Overrated: Refillable Mugs Underrated: Character Caravan

[married2grumpy]

We get new refillable mugs every year we visit. We think it is well worth the money. If you eat at the resort you need to have something to drink and if you are really thirsty you may want a second. You can very easily consume $10 worth of beverages during your stayeven if your not that close to the food court.

The last thing you'd catch me packing for vacation is my own cans of soda. Don't even mention going to the supermarket to pick some up. This is supposed to be a vacation, isn't it? I'll save my grocery shopping for at home!

As far as the character caravan, we never even got to see it this trip. I did see a crowd of people waiting for it but we didn't think it would be worth fighting a crowd for. We had some character meals planned during our stay and the kids saw the characters then. We enjoyed EE and really missed it this trip.

 

[rab]

Thanks Seaspray. With the later hours of the food court at CBR, the mug may be a good thing for my husband and me since we'll drink coffee, tea, and whatever soft drink is available. On another post, there was discussion about no DP at WDW so the mugs may not work for my kids since they are DP drinkers. Thanks.

 

[cdrn1]

They have Mr. Pibb at the CBR food court, which tastes ALMOST like DP. I used my mug numerous times each day for cafe au lait (half coffee, half liquid creamer) as well as tea, lemonade, hot choc. SOOOOO worth the $$$ for us. We were right by the food court.

 

[lvs_eeyore]

rab the last time we were there....about three weeks ago....the foodcourt was open 24hrs for refreshment bar...or at least I was told it was. The rest of it closes at about 11:00. I went VERY early one morning....had to be between 5:30 and 6:00 AM and got coffee no problem.

 

[Disneyolic]

I think I want to start a poll on what people prefer.. CC or EE...stay tuned.

 

[kimmar067]

I agree that the CC is really advantageous for families with smaller children. Besides, when we last visited WDW in Nov, there were PLENTY of characters to meet at the various parks. In fact, I can't recall another time at Disney when they were so plentiful!! Give me EE ANY DAY over CC!!!!

Now, on the subject of mugs: I guess it depends which resort you are staying at, along with the location of your room. When we stayed at CSR, we were all the way on the other side of the lake, and it was too much of hassle to keep walking back and forth around that darn lake! However, we were much closer to the food court at DxL (ok, POR!!) so we did invest in a few mugs, and it was definitely the way to go. Now that we will be visiting CBR and WL this summer, I'm not sure what we will do....hmmm, I'll have to think about this one...!!

 

[crazelion]

If like me 10.00 mugs is no problem. I drink cola all day along so. The refillable mug is a bargin for me an mom. Plus me and it in the food court every morning mom has coffee and soda. I have my coke or else I will be completely useless.

 

[jdads2]

BoyLovesBuzz,

Where can you get 52 cans of Coke for $11.00? Six packs of the stuff here are $2 on sale!

I guess that the mugs are not worth it if you compare their price to real world prices...heck I can get 6 gallons of milk for $11. But when you are talking about prices of beverages in WDW they are a bargain.

I know at the resorts that we have visited the food courts have been on the way to the transportation system. So if you use the mugs just twice, on the way out and on the way back into the resort, it seems to be worth the price of the mug.

I know that my DW and I probably made up for the cost of the mugs in a day or a day and a half. 1 cup of coffee with breakfast, 1 to take with us to the park. 1 cold beverage on the way back to the resort at midday and 1 when we left. Maybe another cold beverage at night and maybe a hot chocolate at the pool.

 

[BoyLovesBuzz]

jdads2, coke products are regularly on sale here for 2.50 a 12 pack. Sometimes as low as 1.99 a 12 pack, or 99 cents a six pack.

Disneyolic, I'm willing to bet 100% of the people would rather have EE, myself included.

kimmar067, I was on the other side of that darn lake as well, although we were close to the bridge. Typically I would walk over, fill the mug, drink down, fill it up, drink it down, fill it up, go to the gift shop , spend 30 bucks, drink it down, fill it up, go back to the room, and before I was across the bridge, it would be empty.

I may just be over-sensitive today, but I still get the feeling that the replies are taking what I said about CC as an opinion that CC is a good replacement for EE.

IT IS NOT A FAIR REPLACEMENT FOR EE

I appolgize for yelling.

 

[tennismom]

We used ours at breakfast and then once again in the evening. Over the course of 8 days it was definitely worth it.

I'm also wondering if you can use it at the water parks. I purchased an additional one at typhoon lagoon just so there was a cold drink waiting for whoever needed it at our "base camp". They told me that I could re-use it on another day and also at Blizzard Beach by buying an updated sticker for $5. We did do this at BB and it worked out great. I'm just wondering if you can just buy the sticker for a resort mug and use it at BB and TL!

