Will soft drinks always be “free”

[gismo1554]

Why on earth would Coke give away the syrup? As others have pointed out, they used to charge like $25 per person for unlimited soda. They probably raised the fares by $50 when when went to soda included.
My e-mail box is full of offers from RCCL, NCL, and Celebrity offering free unlimited alcoholic beverage if you book with them.

Coke always gave their syrups free to Disney. It was good publicity and then gave them the rites to also sell their bottles at a huge profit. Its a great profit maker. I worked for Disney back in 2003 and it was def free back then. It ensured that Disney only sold coke across the property.

That said I really don't know if Disney would risk taking away soft drinks. If they did then it would probably cause more issues than the profit they would take from it.

 

[Flossbolna]

I can totally see this coming. They will switch over to Coke Freestyle machines and those will require a soda package.

 

[Travel60]

I just got off a Tauck river cruise where EVERYTHING was included....sodas, alcohol (as much as you wanted), gratuities to staff, guides, transport and transition hotels, AND excursions. It was more expensive (but probably not more than Disney) but I like knowing I've paid and won't be nickel and dimed for more. It was wonderful and luxurious. They occasionally surprised us with samples of food products from the countries we visited. Already checking the catalog for the next trip!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Even without a contract, soda syrup is a rounding error in the budget. Anyone selling you a fountain soda is making obscene profits on it.

I worked in mall food unit and it was part of our training to upsell the fountain drinks. Customers would order a basic food item and then we would suggest adding the fountain soda and 4 out of 5 customers always did pay the extra for a drink. All those upsell fountain drinks really made a difference to our end of day takings.

 

[tvguy]

Coke always gave their syrups free to Disney. It was good publicity and then gave them the rites to also sell their bottles at a huge profit. Its a great profit maker. I worked for Disney back in 2003 and it was def free back then. It ensured that Disney only sold coke across the property.

That said I really don't know if Disney would risk taking away soft drinks. If they did then it would probably cause more issues than the profit they would take from it.

Well, in his book "For God, Country and Coca Cola" Mark Pendergrast quotes Coke executives as saying in 1987 their exclusive agreemento to sell just their products at Disney was their most profitable account. Hard to make a profit if you aren't charging for it.

 

[lilsonicfan]

It wouldn't surprise me if they do this at some point; but actually it does surprise me that anyone really considers this much of a perk at all. It's nice that DCL offers it but I don't see it as being of much value.

 

[brentm77]

Well, in his book "For God, Country and Coca Cola" Mark Pendergrast quotes Coke executives as saying in 1987 their exclusive agreemento to sell just their products at Disney was their most profitable account. Hard to make a profit if you aren't charging for it.

Your skepticism seemed well-placed to me, so I googled it. I didn't find much, but on one Disney urban legend website, it says:

Legend: Because of the advertising value of having its products featured at Disney theme parks, Coca Cola provides Disneyland with all of its beverage products free of charge.

Behind the Legend: This is true, but highly misleading. For years, Coke has had an advantage over rival Pepsi because it provides its products free of charge to all of its customers. The company makes up the loss by requiring that beverages only be sold in official cups or containers -- and charging an enormous amount for those contains. The container charge is based on a sliding scale depending on the customer. Individual consumers, purchasing beverages at a grocery or convenience store, pay only a few cents for the can or bottle in which their beverage comes. At the other end of the scale, movie theaters and theme parks like Disneyland pay as much as $2.00 for a single drink cup, making the exorbitant prices charged for drinks at those locations completely understandable.

 

[tvguy]

Your skepticism seemed well-placed to me, so I googled it. I didn't find much, but on one Disney urban legend website, it says:

Legend: Because of the advertising value of having its products featured at Disney theme parks, Coca Cola provides Disneyland with all of its beverage products free of charge.

Behind the Legend: This is true, but highly misleading. For years, Coke has had an advantage over rival Pepsi because it provides its products free of charge to all of its customers. The company makes up the loss by requiring that beverages only be sold in official cups or containers -- and charging an enormous amount for those contains. The container charge is based on a sliding scale depending on the customer. Individual consumers, purchasing beverages at a grocery or convenience store, pay only a few cents for the can or bottle in which their beverage comes. At the other end of the scale, movie theaters and theme parks like Disneyland pay as much as $2.00 for a single drink cup, making the exorbitant prices charged for drinks at those locations completely understandable.

