Universal Refillable Cups

GALE88 · 23 Feb 19, 12:26 PM

Would someone mind talking me through the refillable cup options for US/IOA?

Is it worth doing? We're a family of 4 and will be staying at HRH for 3 nights in August.

Should we get one each, or would 2 between the 4 of us be enough? Can I pay for 3 days in one go? What are the drinks options? One DD doesn't like fizzy drinks so I'm interested to know what the still options are. (If she's just going to use it for water the whole time I'm not sure it would be worth it.) The other DD is the opposite and I'll be trying to limit how much neon Fanta she drinks!

We're not sure if we're going to Volcano Bay yet, but can they be used there too?

TIA

DisneyWannabe · 23 Feb 19, 02:17 PM

We tend to buy one between us. You do have to wait a few minutes between fills, but this isn't an issue as one person fills and drinks it by the time we got to the next station. Still drinks were limited as I recall, mainly Minute Maid Lemonade.

TBH most of us were happier with the free cups of iced water and I just added some Robinsons Squash'd to it. This was much more refreshing imho.

GALE88 · 23 Feb 19, 06:40 PM

Originally Posted by DisneyWannabe

We tend to buy one between us. You do have to wait a few minutes between fills, but this isn't an issue as one person fills and drinks it by the time we got to the next station. Still drinks were limited as I recall, mainly Minute Maid Lemonade.

TBH most of us were happier with the free cups of iced water and I just added some Robinsons Squash'd to it. This was much more refreshing imho.

Maybe just one will be enough, we can get free water for fizzy hating DD and the rest of us can share from the refill cup.

chmurf · 23 Feb 19, 06:54 PM

if you go for the coke freestyle cups, you'll pay a one time amount for the cup, then you'll need to renew it at a reduced price every day you wish to use the system

coke freestyle will have minumte maid lemonades in a lot of flavors (grape, orange, lemon, vanilla, peach ... and so on)

you could also buy a character mug, you can refill for a small fee each time, but non fizzy options are much more limited (mainly powerade, minute maid (lemon, or sometimes pomgrenate)

others will be fizzy

getting one mug for a family sounds like a less expensive way, but you need to wait for quite a long time between refills. And all things considered, if everybody's very thirsty under the florida sun, you might end up spending more time waiting for the machine, than waiting in lines, and eventually get cups of free ice water when you've paid for drinks ... sure does make less sense that way.

some manage to quench the thirst of 4 with a refillable mug and say they're fine with it ... well ... depends on the family.
As far as we're concerned, we get one cup each, and quite often irf I've been served first, I've downed my own cup before my wife has finished filling hers ... and I'm finding myself waiting for MY next refill "for the road" ... and we get a cup each ...

so depends if you're a thirsty family or if you have Camel relatives (water wise

)

rafjen · 23 Feb 19, 07:36 PM

You can also get slushies in the freestyle cups but less places to get those than fizzy options. We do 2-3 between 5 of us. Can be used at volcano bay but not hotels. I think you can buy multiple days but we just did it daily.

GALE88 · 23 Feb 19, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by chmurf

if you go for the coke freestyle cups, you'll pay a one time amount for the cup, then you'll need to renew it at a reduced price every day you wish to use the system

coke freestyle will have minumte maid lemonades in a lot of flavors (grape, orange, lemon, vanilla, peach ... and so on)

you could also buy a character mug, you can refill for a small fee each time, but non fizzy options are much more limited (mainly powerade, minute maid (lemon, or sometimes pomgrenate)

others will be fizzy

getting one mug for a family sounds like a less expensive way, but you need to wait for quite a long time between refills. And all things considered, if everybody's very thirsty under the florida sun, you might end up spending more time waiting for the machine, than waiting in lines, and eventually get cups of free ice water when you've paid for drinks ... sure does make less sense that way.

some manage to quench the thirst of 4 with a refillable mug and say they're fine with it ... well ... depends on the family.
As far as we're concerned, we get one cup each, and quite often irf I've been served first, I've downed my own cup before my wife has finished filling hers ... and I'm finding myself waiting for MY next refill "for the road" ... and we get a cup each ...

so depends if you're a thirsty family or if you have Camel relatives (water wise

)

Do you remember what the waiting time between refills is roughly? Maybe two cups would be better, at least there will be fewer arguements about what we put in them. We could just get one each but the family packhorse, ie me, will end up lugging them round the parks all day!

