It's a Gluten Free World After All...PTR (3 Jen's Go to WDW) March 2011

[tink519]

Just found your thread. Sounds like you will have an awesome time coming up soon. It can be hard to plan a vacation for a whole group of people. We went on a family trip with 9 of us in 2003. It was a lot of fun. It is nice to hear you don't need to be together the whole time. We did the same thing and it worked out really well.We are taking our adult children and grandchildren in July to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. we are looking forward to it. Can't wait to read more of your TR.

Happy 40th Anniversay, that will be a great trip! We're excited about the trip. Hopefully everyone is ok with staying together if it works, or going in separate directions if it works. We went with DH's family in 2009 which was 20 people. We usually caught up sometime during the day but definitely did our own thing.

 

[davebon23]

Thanks for the suggestions! Excited to hear about Babycakes. I'll have to look them up. I think in one of my lasts posts I said I wasn't as nervous about it as I was at first because I'm learning more about it and getting used to what to eat.

As for the testing, they did do the Celiac Panel for bloodwork which came back negative. When I met with the GI she asked why I thought I had to give up gluten and why not try something else. I told her that my APRN suggested cutting out either gluten or dairy to see if it made a difference. Since my uncle and and his daughter/my cousin are both Celiac, as well as my mom's other cousin and one of her grandchildren, I thought it made sense to go with gluten first. The GI then told me that my blood tests show that I am not Celiac so just to get that out of my head. My cousin, who is VERY much Celiac, to the point that she is vomiting almost immediately after consuming it, had negative blood tests and even a negaitve endoscopy before finally being diagnosed. My uncle's blood tests were border line. He never went with the endoscopy because he knows when he he eats it he breaks out in a rash.

So long story short, I just don't eat it. I have been really good lately and I can't even tell you how good my belly feels. When I eat it now my stomach gets really sore if I touch it, and sometimes pains like I did about 100 crunches, or someone is stabbling me....in addition to the digestion issues.

Yes it is frustrating and I am sure that I could find another doctor who would be more supportive but I'm fine for now. And at this point I've been gluten free for 4 months so not sure what the endoscopy would show.

I'm going to start doing some reading about when I should contact restaurants with my needs. I did flag that I was gluten free on all of my reservations so we'll see what happens with that.

Well as long as you feel better, that's the important thing. You wouldn't want to do the endoscopy unless you started eating gluten again. There would be no point. I was lucky that my GI diagnosed me right away and now I switched to a GI that has a son with Celiac so he is familiar. I also started having problems last year and was told I had IBS on top of Celiac. Now just the last couple of months I have been really, really sick no matter what I ate. I have an appt coming up, but I talked to another Celiac friend and her and I thought it might be dairy. So I have given up dairy now and feel a lot better. But I am still going to see the GI and see. I haven't had an endoscopy for awhile and he prob will want to do another. Many celiacs end up lactose intolerant. I am NOT happy about having to give up dairy also.

You said that you already said you were GF on your reservations. Did you contact special diets to see where you can eat GF? They will email you a list of some TS rest and all CS places you can eat and what the CS serve there. Contact them ASAP. That will help you a lot with planning. Sometimes the chefs will call you before you come and go over food you can eat.

Now I don't have experience yet, but this is some of the info I have found so far on this website. I can't wait to try Babycakes as well. Some people have said, not so good. But those are prob people who don't need GF like we do. Us Celiacs love anything that is bakery that we can't normally need. At least I do.

Hope this helps. Hopefully you can come back from your trip and give us some info on how everything went for you.

 

[tink519]

I haven't contacted special diets yet, I should do that. But every place we've book other people have posted that they also ate there gluten free so I think I'll be good.

I've also heard about the lactose, but I think I've heard it can happen as you heal. So you might need to give it up for a while but then can add it back in? It stinks to have to give up so many foods just to feel better, but in the long run it feels so much better.

