Walt Disney World testing new Refillable Mugs at All Stars Sports Resort

[Wendy]

It seems the refillable mug is to be replaced with a new mug. Disney is trying out a new technology at All Star Sport Resort in the End Zone Food Court. This test incorporates new software technology at the drink dispensers.

According to the report, newly purchased refillable-mugs will remain valid for the length of your stay at the resort. Once your mug expires it will no longer be able to dispense soft drinks from the soft drink dispensers at the food court. You will then only be able to receive water and ice from the dispensers, as will any other cups, including older refillable-mugs you may have.

Disney has always looked for ways to control the resort refillable mug program at its resorts across their property and it would appear they may have decided it’s time to stop the abuse of guests who continually bring their mugs back to Disney resorts every visit.

When you buy a new resort mug at the End-Zone Food Court it will have an RFID chip in it, so that when you use your mug at the soft drink dispenser it will read your mug’s RFID chip and dispense liquid into your mug. Soft drinks will only be dispensed provided your mug is valid.

The new mugs at the All Star Sports Resort have the same “Let the Memories Begin” slogan on them, but are different colours than the current resort mugs at other resorts. If you purchase a regular soft drink cup it will be valid for a short length of time while you enjoy your meal. Additionally, if you just want a cup of ice or water any cup will work for those items.

There appears to be a lot of questions swirling about how this technology works in certain drink dispensing situations like combining drinks, or if you spill some of your drink during dispensing. Apparently, there is a certain amount of time you have to wait after you’ve dispensed a drink with your refillable mug.

Like any test period there will be adjustments made to make the program as fluent as possible. There is no word how long this test will last or if it will spread across other Disney resorts.

[foreverducky]

Cmon...really?! Are they really losing that much money in soda?

[Slowhand]

Cmon...really?! Are they really losing that much money in soda?

I was once told that Coca Cola provide their drink FOC to WDW in exchange for the publicity they gain from free advertising.
Dunno how true this is, but it came from a reliable source.

[Keith]

I was once told that Coca Cola provide their drink FOC to WDW in exchange for the publicity they gain from free advertising.
Dunno how true this is, but it came from a reliable source.

I've heard that too and been told it more than once by Disney CMs. It makes complete sense too given it's how incredibly cheap the coke syrup is to produce.

[uscwest]

I have also heard the thing about the Coke products being provided FOC to Disney.

[BUTTERHEAD1]

Truth be told I never felt comfortable bringing an old cup from a previous trip. However petty it may be it's still a form of stealing(this is something my wife and I have "discussed" prior to every trip). With that being said if WDW is getting the soda free of charge then they probably should give the cups free of charge to guests staying at their resorts. When we go we always have the dining plan so we really dont need the resort cups.

[Wendy]

I was once told that Coca Cola provide their drink FOC to WDW in exchange for the publicity they gain from free advertising.
Dunno how true this is, but it came from a reliable source.

Disney does get the syrup free of charge, it's part of an agreement between Disney and Coca-Cola.

From what I've been reading in other places, it's the additional costs of water, CO2 and electricity that they will be saving

Don't they use something similar to this in the water parks

[Johnie]

It's ridiculous. Fountain drinks are almost pure profit. And I can only imagine how much the new mugs will cost to recoup the chip.

[Britchick]

Maybe they should make them reusable and if you bring them back you get the cost of the mug taken off. I've never seen the attraction in these as we don't spend enough time in the resort or drink enough soda to justify it. We make coffee etc in our room

[Johnie]

They used to be a cool souvenier when the mugs had a design specific to each resort. Then they started making them all generic