Universal Dining Plan

[lovingthemagic]

Has anyone used the new plan? How did it work for you? What do you think this will do to the need for reservations. I have not been to Universal before but reading leads me to believe that reservations are not normally necessary. I am planning travel for October and am concerned that the Universal dining plan may make reservations a necessity.

 

[Metro West]

Since the new dining plan is for hotel guests only right now, I'm going to move this to the Resorts board.

 

[lovingthemagic]

Thanks for moving. Great idea!

 

[-Hope-]

I had the same concerns so I just went ahead and made the reservations. I figured better safe than sorry.

 

[macraven]

i'll be onsite at the darkside for 11 days in october.
same as years past for the dates.

the only place i would consider making a ressie would be for mythos.


i don't feel the odds are that all the eateries will be unavailable for walk ups.

 

[Bluer101]

We spent 9 days over July 4th week onsite and as usual no reservations really needed. We are at Mythos 3 times and not once a reservation. The most wait was 10 minutes. But we don't walk in at prime eating times. We normally get there about 5-10 before opening for lunch. On other was an early dinner at around 5 pm.

 

[Debs Hill]

Hi guys
I see that they have introduced a dining plan very similar to Disneys....does anyone know how much extra you pay for this on top of you room reservation and how do you book? Anyone have experience of how well it works?
Debsx

 

[damo]

It is only for offsite packages right now.

 

[macraven]

we haven't seen any postings on how the dining plan has worked yet.
maybe in a month we will.


the program is new for the darkside.

 

[Metro West]

I'm going to merge this thread with the other on the same subject.

 

[Rileygirl]

It is only for offsite packages right now.

I am not so sure about that. The free promo is only for offsite guests, but you can select the dining package and pay for it yourself if you are staying onsite. At least, I can book it that way on the vacation search engine on the official website.

I had a nice chat with webchat person about this. What is really outstanding about this Dinning plan is you dont have to select a specific number of days that is the same length as your hotel reservation. So, if you are staying 4 days, and only want 2 days of dining plan, apparently you can do that.

another amazing thing about this dinning plan is, you can 'apparently' spread that 2 days over a 4 day span. Meaning, you dont have to use up all the options in 2 days, you can 'save' a table service or counterservice option. I think the limitation is within 14 days of first use, but did not get actual clarification on it.

This is different then the 'meal deal', where you have to have used your entire allotment of credits that day of use.

Also, apparently, you can mix and match, and pick a couple of days for the dining plan, pick a couple of days of the meal deal, and perhaps one or 2 'table service' meals (on the vacation search engine, you can prepay for a TS meal by itself, it includes tax and gratuity I think- need to go back and look). The dining plan costs are shown in the vacation search engine.

However, finding ANY of this information on the website is like finding hens teeth. You really have to know where you are looking. I am not sure why this is - there is no mention of these new dining add ons in the ticket search engine, or on the dining page. The only place to read about it is if you take the 'off site' promotion link, and then open a pdf file. Even that only has a small portion of information.

BTW- all my information above is based soley on a single 'web chat' with a universal consultant. And, this product is apparently in the 'test' phase. So I am not sure 1)how accurate my info is 2)and how much it can 'change' during the trial, 3)if they keep it after the trial period.

 

[macraven]

thanx for sharing.

you know, i could have sworn i saw that same thing !

i was doing a search and found that meal add on list to onsite stays.


now i know i wasn't dreaming.





hopefully those that did the offsite package with the meals will post about it.

 

[Rileygirl]

The dining plan is only showing up on the vacation search engine for a limited time parameter. I am not sure where it stops showing up, perhaps the cut off is dates before 2014

So, if you want to know what they are charging per day to be on the 'dining plan', all you have to do is put in this summers date range, it definetly shows up there. Under the 'change activities' button (and who the heck would look here?) the tab shows up. Select the tab, and the drop down menu shows you the cost per day for your party size (I cannot find costs or any other info anywhere else). The search engine, par for course, is absolutely useless.

I do hope people will share their experience with the dining plan. The restaraunts on the dining plan dont exactly appeal to me, but I am certain it will expand, and right now, it looks to me to be a very nice perk.

I dont think it will be enough to overcome the 'barriers' of purchasing a package from universal though - due to the ridiculous penalties, and more expensive tickets and potentially more expensive hotel costs. Unless, of course, free dining days come with the Loews hotel, and not off site hotels. That would tie a ribbon on the vaction packages Universal offers......

 

[Seeker615]

I booked a package with Universal in November and we can do the dining plan if we would like. We are staying onsite.

It runs about $45 per person per day. Most of the quick service places are on the plan. There is not a ton of table service places available but the ones that are included are decent.

I am not sure if I will add the plan or not. You can do as many days as you would like with the plan.

 

[damo]

Here's the link if anyone needs it ... https://media.triseptsolutions.com/sites/vaxwebunt/PublishingImages/PDFs/Universal Dining Plan.pdf