Trail's End allergy reviews?

[clanmcculloch]

I tried searching the forum but I'm not finding much going back to 2009. We'll be staying in cabins at FW for 4 nights of our August trip so I'm trying to figure out dining options at the resort. I figure we'll order some groceries since we'll have the kitchen but when we stay at resorts I like try out the dining options at that resort as part of experiencing the resort. Looking over the menus, it looks like Trail's End is the only regular restaurant at FW (regular meaning non-dinner show and more than just nachos and pizza; I am also considering HDDR as well since we really enjoy that show and DD14 can probably drive our golf cart home if DH and I enjoy a few too many beers LOL; they'd better carry Redbridge).

So, anybody have any allergy experience you can share? I'm option to breakfast, lunch, dinner or take-out so please share anything you've got. I'm interested regardless of your allergy lists since we've got long lists ourselves including many of the top 8 plus other not so common ones between the group of us and I'd love to hear anything you can tell me about how they deal with all types of allergies.

Thank you in advance!!

 

[livndisney]

I tried searching the forum but I'm not finding much going back to 2009. We'll be staying in cabins at FW for 4 nights of our August trip so I'm trying to figure out dining options at the resort. I figure we'll order some groceries since we'll have the kitchen but when we stay at resorts I like try out the dining options at that resort as part of experiencing the resort. Looking over the menus, it looks like Trail's End is the only regular restaurant at FW (regular meaning non-dinner show and more than just nachos and pizza; I am also considering HDDR as well since we really enjoy that show and DD14 can probably drive our golf cart home if DH and I enjoy a few too many beers LOL; they'd better carry Redbridge).

So, anybody have any allergy experience you can share? I'm option to breakfast, lunch, dinner or take-out so please share anything you've got. I'm interested regardless of your allergy lists since we've got long lists ourselves including many of the top 8 plus other not so common ones between the group of us and I'd love to hear anything you can tell me about how they deal with all types of allergies.

Thank you in advance!!

Are you sure you want to know?

I know with our allergies(and I think you guys a few more) we got a Chef who walked the buffet telling us all the things we could not have. (Only Chef we have had that refused to make anything in the back).

I think you might be much happier at Whispering Canyon(friend of mine is Chef there and does great things for allergy families).

 

[clanmcculloch]

Wow, that's not good. Looking a the menu, I don't know that there's anything that's safe as-is without at least a bit of tweeking. I was hoping it would be like other restaurants where as long as they have the ingredients they can make something safe. Even HDDR custom makes food and some of the food I believe is shared between them so I would have at least expected that.

There's a bus to go straight from FW over to WL for WCC, right? Any chance we can just drive a golf cart over (I'm doubtful as I assume we'd have to go on real roads but I figure I should ask; we can at least take the cart over to a bus stop where the WL busses stop). You know, I've been wanting to try WCC. This might be a good time to try.

 

[livndisney]

And I think you have to be 16 to drive the golf carts.

I know there is a walking path from the Fort to Wilderness.
I will try and pop over and see what I can find out for you.


If you want I can send you the chef's email, he usually works the day shift at WCC.

 

[clanmcculloch]

That stinks about the age on the golf cart. DH really shouldn't be drinking anyway with his diabetes since he'll be gorging himself on the all you can eat fried chicken and the corn bread so he'll be fine driving the cart. For some reason I though I had heard of young teens driving them but that must be more of a case of people not caring about the rules rather than the rules not existing (I'm way too much of an OCD rule follower for that so if that's the rule, I'll definitely follow it).

I don't want to waste a chef's time until I know I've booked an ADR. Thanks for the offer! I'll likely take you up on it once I've actually booked it. This likely is a good time to do so since I only book resort restaurant ADRs when transportation isn't required (besides something like monorail between the monorail resorts or the boat on Crescent Lake though walking's just as easy). I'll want to look over the menu to figure out the best time of day for us before booking. If there's a walkway then we can easily walk. We enjoyed the walk between Poly and GF for ADRs and I'm assuming a walkway between FW and WL would be similar, right? That's assuming I can't take the golf cart which I'm still assuming is at least frowned upon if not explicitly forbidden (though I assume explicitly forbidden is more likely).

