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Season drink plan questions


timfsu2k
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Interesting hiccup in the drink plan on Saturday. My niece used her Gold Pass to get a deal on an extra bucket of rings at the Ring Toss game. We then visited the drink refill station near the game and were told that the plan had been used within the last 15 minutes. We had most recently gotten drinks more than two hours prior, but it seems the act of scanning the pass at Ring Toss counted against us for the drink plan. The lady let us have the drink anyway, but it was given like a favor which was kind of annoying since this is clearly a programming/procedure issue.

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^ Sounds like a software glitch that I will get worked out shortly.  

One of the other potential problems with the new system is line speed even at the drink only stands.   Frequently you see a large family crowded around the register with a fist full of vouchers and obviously things are not going well getting it sorted out.  In those cases I would just go ahead and get my refill with the plastic cup and no one would say anything.  That might not be possible if you need to get a new paper cup.  

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I had a few of the drink stand workers get confused about the previous drinks showing up on the screen. I had two separate stands tell me I had more than 1 drink cup refill on my card. One said I had  2, which was my third cup of the day, then the next said I had 3, which was my fourth of the day. I think it was showing how many cups I had already purchased and they thought I had more than one cup refill program added to my pass. Unless each time I got a cup, the system was adding another cup plan to my pass? I might have 6 or 7 on there now? :o

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We went with the red bottle just because it was bigger ounces. We almost always have a non rider in our group so he's just stuck carrying them all as usual lol. I do wish they had separate lines at the refill stations. We waited over 30 min to buy the cups then at least 20 min for refills each time because of the paper cup confusion and people paying for yellow cup refills. It would be nice just to have one lane just to scan red cup barcodes for free refills. We also saw several people just cut and go thru the exit and refill their cups without being scanned... it was so busy none of the workers even noticed.

 

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12 hours ago, Gemstone023 said:

Interesting hiccup in the drink plan on Saturday. My niece used her Gold Pass to get a deal on an extra bucket of rings at the Ring Toss game. We then visited the drink refill station near the game and were told that the plan had been used within the last 15 minutes. We had most recently gotten drinks more than two hours prior, but it seems the act of scanning the pass at Ring Toss counted against us for the drink plan. The lady let us have the drink anyway, but it was given like a favor which was kind of annoying since this is clearly a programming/procedure issue.

That problem has existed many years.  I know people that used the gold pass discount at a store for merchandise and then couldn't get food because it was used at said time of merchandise purchase.  Or someone bought a drink and they scanned that first and then invalidated the meal.

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At Chick Fil-A I had the associate tell me that I had 2 drink vouchers on my pass...I only paid for one and have verified that. She told me to get that activated to take advantage of more drinks because I paid for it.....not thinking so. 

I had a similar comment at Carowinds and it was explained to me by Pat Jones, the park's GM and VP, that at franchise locations the systems are not necessarily linking up which may cause confusion/errors such as this or timing issues.

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  • 1 month later...
Hi all.. Do they let you on the big ride's with the souvenir bottle if it's empty? If not can you at least take the bottle up to the platform and leave it in a bin or something? 


Banshee, Firehawk & Mystic Timbers do not have bins. You're not allowed to take in line any loose items like the bottle or bags on those rides. You also can't take a bottle that has anything in it to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
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  • 1 year later...

I'd like to chime and say although I learned about the 15 minute rule after I got my drink plan, I get why the policy exists and it's way better than having to pay like $3-4 for a drink every time.

But yeah, it is kinda misleading...

Until you read the fine print!

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I have both the all season meal and drink plan and have been very satisfied with both. I think it’s a great option for people who visit the park frequently. I will say that sometimes when I go through the line to get a drink, they don’t even scan my pass. So they would never know if I had waited 15 minutes or not. A lot of times they will even give me a bigger cup because they are out of the red refill cups.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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$30 for drinks ALL SEASON LONG is a tremendous bargain.    Be thankful its available, instead of $4.00 drinks all day long.

The season pass meal plan is also a tremendous bargain.


I am surprised that they offer either at such a low price, considering the offsest for low cost season passes has always been the profits on food and drinks.  I would love to see the financial data of how they can offer these at such a low price and keep the same revenue stream.

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1 hour ago, Oldschool75 said:


and the cotton candy and pretzel BOGO.


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Ha--Didn't know about those. The Icees are the one thing I'm a total sucker for so it was lousy to wait in the SC Subway line and be denied the offer....Can kinda understand that but then the actual Icee buffet at the Tower didn't honor it either. Oh well, 1st world problems

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37 minutes ago, super7 said:

 $30 for drinks ALL SEASON LONG is a tremendous bargain.    Be thankful its available, instead of $4.00 drinks all day long.

The season pass meal plan is also a tremendous bargain.


I am surprised that they offer either at such a low price, considering the offsest for low cost season passes has always been the profits on food and drinks.  I would love to see the financial data of how they can offer these at such a low price and keep the same revenue stream.

