Personally, I am one who believes there should be no charge for the lazy river tubes. The tubes should remain in the lazy river, but Disney thinks it is better to charge guest a rental fee for a set of hours or all day. Tubes found around the SAB have been rented. Hourly rentals are returned, but I could see all day rentals just being left out. I think it also illustrates very few people use the tubes all day.
Overall, rent tubes for a few hours. Use noodles the rest of your stay. The better noodles (thicker) can be bought off Disney property for the same prices as Disney or even cheaper.
