We’ve always found UO cheaper than Disney. The UO dining plan has never saved us money though when I’ve compared somkeep that in mind.
The one thing that I do like about UO over Disney that affects cost is that we don’t have to plan meals far out at UO. We typically decide day of what we feel like eating and use priority seating or make a reservation that morning. With ADRs we found some days we weren’t in the mood for a big meal, but well it’s booked so we went anyway. At UO we only pay for big meals when we want to.
I felt like counter service was a bit more expensive at Universal. The kids meals were definitely more and weren't offered at all restaurants, and even with the higher cost didn't include a drink. Pretty comparable overall, but we had a harder time finding food we liked at Universal. The Simpsons food court was pretty bad. But the fish & chips in Harry Potter lands was quite good.
I do have to say that most of the time the kids meals seem reasonable in size and do technically come with two sides (grapes, apples, carrots, sometimes you can substitute for fries), as well as usually milk, juice, or a little bottle of water. So, if you're an adult wanting to be satisfied, but not stuffed, it can be a good option. I've done it a few times. Pretty good to get all that when you might spend at most $7 and some change, usually it's less.
As for the entree, sometimes it's a small portion (such as if you get a child sized corn dog), but if you get for example the chicken nuggets, which are more like chicken tenders, only cut in half (that's the best way I can describe the size) and you're getting four instead of the adult portion which is five. It's still definitely enough.
At Universal you can buy the coke freestyle cup and get refills all day and there's several places that have freestyle machines or will refill the cup at the parksI agree that the portion is fine for a smaller eating adult (I did that for myself, especially the kids' fisn & chips). But at Disney you get a drink. At Universal you don't. At least I didn't see a drink offered anywhere at Universal for a kids meal, and we just came home today so it's super fresh in my mind. Disney, yep you get the milk, juice or water. If it's at Universal, then we somehow missed all the locations with kids' drinks.
We do find it annoying that some places don't have kids meals or have them but they aren't on the menu in the app or up on the big screens, there is just a little sign on the counter (yes I'm looking at you Simpsons food court - giant pain in the butt that you are).
At Universal you can buy the coke freestyle cup and get refills all day and there's several places that have freestyle machines or will refill the cup at the parks
What time of year do you typically go? We were wondering if priority seating worked during the busy times or if we needed to make reservations. We are looking at this July. Thanks!
We did have a lot of Icees some days in the refillable mug. But I was hoping for milk with a kids' meal for the kids once in a while. Of course, the kids weren't complaining about Icee instead of milk!
We're used to Disney too but went to Universal in May for the first time in about 15 years. We only did counter service but omg, the prices made Disney look like the Red Cross. OBSCENE prices for not a whole lot of food. We ate at Comic Strip Cafe on Islands side, but when browsing around, we found all the prices to be in the same range pretty muchCan anyone give me an idea of how these properties compare? Does one place tend to run higher than the other? We basically only know Disney. Trying to get an idea if we’d notice a difference in our budget. Thanks