 

[livndisney]

That stinks about the age on the golf cart. DH really shouldn't be drinking anyway with his diabetes since he'll be gorging himself on the all you can eat fried chicken and the corn bread so he'll be fine driving the cart. For some reason I though I had heard of young teens driving them but that must be more of a case of people not caring about the rules rather than the rules not existing (I'm way too much of an OCD rule follower for that so if that's the rule, I'll definitely follow it).

I don't want to waste a chef's time until I know I've booked an ADR. Thanks for the offer! I'll likely take you up on it once I've actually booked it. This likely is a good time to do so since I only book resort restaurant ADRs when transportation isn't required (besides something like monorail between the monorail resorts or the boat on Crescent Lake though walking's just as easy). I'll want to look over the menu to figure out the best time of day for us before booking. If there's a walkway then we can easily walk. We enjoyed the walk between Poly and GF for ADRs and I'm assuming a walkway between FW and WL would be similar, right? That's assuming I can't take the golf cart which I'm still assuming is at least frowned upon if not explicitly forbidden (though I assume explicitly forbidden is more likely).

I found the age thing in a sticky in the camping thread if it helps.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I really should check out the camping board. I'm just hesitant to go over there since the one time I did I ended with the DIS self-righteous attitude that's so prevalant on other boards besides this one. I am an OCD rule follower so I won't break rules and have her drive if that's a rule but I just don't need that attitude when trying to just get information.

Last night I booked a lunch ADR for WCC. Thank you for the recommendation. I've been wanting to eat there. I booked the ADR for the first lunch seating which is perfect timing for checking out of FW, checking our bags with bell services to be sent over to our next resort, dropping off the golf cart and then walking over to WL. I'm looking forward to it. I've been wanting to eat at WCC for a while but always rule it out because of transportation. This will be perfect.

 

[PatsMom]

You won't be able to take the golf cart to the Wilderness Lodge. If I am recalling correctly there are posts where the walkway begins to prevent driving them out of Fort Wilderness. It is not a short walk but not terribly long either - I wouldn't want to do it if it is hot but on cooler days it might be nice. The boat is probably more efficient at getting to WL. Check to see if it is running though. Sometimes they are few and far between. Sometimes the WL has shared busses to the parks with FW and sometimes not. The camping board would have the latest bus route information.

Whispering Canyon is OK. We life the buffet at Trail's End but we dont' have any allergy issues. I do know I have seen the chef visiting tables so I assume that is what he is doing - going over the allergy issues.

We haven't ordered allergy friendly dishes at HDDR but we have ordered vegetarian. the request was noted on our reservation and we just reminded the waiter when we arrived. He gave our vegetarian guest a choice of three different dishes.

 

[clanmcculloch]

We've eaten twice at HDDR so I am familiar with the limitted yet tasty options for us there. I'm just trying to get past the cost of it since this will be our first time paying OOP for HDDR. For 5 people, that's $340 since we'd be booking category 1 (it's only a $45 total savings to go to category 3 so I want to try category 1 if we're paying this kind of money anyway).

Thanks for explaining about the walkway from FW to WL. At this point I figure we'll go after we drop our golf cart off on our checkout from FW day. I need to look up the lay of the land but as I'm thinking about the logistics, if the last thing we do is drop the golf cart I think that'll be at the front of the resort and there should be a bus straight from FW to WL. Is that right? I believe that the boat is at the opposite end of the resort from where golf carts are dropped when dealing with companies like Tee Time, is that correct?

I definitely need to think about Trail's End some more. I hope to get more input on them regarding allergies. As I said, I don't think anything on the menu will be safe for us as-is but ingredients of items on the menu would be easily modified to be safe so I'm hoping they're at least willing to do that. Of course if all they're willing to do is give us the same foods we'll get at HDDR then maybe it doesn't make sense.

