<p>Is there a deadline to pay for a meal plan? If so, does anyone know what date it is?</p>
<p>I believe you can purchase a meal plan at any time. I know meal plans don’t become active until June 25th for Summer B students. So, if you’re attending Summer B, purchase your meal plan before you get to UF so you’ll have food. Do the same if you’re attending Fall.</p>
<p>my impression was that there wasn’t a deadline as well.</p>
<p>Do yourself a favor and don’t get one :)</p>
<p>I wonder if some of the people that work there have been in prison…(no offense to the ones who obviously haven’t)…</p>
<p>The quality of the food wasn’t worth it for me. Consistently undercooked, cold, and overall disgusting environment to eat in. One of the dining centers even had an infestation of birds which took them about a month to get rid of after someone complained to the Alachua County Health Department ([The</a> Independent Florida Alligator: News - Three birds nesting in Broward Dining pose health risk](<a href=“http://alligator.org/articles/2009/03/18/news/campus/090318_birds.txt]The”>http://alligator.org/articles/2009/03/18/news/campus/090318_birds.txt)).</p>
<p>You’re better off just buying the food as you need it and go from there. That way you’re not “locked” into the meal plan and feel obligated to use the whole meal plan up since you paid for it upfront. You can always buy “blocks of meals” on an individual basis if you feel you’re going to eat there consistently, since buying in bulk is better than paying individually, in the long run…</p>
<p>Source(s): my experience</p>
<p>Oh and a note about the “flex bucks”… they expire if you don’t use them, so if you decide to get the meal plan, order it on the phone or in person so you can get the “flex bucks” deducted from the meal plan price. That way you’re only paying for the meals and not a secondary account that holds your money in a non-interest bearing, uninsured account that has no liability protection in the event your card gets stolen or used fraudulently. </p>
<p>It makes sense, if you’re going to get a meal plan, to just get the meals, and pay in cash/debit/credit for what you would optionally pay with “flex bucks” since there is no incentive (i.e. no discount…) to use them over traditional methods of payment.</p>
<p>they dont mention anywhere that you can subtract the flex bucks from the total cost of the meal plan.</p>
<p>that would be nice</p>
<p>Yes, that is what I did for Fall, and didn’t purchase a meal plan for Spring. </p>
<p>Try calling and telling them that’s what you would like to do, it wasn’t a problem for me when I did it, so I don’t see it being an issue, even though it’s not published anywhere online…</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice on flex bucks, I’ll be sure to try and get rid of them cause when I saw them on the plan I thought they were a waste anyway. Regardless though I’m still gonna get a plan because of the convenience. I could care less if I ate the same food there every day, and from what I had when I went there for a campus tour I know it’s a least tolerable. And there’s no point in buying blocks when the unlimited plan is near the same price anyways.</p>
<p>Do you know if I can order my plan at preview?</p>
<p>are you taking into consideration how often you might eat out with friends?</p>
<p>That’s also one of the factors why I didn’t buy the plan again in the Spring (having the option to eat out freely and then those times when I feel like eating at the dining centers, I would…), even though they sent an invoice in the mail saying I agreed to buy one in the Spring if I purchased the Fall one…</p>
<p>If you read the online contract, it’s actually true, but since I bought mine on the phone, I was not read or agree to any such contract, so legally speaking, I wasn’t bound to it. And they never attempted to enforce it other than Aramark sending that invoice which was quickly treated as junk mail.</p>
<p>I found that on numerous occasions, being able to get a quick snack opposed to eating at the dining center for breakfast and lunch proved to be more efficient at times.</p>
<p>I had a very busy schedule which basically entailed of me waking up, going to early morning class in the Physics building, then going to work all the way up in Criser Hall (complete opposite end of campus from the Physics building, and also uphill), then back to class down to the Physics building, then off to other classes around the NE campus area…) I basically had <15 minutes to eat between classes and was not finished until the end of the day around 5 PM when the administrative offices close at UF.</p>