I have used it. If you plan on eating a lot during the day then you can save money over purchasing the food individually, but it takes a lot of eating.
Some issues to think about
:
- Most restaurants don't open until 11:00 or later. So you might be tempted to purchase breakfast and then not eat as much lunch/dinner.
- The restaurants that participate in the Meal Deal are limited.
- Most of the restaurants that do participate have a very limited menu. If I remember correctly, there was one, maybe two, restaurants in each park that had a slightly better menu option list than the others. For IOA, I think the restaurant in the Toon Lagoon area had the widest selection of food items.
- If you park hop, you won't be able to use the Meal Deal for food in the other park unless you pay even more for the Meal Deal. At its base price, it is only valid for certain restaurants in the park you purchased it at.
- Some items off the menu are not included (i.e. the better desserts, the larger pizzas, etc.) In fact, the desserts that are included aren't really that good at all.
- It does NOT include drinks. So you will have to purchase those separately. Universal does have a drink deal that you can purchase, but this raises the cost even more.
Basically, if I had some teenage boys who would normally never stop eating, and were planning on spending their time in one park per day, then it might be worth it. But for most people, you will probably save money by purchasing your food without the Meal Deal.