 

[escapetodisney]

Trail's End is the only restaurant we have walked out of without getting an allergy safe meal. This is just our experience and I hope that others have had better experiences. We experienced a very uncooperative chef. When the chef came to our table, I explained my children's allergies and he explained which dishes did not contain allergen ingredients. I then asked if the children's plates could be made from food in the kitchen as opposed to going through the buffet line due to issues with cross-contamination. I explained how sometimes other guests (mostly children) might put food back after realizing they got the wrong thing or how utensils could be used for more than one dish on the buffet line. I never asked the chef to make anything different, nor did he offer. He said it wasn't necessary, but okay. Then I saw him go to the buffet line to make my son's plate. So at that point I lost confidence in the chef and his ability to be honest and serve a safe meal. So we paid for our drinks and left. My children were quite sad and hungry by the end of this experience. We have dined in several Disney restaurants and this is not our typical experience. Most chefs are wonderful and go out of their way to make children safe meals.

 

[clanmcculloch]

Wow, these are not encouraging at all. Two out of two people on this board who have allergies and have tried Trail's End had poor/scary experiences. Since I'll be placing a grocery order anyway (water, some breakfast and snack foods0 I'll likely just make sure to have enough breakfast foods for every day we're in the cabins and also get enough food so that we can have arrival day lunch/dinner and lunch on our break/resort day.

Has anybody tried ordering from the TE menu rather than the buffet? I'm wondering if that goes any better than the buffet.

 

[clanmcculloch]

sorry for the duplicate post.

 

[dclfun]

Wow, these are not encouraging at all. Two out of two people on this board who have allergies and have tried Trail's End had poor/scary experiences. Since I'll be placing a grocery order anyway (water, some breakfast and snack foods0 I'll likely just make sure to have enough breakfast foods for every day we're in the cabins and also get enough food so that we can have arrival day lunch/dinner and lunch on our break/resort day.

Has anybody tried ordering from the TE menu rather than the buffet? I'm wondering if that goes any better than the buffet.

It sounds like the problem is the chef! I wonder if you contacted Special Diets before your trip to let them know what kinds of experiences were shared with you and to see if there's now a chef that's willing to accommodate your family. It's a long hike up to Trails End, as you know, and I'd hate to get up there, hungry, and find out they can't serve you anything safe. I'm surprised they're even allowed to get away with being so unhelpful. Hrrmph.

 

[livndisney]

It sounds like the problem is the chef! I wonder if you contacted Special Diets before your trip to let them know what kinds of experiences were shared with you and to see if there's now a chef that's willing to accommodate your family. It's a long hike up to Trails End, as you know, and I'd hate to get up there, hungry, and find out they can't serve you anything safe. I'm surprised they're even allowed to get away with being so unhelpful. Hrrmph.

The chef we had is still there(has been for years). From the emails I got when I addressed our problem, there isn't much Special Diets can do about chefs. From what I gathered, there are not "many" allergy requests at Trails end, as most campers, camp so they can prepare their own food. Right or not, they "noted" my concern.

 

[dclfun]

The chef we had is still there(has been for years). From the emails I got when I addressed our problem, there isn't much Special Diets can do about chefs. From what I gathered, there are not "many" allergy requests at Trails end, as most campers, camp so they can prepare their own food. Right or not, they "noted" my concern.

I figure there should be some kind of consistency and options presented for those with food allergies. Can you imagine if all the chefs suddenly refused to prepare anything safe for anyone? My family doesn't have food allergies but it doesn't matter as we're all here to support one another with whatever disability we have and as such, the lack of safe food here concerns me. I think the issue at Trails End is appalling.

 

[livndisney]

I figure there should be some kind of consistency and options presented for those with food allergies. Can you imagine if all the chefs suddenly refused to prepare anything safe for anyone? My family doesn't have food allergies but it doesn't matter as we're all here to support one another with whatever disability we have and as such, the lack of safe food here concerns me. I think the issue at Trails End is appalling.

I could not agree more-however I think this may be signs of things to come. We may start to see a time where only "certain" locations handle food allergies.

