14 days, POP/YC with a son who can't eat anything on the menu...

[mistysue]

On Friday, 8/17 I picked up the kids from the daycare and let them know it was FINALLY the day to go to Disney! This after an entire summer of holding it over their heads and making them watch videos of rides and resorts...

The kid's pick was POP Century, from which we would move on to my pick, the yacht club. We arrived around 3:30 on Saturday after driving through the night. I sprung for the pricey room and let the kids get a view of the hippy dippy pool- totally worth it! Dragging them to the window to see it actually got them out of bed in the morning.

We started of course by going for dinner because I was so excited to let DS eat out. The process for ordering allergy food was simple, just approach the counter, tell them and they call out some guy with a hat to make something.
In the morning I will do some full reviews of our days with food pictures, but just a sense of what is ahead:

Saturday: POP dinner, trip to babycakes
Sunday: (Typhoon Lagoon/DTD) POP breakfast, Blizzard Beach lunch, T-rex dinner
Monday: (EPCOT) POP, snacking, Biergarten lunch
Tuesday: (HS/MK) Mama Melrose, DISASTER at Backlot Express
Wednesday: (MK) Casey's corner, the Plaza (also YES class, Pirate makeovers and Barber shop 1st haircut!!)
Thursday: (AK) Tusker House, POP, crazy laundry people
Friday: (Blizzard Beach/DTD) POP, McDonalds, Boma
Saturday: (MK) Crystal Palace, Columbia Harbor House
Sunday: (HS) Hollywood and Vine, Wolfgang puck's, the big resort move
Monday: around the YC today, Kouzzina, Beaches and Cream,
Tuesday: EPCOT/MK Sunshine Seasons, Liberty Tree Tavern, Tony's
Wednesday: (YC/DTD/Typhoon Lagoon) Cape May, hot dog cart, Sandcastle club/wolfgang puck
Thursday: (MK/EPCOT) Tangerine Cafe, 9 dragons, Kid's night out
Friday: Kouzzina before departing

As you can see, we did a lot with our days... and an amazing amount of snacking for my son who can't have wheat, soy, egg, dairy, shrimp, peanut, some treenuts, buckwheat or sesame.
I probably bought about 2 dozen babycakes cupcakes.

 

[mistysue]

Upon Arrival, the kids made themselves comfortable in the waiting area, promptly taking over the games:

I should pause to give them some credit. We were in the car close to 23 hours because we hit traffic leaving. The ONLY complaining was when I installed the baby's carseat a little too upright because it gave in a sore neck. He has a muscle condition so it was much more dramatic for him, and he barely complained until I took him out to change him and he couldn't even tilt his head back. I felt so bad, but we fixed it and everybody was fine. We borrowed my mom's car- I highly recommend a Honda Odyssey for road trips. We got two rear facing carseats plus our daughter comfortable in one row.

I skipped online check-in but it everything went smoothly and we made our way over for dinner
Allergy Spaghetti: (Tinkyada noodles, tomato sauce) This was rung up as a regular child's meal price- which is less than just those noodles cost, so his dinner cost me less than if I made it at home!!!

Kid's Pizza with cookies and yogurt

Vegetarian Lasagna:

This Lasagna is at least in the running for the best meal of my entire trip. We had some amazing food, but since returning home, I have actually been impatient for our trip next year... when I plan to take a bus to POP just to get this again. I don't know exactly what they used, I believe it may have been soy protein flakes but they were the perfect taste and texture. Everything about it was perfect, the sauce, the textures, the amount the noodles cooked, the side salad... I made myself order other food different days, but now wish I had just held out for this every night.

