and caffeine) all day on the Wonder June 27 cruise.

It was very hot, so we drank a lot. We had lots of ice in the mugs, so the amount of Coke per fill-up was not especially high. But the regular Coke tasted just fine. And since we were using the mugs, we had no reason to begrudge the proportions of ice to Coke. Instead we appreciated all that ice. For some reason the drink never tasted watered down.

What I don't understand is why I never felt the caffeine from all those drinks. (I do know the difference between tastes for regular and for caffeine-free, and this tasted exactly like regular Coke to me.)

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Originally posted by disneyholic family

supposedly coke has different formulas for different regions of the US and the world

That's true. Coca-Cola Light in Brazil (called "Coca-Cola Light" rather than "Diet Coke" because "diet" drinks appeal to a much more limited market segment there) is sweetened with cyclamates... a sweetener that was banned in the U.S. back in the '60's due to causing cancer in lab rats. Gotta say... it was delicious... much more like a "real" coke than Diet Coke in the U.S. sweetened with aspertame.

 

[JLSE50]

I am looking forward to my $35 mug. So is DH We use our FW, Dixie Landings, and OKW mugs almost daily for coffee, soda and water. They are our favorite souvenirs.

We also like the decrease in trash generated this way. In the US it is less plastic in the landfills. On the islands it is less plastic in the garbage fires. {Our son was in the Dominican Republic three times and he said that all trash is burned--plastic, food, paper, everything. And it smells horrid. }

Jan