And yes, I agree about the baked goods. It took me a while to try the bread, I was afraid of a consistency issue. But I'm a big fan of udi's white, so I'm happy with that...wonder if I can bring a loaf in my carry on
and I love making the King Arthur muffins with some chocolate chips in them. Betty Crocker cupcakes are quite tast as well

 

[tink519]

So I may have gone a little ADR crazy the other day

In an attempt to not drive everyone else in our group crazy with my obsession with planning, I made reservations at Hollywood & Vine for two different mornings so we could decide later which day we want to go there. I know lots of people do that, but it's my first time We also decided to go for breakfast, which I've heard is better. We have 8:30 ADR's so hoping we can get in, eat and still make it over to TSM to get a decent FP.

We also have started to re-think our adult night out ADR at Kouzzina since there are now so many people going, so our babysitter may not be able to watch all of the kids. So we're thinking of seeing if we can just do a kid free happy hour. Maybe DH and I will look into the in room babysitting services, but honestly I'll be happy with a few hours at the pool bar kid free. I'm easy to please.

I'm now leaning against the dining plan. I don't think I realized it no longer included the appetizer, and I'm not really sure if it will save us money or not. It's so hard to say really. I think if we stick with buffets it makes sense, but not sure about regular meals. I'm more of a salad/dinner type of person, not a dinner/dessert person. What I'd like to do is go with a food budget of xx based on what the meal plan would cost us and then see if we go over it or not. Then I guess we'll know for next time, right?

I tried calling Member Services to book my ME the other day but I was on hold forever so I gave up. I'll try again soon. And we need to order our tickets....and need to scope our ebay for some pins and lanyards for the kiddos. I was going to do it as a stocking stuff but forgot, probably better anyway they would all be lost before we even got there.

Ok that's it for today!

 

[davebon23]

So I may have gone a little ADR crazy the other day

In an attempt to not drive everyone else in our group crazy with my obsession with planning, I made reservations at Hollywood & Vine for two different mornings so we could decide later which day we want to go there. I know lots of people do that, but it's my first time We also decided to go for breakfast, which I've heard is better. We have 8:30 ADR's so hoping we can get in, eat and still make it over to TSM to get a decent FP.

We also have started to re-think our adult night out ADR at Kouzzina since there are now so many people going, so our babysitter may not be able to watch all of the kids. So we're thinking of seeing if we can just do a kid free happy hour. Maybe DH and I will look into the in room babysitting services, but honestly I'll be happy with a few hours at the pool bar kid free. I'm easy to please.

I'm not leaning against the dining plan. I don't think I realized it no longer included the appetizer, and I'm not really sure if it will save us money or not. It's so hard to say really. I think if we stick with buffets it makes sense, but not sure about regular meals. I'm more of a salad/dinner type of person, not a dinner/dessert person. What I'd like to do is go with a food budget of xx based on what the meal plan would cost us and then see if we go over it or not. Then I guess we'll know for next time, right?

I tried calling Member Services to book my ME the other day but I was on hold forever so I gave up. I'll try again soon. And we need to order our tickets....and need to scope our ebay for some pins and lanyards for the kiddos. I was going to do it as a stocking stuff but forgot, probably better anyway they would all be lost before we even got there.

Ok that's it for today!

We will have the dining plan free this time. So we are happy about it. We once did meal plan OP. You do get a lot of food for your money(or at least we did a couple of years ago) but we normally wouldn't eat that much food. So it is hard to say if it is worth the money or just budget for food. Good luck with that decision.LOL. At least the decision was made for us this time, but I have to endure the ridiculous August heat to get that free food!

 

[tink519]

Magical Express is Booked! So excited It means we are getting closer....now just can't wait to get that package in the mail!

Also updated some of the dining reservations. I now have Hollywood & Vine at 10 am, rather than 8:30. I just don't want to be up that early. Would still like to get to the park for rope drop if possible, but at least we aren't rushed. I hate being rush. Then we can get a FP for TSM, maybe ride ToT or RNRC before breakfast so those are out of the way and then eat. With a 10 am we won't be hungry for a while and whatever else we get to before DS needs to nap. We can always go back there after a nap or another day....

