No glass of drinking water anymore?

I can't believe that! I don't go to MCD's that much so I can't say if
it's the same in NY now, but that's the drink I get for my kids when
we go to the playland. There was water there a few months ago, and
they did give me a small kid cup for each child.

I hope that the store reconsiders. That's a ridiculous policy.

I've tried to look up the state laws with little luck, anyone have any
ideas on where to look?

Bring the cup into the bathroom and fill it up from the tap next
time.

Problem solved!

i'd suggest looking up your local laws on that

i thought most establishments were suppose to have tap water available
for free or at least have a water fountain etc.

and considering that some states (like NY) now tax water bottles as
well as soda, to only allow you to consume bottled water seems a bit
like a waste of resources.

In seeing what the laws are, and how they vary from place to place,
because I've never seen a law where a business HAS to provide you with
a cup or free ice, they just have to have water available to the
public on the premises, even if that is the bathroom tap. They may be
covered legally as long as they have public bathrooms with running
water.

Where I work charges full price for cups too (And we also have bottled
water for sale, can't remember how much), we also, however, have a
drinking fountain, even if the water that comes out of it can be on
the air-temp side, depending on how hot it is, it IS there and freely
availiable.

At most of the buildings in the chain, they used to provide free water
cups and slowly had to downgrade the size of them until people were
complaining because all they were able to provide were dixie cups.
One of the problems is that the other buildings in the chain went to
self-serve pop and people were using free cups to help themselves to
pop (so people could get still get refills after the food counter was
closed, and it was only one station to clean, as opposed to the three
or four smaller behind the counter stations they had before). I don't
think they provide ANY free cups anymore, and instead direct people to
the drinking fountains.

The cup issue (Which in OP's case is weird, because they already
BOUGHT a cup and was willing to just refill it with water, had it been
available), may also be the case of a few ruining it for everyone.

Since I don't think a business can legally prevent you from bringing
your own water however, I actually prefer doing it that way since then
I KNOW where the water is coming from. A lot of places have the
nastiest tap-water I have ever seen/tasted.

LOL.

At our McDonald's in Fond du Lac, WI, they are happy to give cups that
say "WATER" on them. The one I was in today had a separate dispenser
button for water.

I don't drink pop after 1 p.m. (or I can't sleep at night), and at
least three McDs near me still have the water option. I am not buying
a bottle of water -- that's such a scam. Tap water is fine.

I'm with you on this.

Given the prohibitive markup on soda, the least they can do is give
you a small cup for water or have the little button on the soda
machine for water so you can refill your soda cup after you're done
with it.

I know my McD's still has that little button and they're usually quite
good about giving out water cups at no charge - my son wants a water
and a milk when he gets cinnamelts when we get breakfast there.

This sounds like a revenue generating device - they want you to buy
their bottles of water...

I don't know why people think that water is free? Even when they give
you a glass of water in a resturant, you can best believe that it is
added into the overall cost of the food.

When you say the water button had been removed, what do you mean by
button? Was there a small button or something similar just for water,
or would you say it is the same type of button you would press for
coke, etc.?

I know in my area, over the past few years, all the McDonalds in my
area have installed all new drink machines, some of which are smaller
than the previous.

If the drink machine does not have a little water button somewhere,
then they might not want to sacrifice a revenue spot to make one of
the main spigots exclusively water. They might have only so many
slots, and likely there is a standard on exactly what drinks the need
to offer at a minimum. Maybe based on an equipment issue, it is not
possible, or it is not practical to get a new machine just to offer
people water.

While it may be inconvenient for you, I don't think they are trying to
rip you off by not offering water, it might just not be possible for
the reasons listed above. At least they have the bottled water
available.

Its more than just the cups. The sandwich shop I used to work at
didnt have water either, but thats because they didnt want to spend
the money on the water filtration system needed to have drinkable
water.

Without the filter you would be basically drinking tap water which
around here is not a good thing.

We had our share of mad customers a few of which demanded we just fill
up a cup at the sink.

I agree! At most they might charge for the price of a cup (I guess
for lid and straw if they really wanted to get picky), but really,
that cannot be more than 25 cents. Far more economical than a bottle
of water.

What surprises me is that it seems as though you purchased a soda and
just wanted some water at the end of the meal. Wouldn't it be cheaper
for McDonalds to refill your glass with water versus another soda?!