Gator Dining has a table at Preview and staff who does an excellent job explaining the options. Preview is also a good chance to see & try the options at Pollo or Moes, for example. Preview is when my son & I made the decision on his meal plan for freshman year.
We did the full meal plan plus extra flex bucks, and if I did it over again we would probably do declining balance. It has been nice for our son to just zip in the dining hall for a cookie or soda, but he’s even sick of that stuff now.
Our son has mastered the art of the meal plan deal for Subway and pizza (is it Papa Johns or Domino’s? - I can’t remember). They do offer specific meals (not everything).
For vegan eaters I’m not sure a full meal plan is worth it. Definitely check out the Krishna lunch offerings too.
I would really scour the gator dining info before making a commitment. Also, they often offer flex buck re-load ‘deals’ for declining balance cards.
Is there an advantage to doing a declining balance card versus just letting her charge meals on her credit card?
No advantage to declining balance versus credit card. My son charged meals.
You’ll notice most of the popular eating options are from well known fast food places. I’m not sure why you’d limit your options by getting the meal plan especially since their are so many eating places in G’ville. Having a refrigerator and a microwave available certainly opens up in-room dining.
Sorry to be dense about this, but if we give our S a CC to charge his meals (cash back CC) - he can eat at any of the dining halls right? He just has to pay for it, as opposed to those with a meal plan who get x amount of meals per day/week based on what plan they buy? From what I am hearing, it seems more economical to just let him buy his meals as he wants - don’t see him cooking, even though he can, just because of a busy course load (engineering).
He does cook well, and I can see him having friends over for a “community style” dinner Sunday evenings - etc. or with Youth group at church …
How is the cost of the meals at the dining halls - I know there is one near Tolbert where he will likely be that is supp. to be good, meals reasonable or expensive?
@CESgatormom17 I think Breakfast is $6.99, Lunch is $8.49 and Dinner is $8.99. That’s the price this summer.
We’re going back and forth on the meal plan. For our DD14, we didn’t get one (and neither did her roommate). She was good about going grocery shopping each weekend and keeping fresh food (salads, vegetables, fruit, etc.) available. You can also save a lot of money by avoiding the meal plan.
However, with DS17, we’re likely will get him the meal plan. We have little faith he will not try to live off ramen and junk food. He’s in East Hall (Tolbert area), so he should have most of his meals in the dining hall or Rietz Union.
I am definitely getting the meal plan for my D. I do not see her shopping and cooking for herself, she would probably try living off dry ramen noodles and popcorn. If someone else does the cooking she will eat about anything.
Another advantage I see with the meal plan over charging on a credit card is I can make a payment from her 529 plan directly to dinning services as a qualified expense. I think daily charges on a cc would be a little trickier if there was ever an audit. Does that logic sound right?
Now that my daughter has been at the university for a semester, I’m posting a follow-up for anyone that might be searching the topic. We decided not to buy any meal plan and it’s worked out to our advantage for a few reasons that are particular to her but maybe will apply to anyone reading. She mostly eats breakfast in her room. She eats almost all her lunches at Krishna which is not part of the meal plan but is on campus. They have vegetarian and vegan meals and it’s only $40 to buy a 10-pack. She does eat dinner on campus on weekdays but we just have her charge it on our credit card. She tends to eat out on weekends off campus.