Oh, the drink plan is the best deal in the house! I do not have a problem with it, just how it was presented. In fact, I’ve essentially “sold” the plan to about a dozen friends and family.

The way that the finances work is interesting. The “cost” on drinks is next to nothing, so the $29.99 largely profit. The meal plan funds are put into a corporate-wide draw down account that gives credit to the park and the particular location. Anything left over is profit. The reason why they do this is because they figured out that the typical guest spends less than $120 on a typical annual basis, so this increments it up.

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This is my second year with the drink pass and knew there was a time gap between drinks...I haven't run into it this year, but I thought it was 8 minutes last year? 

Anywho, if a drink mix is out, I always tell one of the workers...not to complain but to let them know as it is usually their job to change it, too. If no one tells them, they wouldn't know unless they drink that particular drink themselves. 

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If the drink was bad, why not dump it and just fill it with something else. Why get back in line for a new cup, and what about a nominal wait between refill to keep people from “freeloading others” makes it less “unlimited” seems like a big deal made about semantics that are stated. All of the time spent screen shotting details to support your argument maybe could have been spend earlier reading the details of what you were buying. 

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1 hour ago, brent said:

If the drink was bad, why not dump it and just fill it with something else. Why get back in line for a new cup, and what about a nominal wait between refill to keep people from “freeloading others” makes it less “unlimited” seems like a big deal made about semantics that are stated. All of the time spent screen shotting details to support your argument maybe could have been spend earlier reading the details of what you were buying. 

I didn’t drink the drink until I left the drink stand. At the time I did not know that the unlimited plan was being misrepresented so I didn’t think it would be a big deal to simply go through the line again.

Trust me - I’ve learned a valuable lesson in reading the fine print when it comes to making purchases at Kings Island. The 15 minute thing is not in the product description and the drink plan was mentioned and described as “unlimited” several times before the interval is listed at the end of the FAQ. I guess you need to read thing from end to end.

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Refilling used drinkware is the entire premise of souvenir drink bottles. It's gross, for sure - another reason why disposable cups are a great idea.

Anyone with a compromised immune system should stay far away from soda fountains, especially ones that aren't behind a counter.

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2 minutes ago, malem said:

Refilling used drinkware is the entire premise of souvenir drink bottles. It's gross, for sure - another reason why disposable cups are a great idea.

Anyone with a compromised immune system should stay far away from soda fountains, especially ones that aren't behind a counter.

I think that they are able to pass the refillable cup thing because the entire thing is designed to be used with the straw. At least the Freestyle machines are redisgned  so the liquid falls into them. You still make contact for the ice, but at least it’s set up in a way that it likely won’t touch where your mouth touches.

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20 minutes ago, malem said:

^ That's an interesting point; I never considered the drinking straw factor.

I couldn't find any real research on the subject in 2 minutes, but this science fair project found that drinking with a straw was more sanitary with respect to backwash. Let's hope most guests are washing their all-season cups with soap and hot water before each visit.

Even if they wash them before they enter the park (doubtful) I can't tell you how many people I see leave a bathroom stall with cup in hand and don't wash their hands after using the facilities... Be thankful that they got away from food workers making your food and touching those souvenir cups to refill and went to self dispensing...at least now the workers haven't touched an unsanitary cup and then made your food...unless the people in front of you had the hot chocolate refillable cups at Winterfest...

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I never liked the refillable souvenir cups.  You have to carry it around all day, and try to protect the straw from touching dirty things......I also believe the soda gets a funny taste in the souvenir cups.  It tastes much better out of the paper cups.


The new option is more waste with paper cups though.  Its a huge shame these parks don't recycle paper.  I believe people would use recycle bins if they did it!  Were I live, we have curbside recycling and we don't have to sort the paper, plastic, etc.

The small drink cup seems to be big enough if you are just getting a drink.   It is a little small if you are eating a meal. My only wish is that they had a bigger size if you were getting a meal.  But again, for $30 for all season, I can't complain about anything with the plan.  I am very happy that they no longer force you to carry a souvenir cup around all season long.

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1 hour ago, super7 said:

I never liked the refillable souvenir cups.  You have to carry it around all day, and try to protect the straw from touching dirty things......I also believe the soda gets a funny taste in the souvenir cups.  It tastes much better out of the paper cups.


The new option is more waste with paper cups though.  Its a huge shame these parks don't recycle paper.  I believe people would use recycle bins if they did it!  Were I live, we have curbside recycling and we don't have to sort the paper, plastic, etc.

The small drink cup seems to be big enough if you are just getting a drink.   It is a little small if you are eating a meal. My only wish is that they had a bigger size if you were getting a meal.  But again, for $30 for all season, I can't complain about anything with the plan.  I am very happy that they no longer force you to carry a souvenir cup around all season long.

I kind of had the same thought too: having a larger sized up specifically when you also order food would be nice... but it would also create a lot of confusion.

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9 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

Given that is is an almost universal practice at restaurants to get free fountain refills I see nothing wrong with not following the 15 cooldown when eating.  

 

Not universal. That’s strictly an American thing. Same goes for ice in drinks.

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