Walt Disney World has another refillable mug problem.
Anyone who has stayed at a Walt Disney World hotel is likely familiar with the refillable mugs sold at the resort. However, just in case you need a refresher, Disney World hotels offer Resort Refillable Mugs for you to purchase and use for FREE refills throughout your vacation. They are 16 oz. insulated coffee mugs, typically sold at each Disney hotel at the resort’s primary Counter Service location. You are entitled to unlimited free refills on fountain drinks, coffee, and tea from participating beverage locations at Disney resorts for your length of stay — up to 14 days.
These mugs can be a great way to save if you drink a lot of soda or coffee, but you need to watch out for a couple of potential PROBLEMS!
While we’re generally big fans of the refillable mugs, we’ve pointed out some issues with using them during resort stays in the past. However, today we’re moving beyond the hotels to discuss the problems with refillable mugs when it comes to Walt Disney World’s theme parks.
Specifically, the problem is you CAN’T use your Walt Disney World refillable mug for refills at the resort’s theme parks. You can refill the mug for free at ANY Disney World hotel (not just the one you’re staying at), but you CAN’T get those free refills anywhere in the parks themselves. So if you’re spending all day in Magic Kingdom without plans to visit any hotels, you won’t be able to refill your mug for free until you get back to your hotel later that evening.
While the mugs might still be worth it, especially for those who have several meals at their hotel each day, they’re arguably much less enticing for guests who spend the vast majority of their vacation at the parks by departing early in the morning and arriving back late at night.
Then there’s the storage issue. Let’s say you eat breakfast at your Disney hotel before jetting off to one of the theme parks and want to use the mug for your coffee. Or maybe you plan on grabbing a bite at the hotel when you return home. You’ll either have to return your mug to your room (if the former), head to your room to pick it up before circling back to the hotel’s food court (if the latter), or carry around an empty mug with you ALL day once you finish your drink.
While that may not sound like much, space in a backpack or Loungefly is at a premium during a Disney park day, and carrying a 16 oz. mug that can’t be used seems like a waste (not to mention the potential problem of some leftover coffee or soda leaking all over your stuff). Plus, the more members of your party, the more mugs there are to lug around.
We wish that Disney would figure out a way to make refillable mugs usable at the theme parks, beyond at bottled water refilling stations, which are unwieldy with the mugs anyway. Having mug refills available at even one or two quick service locations per park could be a game-changer. It would arguably benefit Disney in that there it would likely lead to more mug sales, and would benefit guests like you who would be able to better use the hotel mug you purchased!
While we’re big fans of Disney’s refillable mugs, solving the problems associated with the inability to use them in the parks would make the program all the more appealing!
Stay tuned to DFB for more on Walt Disney World merchandise.
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Do you use refillable resort mugs at Walt Disney World? Let us know in the comments below.
The post The OTHER Refillable Mug PROBLEM Everyone Forgets in Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.