After dinner we ran over to DTD to get some babycakes and pick up our YES tickets from the guest services desk. There were maybe a dozen groups in line before us at guest services, so DH picked up our photopass+ while I waited and we were all done within 10-15 minutes.
Babycakes was awesome... other than the line. I tend to find myself in incredibly awkward situations. When we arrived I was the only person there and one couple came along knowing exactly what they wanted so I told her to go ahead with them first and was at the window with DS picking out his flavor. When she finished with the other customer, I looked over and noticed that as I was waiting, 6 or so people had formed a line at the other case! It had not even been a full minute, so it was a bit unexpected So I said "Oh, wait, did you just make a line?" and a woman sort of yelled out "YES! WE are in LINE!" The girl behind the counter just sort of glanced at me and then started with the line... which was very uncomfortable to me. I just said "Sorry, none of you were here when she started with me" and joined the end of the line as I got glared at. She proceeded to huff at me and flip her hair which just made me wish we didn't go. I'm sort of a sensitive freak so I actually was crying by the time we left.
Anyways, they have two cases, filled with AMAZING product. This is the first bakery my DS has been able to eat at, which is the only reason I stayed after the whole hating my life for a moment thing. The girl at the counter was nice, and didn't bring it up- I'm guessing she didn't know what to do at all that.
Here are the two cases of goodies-

DD chose to get a cupcake at Goofie's and was REALLY upset when she figured out it was nowhere as good as the babycakes one. For the rest of the trip she ate Babycakes. Not only were they better, they costed less! They are 6 for $18- which is actually not bad for something DS can eat.

In the next installment, we will grab breakfast at POP, try out Typhoon Lagoon and return to DTD (without any tears!) for dinner and buid-a-dino at T-Rex.

 

[Chelley00]

Following along. I have many of the same allergies as your son, so I can't wait to see the food reports!

 

[mistysue]

Sunday we woke up, the kids excitedly ran to the window to check the pool was still there, and we made our way down for breakfast. I wasn't completely certain how the whole allergy order thing was supposed to go, but was happy to find I could just order from wherever I was. We ordered some "safe" waffles and by the time we were getting to the register with the rest of the food the pager went off.
This is what the waffles looked like.

They continued to look like that every day. They tasted just as good every day too. We were told it was the bob's red mill mix, made without cow's milk or eggs.

I know I'm missing pictures, as I remember making a huge point of getting my POP waffle and can't find that. DD insisted on an uncrustables every day because she never gets to have peanut butter at home and loves it.

After breakfast we got on the bus for Typhoon Lagoon and headed off to my favorite water park. This day was the first time our 1 year old has seemed to enjoy water play. I think the mass crowds of excited kids clued him into it being fun. It was great. This was the morning we figured out our sunblock wasn't working right and all looked like lobsters by early afternoon, but it was worth it!

We snacked for lunch, and ended up getting DS an order of fries and a hot dog with no bun. The manager was trying to help, but the water parks don't really have substitute food too much. If shared oils are a problem for anybody, I wouldn't really plan to eat at a waterpark. Luckily for us DS doesn't seem to react to oil.

Eventually we returned to DTD to buy more toys and visit T-rex. They let me use the 99 cent kid's meal coupons from Rainforest, but would not combine the coupon with letting us get coupons for our Landry's card. I know it works for some people, but she would only let us do one or the other. That was fine for me, at least I got cheap meals for the kids.
It was hard to get good images (I was using a hand crank phone battery charger by this point) but here's what we have:
awesome corner booth looking right at the huge color changing ice room:

huge sampler (bruschetta, quesadilla and chips with cheese- the only "safe" thing here was the tortilla chips without the cheese dip they come with)

pulled pork sandwich

I think it was called omnivore's delight

kid's cheeseburger

rotisserie chicken was the safe kid's meal (this is a piece of chicken, surrounded by some potato chips they made him)

We really enjoyed this meal. It was fun and loud, but in a booth it was a good experience. I am not sure if it would have been pleasant out in the middle of the room, as it seemed chaotic.
Afterwards, we got stuffed dino's for the kids... on the bus back to POP we sadly realized we lost one of DS's special allergy bracelets (he wears allerbling) which had the sesame charm. He still asks for it some days. Lost and found never found it.

Up next: EPCOT including Biergarten, one of the best allergy meals of the trip.