I also just discovered Lines on touringplans and I'm in love I subscribed for the crowd calendar and just realized the other day that I can see all the wait times through Lines just by signing in. Makes me want to be there now!

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

So I may have gone a little ADR crazy the other day

I'm now leaning against the dining plan. I don't think I realized it no longer included the appetizer, and I'm not really sure if it will save us money or not. It's so hard to say really. I think if we stick with buffets it makes sense, but not sure about regular meals. I'm more of a salad/dinner type of person, not a dinner/dessert person. What I'd like to do is go with a food budget of xx based on what the meal plan would cost us and then see if we go over it or not. Then I guess we'll know for next time, right?


Ok that's it for today!

My Daughter and I just did the dining plan when we went over Thanksgiving and did save over $100.00. We did the counter service one and kept track of how much it would have cost out of pocket. I do think it does save you money.

 

[tink519]

My Daughter and I just did the dining plan when we went over Thanksgiving and did save over $100.00. We did the counter service one and kept track of how much it would have cost out of pocket. I do think it does save you money.

Thanks for the feedback. I am now starting to think about it again and doing the regular dining plan, 1 snack, 1 QS and 1 TS. DH just ignores me but I think it might make sense, again. The group decided against doing an Adult Night out so I think we are canceling the Kouzinna reservation in favor of some appetizers and drinks at the ESPN zone or maybe the pool...so that will likely be OP. So I was thinking of adding a Cape May breakfast, I'd really like to do a Character Breakfast with Goofy, Minnie, etc....I think DS will love it. So will DD. So that gives us 3 buffets, plus CRT. Which for the 3 of us is $$$....we are eating at Raglan Road when we go to DTD which will OP since it's all burgers/salads, etc...and then La Hacienda is expensive enough that I think it makes sense.

I almost think we'll end up breaking even, but maybe I am underestimating the CS meals. Which is quite possible. And who knows about the snacks....all depends on what we get. Either way we look at it I feel like I need to budget the same amount of money for meals and it would be great if we came in under that. I wish I had a record of what we spent last time. I'm definitely keeping receipts this time around.

 

[davebon23]

Thanks for the feedback. I am now starting to think about it again and doing the regular dining plan, 1 snack, 1 QS and 1 TS. DH just ignores me but I think it might make sense, again. The group decided against doing an Adult Night out so I think we are canceling the Kouzinna reservation in favor of some appetizers and drinks at the ESPN zone or maybe the pool...so that will likely be OP. So I was thinking of adding a Cape May breakfast, I'd really like to do a Character Breakfast with Goofy, Minnie, etc....I think DS will love it. So will DD. So that gives us 3 buffets, plus CRT. Which for the 3 of us is $$$....we are eating at Raglan Road when we go to DTD which will OP since it's all burgers/salads, etc...and then La Hacienda is expensive enough that I think it makes sense.

I almost think we'll end up breaking even, but maybe I am underestimating the CS meals. Which is quite possible. And who knows about the snacks....all depends on what we get. Either way we look at it I feel like I need to budget the same amount of money for meals and it would be great if we came in under that. I wish I had a record of what we spent last time. I'm definitely keeping receipts this time around.

We did the dining plan in 2007 and we paid OOP. We did save the receipts. I actually found them the other day! LOL!! I don't remember now but we kept track and we did save money. Now, normally we wouldn't eat that much food, but it was less than if we did have the dining plan. At least a couple of hundred dollars I think. I think the dining plan is good if you are going to do a lot of sit downs. Which it looks like it may. And those sit downs are so good at accomodating us Gluten free people. So I hear!!

Good luck making your choice about the dining. And I am jealous you are going soon!!

