Gulp: Major changes possible for Cedar Point's drink refill program

Editor's note: Justin Dietz represents a Cedar Point food blog, (CPFoodBlog.com, @CPFoodBlog on Twitter). He recently talked about the positives and negatives coming out a possible change to the park's drink refill program.SANDUSKY — Earlier this month, we had heard of a select group of guests receiving surveys from Cedar Point and other Cedar Fair parks asking for feedback on the all-season souvenir cup program.This week it appears the rest of the season pass holders received the same survey.For season pass holders that visit the park numerous times per season, the all-season bottles were a great value, providing unlimited beverages all season. At roughly $4 per drink in the parks, the $30 bottles quickly paid for themselves.But guests soon started started experiencing problems with the cups.As soon as an all-season drink concept was presented in early 2016, we warned park-goers about potential problems popping up.The cups, for instance, would be prone to theft due to their unlimited refill potential. There's also no verifiable way to tie a cup to an individual's season pass account in hopes of preventing abuse.Several issues did, in fact, arise this season:• People stole cups.• Most guests who are at the parks ride roller coasters, which prevents them from carrying on items, such as cups. • In the past, the parks have placed bins near each ride's start and stop points, which allowed guests to temporarily store their items inside of. The number of bins, however, have steadily decreased over time, leaving guests with either having to rent an expensive locker or leaving their cups and other belongings with a non-rider.As depicted in their latest survey, Cedar Fair is now considering the implementation of a varied version of the all-season drink program"This potential new all-season drink program would eliminate the need to purchase a plastic souvenir bottle and bring it to the park(s) in order to use the program," according to a statement. "The program would be connected to your season pass, just like the all-season dining plan. To get a beverage, you would scan your pass to get a disposable cup and your drink of choice. The program would be available at both self-service drink stations and at other food and beverage locations."If implemented, this bottle-less program would have a similar cost to the current bottle program and would also include the same wait times between refills. Today the official wait time between refills is 5 minutes, but implementation of that rule is always up to the associate.Initial feedback to the news of the potential program changes has been mostly positive. The diehard pass holders seem to be really excited about the potential program changes.But there are also guests that either loved the "souvenir" aspect of the cups or have concerns about being able to share the new program with their family, like they can now with the reusable souvenir bottles.One negative impact to the new drink program is the additional waste generated by the guests. There's also the potential for additional litter around the parks should the associates not change the collection bins as frequent.While anything is possible, we foresee a compromise between both programs.The all-season cup program is likely to proceed with the recommended changes. There will still be an audience for the standard souvenir drink cups that offer free refills on the day of purchase and $1 refills all season.For the guest that only visits the parks once, or a couple times per season, the standard souvenir bottles still capture the need and value proposition that families are looking for when they visit.What are your thoughts on the potential new changes to the All-Season drink program at Cedar Point?Cedar Fair properties, which includes Cedar Point, are considering a major change to the all-season souvenir cup program. Instead of plastic collectors bottles, the park could hand out disposable cups to prevent theft and abuse.