Universal Meal Deal??

[Mom on a Mission]

Has anyone purchased the "Meal Deal". We haven't been to Universal in several years and I cannot remember anything about the food there. Are there a lot of good counter service options? Does this deal work? What are the best places to go? Oh dear, lots of questions Thanks!

[Mfarquar]

I'll give you the short version of my opinion:

There are limitations as to what restaurants you can go to and the last time I checked it limited you to one park. Regardless of park, the choices were at the inferior restaurants and most of these do not offer breakfast options. You can eat all you want, but we ran the numbers and found it hard to break even with our eating habits and restaurants we prefer (for example, I find Circus McGurkus inedible where as we love Blondie's at IoA, but it's not on the list). It also does not include beverages and you must buy a drink deal where you carry around a cup all day.

My extended family (4 adults and 1 teenager) bought it last month and really felt it was a waste of money because of where they had to eat.

[tinksmom02]

We've never done the meal deal, but I agree with Mfarquar--it just doesn't seem like a good deal. There are only a few restaurants that participate in each park, the plan is only per park (although I think there is an upgrade option for park hopping), and drinks aren't included.

[Mom on a Mission]

Thanks all -- this sounds about right to me. At the time I posted this thread I hadn't found the (well hidden) part of the Universal web-site that gave the details on the limitations. We will be traveling with our 2 teenagers, and thought it might be a good option for us, but given that it doesn't include the 3 Broomsticks, I think it's a no. FYI, it's $20 per person for one park and $25 per person for both. Then another 8 or 9 per person for the drink cups. And it's only good at three counter service places in each park. I was thinking you could go up to a snack cart too, but nope. Thanks for reinforcing my thought that this won't work for us!