GALE88 · 23 Feb 19, 09:27 PM

Originally Posted by rafjen

You can also get slushies in the freestyle cups but less places to get those than fizzy options. We do 2-3 between 5 of us. Can be used at volcano bay but not hotels. I think you can buy multiple days but we just did it daily.

Ahh, the fizzy hater does like slushies so she'll probably go for those.

chippyminton · 23 Feb 19, 10:31 PM

orlandoinformer/universa...oke-freestyle/

Everything you need to know in this link to the Orlando Informer.

We had one freestyle cup, and the time between refills is 10 minutes.

The slushes were great, but you had to hunt down the places that have them and different places have different flavours.

GALE88 · 24 Feb 19, 08:57 AM

Originally Posted by chippyminton

orlandoinformer/universa...oke-freestyle/

Everything you need to know in this link to the Orlando Informer.

We had one freestyle cup, and the time between refills is 10 minutes.

The slushes were great, but you had to hunt down the places that have them and different places have different flavours.

Great link, thank you.

mykeyb · 26 Feb 19, 04:06 PM

We are just back, and used the freestyle cup system in the universal parks. We bought a new cup on first visit and then just reloaded it on the days we needed it. (You only get an annual pass discount at an inside food counter not the small stands outside if you have one of those)We shared one between three of us. There are loads of places to fill up the cup, machines through the park. We noticed quite a few more compared to last year and a lot more of the counters serve icees this year which are part of the price. We also took a plain cup for our daughter, who will only drink water or squash, and we filled up her own cup each time we went to a machine with water and ice. You don�t need a freestyle cup to do this. We just took one of the small robinsons concentrated squashed for her. I did also notice they sell these squashes in Walmart.

23 Feb 19, 06:54 PM	#4
	23 Feb 19, 06:54 PM chmurf Imagineer
chmurf Imagineer Join Date: Dec 12	if you go for the coke freestyle cups, you'll pay a one time amount for the cup, then you'll need to renew it at a reduced price every day you wish to use the system coke freestyle will have minumte maid lemonades in a lot of flavors (grape, orange, lemon, vanilla, peach ... and so on) you could also buy a character mug, you can refill for a small fee each time, but non fizzy options are much more limited (mainly powerade, minute maid (lemon, or sometimes pomgrenate) others will be fizzy getting one mug for a family sounds like a less expensive way, but you need to wait for quite a long time between refills. And all things considered, if everybody's very thirsty under the florida sun, you might end up spending more time waiting for the machine, than waiting in lines, and eventually get cups of free ice water when you've paid for drinks ... sure does make less sense that way. some manage to quench the thirst of 4 with a refillable mug and say they're fine with it ... well ... depends on the family. As far as we're concerned, we get one cup each, and quite often irf I've been served first, I've downed my own cup before my wife has finished filling hers ... and I'm finding myself waiting for MY next refill "for the road" ... and we get a cup each ... so depends if you're a thirsty family or if you have Camel relatives (water wise )

26 Feb 19, 04:06 PM	#10
	26 Feb 19, 04:06 PM mykeyb Gone all Goofy
mykeyb Gone all Goofy Join Date: Jun 17	We are just back, and used the freestyle cup system in the universal parks. We bought a new cup on first visit and then just reloaded it on the days we needed it. (You only get an annual pass discount at an inside food counter not the small stands outside if you have one of those)We shared one between three of us. There are loads of places to fill up the cup, machines through the park. We noticed quite a few more compared to last year and a lot more of the counters serve icees this year which are part of the price. We also took a plain cup for our daughter, who will only drink water or squash, and we filled up her own cup each time we went to a machine with water and ice. You don�t need a freestyle cup to do this. We just took one of the small robinsons concentrated squashed for her. I did also notice they sell these squashes in Walmart.