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Fees For FuelRod Swaps To Begin At Disney Parks Starting November 1
We have to face the inevitable, the free unlimited swaps for FuelRod batteries will soon be over in less than a week at the Disney parks. Disney was one of the last locations to offer free unlimited battery swaps throughout their resorts. Starting November 1, each battery exchange will cost $3. Will this cause an issue for visitors traveling to the parks? Will people actually pay $3 to swap batteries?
This news has raised a lot of questions about the likelihood of the FuelRod kiosks continuing at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In early September, the wording on the kiosks started to change by removing “free unlimited swapping ” from the kiosks and just left the word “swappable”, raising the question, “Will they start charging for each swap?” Well, the time has come and all kiosks around the Disney Parks now have a new sticker advising consumers that a $3 fee to swap each battery will take effect starting November 1st.
Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Orlando Resort have already started charging $3 per exchange for the FuelRod battery. As a person who uses their phone quite a bit, it has never crossed my mind to pay $3 to exchange my battery after paying $30 for one the kits.
Image: Disney
On the plus side, Disney has started to add USB charging ports to all their buses that have been updated in their Walt Disney World Transportation fleet. The buses are complementary to guests visiting the Walt Disney World property, taking them to the Disney parks from their resort. This may help guests who have a charging cable where they can simply sit back, relax, and charge their phone while they are on the bus to their next destination.
As for the Disneyland Resort, I am guilty of buying FuelRod kits when I was in a jam and needed to charge my phone. I knew they were free to swap and loved that the kiosks were accessible around the whole resort. If there was a spur of the moment trip to Disneyland, I knew that I could just bring a dead battery and change it while I was there. Now, I will have to plan accordingly because $3 to change a battery is not worth the price.
How do you feel about the FuelRod Kiosk change? Comment below, we would like to hear about it.
