New Policy - Concierge Lounges

[Malcon10t]

The hotels' concierge lounges have instituted a new policy with regards to water. There is water in the lounge with cups. When you check in, they supply one larger (mine was 32 ounce) bottle per person on the registration in the room. There are no more bottles for the taking in the lounges. When I asked about this, they explained it was causing them to go above the recycling allotment on plastic.

 

[5forMickey]

Hmmmm, not sure what I think about this.....are you there now? Thanks for the warning though we leave in 2 weeks so I'll have to throw in a case of water. Definitely seems like and odd reason though.

 

[Malcon10t]

Last weekend. Disney is very strong on recycling. I do believe their reasoning. But I know a lot of people depend on those bottles. For us, won't make a difference really. But I'd thought I'd let people in on it so no one is surprised.

 

[5forMickey]

Last weekend. Disney is very strong on recycling. I do believe their reasoning. But I know a lot of people depend on those bottles. For us, won't make a difference really. But I'd thought I'd let people in on it so no one is surprised.

Yes definitely appreciate the warning and I can see their point. May be just as easy to bring refillable water jugs.....it's one of those things that were very convenient and will just take a little readjusting.

 

[bumbershoot]

they explained it was causing them to go above the recycling allotment on plastic.

That is possibly the silliest reason I've heard Disney give, apart from the DCL line about why they changed their booze carryon stuff (someone told a Dis'er that they don't allow liquor on anymore because soooo many children were calling Guest Services onboard about their passed out parents). I personally don't believe it for a millisecond.

And it's caused concierge level to just go WAY down in the possibilities, since bottled water is, indeed, part of the reason we have booked that level on the past.

I assume it's Dasani, though, and we don't drink that anymore. (it's just local-to-the-bottling-plant municipal water with filtering...so what's the point?) If we did, though, and booked concierge, I would put that 32 oz bottle into 4 8 oz bottles and leave the empties in the lounge. Because that reason is crazy and I'd want to call them on it.

But we don't drink Dasani anymore. And them having tap water available is NOT something attractive to us. Yuck, actually. Anaheim water is horrid.

 

[az4boys]

Seems a little odd. I don't suspect that concierge guests are a huge population compared to the tens of thousands of people visiting the resort, so I don't see how it would make a big dent in overall plastic recycling. Plus, I'm guessing concierge guests will still use mostly bottled water, just obtained elsewhere. I think putting in a filtered water station inside the parks would make a bigger difference because more people would be willing to refill their bottles instead of getting a new one.

 

[whoever]

This happened while I was there. They gave us some larger bottles in-room in exchange for cutting out the small ones in the lounge.

 

[Malcon10t]

And them having tap water available is NOT something attractive to us. Yuck, actually. Anaheim water is horrid.

Who said tap water?

I do believe their reasons. I have been seen their recycling plans. Yes, it is Dasani.

Regardless, if this was something someone counted on when making a decision about club level, I wanted to make sure people knew about.

 

[5forMickey]

I'm clueless about Dasani ..... is there something wrong with it?

This is going to age me a little and is just meant lightheartedly .....but when my kids were young was when the big bottle water craze started. They particularly always wanted me to buy them Figi water when we stopped somewhere, I suspect because it was the most expensive but they insist it tasted different and their Father always grumbled about how he wasn't going to pay for something they could drink out of the fountain for free . We were raised on tap water so I couldn't tell a difference, heck most of the time we even had to drink it out of the garden hose. I told them then......you just wait, buy the time your adults the new thing is going to be "but the plastic is filling up landfills". I'm not saying anything to them about this and when we get there I'm finally going to get to say "SEE, MOTHER TOLD YOU SO"!

 

[Mividadisney]

I'm clueless about Dasani ..... is there something wrong with it?

This is going to age me a little and is just meant lightheartedly .....but when my kids were young was when the big bottle water craze started. They particularly always wanted me to buy them Figi water when we stopped somewhere, I suspect because it was the most expensive but they insist it tasted different and their Father always grumbled about how he wasn't going to pay for something they could drink out of the fountain for free . We were raised on tap water so I couldn't tell a difference, heck most of the time we even had to drink it out of the garden hose. I told them then......you just wait, buy the time your adults the new thing is going to be "but the plastic is filling up landfills". I'm not saying anything to them about this and when we get there I'm finally going to get to say "SEE, MOTHER TOLD YOU SO"!

