Is the Refillable Mug Worth It

“Is the refillable mug worth it? If you’re staying longer than four days, absolutely! Free drinks and it’s a keepsake!”

We have been pretty lucky that every time we have gone to Disney over the years we have gotten their free dining plan and with it, a free refillable mug.  The first time we got one was when we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge in 2006.  The refillable mugs were all unique to your resort and at first we weren’t sure we would use it at all.  What were we supposed to do, lug it around the parks with us?  Well, we didn’t do that but we found that we absolutely loved having these available at night when we were back at our resort.  We would go to Roaring Forks and fill up with soda or hot chocolate and then go sit in the lobby and relax after a long day of walking around.  Even this past visit at Riverside we would head back to the room, grab our mugs, and then go get something to drink so we could find a nice place to sit and watch the river or the big mill wheel.  It was really nice and very convenient.  Even if you just fill them up and head back to your room, it’s really a nice perk.

After 2006 they appear to have discontinued the unique resort ones and now they just have standard designs that you can get with maybe different colored caps.  It’s a shame because we were looking forward to collecting the different ones from each resort we stayed at, but I can see how having one design is simply cost-effective for Disney.  So now we have three keepsake refillable mugs that line our counter at home:  one from the Wilderness Lodge, one from the Year of a Million Dreams, and one from this latest trip that’s just Mickey.  We did do the different colored caps for that last one which helped us tell them apart. 

If you are not on the dining plan and thus have to pay for the refillable mugs out of pocket, you might want to consider how long you are staying.  If it’s only for like three days, they might not be worth it to you.  But I think anyone staying four days or more can get a good value out of them instead of paying for drinks at the counter service restaurants in your resort.  And if you’re one of those people that don’t mind carrying around a bunch of stuff in the parks, they’re DEFINITELY worth it since you won’t have to waste your snack credits on drinks if you’re on the dining plan and won’t have to pay for them if you’re not!