<p>If you cant be bothered to answer my questions (i dont blame you) could you please tell me what meal plan you are going to buy ? Are most of you first years going for the unlimited plan??</p>
<p>And If you could answer any of the questions, it would be really really helpful for me.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Dining flex....if i understood it correctly it's like money on your card that you can use to buy snacks, foods and stuff in the shops??</p></li>
<li><p>If i buy a meal plan, that means i can only eat in the two all you care to eat (this means buffet right? as in all you can eat?) dining halls ram's head and top of lenoir?</p></li>
<li><p>The website said something about subway and juice place and stuff on campus as well. Do these shops (well basically all other food places besides the two diining halls) have to be paid in cash? or can i use the dining flex thing???</p></li>
<li><p>First years should buy the unlimited plan??? What if i decide that that's not the way for me?? Can i cancel in the middle?</p></li>
<li><p>The dining site on unc seems to assume that human beings dont eat breakfast (or maybe i got the wrong impression). do the two dining halls make breakfast?? If not where can i?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Doing these things for school is proving to be as difficult as my school exams. I would be incredibly grateful if you could answer any of these questions. Thank you in advance....</p>
<p>I am a parent of a first year student and this is how I understand it. I am sure a current student can answer you more definitevly:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Dining flex…if i understood it correctly it’s like money on your card that you can use to buy snacks, foods and stuff in the shops?? YES</p></li>
<li><p>If i buy a meal plan, that means i can only eat in the two all you care to eat (this means buffet right? as in all you can eat?) dining halls ram’s head and top of lenoir? YES</p></li>
<li><p>The website said something about subway and juice place and stuff on campus as well. Do these shops (well basically all other food places besides the two diining halls) have to be paid in cash? or can i use the dining flex thing??? DINING FLEX I BELIEVE, YOU CAN PAY CASH BUT YOU HAVE TO PAY TAX IF YOU DO.</p></li>
<li><p>First years should buy the unlimited plan??? What if i decide that that’s not the way for me?? Can i cancel in the middle? I BOUGHT MY SON THE 150 MEALS BLOCK PLAN. HE HAS 150 MEALS TO USE FOR THE SEMESTER. I ALSO PURCHASED $400 IN FLEX. I THINK HE WILL EVENTUALLY FIND OTHER PLACES OTHER THAN RAMS HEAD AND LENOIR THAT HE WILL PREFER TO EAT AT.</p></li>
<li><p>The dining site on unc seems to assume that human beings dont eat breakfast (or maybe i got the wrong impression). do the two dining halls make breakfast?? If not where can i? DON’T KNOW</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Doing these things for school is proving to be as difficult as my school exams. I would be incredibly grateful if you could answer any of these questions. Thank you in advance…</p>
<ol>
<li>The dining site on unc seems to assume that human beings dont eat breakfast (or maybe i got the wrong impression). do the two dining halls make breakfast?? If not where can i? Yes, they do. I usually end up getting up so late that breakfast is irrelevant though…</li>
</ol>
<p>The best plan to buy is the block plan with 110 meals and add flex dining dollars that can be used on the first floor of Lenoir and other places. You can eat the block plan meals at any time during the semester. The plans with X number of meals per week require you to eat those meals when they are allotted or you lose them, in other words Monday lunch of a given week can ONLY be used at Monday lunch that week. </p>
<p>lottastrikes</p>
<p>Reduce the size of the block plan to 110. You need to trust me on this one. The only caveat would be that he is a voracious eater, you never plan for him to eat anywhere but the dining halls and he will eat breakfast every day etc. This never happens especially as the year wears on.</p>
<p>The 150 block is too many meals. Every year we issue this warning and every year we hear about people giving lots of meals away to friends to try to use them up before the semester ends. If he ends up short the first semester you can adjust up the second semester but I have NEVER heard this to be the case in the 6 plus years I have been on the Carolina boards. They push the “Unlimited” and bigger blocks by showing a lower cost per meal but if the meals go unused (and for most students they will) you have wasted the money.</p>
<p>You can always add flex dollars and they do carry over from the first semester to the second but not over school years so be careful and add only in smaller dollar increments the second semester. Flex dollars can be spent at the franchise restaurants like Chick-fil-A, Subway or Jamba Juice as well as several other places like Carolina House of Dogs on the first floor of Lenoir</p>