Well, I do have some insight into the cup issue. I was on our Little League Board of Directors and it is a huge game negotiating with soda companies as to which brand to sell in our snack bar. They pretty much were the same on product costs, about one tenth of a cent for the syrup and CO2 and a cent for the branded cup. We sold a 12 ounce soda for $1. But the perks were where the difference was. When I joined the board Coke was offering $1,000 for us to sell their products. The next year Little League signed an exclusive one year deal with RC. National Little League required local leagues to sell RC products, but all the perks went to Williamsport, nothing went to the local leagues. Next year Pepsi came in and offered electric remote control scoreboards worth about $1,500 if we switched.

 

[Karin1984]

It wouldn't surprise me if they do this at some point; but actually it does surprise me that anyone really considers this much of a perk at all. It's nice that DCL offers it but I don't see it as being of much value.

I don't drink coffee, tea or alcohol. I love my soda and I like it free

In this case I am probably not much different from most kids on a Disney cruise. A free fountain station where your kids can go themselves and drink as much as they like. It might not save tons of money, but I do see the convenience for parents.

But let's calculate, average for a soda on other cruiselines is about $3 per soda. Let's make that $3.33 for a soda and 3 sodas per day, that makes $10 per day per kid, if there aren't any package deals or flat amount for the entire cruise. For a family with 2 kids that is $140 just in sodas on a 7 night cruise.

 

[lilsonicfan]

I don't drink coffee, tea or alcohol. I love my soda and I like it free

In this case I am probably not much different from most kids on a Disney cruise. A free fountain station where your kids can go themselves and drink as much as they like. It might not save tons of money, but I do see the convenience for parents.

But let's calculate, average for a soda on other cruiselines is about $3 per soda. Let's make that $3.33 for a soda and 3 sodas per day, that makes $10 per day per kid, if there aren't any package deals or flat amount for the entire cruise. For a family with 2 kids that is $140 just in sodas on a 7 night cruise.

Okay, I agree there can be some sort of value, using those numbers. But it's significantly more than $140 for most families to choose DCL vs another cruise line.

I said this somewhere else, but we booked Alaska with HAL this year. Pop isn't free on HAL, though if I really wanted I could add on the unlimited pop package for $66 each for my kids. The cruise itself though is literally 1/3 the price of the DCL cruise for the same week. I could buy the pop package for 120 children for the price difference hahaha.

I'm definitely not saying DCL doesn't have its place, or that I would always choose another cruise line. I love DCL. But free pop is just not of significant value, IMO.

 

[gatordoc]

Your skepticism seemed well-placed to me, so I googled it. I didn't find much, but on one Disney urban legend website, it says:

Legend: Because of the advertising value of having its products featured at Disney theme parks, Coca Cola provides Disneyland with all of its beverage products free of charge.

Behind the Legend: This is true, but highly misleading. For years, Coke has had an advantage over rival Pepsi because it provides its products free of charge to all of its customers. The company makes up the loss by requiring that beverages only be sold in official cups or containers -- and charging an enormous amount for those contains. The container charge is based on a sliding scale depending on the customer. Individual consumers, purchasing beverages at a grocery or convenience store, pay only a few cents for the can or bottle in which their beverage comes. At the other end of the scale, movie theaters and theme parks like Disneyland pay as much as $2.00 for a single drink cup, making the exorbitant prices charged for drinks at those locations completely understandable.

Boy this brought back memories of when I worked movie theater concessions in high school. And the end of each night we had to do a cup count as a marker for sales. But while working we could drink as much from the soda fountains as we wanted as long as we used our own refillable cups.

 

[mevelandry]

So my mom and I are having a coffee chat afternoon. Discussing our just book European sailing. Then we were chatting on how expensive the parks have gotten and what was once free and no longer. Then my mom says “ at some point DCL will charge for soft drinks”

I was like “no!” That will never happen and then I said what about the drink stations on the pool deck and she said well that can be easily solved with a chip.

What are your thoughts ?

I hesitate between A and B:

A) It will remain free but the price of your cruise will keep getting higher and higher.

B) They will do like they did with everything that was free in WDW and start charging for it.

