No more free cheese at Disney?

I did always find it odd that they would charge you extra for cheese on burgers and for the prepared cheese fries, but there was that kettle of melted cheese right there on the toppings bar. However, Fudruckers always had the liquid cheese on their toppings bar and never had any trouble selling cheeseburgers and cheese fries.

I highly doubt they are removing them for burn concerns, it's simply a convenient excuse for cutting costs and driving more guests to select the more expensive cheese-laden items. You're just as likely to get burned on the handles of the skillets containing the sauteed mushrooms and onions as you are from the melted cheese, that let's be honest is still liquid at room temperature, and probably doesn't need to be served hotter than 100 degrees to serve its purpose.. I'm guessing the salsa will be next with Disney citing potential clothes staining concerns as the reason for the removal.

Clear cost cutting. BS reasoning being cited. Won't effect me personally as I don't eat at quick service. Just hate when people or companies try to put a positive spin on a clear cost cutting measure. Just call it what it is.

I never eat liquid cheese because it is processed slop whose taste, just frankly, never floated my boat. Therefore, this change really doesn't bother me. However, I agree with the others that this is a simple measure of cost cutting with a weak excuse. The only cited case of a child burned by liquid cheese at Disney was 5 years ago. Wanna bet how many kids have eaten nachos since? If Disney was really concerned about burns, then they'd still offer it free behind the counter.

Or at least make an attempt to reduce abuse. They've done it with the resort mugs, where you used to be able to sit there and fill and refill to your heart's content but now they have embedded RFID chips that only let you fill every 5 minutes, so why not with the cheese? How much does a tub of cheese really cost Disney, $10, and maybe they go through 3 or 4 of those a day when they probably sell >$10k of overall product at that single location?

Liquid cheese is gross. I never used it. It is worse on burgers as it makes it into a slimy mess. A proper cheeseburger needs good quality cheese. I can see why some need it for fries and nachos.

Let's be honest here- when does anyone really want to admit that they cut the cheese?

I think that the moment you buy an RFID-enabled cheese sauce refill cup is the moment you've hit bottom and have to reevaluate where you're going with your life.

The fact they had to do that with the soda cups is just sad on the guests behalf. I notice them only in the value and some of the moderate resorts. Sad it had to come to that...

My understanding was that the RFID chips were not necessarily added to prevent guests from squatting on the soda fountains, but to keep guests from bringing old mugs from a previous trip back and filling them up without paying. I do think that Disney has a dedicated staff that constantly read blog posts and tip websites specifically to see how guests are skirting the rules and finding gaps to take advantage of the system. Once Disney sees that a loophole is being exploited, they probably determine how much they're potentially loosing and how much it would cost to prevent the loss. The fact that the resorts had to install chips in the resort mugs and RFID readers on the fountains (and registers to enable the cups) would indicate to me that the things guests were doing to circumvent the rules were pretty costly to Disney. My guess is that cheese was probably not that costly, but it was simply easier for them to eliminate it than to hire another cast member to man the toppings bar and kindly shoo abusers away.

The way I look at it, there are people out there that are very proud of the way that they exploit the loopholes in Disney's systems, but the more they brag about what they do, the more others will follow suit and the quicker Disney finds a way to shut it down. I shake my head at some of these people that brazenly publish on websites and chat forums how they've exploited gaps in the system or even broke rules. I firmly believe that's why Disney changed their disabled guest policy and why the value of the Disney Dining Plan continues to decrease.