 

[CarlFredricksen]

I just found your great thread. My wife and I are staying at BCV in three weeks to celebrate our 20th anniversary. It will be our 4th trip to the world since she was diagnosed with celiac. We've always had great experiences with GF at WDW, although I wish the restaurants would all just print GF menus. Lots of restaurants other places are starting to do that now. This trip is to celebrate our 20th anniversary, and we're leaving our 3 kids with the grandparents. This is a very quick trip -- basically a long weekend (the grandparents are around ~80 and can only stand so much...) We have ADRs at California Grill, Yachtsman, Le Cellier, and La Hacienda (for illuminations). We aren't DVC members, so choosing 40% off the room rate seemed to make more sense than free dining to us, especially since we often like to go heavy on appetizers and then split an entree. We are staying too short of a time for free dining I think anyway. Any GF experience with these restaurants in particular? We haven't been to any of them before. We have had a great GF time in the past at Garden Grill, La Cantina, Boma, Flying Fish, Teppon Edo, and The Wave. When my wife was first diagnosed she was lactose intolerant, too, but that cleared up pretty quickly once she went GF. Other than gluten, she'll eat anything (and likes everything), which makes things a little simpler.

 

[davebon23]

I just found your great thread. My wife and I are staying at BCV in three weeks to celebrate our 20th anniversary. It will be our 4th trip to the world since she was diagnosed with celiac. We've always had great experiences with GF at WDW, although I wish the restaurants would all just print GF menus. Lots of restaurants other places are starting to do that now. This trip is to celebrate our 20th anniversary, and we're leaving our 3 kids with the grandparents. This is a very quick trip -- basically a long weekend (the grandparents are around ~80 and can only stand so much...) We have ADRs at California Grill, Yachtsman, Le Cellier, and La Hacienda (for illuminations). We aren't DVC members, so choosing 40% off the room rate seemed to make more sense than free dining to us, especially since we often like to go heavy on appetizers and then split an entree. We are staying too short of a time for free dining I think anyway. Any GF experience with these restaurants in particular? We haven't been to any of them before. We have had a great GF time in the past at Garden Grill, La Cantina, Boma, Flying Fish, Teppon Edo, and The Wave. When my wife was first diagnosed she was lactose intolerant, too, but that cleared up pretty quickly once she went GF. Other than gluten, she'll eat anything (and likes everything), which makes things a little simpler.

Wish I could help you, but this will be my first time going GF. But you can do a search on the DISabilities board, restaurants board and trip reports board. I have found some info on those. Good luck searching and have a nice trip. Happy Anniversary!!

 

[tink519]

I just found your great thread. My wife and I are staying at BCV in three weeks to celebrate our 20th anniversary. It will be our 4th trip to the world since she was diagnosed with celiac. We've always had great experiences with GF at WDW, although I wish the restaurants would all just print GF menus. Lots of restaurants other places are starting to do that now. This trip is to celebrate our 20th anniversary, and we're leaving our 3 kids with the grandparents. This is a very quick trip -- basically a long weekend (the grandparents are around ~80 and can only stand so much...) We have ADRs at California Grill, Yachtsman, Le Cellier, and La Hacienda (for illuminations). We aren't DVC members, so choosing 40% off the room rate seemed to make more sense than free dining to us, especially since we often like to go heavy on appetizers and then split an entree. We are staying too short of a time for free dining I think anyway. Any GF experience with these restaurants in particular? We haven't been to any of them before. We have had a great GF time in the past at Garden Grill, La Cantina, Boma, Flying Fish, Teppon Edo, and The Wave. When my wife was first diagnosed she was lactose intolerant, too, but that cleared up pretty quickly once she went GF. Other than gluten, she'll eat anything (and likes everything), which makes things a little simpler.

Hi and welcome to my PTR! I can't offer any experinece either since this will be my first time GF as well. When are you going? Maybe it says in your signature...I will definitely report when I get back.

I am still "fine tuning" our itinerary. I want to add Cape May breakfast. but DH thinks we have too many reservations already. I really don't think we do, we are there for 6 nights and only have 5 ADR's. I would be happy to cancel our Hollywood & Vine but DD wants to go there. I've been trying to convince her breakfast with Minnie would be better but she keeps saying, "no, Oso." So I'll have to work on DH. And of course it also involves moving stuff around because other people want to join us at the Cape May breakfast. At some point I always gets to the point that I can't wait for the trip just so I stop thinking about which park we should go to what day and whether or not the plan is going to work....

