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Credit: FuelRodDisney Fuel Rod charging kiosks at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort will begin charging Guests a fee whenever they swap out their used chargers for fully-charged ones.
If you’re unfamiliar with Fuel Rods at Disney, here’s what you need to know. Fuel Rods are, as described on their official website, “the first reusable, portable charging system that allows you to fuel (charge) your mobile device on the go, and then recharge or swap for a fresh one.” They have locations at the Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and other select areas on Disney property. It’s like a FastPass for charging your phone since you instantly get a new charger when swapping. But there are still a lot of pros and cons to using it.
Beginning November 1 across all Disney Parks locations in the U.S., Fuel Rods will cost $3 per swap. Users of the Fuel Rod systems — which can be found not only at Walt Disney World and Disneyland but also at widely populated locations like airports — were fans of the charging stations because they offered “free, unlimited charging” after the purchase of a starter kit, which costs around $30 on Disney property but can cost less (as low as $22) at other locations, depending on where you purchase the Fuel Rod.
But now, Fuel Rod will no longer be advertising free charger swaps, or at least not at the Disney theme parks. Starting next week, the day after Halloween, it will cost $3 every time a Disney Guest swaps out their used charger for a full one.
🚨🚨@FuelRodPower throughout Disneyland and Walt Disney World will be $3 a swap starting November 1st🚨🚨
RIP to us all. But mostly RIP to Fuel Rods cause no one will use them anymore.
— Tiff Mink ✨💜 (@minkus) October 25, 2019
Related: FuelRod Creates “Founder” Status Amid Swap Fee Controversy
While Fuel Rods aren’t the only portable charger on the market — many more affordable mobile charging systems arguably charge your cell phone or another device much quicker and last longer — the Fuel Rod system is still pretty popular, especially within the Disney fan community.
Frequent Disney visitors opt for Fuel Rods because of their convenience. Once you know where to find a Fuel Rod station, you can easily swap out your used Fuel Rod for a fresh one and begin charging your device almost instantly.
Those who already own a Fuel Rod kit might not want to pay $3 every time they want a fully charged Fuel Rod while on their Disney vacation. Instead, they may opt to charge their Fuel Rod at home by plugging its charging cord into any USB adapter. Or another popular option is to purchase a different portable charger.
However, if you’ve already spent $30 on a Fuel Rod in the Disney Parks and you want to get as much use out of it as possible, you might want to stick with charging it at home or at the end of a long Park day when you’re staying at a Disney Resort hotel. So many Disney Resorts have USB adapters in the hotel rooms, so using the USB to micro USB cable, you can easily plug your Fuel Rod or another portable charger in to charge it before heading back to the parks that evening or the next day.