<p>All access plan went up from $1525/semester to $1578/semester</p>
<p>[Bama</a> Dining - Meal Plans](<a href=“http://bamadining.ua.edu/pages/meal-plans.html]Bama”>http://bamadining.ua.edu/pages/meal-plans.html)</p>
<p>Is there somewhere where these are discussed in some length?<br>
The Terms/Conditions do not answer several Qs I have.
Like, can the student use his own guest meals himself?
How many guest meals are there per category (it says up to 10)?
Just to confirm that Fall Semester meals roll over to Spring Semester? Does that include guest meals, too?
How many weeks are there in each semester (too lazy to count, sorry)?
If you don’t have a meal plan, where are the prices per meal?
[where has all the info gone!?]
My son is currently on unlimited (Freshman) plan…and he goes 3x a day during the week + 2x a day each weekend, for a total of 19 “meals” (visits) per week.<br>
What is best for him - those with experience in this please weigh in.
He does not go in for just a drink or a cookie. He visits legit 19x each and every week like a Swiss clock.</p>
<p>I’m a current freshman, but I can answer a few questions. Guest meals do roll over to the Spring, and there are sixteen(ish) weeks in a semester. I’d be better versed in the dining policies by now, except that for some inexplicable reason the Bama Dining site hasn’t been working on any of my devices for several months. :/</p>
<p>Aeromom, before we “had” to pick the all-meal plan for my freshman son last year, I looked and compared last year prices. I can’t remember the comparisons, but for someone who uses the cafetaria 19 times a week, the all-access meal plan was the best option (adding meals was expensive) I am looking forward to someone else breaking it down and answering your questions as my son only eats in the cafetaria about 10 times a week so I am not sure the best way to go right now.</p>
<p>A student can use guest meals himself. They’re not extra meals - if you have the 160 meal plan, for example, you can use 160 meals yourself, or you could use 150 meals yourself and 10 for a friend.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind for next year is what the friends will be doing. This year most freshmen living on campus have the all access plan. Next year some kids will switch to smaller plans or no plan. If your kid goes regularly to the dining hall with friends, consider whether he/she will continue to do so if the friends aren’t eating in the dining halls very frequently next year.</p>
<p>there have been threads here in the past about the meal plan/how to maximize meal plan dollars. try a search and see if you can find it/them.</p>
<p>breakfasts and late night are cheaper 6 - 6.50, i don’t remember exactly.</p>
<p>lunches and dinners are more, something like 9 and 9.50, respectively.</p>
<p>if one chooses a meal plan with a lower number of meals, they can then use the meal plan for lunches and dinners but pay cash for breakfasts to maximize benefits.</p>
<p>here is one of the threads i remember.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1181931-upperclassmen-meal-plans-roll-call.html?highlight=breakfast[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1181931-upperclassmen-meal-plans-roll-call.html?highlight=breakfast</a></p>
<p>hope it helps.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, Mike. </p>
<p>If a student goes with a smaller meal plan and ends up paying for dining hall meals with a combination of meal plan/dining dollars/Bama cash, depending on the meal, is there a way when the ACT card is swiped to specify which fund the cost of the meal is taken from? And is it likely that it will be done correctly?</p>
<p>Is there a way to find out a current freshman’s use of the unlimited meal plan? DS logged on to his action card, but can’t seem to find the number of swipes/meals used last semester or this semester. Are we missing something?</p>
<p>I looked for that information last semester, and I don’t think it’s there for the all-access meal plan. If there’s no limit on the meals, there’s no need to show how many were used or are left. Makes me wonder if they went to all-access so parents wouldn’t be looking at the ACT account and seeing that their student still had 200 meals left in late April.</p>
<p>It seems that they would be tracking it for their own planning/pricing purposes. As a parent, I think that information would be extremely helpful to us as we choose a plan for next year.</p>
<p>email dining. maybe they have that info.</p>
<p>I would expect they ARE tracking it, just not making it available. </p>
<p>As for the info being helpful for next year, I think it is and it isn’t. I know my D goes to the dining halls twice a day most days. She rarely goes more than twice. She doesn’t take advantage of the “our kitchen is your kitchen” aspect of the all-access plan by stopping in for a cookie or a soda - the locations simply aren’t convenient enough for that. But just because that’s how she’s using her mealplan this year doesn’t mean she’ll do it next year, especially if the friends she eats with cut back on their meal plans and start eating elsewhere. My plan is to start with a small (or no) mealplan and go from there. You can always upgrade; downgrading is a different story.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest waiting until the start of the semester to purchase a meal plan as Bama Dining offers additional incentives to do so.</p>
<p>Students using their Action cards to pay will have the cost of the meal deducted from their Dining Dollars unless the student only has Bama Cash left. There is really no reason to use Bama Cash if Dining Dollars are accepted.</p>
<p>For the last 4 years, breakfast/late night meals have cost $6.40, lunch $9.00, and dinner $9.29. Bama Dining also offers $5.45 ($5.00 +tax) lunches every other Friday and possibly the last month of the school year. I also enjoy eating lunch off campus where most restaurants have lunch specials. Many students rave about the chicken tender sub from Publix, though there are many great options to choose from.</p>
<p>Correct me if I am wrong. But, from the prices SEA_tide just posted, a student should pay cash for breakfast and late night meals, as all upperclass meal plans average well north of $8.00 per swipe. As for lunch and dinner, the plans seem to range from $8.47-$8.81 per swipe. A savings, though not as great as I would have guessed.</p>
<p>Seekingknowledge, that was my thought as well. A few unused meals will wipe out the savings pretty quickly.</p>
<p>from post #6</p>
<p>“if one chooses a meal plan with a lower number of meals, they can then use the meal plan for lunches and dinners but pay cash for breakfasts to maximize benefits.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What if the student has a small meal plan, but wants to use Dining Dollars/Bama Cash for breakfast or lunch and save the meal plan for dinners? Can you specify when you swipe the ACT card how you want it done? And is there a way to verify it was done in the manner requested?</p>
<p>i think you can ask them to use whichever account you want, but i am not sure how reliable this would be. no experience with this.</p>
<p>I simply walk up to the cashier and say “Hello, Dining Dollars please.” Only a couple times have they tried swiping my card for a meal plan first. Most cashiers will already have meal plans queued up and have to go back a couple screens for dining dollars, which only takes a couple seconds. If one requested to pay with another method of payment, but the employee swiped a meal plan instead, the manager will be able to take your desired form of payment and give you a pass for a free meal* as refunds require a lot of paperwork.</p>
<p>*Sometimes this is an informal “say hello when you stop in again and I’ll waive you through” or a physical coupon which may be used for a meal at any dining hall, including dinner at Bryant. </p>
<p>Some colleges actually charge more for meals when one purchases the required dining plan than if one pays cash/school credit. Luckily, UA does not do this. Part of the reason Bama Dining does the $5.45 specials is to encourage upperclassmen, faculty, and staff to eat on campus. Breakfast at Fresh Foods was $5.45 for almost all of last semester.</p>
<p>If one really wants to save money, go right before the dining hall changes to the more expensive meal. I’ve been going to Lakeside/Burke at 3:55PM on $5 Fridays and staying the 5 minutes until the switchover to dinner.</p>