Does anyone know if you can still get free water refills in a personal water bottle at food/drink venues in the parks with the Covid-19 safety precautions in place?
Ok I know this is a universal question but it’s also Florida where hydration is important. You might not be able to get your bottle filled but you can get free water in a cup that you can use to fill your bottle.
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I don’t think you could ever use your own bottle. Free water comes in cups that you can then decant into your own bottle.
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The cups that they give you are pretty small, and you’ll probably have to wait in line for one. .
We liked using a Brita water bottle so that we could refill with non-filtered water.
If the family needed more than that we also had a freestyle cup. I wouldn’t buy a cup just for water. But if you already have one you can get filtered water in the freestyle cup and then flll your water bottle that way.
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I think I may have found a solution. It looks like you can fill up any container, not just souvenir or Coke freestyle cups, with water for free at any of the Coke freestyle machines. This assumes that the Coke freestyle machines are still open during Covid safety protocols. Can anyone confirm that the Coke freestyle machines are currently open?
If only UOR had some of these
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@bebe80 That would be nice, maybe someday. Does anyone know if the regular water drinking fountains are closed during Covid safety precautions?
Are you sure that you can do that?
That used to be true. I remember before our Feb 2020 trip reading complaints on the Universal Passholder facebook group that they didn’t allow it anymore. The water filters on those machines are expensive beasts, and since they disable one machine when two are together, lines for the machines can get long.
But, yes, the self-serve freestyle machines are open. Or at least half of them are.
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@shawthorne44 Yep, unfortunately, you are correct. Upon further research, no more free water at the Coke Freestyle machines. One can still get water with an activated souvenir Freestyle cup ($). Only ice is free now at the stations (sometimes?)
Well, at least you didn’t go there counting on it.
We really like the Brita water bottle. Florida water is nasty. but what makes it nasty can be filtered out with the carbon filter.
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In December 2020, one day we were allowed to use the freestyle machines to fill our cups with water, and the very next day they turned the feature off. No one could tell us why or if it were permanent.
That is weird. Before our Feb 2020 trip I read complaints on the Passholder Facebook page about them turning that off. Reasoning was that people with random cups were making the lines long, and also those water filters are expensive in those machines.
Maybe on your first day you’d gotten lucky and found a machine that accidentally hadn’t been turned off.
Just recently I’ve seen complaints that even with the freestyle cup, still water isn’t being offered at some machines.
Well dang, pretty much the main reason I wanted the Freestyle cup was so my family would always have easy access to water.
Apparently they all have carbonated water.
For my daughter we bought a Brita water bottle. It has a little filter in it. The nastiness in FL water is filtered out. That way we could refill her bottle at random places.
Looks like I may end up going that route. When you say random places, are you referring to the Quick Service places that will give you a cup of free water? I’ve heard that because of Covid precautions and Mobile Ordering, that the lines are now very long at those places (we’re going the week before Easter), which is what I was trying to avoid by getting the Freestyle cup.
There are other places to get water, but they aren’t filtered so they taste nasty. Bathroom sinks for example. After meals we’d add our leftover ice to the Brita bottle.
I seem to remember some other non-carbonated freestyle options like PowerAde and Lemonade.
I get where you are coming from. My daughter only drinks milk and water, despite the abysmal examples of her parents. I’m addicted to Diet Coke. She will also drink a small amount of the Orange Icee.
If I were you, I’d buy a freestyle cup your first day and also have one Brita water bottle. There are some freestyle machines that have still water as an option.
Because I’m compulsive about these things, I’d email customer service a couple of weeks before your trip asking about still water in the freestyle machines using an activated cup. Ask if they are available at all machines, and if not which ones have it. Then print out the email reply. If that is wrong, then ask for a refund on the cup.
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