@Rdtsmith oh really? I thought they made it that you can’t bring food from cafeterias and dining halls to your room???
20 - No rule like that, that I am aware of. My son brought "to-go" meal containers to his room occasionally.
@atomicPACMAN07 You can definitely take food out of the dining venues, you can do “to go meals” in a take out box. As a matter of fact, UA Dining gives students reusable containers to take food out in (no Styrofoam any more).
http://fawp.ua.edu/bamadining/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/09/To-Go-Box-Steps.png
Yes they have to go boxes. When son doesn’t want breakfast there he’ll even take fresh milk back to dorm at late dinner for morning cereal. He stocks up on fresh fruit and many grab and go items. I told him to take full advantage of that expensive freshman meal plan!
OP, note that Lakeside isn’t even open until 10 am, so if you have an early class or are an early riser, you’re going to have to find a different dining hall anyway if you want something to eat before that hour.
Here is a link to dining hours: http://bamadining.ua.edu/hours-operation/
@atomicPACMAN07, my daughter lives in RCE (suite style honors) but eats at all sorts of places, mostly Bryant (by far the best) for early lunch and Lakeside for evening or late night meals. One advantage of the suites if you are a picky eater is the little kitchens in the suite. The full size fridge and cabinet space allows you to store plenty of your own food. The dorm also has a couple full size kitchens to allow for baking/cooking on a range. My daughter uses the kitchen a lot and also prepares microwavable things in the suite. It’s a “waste” of money buying food to cook with that paid-for meal plan, but it is worth it if you are particular and/or enjoy simple/cheap to prepare things. My daughter does a lot of pasta and a lot of pancakes.
FWIW, my daughter applied for housing (RCE) for next year within the first 5 minutes of the registration opening, and she was waitlisted. Most of her friends DID get it, though, so I don’t know that it was impossible to get it or rather that she was just really unlucky. We are in the process of buying a house for her and roommates to avoid the drama of finding a place every year (and for the financial benefits).
Very interesting insight everyone. It put my nerves at ease. My initial impression was that where you live was where you were going to eat for that whole year haha I am glad there is variety. It makes me wonder though about the take out process…is it against the rules to bring a backpack or something and “fill 'er up” with food and snacks or is there a limit how much food you can pick up at once/per day???
@mmom99 are you saying that your daughter was waitlisted her freshman year? 
On taking out food: discretion and decorum are expected, but the policy really is pretty open. Some people say kids take whole pineapples and such; most kids just have their to-go containers + whatever they can carry (like an apple or a ‘side’). I contrast this pretty lenient policy to another university we visited where everywhere there were signs stating that all food had to eaten in the dining hall - I kid you not, one sign said, “Don’t embarrass yourself by putting that cookie in your pocket. You will be stopped and searched.” (another reason not to attend there…) 
Here is excerpt from UA’s Dining Policy on meal use (it’s a PDF, so can’t put link here):
MEAL PLAN USE: Meal plan members may use their meal plan multiple times per day; however, only one (1) meal may be redeemed at a time. If a meal plan member wants to redeem more than one meal at once, a guest meal or other funds must be used. This includes to-go meals as well. Meal plan users have the option of eating their meal in the dining location or taking their meal to-go, but are not permitted to do both at the same time. One transaction per visit is allowed. All to-go meals must utilize the reusable to-go box program. Meals to be consumed by anyone other than the meal plan member must be purchased with guest meals or other funds. All meal plans will expire on the last day of classes for the spring semester; remaining meals will NOT rollover to summer or the following fall semester.
Darn I didn’t knew it was that bad at other places 
it’s nice to know you can get as much as you want while “discrete”. I will definitely try to coordinate something with roommates to make a good dinner back at the dorm :))
@atomicPACMAN07 , oh, no, I’m sorry that I was confusing, she is a freshman this year and is in RCE. She was waitlisted for housing for next year.
haha it’s fine. I was worried for a moment that 2,000 people signed up before me in a matter of 20 minutes on October 1st :))
atomicPACMAN, the all access mealplan that freshmen are required to purchase is pretty flexible. You can eat in all the dining halls (except there are restrictions on Bryant), you can go as many times as you want, and you can eat there or take your food to go. My daughter would go into the dining hall on the way to class to get a drink and a piece of fruit, she might stop in on her way back to the dorm to pick up snack foods for her dorm refrigerator. Rather than buying a box of cereal at Publix, she’d fill up to-go containers with cereal and milk and keep it in her dorm room. That was on top of regular meals. I believe you could also get pizza to go at Burke. My daughter liked the food, even at Lakeside, which typically gets the worst reviews.
^^^^ #31 thanks for that anecdote. I wonder though…what is the process of being able to sit down for say lunch and then taking to-go some snacks or a meal later on? I thought I read it somewhere in the policy that eating sit down and take out at the same time is a no-no…any insight would be great!
Last year when my son had a meal plan, you would eat lunch/dinner … then if you wanted to take another meal with you, you would have to leave the dining hall and come back in to get your to-go container. No big deal. (Of course if you are just taking a small snack such as an apple or a couple of cookies, simply pop them into your backpack.)
Out of curiosity, what does the to-go container look like???
I don’t know if these caught on, but this was from 2014:
http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2014/10/bama-dining-reduces-foam-waste
Oh seems pretty cool. I like that you can just return it and get a new one every time. No cleaning 
You can swipe in to a dinning hall sit down to eat there. Walk out of the dinning hall turn around swipe to get in again and ask for a to go container please, Fill it up and out you go. The to go container looks just like a basic restaurant one expect it is heavy duty plastic. last year it was colored green. In order to use to go again you have to bring back the one you used before and hand it in to be issued another one. The one you return can be dirty. They just want you to bring it back. Kinda like checking out a library book.
Awesome! UA definitely has its game together. I want to get my bang for the buck on that expensssssivvvveee meal plan. I hope to get as much healthy snacks and fruits for the dorm 
GO, atomicpacman, GO! Your giddiness for UA is kinda infectious. ;))