Stolen All-Season Drink Cups

This is the exact reason why I never bother with getting those cups. Some time ago, I calculated the costs of buying the drink cups + lockers vs. just getting a disposable cup and found that the disposable cup was cheaper in the long run. When you factor in locker rentals, it ends up costing you more money. I would pay up to $50 for an all-season drink plan. That wouldn't be a replacement for souvenir cups, just another option. I'm sure there are many who just buy those cups for the sake of collecting them.

I think the 13 year old in the story just learned a valuable life lesson.

She just lost a shiny new cell phone, but gained priceless wisdom.

Hopefully.

For me, if I can't button it in my cargo shorts pockets, it doesn't come into the park.

(I still feel bad for the kid.)

The issue here is not really the stolen cups, it's that by selling all-season cups the park has greatly increased the number of people walking around with loose articles. As a result, more people are trying to skip getting a locker they don't want to pay for, having the cups stolen, etc.

It seems logical that this should instead go on your season pass. Imagine if you could only use the all-season dining plan if you had your special orange plastic plate to put the food on.

I would even be okay with a smaller cup for a season long drink plan as long as I don't have to carry a bottle around! Whats the smallest size offered now? 20oz.? I would be okay with a season long drink plan being a 16oz cup.

If they can offer a "ride and refresh" ticket where the user gets a wrist band for a day of "free drinks" then there is absolutely no reason why they can't tie a plan into a season pass. Like someone said before on one of the 200 threads discussing this. The bottles also work as advertising, I can't walk a foot in the park without seeing someone carrying a bottle.

I would assume they could easily offer both options. Still offer the bottles for those who want them, and offer a drink plan, even if it was tied into a meal plan so you can't have one without the other. All season dining for $120 or all season dining PLUS drinks for $150! Take my money CP so I don't have to carry it in the park!

I will confess that I bought an all season bottle this year (even though I hate them with a passion), but I am usually with someone who is willing to sit out a ride instead of buying lockers, and they also are nice at WWK when you have a chair and all your stuff there.

Burt said:

Hi All -

My son has now had two of them stolen near the Valravn ride. No, he did not lock them in a locker - he tends to try to put them out of sight a bit.

I don't like getting lockers anymore than anyone else here, but, I'll get a locker, spend the buck and do it. I don't need the cup all day anyways. I usually go out, get it for lunch, and then put it back in the car. If I need it in the park, I'll fork over a dollar, it's not going to hurt me at all.

Im for factoring the cost into tickets or somewhere else, which probably would be marginal, and having free drinks like Holiday World :)

Chuck Wagon said:

It seems logical that this should instead go on your season pass. Imagine if you could only use the all-season dining plan if you had your special orange plastic plate to put the food on.

PLEASE, don't give them any ideas!

I truly can't believe that in this day and age, someone is still surprised that people steal.

Just last week a dad and his boys went to the restroom to the right of TTD. They had won a giant monkey at one of the games. They put it on the bench across from the restrooms and went in. His boys were little, so I understand not leaving them alone. It was less than 15 seconds after he walked into the restroom that 2 older teen boys saw the monkey, looked around and picked it up and started to walk away. I stopped them, of course, but the world isn't all rainbows and puppies and you simply can't just assume that if you put something down, concealed or not, that it will be there when you get back.

I think this is a classic case of fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The first cup was "hidden" and came up missing/stolen. So what do you do? You ACTUALLY get the park to give you a new one (which surprises me because they have signs and fine print everywhere saying any lost or stolen items are not the parks responsibility if NOT in a locker) and you do it again and in the same place the first was stolen!

There is no such thing as a perfect system and I am sure the park will look into other options next season,until then this is the system we have. But dont use the system or the parks cup policy as an excuse for making a poor decision that was made twice.

I imagine the park needs to be fairly strict concerning this; if not, they'd be doling out replacement cups non-stop.

Here's what I do, and I think I can solve this problem:
Just drink water for the day. No carrying of cups or lockers are needed. And I don't "lose" any money by others stealing my free water cup.