 

[tink519]

I can't believe we leave in 23 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did that happen? We are getting very excited and have a planning session scheduled for tomorrow night with our friends. Hoping we can solidify some of the plans, but I think things are coming together. We got our ME tags last week and I'm just waiting for my transferred money to finally get released into my Disney debit card account so I can order our tickets from undercover tourist. And after tomorrow night's discussion I am going to email special diets, I just want to wait to make sure everything is set, but at this point not sure we can make too many changes to the ADR's anyway.

So what else? I did add the Cape May Breakfast, excited about that one. So we now have 3 Character breakfasts, even though DH said we should only do 2. I figure we need to eat, why not let the kids enjoy it, right? He will get over it. And I think we will do the DDP. I think

Most of all, I can't wait to be in the warm weather. So it better be warm when we are there! I've been trying to get to the gym at least 3 times a week for the past few weeks in hopes of getting in a little bit better shape and trying to lose 4 more lbs. I need to lose another 20 but I feel like another 4 or 5 would make me feel more comfortable. I found the cutest skort at BJ's the other day.....might go back to get another one. And I'm trying to figure out shoes. I don't want to wear my sneakers the whole time, so might invest in some teva mush flops.

 

[davebon23]

I can't believe we leave in 23 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How did that happen? We are getting very excited and have a planning session scheduled for tomorrow night with our friends. Hoping we can solidify some of the plans, but I think things are coming together. We got our ME tags last week and I'm just waiting for my transferred money to finally get released into my Disney debit card account so I can order our tickets from undercover tourist. And after tomorrow night's discussion I am going to email special diets, I just want to wait to make sure everything is set, but at this point not sure we can make too many changes to the ADR's anyway.

So what else? I did add the Cape May Breakfast, excited about that one. So we now have 3 Character breakfasts, even though DH said we should only do 2. I figure we need to eat, why not let the kids enjoy it, right? He will get over it. And I think we will do the DDP. I think

Most of all, I can't wait to be in the warm weather. So it better be warm when we are there! I've been trying to get to the gym at least 3 times a week for the past few weeks in hopes of getting in a little bit better shape and trying to lose 4 more lbs. I need to lose another 20 but I feel like another 4 or 5 would make me feel more comfortable. I found the cutest skort at BJ's the other day.....might go back to get another one. And I'm trying to figure out shoes. I don't want to wear my sneakers the whole time, so might invest in some teva mush flops.

Tink,

you are so lucky to be going so soon! I still have 5 1/2 months.
Hope you have a great time and good luck trying to lose those last few
pounds. I would like to lose 20 before I go also. LOL. I was
sick for a couple of months and gained back 15 pounds since last fall.
I just got some of those Adida soft flip flops for when my feet are tired
of sneakers. I love them. They are so comfortable. I am sooo jealous of you.
Can't wait to hear how your trip went and how eating GF went.
Please let us know when you get back. Have a safe trip!!!

 

[tink519]

Can't believe vacation is finally here! Bags are all packed and we head out in the morning

I emailed Special Diet about two weeks ago so they have all my ADR's, and they also emailed me a bunch of lists with gluten free foods. I will be sure to do a full gluten free dining review when I get back. See you then!

 

[davebon23]

Can't believe vacation is finally here! Bags are all packed and we head out in the morning

I emailed Special Diet about two weeks ago so they have all my ADR's, and they also emailed me a bunch of lists with gluten free foods. I will be sure to do a full gluten free dining review when I get back. See you then!

Tink,

Hope you are having a great time!! Can't wait to hear your review when you get back. Save some of that good GF food for me.

Wish I was there with you!!

 

[tink519]

We had a fantastic vacation despite some rain and tornado watches Here is my Gluten Free Review:http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=40581462#post40581462

Will get to the full trip report soon!

 

[jsantini]

OT, but did you eat gf in Barbados? How did you find it? DH and I are inking of a trip there, but I am nervous about finding safe gf food other than packing a lot to take along. Restaurants can be such a nightmare for cross contamination