I've always heard Dasani is the worst bottled water you can drink. http://wellnessandequality.com/2014...p-water-known-teratogen-lethal-drug-and-salt/

Take it with a grain of salt..no pun intended.

 

[MommyJKM]

The hotels' concierge lounges have instituted a new policy with regards to water. There is water in the lounge with cups. When you check in, they supply one larger (mine was 32 ounce) bottle per person on the registration in the room. There are no more bottles for the taking in the lounges. When I asked about this, they explained it was causing them to go above the recycling allotment on plastic.

Maybe because of the drought too? from my experience people from other states tend to not appreciate how severe the drought is.

 

[JennyN]

Surely people choose concierge for more reasons than bottled water. I'm from Australia and we generally drink tap water. I've never understood the fuss about bottled water. It's just water.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Bologna. Sandwich. It's a nice excuse for "cost cutting". Are they also cutting back on the water bottles they sell for egregious amounts of money in the parks? Lol! They've been eliminating the water bottles in WDW CLs over the last few years as well so it was probably inevitable. And Thank You OP for the heads up. Our fam of 5 definitely uses these every day on our trips, it's not a deal breaker as we'll just bring a pack of water bottles with us but you pay a lot to not have to do that when staying CL.

 

[Jerryp49]

I worked for Pepsi Cola for 28 years and can tell you for a fact that their Aquafina bottled water is just municipal tap water that has gone thru filtering with ozone put in to keep it from going bad. I`m sure Coke with their Dasani and everyone else does the same thing. The Hayward water where I worked and the water for the Pepsi bottling plants in the valley comes from Hetch Hetchy near Yosemite, and is snow melt. Hetch Hetchy water is among the best in the nation for purity.I think Arrowhead gets theirs from springs in the Sierra foothills. As for Figi water, i read where it comes from natural springs but do you know how much fossil fuel it takes to ship it half way around the world?

 

[Jerryp49]

Bologna. Sandwich. It's a nice excuse for "cost cutting". Are they also cutting back on the water bottles they sell for egregious amounts of money in the parks? Lol! .

I completely agree. Those stubby little bottles are perfect size for carrying around in your pocket, and since they were free from the cooler in the lounge people probably loaded up on them. Why give away free when they can charge $3.75 in the park.

Their next move will be to stop offering the free Coke in bottles and install a self serve soda dispenser/fountain with cups.

 

[Bud Ice]

Ill at least explain the recycling deal. Companies get charged extra for recycling services. Companies want to support recycling, but only to a servicable extent. Contracts are setup to deliver x amount of recyclables for y cost.

There are plenty of places that setup recycling bins, but do not want to pay extra. So their recyclables get thrown away with regular trash. Only the appearance of being environmentally friendly. Truth.

 

[Jerryp49]

Here is a post by Malcon10t from another Blog:

This was something new on my last trip, so I wanted to make sure people are aware. In the past, if you were staying Concierge, you could go in the lounge and pick up packs of 12 ounce bottles of water. I was frequently seeing people walking out with two 8-packs of water.


I think it is more cost savings than anything else.It reminds me of our lunch room vending machines at the Pepsi plant.They used to sell 20oz bottles from the machines for $.25 each as a perk until people started buying them as many as they could carry to take home. The price shot up to $1.00.

 

[Laundress]

Thank you for the info. Appreciate it. We will be staying concierge for spring break and It would have been a surprize. We will survive though.

 

[Hofmanns4]

This is not going to save hardy any recycling. People will just get cases of water somewhere else. Most likely the larger bottles and actually cause more to recycle. We usually grab 2 per person as we left the lounge every day.One would be gone before we hit the parks and we had the 2nd one for later.

I agree they need more places to refill and encourage people to drink water. Especially on those hot days, they should really have water stands.

 

[Malcon10t]

I think it is more cost savings than anything else.It reminds me of our lunch room vending machines at the Pepsi plant.They used to sell 20oz bottles from the machines for $.25 each as a perk until people started buying them as many as they could carry to take home. The price shot up to $1.00.

I don't think it is a cost savings, as realistically, the cost of those bottles is minimal. Yes, I will probably pick up a case of water on our way down, as I can get a flat for about $3. I am sure Disney's cost is a lot lower than that.

There are a lot of places to refill (Rancho, Mint Julip, First Aid to name a few), plus you can get a free cup of water at any restaurant.