Hope to see them tie the drink plan to the pass next season instead or in addition to the refillable cups. Even if it costs a bit more, say $40 or $50 for the season to cover the cost of cups and lost locker sales, I'm okay with that. I think they could even put a time criteria on drinks - like one 20 ounce cup every 2 hours or something to that effect. Heck, they could even have different price levels with different allowed refill intervals, but that is likely going overboard.

I honestly probably would not buy the cups if we weren't always having a stroller and a non-rider in tow. As soon as both kids are big enough to ride everything, we'll likely not buy the drink plan unless they allow it to be tied to the pass in the future.

If you ditch your cup in a bush or behind a fence or on a bench and it isn't there when you come back, I don't have a lot of sympathy. Could have been stolen or could have been thrown out by a sweep (although at CP, we generally did not do that with the cups),

From an IT perspective, I would imagine that tying an entitlement to your pass isn't any different than the dining plan. They still use Micros for POS, right?

Yes. And I only know that because it went down last Saturday. They were unable to scan my mobile voucher for my souvenir cup. It was about 2 hours before they would give me my bottle. If I had don't a non-mobile voucher, and brought a printed copy, they would have taken it and just scanned it later. So much for trying to go green.

darkrider68 said:

CoasterGuy15 said:

Personally I think the souvenir cups are more of a hassle than a help. I'm fine with getting my two free drinks and free chili fries with my season pass when I buy one regular fry at any participating vendor.

Drinks no longer come with the fry deal.

As of when? I've used the deal three times this season so far at the happy fryer.

The drinks week available until the weekend before Memorial Day.

They did indeed get rid of the drinks with the Platinum fry deal. Really isn't that much of an issue though as one can find nifty free orange re-fillable drink cups scattered in bushes throughout Cedar Point.

I wonder what CP's cost is on the disposable cups? It used to be the places with the big soda company contracts got the cups basically free as part of the deal.

The flip side is the possibility of increased trash with the notion of season drinks attached to your pass like season dining. It's still the best option in my view.

djDaemon said:

Burt said:

If a cup is stolen, the cup can be deactivated, and a new cup purchased for a nominal (not full price) cost.

The park would have to charge quite a bit, I imagine, to keep people from treating the souvenir cups as disposable. Even at their ~$30 cost, people still leave them laying around all the time. If they could be replaced for, say, $5? It would probably be even worse. I mean, your cup cost you ~$30, and you still left it out to be stolen not once, but twice. At a certain point you need to take responsibility for your valuables.

As for the all season beverage plan, I like the idea, but not at the expense of the souvenir cups. We find a lot of value in having a cup with a lid that we can carry around and not have to consume right away. Though admittedly we mostly use it when we're in the park with a stroller. When it's just the Wife and I riding coasters, we stick with the water fountains.

All valid points. Myself I have always just asked for ice water. I don't drink a lot of soda anyway. Yes, my son learned a valuable lesson.

Jeff said:

I think "Burt" is looking for a story where there isn't one. And it smells like one already told in Cincinnati.

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, in this case it would not be correct. I'm a 15 year passholder at CP, along with my two children. The past two seasons I've done the meal plan add on. I do not see it as CP's responsibility - we ran the risk. His second cup, which lasted three park visits, my son was carrying a drawstring bag. he was to dump the cup out far away from whatever ride he was going to leave it at and put the cup away in his bag. when he then left the bag at the ride it would not be as conspicuous. Still a risk, but hopefully less of one. However, he saw everyone else just leaving cups around and decided to skip that process. I told him this one is primarily on him - he did not at least take steps to try to minimize his risk. He hopefully has learned a lesson.

I knew I'd get some heat for the post. However in a later post you argue my point at least somewhat. From an IT perspective, they are already recording codes to validate the cup as active. Just making a suggestion to them to consider tying to a pass, or other ID.

As it is, I will call CP and ask them to deactivate the cup (I recorded the code, at the suggestion of a guest services rep) so that the thief does not get the benefit of the cup the rest of the year, and will tell my son he can stick with water the rest of the season.