<p>The first few weeks of school there will be so much free food available that he will use far fewer meal plan meals than you might think. Free food is everywhere and is a feature at fraternity or sorority rush parties. Even if they aren’t serious about the Greek scene many go the parties just for the food because it is good and is not dining hall food…Barbecue, steak cook outs etc. There is also plenty of free food at membership recruitment events for clubs and organizations and other events that are part of orientation.</p>
<p>There is another really neat service that Carolina Dining offers and that is “Love from Home” which allows you to order a cake for things like a birthday or other celebration if they are far from home and unable to be with family.</p>
<p>We did it freshman year and coordinated it through his roommate to pick up so it would be a surprise. They all raved about the cake and it was a nice respite as well.</p>
<p>Thanks eadad, I am the typical mother that doesn’t want her son to go hungry!! I will speak to him about reducing it. I was figuring 15 weeks in a semester, 150 meals equates to 2 meals a day Mon - Fri which leaves him the weekends to use Flex or cash on Franklin Street. You may be right though. Given the free food, I can reduce it to 110 and play it by ear for the second semester. My son appreciates “good food” and will most likely bore of Rams Head and Lenoir pretty quickly.</p>
<p>They all get tired of the food pretty quickly. If they only knew how much better their choices and options are than what we had when in college…ours was AWFUL…</p>
<p>Thanks for that post eadad, I have been agonizing over which meal plan I should purchase for myself.</p>
<p>I’m used to cooking my own food and adjusting to live on a campus is going to be somewhat difficult for me, and even though I’ll have a kitchen in Ram I expect I’ll be a little too busy during the day and sometimes at night to bother with cooking.</p>
<p>I was looking at the dining hall hours on the website, and it seems like most of them close by about 1 or arent open on weekends. Or at least Lenoir does which is the closest one to me. Whats up with that? Because they seem to be closed most of the time would it benefit me to take a really small meal plan, load up on flex bucks, or just go eat on Franklin st?</p>
<p>Wait, that wasn’t a mistake. I just double checked. The summer hours are on a PDF sheet. The times I was referring to is on the dining services site under “meal plans” then “hours of service”.</p>
<p>Oh, I see. Maybe the hours for Top of Lenoir are in the process of being changed. Last year, they were typically open from 7:30-3 and 5-9 (those times are approximate). Hopefully the times will remain the same.</p>
<p>What are your opinions about the weekly plans? I am thinking of getting the Value 8 (which ends up being 120 meals a semester) or the Block 110, which is the same price. Have people liked the weekly plans even though the meals don’t roll over to the next week?</p>
<p>Unless they are seriously messing with the scheduled hours, carolina girl is right. Top of Lenoir is open from 7-3, and 4:30 to about 9 Monday through Thursday, from 7-3 on Friday, and it is also open for dinner on Sunday. Ram’s Head is open 7-3 and 4:30-9 every day of the week. And Lenoir not being open on weekends doesn’t really matter. That’s when people tend to go to Franklin anyway. Also, Ram’s Head is literally a five minute walk from Lenoir.</p>
<p>Rose, whether you want the block or the weekly plan depends on what kind of person you are. I prefer that block plan, because I do a pretty good job of keeping up with the meal. I have gotten the 110 block plan both my semesters so far, and I have managed to use up all my meals pretty easily. Other people prefer the block plan because that forces them to go eat meal in the dining halls a certain number of times a week, or else they get to the end of the semester with half their meals on their block plan left.</p>
<p>I have a question about the expense account.</p>
<p>So I just attempted to buy $100 in the expense online. But it only takes a Mastercard. Why can’t I pay for it the way I can for the meal plan and flex? I don’t have a Mastercard… I don’t even know if my parents do. Is there another way to pay for it? On campus, perhaps? Thanks.</p>
<p>Maziana, to put money on your expense account, you can do it directly with cash at the one card office. Also, in Davis, the Undergrad library, and Ram’s head, there are machines where you can add money to your expense account.</p>
<p>From a sophomore mom:
Meal plan packages were revamped this year, so getting a minimal plan with $400 flex, the same thing my DD had last year, will cost a total of $250 more for the semester. Ick. She used every bit of that flex money last year and says she averaged six meals a week in dining halls. There are off-campus “commuter” plans that are more reasonable, but they don’t seem to be available online to students registered as on-campus students. It’s unclear whether those commuter plans could be bought by an on-campus student in person at the One Card office.</p>