 

[mistysue]

Leading up to our trip, the kids spent months asking when we would go to Disney world. I got used to hearing "Is it dingy whirl day yet?" when driving to daycare, and hearing my son cry to sleep because he can't wait this long. So when we got up on Monday morning to go to EPCOT I expected children that wanted to go.
Breakfast was at POP again, and being creature of habit we ate exactly the same thing. POP allergy waffles, again, were the big hit on the menu for us. We got a second order and carried them around in case we had trouble getting lunch for DS. This is the morning when I realized I should have brought a case of uncrustables for my daughter.
By this point, DS thought the hotel was disney world, meaning I had to drag him to the bus after breakfast. Once he saw all the people, he totally got it and happily followed along.

My daughter, on the other hand, had to literally be dragged all the way through to the bag check. We got out of the room late, so here I am at 9:00 in the morning pulling a 9 year old toward the park while she yells that I am the stupidest and meanest mom ever because she wants to go to Disney world, not some line where they dig through your stuff. The man who rifled through her things must have made her realize this wasn't some exercise in picking on her, as she suddenly caught on to all the people being happy. True to form, she demanded new shoes on the path between Innoventions and the character spot.

Our first stop, of course, was Soarin/living with the land. We like to grab fastpasses and then the boys want the "plant water ride" because it is such a thriller. You never know which side of the rotating plants you will see the next time. It seemed like a typical day for late August, crowds a bit higher than we expected and they seemed smarter. Everybody was following the "recommended" touring plans, so if you switched the order of rides you could basically see people streaming from where you were "supposed" to go first to the next "must-do." I seriously think the second crush show had half the people of the first one. We finished the future world rides by maybe 11.

Lunch was misc. treats. I had a Mickey bar while the boys slept in the stroller after filling up on bananas, waffles, OJ and some crackers... and we hung out in Innoventions until we thought it was necessary to venture around the world.

First stop, agent P in the UK. This mission was fun, but WAY too long for DD who just doesn't like to walk. She was melting in the sun and it just wouldn't end... the rest of us thought it was awesome. The walk to Biergarten was interesting, I had to keep pretending I thought it must be the next country.

Once we made it to Germany, dinner was great. The chef came out, knew exactly who we were, and walked DH through the buffet. There was a surprising amount up there he could have already:

Obviously the mac and cheese wasn't safe, that went to our other son, he he had potatoes, green beans and multiple meats from the buffet.
The chef also brought out this:

That chicken was deceptive- MUCH better than it looked. You know how sometimes it gets tough? This chef knew how to grill a piece of plain chicken. It was tender and easy to cut but didn't fall apart. The broccoli was also done just right. For dessert he had a plate with some "enjoy life" chocolate chip cookies and a few rice chocolate bars.
As an allergy experience, Biergarten was perfect. We got in fast, sat down, people came out right away and the food only took a few minutes. It was faster than many of the allergy quick service meals we got and here the acted like it was no big deal. Some places half of the issue is just people thinking you are a huge hassle, but here DS was just like any other kid asking for food at a food place. We had a great time and started our 1 year old's new love affair with macaroni and cheese. We don't eat it at home, so he had never had it before.

We tried to keep DD sitting for much of the evening, but ended up leaving before the fireworks just to get everybody rested for the next morning.

Tuesday we will visit Hollywood studios (without tickets?!?) and discover a new favorite ride. Plus we eat at Mama Melrose.

 

[lilpig]

can't wait to read more

 

[luckylady]

I'm in. Disney is a great place to go if someone has allergies Oldest has one to soy and talks to the chefs when he goes. Just don't get the ribs. The BBQ has soy. Can't wait for more.

 

[mistysue]

For our second big park day we picked Hollywood studios.
We got up a little late, got to breakfast around when we wanted to leave breakfast, and ate the exact same breakfast we got every morning at POP before heading off on the bus.

Everything was going pretty well, we were getting up to the gates at about 8:55 when I realized that we didn't have the tickets!!! At that moment, I was so glad I had taken pictures of ours! I ran over to the customer service window and got new ones which took about 5 minutes of our time. Toy story was closed on our last trip so we ran over there just in time to get a 45 minute wait. We always pass up waits like that, but this one was totally worth it. Unfortunately, it made us just late enough to miss the first playhouse Disney showing, but we made ok time for us to do the RNR/TOT rider swap mess before heading over toward Mama Melrose for lunch. I got in a showing of playhouse disney while DH was riding with DD too.