 

[mevelandry]

Free soft drinks are part of what makes the DCL model work. They need to be family-friendly, which means no casinos and much less alcohol than what other lines offer. They make up for the lost casino and booze revenue with higher rates, but they need things to justify those rates. Free soda is a low-cost way for them to say "look what we include that those other guys don't."

Just because they don't offer a drink package doesn't mean alcohol is less accessible than it is on other cruise lines (where the cost of the alcoholic packages can be quite a deterrent). We bought wine packages on DCL and participated to mixology and wine classes as well (and got out of there soooo drunk!). Last time I was there, drinks were not super expensive either.

 

[mevelandry]

I can totally see this coming. They will switch over to Coke Freestyle machines and those will require a soda package.

I love the Coca-cola Freestyle machines. Almost endless choices.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Just because they don't offer a drink package doesn't mean alcohol is less accessible than it is on other cruise lines (where the cost of the alcoholic packages can be quite a deterrent). We bought wine packages on DCL and participated to mixology and wine classes as well (and got out of there soooo drunk!). Last time I was there, drinks were not super expensive either.

It's not about access to alcohol, it's about the culture onboard. It's about the type of guest who chooses to sail *specifically* for an unlimited drinks package.

 

[mevelandry]

It's not about access to alcohol, it's about the culture onboard. It's about the type of guest who chooses to sail *specifically* for an unlimited drinks package.

IMO it is overstated... While the ones on DCL are swept under the rug.

 

[gismo1554]

Well, in his book "For God, Country and Coca Cola" Mark Pendergrast quotes Coke executives as saying in 1987 their exclusive agreemento to sell just their products at Disney was their most profitable account. Hard to make a profit if you aren't charging for it.

As said they are making the profit on those bottled drinks and on the advertisement

Your skepticism seemed well-placed to me, so I googled it. I didn't find much, but on one Disney urban legend website, it says:

Legend: Because of the advertising value of having its products featured at Disney theme parks, Coca Cola provides Disneyland with all of its beverage products free of charge.

Behind the Legend: This is true, but highly misleading. For years, Coke has had an advantage over rival Pepsi because it provides its products free of charge to all of its customers. The company makes up the loss by requiring that beverages only be sold in official cups or containers -- and charging an enormous amount for those contains. The container charge is based on a sliding scale depending on the customer. Individual consumers, purchasing beverages at a grocery or convenience store, pay only a few cents for the can or bottle in which their beverage comes. At the other end of the scale, movie theaters and theme parks like Disneyland pay as much as $2.00 for a single drink cup, making the exorbitant prices charged for drinks at those locations completely understandable.

Ohh interesting that its also the cups that add the profit. We weren't told this but makes complete sense to me.

As said I still think DCL would have to rethink their entire model to get rid of free soda. They would need to also change all their ships and Castaway drinks stations over which would take effort. The Freestyle machines are great but they require more attention than the old style machines as the soda inserts are smaller so need replacing more regularly for the popular ones. We were at Yacht Club where they have two free style machines and 9 out of 10 times one or both machines were out of at least one type of soda. The staff said that they just don't have the time to keep them restocked and wished they'd go back to the old machines. At least with them you could do multiple pumps of the most popular sodas.

 

[Flossbolna]

I love the Coca-cola Freestyle machines. Almost endless choices.

See, that’s the reaction a lot of people would have. So, the loss of value will be made up by having more soda choices. And customer satisfaction wouldn’t plunge.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Free soda is kind of the best example of Disney responding to outcry from their customers. When cruised when they sold the "Soda Passes". My kids decided the FREE fruit punch that was available in the buffet was better and soft drinks. so we never got the Soda Pass.
Like the lack of casinos on board, free soda (which really isn't free, it is just included in your fare) is what makes Disney......Disney.
We will see, I think we will get a clue soon if Paper Navigators come back. There are a lot of angry folks who want the paper ones back.

From everything DCL has said, Paper Navigators are gone for good. Do not expect to see them again.

 

[gismo1554]

From everything DCL has said, Paper Navigators are gone for good. Do not expect to see them again.

I agree. Even as someone who is blind and struggles with the app I have been told they have no way to even print the paper ones anymore so I have to put up with it. I have still requested large print navigators again on my special services request but really not expecting them back. COVID is a good excuse for them to force change