refillable mugs...changes are a coming!

[Lyndria]

Saw this on another Dis thread. I thought the part about 1 hour was interesting. I was under the impression that you could have as much soda as you want all day with the mug. Does this mean you can only have it for an hour each day? Or is the hour limit only on paper cups and not refillables?




http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2011/07/13/news-disney-world-refillable-mug-system-experiment/

 

[DisCamper]

The 1 hour max is for paper cup only not refillable mugs. Refillable mugs can be refilled every 5mins

 

[2goofycampers]

Coming in from a park or sitting out in the sun you can certainly down more than 1 drink in 5 minutes.

 

[dudelydude]

I really wish I could disagree with Disney on this one as it's just another cost-cutting measure, but I really don't mind. There are just too many people that take advantage and use one cups for multiple people or carry the same one on multiple trips. If this stops them from raising the cost of park tickets or resort fees (as much as they normally would otherwise), than I am all for it.

 

[Lyndria]

I really wish I could disagree with Disney on this one as it's just another cost-cutting measure, but I really don't mind. There are just too many people that take advantage and use one cups for multiple people or carry the same one on multiple trips. If this stops them from raising the cost of park tickets or resort fees (as much as they normally would otherwise), than I am all for it.

Agreed. Also, I am not sure how they are going to work this for those people that have those "forever" mugs.

 

[Running_Bell]

I don't get this at all.... when you refill a mug/cup... you are atleast saving Disney the cost of another cup, which is usually more costly than the soda mixes themselves. Adding a chip to each cup can't possibly be cheap.... seems that would cost more than people using refillable mugs all day.

But... I guess this is what happens when some dishonest people decide to milk the system unfairly.

 

[DisCamper]

Disney tried a version of this a few years ago at the water park it failed badly the system hardly ever worked and it just made people mad. This new system will not work for me I have forever mugs. How about people that spend months at the fort how will this work for them

 

[dudelydude]

I don't get this at all.... when you refill a mug/cup... you are atleast saving Disney the cost of another cup, which is usually more costly than the soda mixes themselves

I agree with this logic, but I have seen the little (not barcode) but RFID tags built into a very thin stickers on store merchandise for theft protection....Maybe this technology is getting cheap enough to use it more widely, such as this application. Then again, Disney could just charge another $1 for the upfront cost of the mug to cover the cost of the chip.

 

[tim5055]

I agree with this logic, but I have seen the little (not barcode) but RFID tags built into a very thin stickers on store merchandise for theft protection....Maybe this technology is getting cheap enough to use it more widely, such as this application. Then again, Disney could just charge another $1 for the upfront cost of the mug to cover the cost of the chip.

Passive RFID tags are $.05 or less each, with volume discounts which will probably drive the cost to less than $.01 in the very near future.

 

[Reddy]

Passive RFID tags are $.05 or less each, with volume discounts which will probably drive the cost to less than $.01 in the very near future.

at that price - I can see why Disney is jumping on this
when hearing about sport groups filling up gatorade bottles with soda
or parents filling up 2 liter bottles (I saw this)
what are they teaching the kids???

 

[dudelydude]

at that price - I can see why Disney is jumping on this
when hearing about sport groups filling up gatorade bottles with soda
or parents filling up 2 liter bottles (I saw this)
what are they teaching the kids???

WOW, I didn't realize this went on. It begs the question...does a cup/container need an RFID tag to actually put liquid into it at a soda fountain? I thought the tag was more about limiting the frequency of refills....not an on/off scenario. I guess it could if they wanted it to...Disney can do anything.

 

[Lyndria]

WOW, I didn't realize this went on. It begs the question...does a cup/container need an RFID tag to actually put liquid into it at a soda fountain? I thought the tag was more about limiting the frequency of refills....not an on/off scenario. I guess it could if they wanted it to...Disney can do anything.

I think this is to stop people from using 7-11 mugs and gallon jugs that they just place under the fountain.

I do not think it will work without a chip on it.

 

[tim5055]

It all depends on how they institute the system. Think of the RFID tag as a serial number. Every cup will have a unique number. They could set it up that the cup will only turn on the dispenser after it has been scanned at the point of purchase, or they could just limit refills of a serial number to every 5 minutes. Once we serial number the cups anything is possible.

At manufacture they could imbed a chip in the plastic of a refillable cup and "register" it at time of purchase. Once registered it would know the day you check out and stop working after that date.

The problem I see is the "forever" cups. I have one, but it is so old the image/printing is wearing off so you can hardly read it, so I probably wouldn't use it. But, they will need some sort of override and with no CM next to the fountains this will become a problem.

As with many things, the devil will be in the details.

 

[MommaluvsDis]

I don't know...Why can't the drink fountains be behind a counter that a CM had to refill? Wouldn't this be cheaper still? That way, they could tell people that only the resort mugs or resort paper cups can be refilled. And they could even honor the forever mugs.

No flames
please just thinking out loud.

 

[DisCamper]

I have 20+ mugs from different Disney resorts and water parks. Back then it didn’t only have the resort name, but it also had the year. So the CM knew if you were using a 2004 mug in 2006 and was much debate over the years on Boards. To me Disney decided to take the debate and the problem with CM having to confront guest (which I never saw) by giving all resorts the same generic mug with no dates on them. I don’t think Disney has a problem with people filling their mugs, but people filling 2 liter bottles and other containers that they bring in for free. So I bet this new system is just a way that Disney knows that people have paid at least once for their product and not taking advantage of the self-service drink despisers

 

[FLDisneyFan]

When I did the Keys to the Kingdom tour back in January, the CM told us that Coca Cola provides all fountain drinks at no charge to Disney. So, when you buy a fountain drink at Disney, its 100% profit for Mickey except for the cost of the cup. The way that Coca Cola makes its money is through all the bottled drinks sold at WDW.

So, IMHO, some sort of tracking device wouldn't really prevent losses or provide more income for WDW, but rather would just make the system fair for everyone.

 

[DisCamper]

I don't know...Why can't the drink fountains be behind a counter that a CM had to refill? Wouldn't this be cheaper still? That way, they could tell people that only the resort mugs or resort paper cups can be refilled. And they could even honor the forever mugs.

No flames
please just thinking out loud.

The money it would cost to monitor and give out soda would be a lot more than the cost to let a few people have a free drink. If you take in the 20+ resorts 24 hr a day for someone just to fill cups and mug that’s a lot of money

 

[MommaluvsDis]

True... I don't know if there is an answer to the people filling over sized, non Disney containers. But, for those of us with the forever mugs, how will that work? Will they not let us use them or will they put a temp sensor on our cups? I wonder.

 

[YensidCamper]

Could someone post a picture of a forever mug? I wonder if they could be purchased on Ebay. When did Disney sell these mugs? We bought AP's this year and I would love to have a forever mug. Never knew they existed.

 

[Sheepdog23]

The forever mugs are fatter and a little shorter than the new mugs and definitely do not fit in a cup holder. They better honor their deal with those because I have several of them and refuse to buy new mugs every time I go because it is a waste of resources, especially if we change resorts after only a few days which we plan on doing this year because of room unavailability with our dvc points . Some enviromental group better pick up on this waste and plaster it everywhere! As for those of us with forever mugs, are we ready to go together in a letter to disney about honoring the mugs as they were sold to us? I plan on using my mugs the next time I am there.