Will Universal Orlando EVER Bring Back Its Dining Plan?!

We’re always looking for ways to make your vacations easier. After all, you’re spending WAY too much money to have anything but a fantastic trip!

Sometimes to have the best trip ever, you’ll add on things like skip-the-line services (including Express Pass), or upgrade your hotel room for a better stay. One of these things, that returned this year to Disney World, is a Dining Plan…but that option is still missing from Universal Orlando. Why? Will it ever come back? That’s what we’re diving into now!

What Is the Universal Dining Plan?

The Universal Dining Plan allowed visitors to pre-pay for their meals before heading to the parks. This made it easier to budget and could be a solid money-saving option with the right type of plan. We actually tried it out just a few months before it disappeared.

Over 100 dining locations participated in the Universal Dining Plan and several tiers were offered with different things included in each. Here’s a look at the full breakdown from 2021, before the service disappeared:

• Universal Dining Plan: This plan is available only as part of a vacation package and provides users with one full-service meal per day, one quick-service meal per day, one snack per day, and one non-alcoholic beverage per day. Pricing unavailable as this plan is only available in combination with a vacation package.
• Universal Dining Plan — Quick Service: This plan includes one quick-service meal per day, one snack per day, and one non-alcoholic beverage per day. The Quick-Service plan is $25.99 per day.
• Universal Dining Plan — Quick Service + Coca-Cola freestyle Souvenir Cup: This plan includes one quick-service meal per day and one snack per day. Also included is a souvenir Coca-Cola freestyle cup and 1-day unlimited Coca-Cola freestyle beverage. This plan is $34.99 per day.
• Coca-Cola freestyle Souvenir Cup: This option includes a Coca-Cola freestyle Souvenir Cup and 1-day unlimited Coca-Cola freestyle beverage. This option is $16.99 per day.

See? Lots of options! And not to mention, it was pretty affordable. So…why isn’t it offered anymore?

What Happened?

Unfortunately, it’s not super clear what happened to the Dining Plan. In July 2021, Universal announced that this service would be discontinued. The message said, “As we continue to evaluate our offerings and make enhancements to our food and beverage experiences, the Universal Dining Plan is no longer available.”

So what gives? It’s possible this wasn’t making the parks enough money, so they decided to cut it. Nothing has been confirmed by Universal as far as the reasoning behind this decision, though.

Fans thought that Universal may bring back the Dining Plan to rival Disney World which brought back its plan on January 9th, 2024. Universal often pokes fun or makes announcements at the same time as Disney World, but they were pretty quiet about the return of Disney’s service.

Universal hasn’t really made a peep about the Dining Plan since 2021, but luckily, there are other ways to save money on food in the parks!

What Do To Instead

Although you cannot pre-pay for your meals at this time, we’re hoping some form of the Dining Plan returns in the future. It’s possible Universal could be waiting to reintroduce it until the newest theme park, Epic Universe, opens in 2025. There would probably have to be some changes to the service after the highly-anticipated park opens, so we don’t expect to see anything before that. But you never know!

In the meantime, there are some things you can do to save money. Universal has a plethora of restaurants that can fit any budget. The Quick Service Dining Plan was $25.99 and included a quick-service meal, a snack, and a non-alcoholic drink. Let’s see if we can recreate that for under that price!

One of our favorite money-saving food hacks in theme parks is to order kid’s meals! A lot of them are actually pretty filling, and much more affordable than adult meals. At quick service locations, adults can order off of the kid’s menu — it’s no biggie!

Remember when Quincy ate EVERYTHING at Minion Cafe? Check it out!

Let’s say you’re spending the day over at Universal Studios. Over at Minion Cafe, we love the Mini Boss’ Mega Melt which is a pimento cheddar grilled cheese, Minion tots, and a mini banana for $9.49. The adult meals don’t come with the Minion tots either which is a crime…but the kid’s meals do!

No trip to Universal is complete without a treat from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, right? For the non-alcoholic drink, you can snag pumpkin juice for only $5.49 at The Fountain of Fair Fortune.

Just a few steps away, you can grab that snack in the form of an ice cream cone from Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlour. This spot has the best ice cream in all of Universal, in our opinion, and no matter which flavor you choose, it’s $6.49 for a waffle cone full of it.

That grand totally gets us to $21.47 — cheaper than the Quick Service Dining Plan prices from 2021 (which would likely be higher now if it were still around).

Also, don’t forget to use discounts if you’re eligible! Universal Annual Passholders get 15% off food with a Premier Pass and 10% off food with a Preferred Pass. This applies to all Universal-owned and operated restaurants. Yes, it even applies to the Coca-Cola Freestyle® souvenir cup!

Universal also launched a Visa Credit Card. With one of those, you can get 10% off of food, merchandise, and more.

If you’re looking for a travel agent to help with your Universal vacation, we recommend our friends at Mouse Fan Travel. They’re experts in the field with over 20 years of vacation planning experience, and they can help take a bunch of the stress out of the entire booking process for you!

So while we don’t predict an announcement about the Dining Plan anytime soon, we’ll be on the lookout. Stay tuned for more!

A Complete Guide To Universal’s Harry Potter Restaurants

Are you planning a Universal Orlando vacation for this year? Or are you waiting for Epic Universe? Let us know in the comments.

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