 

[kimmar067]

...like you are yelling. I, too, feel that CC IS DEFINITELY NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR EE MORNINGS!!!!!! What bugs me is that the Disney people feel like they are DOING US A FAVOR by bringing characters to our hotels. Hmmmmm, where would I rather be at 8:45 AM - waiting to meet Tigger and Eeyore in a hotel lobby or standing in line for my 2nd "go" on Splash Mountain....?!?!?!?! (a no-brainer)

 

[stephaniebatesjones]

You guys are so right about the cc -vs-ee trade off. CC is in NO WAY A GOOD SUBSTITUTE for EE days. What the heck were they thinking ????? I agree that finding characters in the park is never any trouble. The only good thing that I can see from it is that you don't have to wait in line in the hot sun to see the characters...but the way I see it, the hot sun is part of the experience. I've gone 3 times..once in July, once in Aug., and once in end of Nov.-beginning of Dec. I loved the summer months much better than the winter ones. MAYBE WE SHOULD START A LETTER WRITTING CAMPAIGN...it just might work.

As for the mugs. I think that it can be a good thing to buy one if you will be returning to that resort or want to collect them. My DH, DD, and I bought mugs from AS movies. We like to stay at other resorts, but my DD is 4 and we know that we will stay at the AS at least a couple of nights every trip. So over time the mug ends up to be a great deal for us. However, we did not get any at the BW when we stayed there. Who knows when we'll be staying there again.
Steph

 

[pooh6890]

My daughters drink water and lemonade so although I buy the mugs, they are really no deal. One of my daughters collects them and that is why I buy them and then it's usually only one maybe two......as for me, they don't have refills of wine so it is definately not a good deal for me.

 

[raidermatt]

Whether or not CC is a fair replacement for EE is up to the individual, and there is no right or wrong answer.

However, the two programs could both exist if Disney decided that was the best decision. Its not an either/or question. They only package them in the same announcement as a spin.

The thing to remember is that EE costs much more $$$ than CC.

For us, I'd agree that the refillable mugs are over-rated, but that's just because they don't fit our habits very well. Again, an individual thing...

 

[BoyLovesBuzz]

I wonder if they had rolled out CC and then cancelled EE without tauting one as the substituite for the other, how would things have played out. Completely separate the two events. Hmmm.

I know people were/are upset that EE was cancelled, but they don't get really mad until they hear that CC is suppose to replace EE.

Oh well, perhaps a debate board topic. Anyway, I enjoyed CC with my two small kids. It was not meant for this to turn into a CC vs EE thread. Unfortunately that will always happen when something poitive is said about CC. I would have much rather been in the parks, but you take what you can get. It is to bad that CC gets trashed, becuase it is associated with the cancelling of EE.

I kind of reminds me of that type of fish that has the mis-fortune of tasting like crab-meat. Talk about bad luck.

 

[flagal]

Confession: I'm a mug dork. I just started collecting them. I have three so far. I don't buy anything else at Disney. Call it Mom's little trinket. Plus, I'm a coffee fiend, and I like that early a.m. walk. Especially at AKL.

A value? Maybe, but only if you're there for more than a few days, or if you stay at the same resort a few times.

We never did ee, so I can't say I'll miss it. But we're going this summer, and it would be nice to get to a park early and be done before the oppressive heat sets in.

 

[vacationplanner]

I understand that the early entry is a must during the busy times at DIS. We are going to BWV Jan 2003, so would EE be as necessary then compared to CC??? This is a "whole family" trip, so there will be children aged 9yr, 4yr, 3yr, 2yr, 18mos!!! I think the CC seems like a great thing for our group.

Thanks!

 

[LAinSEA]

It fits quite well in the cup holder in my Subaru and is great inexpensive souvenir of our trip. Based on the prices charged for soda at Mara, we got our money's worth... since we like to have our Diet Coke over ice (we stopped to pick up a 12 pack along with the case of bottled water on our way to the resort) it was also very handy to fix up a drink with ice from the machine across the hall from the room.

Character Caravan vs EE? No EE was a great excuse to sleep in or spend time relaxing on the balcony watching the animals - but with the heat of last week, and in the months to come, Early Entry would be a blessed relief from heat exhaustion! Add to that WDW's lack of scheduling more than one Spectro/Fireworks a week in the non-peak season...and the way Splash, Haunted Mansion and Buzz seems to break down...OK - I'll stop the whining!

Please bring back EE - at least at MK!

-LA

and I like to take pics with the characters with the backdrop of the views in the parks

 

[T3trish]

The mugs save us about a million dollars. My DH and I drink a thousand cups of coffee and our DS drinks pop (soda) and hot chocolate. So it's a BIG savings for us.

Now CC is nice but I would have to say during peak EE would be better. We've gone and had no problem jumping on almost all rides with 10 minutes. So at those times I would have used EE but if it's busy I'd want EE.