Food & Beverage: The Aramark Era begins

[Skyscraper]

Utter shambles if they have. That food stop was always handy as a quick chips and toilet/drink stop and had ample space for the crowds for the inevitable rain.

I don’t think I can ever recall seeing it quiet in there either

Just checked, it's marked on the printed map, but not the app. Very odd.


From: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1419606306877982&set=a.584553903716564

 

[AT86]

Pizza pasta now costs £23.25 and they have removed the unlimited fizzy drinks - you have to pay for them now.

Juices now appear to be included. Interesting choice since the fizzy drinks were actually there to fill you up so you didn’t eat as much.


From: https://x.com/jack_stagram/status/2032822581565202939

 

[Benzin]

Lol.

Sums up the whole thing. Increase the price, lessen the product.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

Having eaten there today, they were fobbing people off by blaming it on the ban on sugary drink refills. Every other establishment has just removed full sugar coke from the machine and continued with sugar free refills only.

 

[dave___]

Going to be a never ending job for someone filling those up. The go down fast enough at hotel breakfasts, never mind at a busy food offering

 

[AT86]

Having eaten there today, they were fobbing people off by blaming it on the ban on sugary drink refills. Every other establishment has just removed full sugar coke from the machine and continued with sugar free refills only.

Indeed, the park is full of refill drink dispensers for the freestyle product so this is very much just them fobbing people off.

 

[havaska]

At this stage it’s like they don’t want any money. Let’s make it so prohibitively expensive for food and drink (and also make the product ****) that no one pays for it. Win win!

 

[Dave]

Shows how idiotic the people in Aramark are, as already mentioned the whole point of unlimited fizzy drinks in all you can eat places is to reduce the amount of food you eat.

 

[Steve74]

Could the reason be that they were finding people were refilling their Freestyle cups?

 

[dave___]

Could the reason be that they were finding people were refilling their Freestyle cups?

Costs like 5p for the quantity of pop that would fill a freestyle cup.

This is just nickel and diming people.

 

[Dave]

This is going to annoy me but have to admit we had food at Enchanted village tonight and it was actually nice. Tasted good, portion sizes decent and although more expensive that the high street not eye wateringly so.

Begrudging praise

 

[Mattie boy]

We used the "heavily watered down juice" stations in the pizza place at SF, didn't really see a issue yet to remove all types of fizzy is daft

 

[VerticalLoop123]

Pizza pasta now costs £23.25 and they have removed the unlimited fizzy drinks - you have to pay for them now.

Juices now appear to be included. Interesting choice since the fizzy drinks were actually there to fill you up so you didn’t eat as much.


From: https://x.com/jack_stagram/status/2032822581565202939

So we mentioned this and apparently there’s a government ban that came into force in October about banning fizzy drinks as included in buffets to tackle childhood obesity. Need to do some googling to see if this is real- though we questioned that the majority of drinks these days are 0kcal?

We said then why has the price gone up? They said it’s Merlin that set the prices not Aramark. Juices looked appalling - we forked out for some pop.

 

[AT86]

So we mentioned this and apparently there’s a government ban that came into force in October about banning fizzy drinks as included in buffets to tackle childhood obesity. Need to do some googling to see if this is real- though we questioned that the majority of drinks these days are 0kcal?

We said then why has the price gone up? They said it’s Merlin that set the prices not Aramark. Juices looked appalling - we forked out for some pop.

A quick ChatGPT suggests the Oct 2025 rules apply to ‘full fat’ versions and so any diet drinks refills are unaffected.

So I still suspect they are telling porkies.

 

[dave___]

So we mentioned this and apparently there’s a government ban that came into force in October about banning fizzy drinks as included in buffets to tackle childhood obesity. Need to do some googling to see if this is real- though we questioned that the majority of drinks these days are 0kcal?

We said then why has the price gone up? They said it’s Merlin that set the prices not Aramark. Juices looked appalling - we forked out for some pop.

It’s BS. October 2025 the government banned free refills of sugary drinks. No restrictions at all on zero of diet drinks. I remember all the fuss about Nando’s and their signs

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2025/10/24/england-bans-free-refills-and-bogo-offers-for-sugary-drinks

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

So we mentioned this and apparently there’s a government ban that came into force in October about banning fizzy drinks as included in buffets to tackle childhood obesity. Need to do some googling to see if this is real- though we questioned that the majority of drinks these days are 0kcal?

We said then why has the price gone up? They said it’s Merlin that set the prices not Aramark. Juices looked appalling - we forked out for some pop.

The changes to HFSS legislation, effective from October 1st 2025, only applies to sugar sweetened drinks. It does not apply to zero sugar refills.

Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price: implementation guidance

www.gov.uk

 

[VerticalLoop123]

The changes to HFSS legislation, effective from October 1st 2025, only applies to sugar sweetened drinks. It does not apply to zero sugar refills.

Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price: implementation guidance

www.gov.uk

Thought their reasoning sounded a bit off!

Just another excuse to cut costs. They were probably fed up of fixing the machines and refilling them.

 

[John_P]

Since the initial furore over that at Nandos I've not seen anywhere enforcing it. Was in a Popeyes today and they still had full fat coke readily available on the refillable drinks machines.

 

[George W]

At this stage it’s like they don’t want any money. Let’s make it so prohibitively expensive for food and drink (and also make the product ****) that no one pays for it. Win win!

Pretty much, I've always just grabbed a meal when I'm out at parks, never stressed about paying a bit extra cause I like hot food and I recognise the markup will be higher when you're in a captive audience, then the food quality decreased drastically and they just keep asking for more and more money, I've finally started to bring my own food, it's at a point where I feel insulted they'd even try charging £15 for the slop they're serving, enough is enough.