It has just gotten to hard for us to eat at WDW. No one knows what it going on. And quite frankly we have had tooooo many "oops" you got the wrong meal and less than helpful chefs. (We have had amazing chefs-but they are few and far between.) I personally have ended up in FA because of being given the wrong food. DD has gotten very sick(on her birthday) because of an oops.

rant over LOL

 

[WheelieBigDisFan]

I would think that making a reasonable accommodation for a person with a FA is REQUIRED under the ADA and that any restaurant (in or out of Disney) is required to accommodate that guests needs with the resources they have available. Changing something on the menu to be free of allergens with ingredients they have in the restaurant/QS location is not asking for "special" treatment, it is asking for EQUAL access to food that will not make you sick, itch, swell or go into anaphylactic shock because of contact with a known food allergen. When possible, the chef/cook should prepare food in an area of the kitchen that has been cleaned and is free of known allergens with pots/utensils that are clean and free of known allergens (no cross contamination). This food should then be delivered directly to the table by the chef/cook and not put into the regular line where there may be known allergens in other dishes. This assures the guest that their food is safe for them to eat, just as if they were a non FA guest (a non FA guest will not be at risk of going into anaphylactic shock because the chef neglected to properly wash a pot or other utensil and a FA guest should not be at risk of going into shock bc the chef is lazy).
Now, if I am a guest with a FA and I come in demanding that a chef prepare something off menu with ingredients that are not in the restaurant, etc. that is no longer considered equal access that would be greater access and is not required to be accommodated by the ADA.
If I were to be a patron at an establishment that was unwilling to accommodate a known FA bc it was "inconvenient", they were "busy", they were "lazy", etc. I would be on the phone with the Department of Justice (http://www.ada.gov/agency.htm) to inquire about the legality of denying accommodation and to see if any actions could be taken to prevent that in the future.
Mandy

 

[clanmcculloch]

Mandy, the definition of "reasonable" I think is subject to interpretation. I don't personally think that the ADA requirements would stipulate an allergy safe area be maintained in a kitchen as being reasonable. Disney DOES do this in most cases but that's not what ADA would necessarily see as reasonable. A chef taking time out of running the kitchen to give special attention to a guest is not necessarily what the ADA would see as reasonable either. Disney DOES do this in most cases but again, it's not necessarily what the ADA would demand. The issue at Trail's End IMO is NOT an ADA issue but rather a training and/or policy compliance issue. But, if management at WDW is not willing to address the issue then Trail's End becomes in my mind just like almost every restaurant I deal with at home which is a dining establishment I choose to not patronize.

Livndisney, did you ever contact Guest Relations or did you only contact Special Diets?

 

[livndisney]

Mandy, the definition of "reasonable" I think is subject to interpretation. I don't personally think that the ADA requirements would stipulate an allergy safe area be maintained in a kitchen as being reasonable. Disney DOES do this in most cases but that's not what ADA would necessarily see as reasonable. A chef taking time out of running the kitchen to give special attention to a guest is not necessarily what the ADA would see as reasonable either. Disney DOES do this in most cases but again, it's not necessarily what the ADA would demand. The issue at Trail's End IMO is NOT an ADA issue but rather a training and/or policy compliance issue. But, if management at WDW is not willing to address the issue then Trail's End becomes in my mind just like almost every restaurant I deal with at home which is a dining establishment I choose to not patronize.

Livndisney, did you ever contact Guest Relations or did you only contact Special Diets?

Actually, I had mentioned it to a manager at WL (FT and WL seem to have some management tie-in) he talked to a few people and basically WDW KNOWS Trails End has this "issue" but it is not enough of a "problem" to fix (if that makes any sense). This is also where the thought of only certain places will handle food allergies comes in. Will it happen? I don't know, but the wind does seem to be blowing that way.......

 

[clanmcculloch]

Actually, I had mentioned it to a manager at WL (FT and WL seem to have some management tie-in) he talked to a few people and basically WDW KNOWS Trails End has this "issue" but it is not enough of a "problem" to fix (if that makes any sense). This is also where the thought of only certain places will handle food allergies comes in. Will it happen? I don't know, but the wind does seem to be blowing that way.......

WOW!!! That'll certainly mean a change in how often we visit. I'm going to right now not let myself think about this possible upcoming change but I'll definitely be keeping my eyes and ears open waiting for news. I really don't like the direction WDW's been taking when it comes to allergies and frankly one size fits all approaches to other disabilities as well that we've been seeing people talk about on this board. It's weird how other family destinations are working at becoming MORE accomodating while WDW who was the leader in special needs is taking so many steps backward.