Arbors and water fountains

They added those at CLT to the water fountains too. They're pretty nifty.

CLT wins the best bathroom award, by the way. Those peppermints are great! I friggin' love that airport.

To be fair, though, part of my love for it stems from Brookwood Farms BBQ. I feel like I have to explode every time I fly out of there.

Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to make that kind of joke.

If you really want good BBQ in the area, outside of Lexington, head up to Winston and go to Bib's Downtown. I'm a BBQ connoisseur, and it's currently my favorite. Definitely more Memphis inspired than Lexington.

sirloindude said:

CLT wins the best bathroom award, by the way. Those peppermints are great! I friggin' love that airport.

Those aren't peppermints at the bottom of the urinal

WOF Guy said:

My university campus has retrofitted several drinking fountains to include special water-bottle refillers. I would love to see these at parks. Guests who purchase souvenir cups or Dasani bottles could quickly refill them with water and stay hydrated throughout the day.

It's no fun waiting in line at a food stand just to get a free, cold water refill.

Had my first exposure to the bottle filling stations at the new middle school in our neck of the woods about three weeks ago. I believe it's Travis that makes the suggestion for park use in the comments.

Makes sense. My biggest irk with the whole 'free ice water' thing is the way it congests things at food and drink stands. Seems really inefficient to use resources (employess, food stands, etc) to hand out free water. Installing a few of these seems like a great idea.

Using bottle filling stations is a great idea until the park realizes that they are selling a lot less $3 or $ bottled waters. I know I would love to see this at the parks. wonder if they could make it up in the sales of something else?

I'm not sure most people are buying multiple $3 bottled waters during their visit.

I have before, on a hot day, when I had enough money to not really care. When I want to watch my spending, I will opt for carrying my first bottle around for as long as I can stand it.

Well, then let's look at it a different way.

Every park gives out free ice water. This would be no different in terms of cutting into those lucrative bottled water sales.

In fact, as I alluded to in the earlier post, I'd argue that there's a cost benefit to the guest getting their own water.

LostKause said:

when I had enough money to not really care.

Lord Gonchar said:

Every park gives out free ice water. This would be no different in terms of cutting into those lucrative bottled water sales.

But how widely known is that? It seems at least once or twice a season I go up to get my free ice water, and someone who just spent $3 on a bottle of water gets outraged because they didn't know they could get water for free. I'd have to assume that the more they let people know they have access to free water, the more decline they'll see in sales. Never underestimate stupid people with a loaded wallet.

The only park that ever really denied me water was Indiana Beach, and I'm not entirely sure that counts. They instead directed me to the drinking fountain, which was stained green from the nasty well water they have there. So a few bucks for a bottle of water was the easy choice there.

Possible economic benefits of bottle fill stations:

-Reduced lines at food stands. How many people are deterred from buying unneeded food or beverage because of a long line?

-Upon seeing the bottle fill stations guests may opt to buy a Dasani bottle or souvenir cup because they know they can quickly refill it with water.

-Guests who are hydrated will have a longer length-of-stay and make more purchases. (IIRC, Holiday World saw an increase for in-park spending the year they started offering free drinks).

CP Chris said:

But how widely known is that? It seems at least once or twice a season I go up to get my free ice water, and someone who just spent $3 on a bottle of water gets outraged because they didn't know they could get water for free.

Then let's look at it a third way.

Parks already have water fountains. This would literally be free water in the exact same place it already exists. This would be no different in terms of cutting into those lucrative bottled water sales.

Yeah, but the water fountains at the parks are always by the bathrooms, and... I don't know,... It always seems a little icky. :-)

Plus, who knows, I mean - they'd probably make the water extra warm so you'd want to buy drinks anyway, being the dirty, underhanded businesses they are.

I think there are more people who would use bottle filling stations than water fountains. But there are a lot of people who don't drink water and/or who do not want to carry water bottles with them all day at an amusement park. So I am not sure they will lose much in the way of sales. And as noted, they could pick up some sales with less cluttered lines for food/drinks.

I'm all for adding bottle fillers. It seems every time I want to use a drinking fountain I have to wait for somebody trying to get that last inch of the bottle filled up...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I don't see what the problem is. They'll just add some chemical to make bottled water smell like popcorn, and then it'll sell like hotcakes.

Or I know! They could just go ahead and make it smell like hot cakes!

I should go on Shark Tank. (Barbara Corcoran would eat me alive...)

I'd prefer to deal with Lori. :)

She's preeeeeetttttty....