Help me understand these cups! The Google has failed me.

EmJ

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 17, 2010
Help me understand the refillable Freestyle cups. Google returns many results regarding how to use the cups if purchased separately; however, I'm trying to figure out how they work as part of the QS dining plan.

Let's suppose there are three in our party and we will ALL have a QS dining plan. I'd like to get the QS dining plan + Freestyle cup for my son only, as we can all share. Question 1: Where do I get the cup from? The restaurant?

We will be staying in the park for four days and would like to use the Freestyle cup every day. I think I understand that we can "recharge" it for less than the $5 it would cost to purchase a second time. Question 2: Is that true? And Question 3: Where do we go to "recharge" the cup?

I feel very silly that I'm so confused about cups!

Oh, and does anyone have a ballpark of how many ounces they hold? Looks like 20ish?
 
I can't answer all your questions, but I'll help with what I can. I'm sure someone will have a more complete answer for you, though. We've only bought a Freestyle cup twice. We bought the cup in Mel's once (they were the only location left with the HHN Unlimited Freestyle cups last year) and once at a snack stand. I might be wrong, but 20 ounces seems about right.
 
Usually when you buy the plan, they may have the cups where you buy the plan, or if buying it online, I would guess where you turn in your voucher, you may have to get the mug at a place selling the mugs, and use your meal card to get get the mug.

Note, for the meal deal with the mug, there is no extra drink with your meal, and no extra drink credit either. So, meal with drink, snack credit and extra drink credit deal. Then there is mug freestyle, meal, snack credit.

You can use the freestyle mug again, and I think it is 8.99 plus tax for each day you use it to refill your mug.

Also, I think they recently have said, you cannot use your freestyle mug to get the refill price at any other place a regular refillable cup can, as your refill day with your freestyle cup can only be used in the freestyle machines.
 
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Usually when you buy the plan, they may have the cups where you buy the plan, or if buying it online, I would guess where you turn in your voucher, you may have to get the mug at a place selling the mugs, and use your meal card to get get the mug.

Note, for the meal deal with the mug, there is no extra drink with your meal, and no extra drink credit either. So, meal with drink, snack credit and extra drink credit deal. Then there is mug freestyle, meal, snack credit.

You can use the freestyle mug again, and I think it is 8.99 plus tax for each day you use it to refill your mug.

Also, I think they recently have said, you cannot use your freestyle mug to get the refill price at any other place a regular refillable cup can, as your refill day with your freestyle cup can only be used in the freestyle machines.
Thank you! After more digging, I think I’ve decided not to get the plan with the refillable mug. My DH and I will want to get pumpkin fizz and fun stuff like that with our meals. My son will want milk but if that’s not an option, he will stick with water or sometimes Gatorade, because he is a weird child who does not like “spicy” (carbonated) drinks. I’m going to bring refillable water bottles for the water fountains and leave it at that.
 


The cups used to be more complicated than they are now. But online resources have not been updated to reflect the new policy.

The old cups were pretty simple. After you bought the cup, you could bring them back for cheap refills. Then Universal introduced the Freestyle cups. Early on, these were two separate programs. The Freestyle cups could be reactivated for unlimited refills at a set price per day.

Under the separate plans, the Freestyle cups were better if you were going to drink 6 or more refills per day. That's more than I think most people will drink in a day. So for most people, the old cups were better. The good news is, Universal merged the two plans. Now you can activate a Fresstyle cup for the day OR you can get individual refills for $1.50. The choice is yours.

You can get Icees in the Freestyle cups. I am not sure that the $1.50 price applies to those.
 


As long as your Freestyle cup is charged (paid for that day) you can get free Icees all day as well. They are not in the Freestyle machines. Take your cup to any snack stand that has Icees, they have a chip reader at the counter to let them know if the cup is paid for, then they fill it for you. (My boys and I drank A LOT of Icees last summer :D )
 
I think our first time buying meal plan we’ll get the freestyle mug. Then on other days we want the meal plan we’ll just get the regular one and use mug for the $1.50 refills. And we’ll have the mug for everyday use.
 
Also, you can NOT use the Freestyle cup in City Walk, but it works in all of the 3 parks including Volcano Bay.

*we tried getting an Icee at the Coke stand on the way to the car and were denied.
 
Also, you can NOT use the Freestyle cup in City Walk, but it works in all of the 3 parks including Volcano Bay.

*we tried getting an Icee at the Coke stand on the way to the car and were denied.
I think I read there were 3 or 4 locations in City Walk that you can refill. But not at carts.
 
We tried at the main coke booth, the big one in the middle of City Walk. Not sure where else there is to refill there?
I looked upon the Universal site. There were 3 or 4 quick service restaurants listed. So I suspect you’d have to go inside the quick service restaurant to refill.
If anyone knows for sure please chime in. I’ll be there at the end of the month!
 
Coke Freestyle at Parks: Freestyle cups are $15.99 (and can be reactivated for an extra $6.99 per day. These cups are refilled at the Freestyle Coke machines located around the parks and at Volcano Bay. Link to map of locations click here

Freestyle Machines do not give free water. Water can be obtained in your freestyle cups at any counter service or cart.

The discount refillable red cups are no longer for sale. However, if you have them you can still use them. You can purchase the character refillable cups at the souvenir stores and continue to bring them back for discount refills for $1.19. You can also use your Coke Freestyle cups for discount refills at the carts and restaurants for $1.19.

This info is from the thread about Universal Menus that's pinned to the front of this board. This is from page 1 of this thread & was last updated June 2018 so I can't guarantee the pricing is correct, but it echoes what other posters have mentioned about the Parks Freestyle cups. Remember that Freestyle cups in the parks can't be used at Universal/Lowes hotels that have Freestyle machines like Cabana Bay. I'm hoping to bring my Freestyle cups I puchased in '17 to reactivate this December. In '17, we definitely got great value using them for Icee refills & not all Icee counters will honor the refill. We learned to look for the sign advertising the refillable mugs at the register to know they sold it, so they would give us Icee refills. HTH.
 
This info is from the thread about Universal Menus that's pinned to the front of this board. This is from page 1 of this thread & was last updated June 2018 so I can't guarantee the pricing is correct, but it echoes what other posters have mentioned about the Parks Freestyle cups. Remember that Freestyle cups in the parks can't be used at Universal/Lowes hotels that have Freestyle machines like Cabana Bay. I'm hoping to bring my Freestyle cups I puchased in '17 to reactivate this December. In '17, we definitely got great value using them for Icee refills & not all Icee counters will honor the refill. We learned to look for the sign advertising the refillable mugs at the register to know they sold it, so they would give us Icee refills. HTH.
I like to get icee refills at the kiosk in front of Monster Cafe.
 
I like to get icee refills at the kiosk in front of Monster Cafe.

We've never seen such a great selection of Icee flavors than at Universal!!! We examined every kiosk looking for new-to-us flavors. At home they only sell the most popular flavors: strawberry & cola. I think our favorite flavors were at Seuss Landing. We'll see what we find in Dec!
 

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