On this trip it seemed that having a group of 5 often worked out in our favor. Mama Melrose has been a long wait for us in the past, but it was maybe 5 minutes this time.
Two years ago the waitress told DH if he got the calamari he would spend the rest of his life looking for calamari anywhere else that was as good. It was true. So first up was ordering this:

No, there was no chance of waiting to eat it before the picture.
I had the penne:

DH got the spicy seafood pasta:

Daughter had what appears to be rice and fish (and about 8 rolls, which she only eats the inside of:

And the exciting one, as always, was DS getting safe spaghetti:

followed by ice cream:

DD had the spaghetti and meatballs cupcake, which was still not as cool as DS getting ice cream.

It rained like crazy while we were eating, but let up just enough for us to rush over to see the muppets before hiding in shops for a while and using FP's we had gotten earlier for toy story. Around dinner time we decided to go to the honey I shrunk the kid's playground, as some CM earlier had told us that the counter service there was the allergy place. (I couldn't remember) He was wrong, so we played and when it was time to eat rushed off to figure out where backlot express was. Finding it was very frustrating to me... it is sort of in an out of the way location that gets filed away in my brain as scenery.

When we arrived at Backlot Express there was one line taking orders. There was some obvious commotion going on at the food counter, involving a man wanting a burger with ONLY bacon and a pattie on it. He had already sent it back twice, once having been plain and the second time having everything but bacon. He was the only person there besides the one guy in front of me in line. Even the people who take the food from the kitchen and hand it to you were totally embarrassed by what was going on with the kitchen, seeing as how there were about 10 people back there and it was the only order they were working on. It took about 10 minutes for a chef to come out and he said he could do allergy tenders and fries. Yay.

Usually what happens now is we get a pager and the rest of us get food while we wait for the allergy food. Usually. Even after the long wait for a chef, that guy with the burger was still waiting. The person in front of me didn't even have drinks yet. A good 15 minutes into waiting, DS started yelling so they handed him his apple juice. Another 5 minutes go by and the girl at the fries started to put fries onto plates, as if other food might be coming to join those fries. Then she put them back into the fry basket. A few minutes later they got the burger right and served the person before me. Finally, getting somewhere.
I wish I was exaggerating, but a full 30 minutes AFTER we ordered, they brought me a tray of food. With normal chicken tenders on it. Which the person in the kitchen was standing there saying WERE the special order ones. No, the food runner knew better and called the chef over, who said they were training a new guy with the allergy frier so he would be right back. I got my daughter her food and let the baby start on mine. In another 15 minutes, after the rest of us were done, somebody came running out with some allergy tenders. By now he had filled up on apple sauce and fruit snacks (ate our entire emergency stash in the 45 minutes it took!) so we took them to go.
Here they are- the tenders so good they are worth a 45 minute wait:

Not so impressive in picture form. We were a bit tired so skipped Fantasmic and went swimming at the resort instead.

 

[mistysue]

I had mixed feelings about how this day would work out. DH and I don't like to separate, but we had gotten our tickets through Youth Education Series, so I had to do a class with our daughter, which the boys weren't old enough for. As a result, I got up and took her to EPCOT and he got up and took the boys to MK, without me.
Here they are, abandoning me at the EPCOT line:

The Ocean Discoveries class was ok. It was cute, DD likes fish so she enjoyed herself. Was it worth the $800 savings on tickets? YES! Once it was over, I got to have a Mickey shaped ice cream bar, which we split.

We then headed over to MK to find DH with the boys. He saw the rope drop show, rode pan and pooh twice each before there was a wait, covered the rest of fantasyland and had time to take a relaxing walk as they boys slept. He was so proud of himself for learning from our past trips.
First thing we did was pick up food at Casey's, where it's easy to get a lot of fries, which we all eat. As a rule, even with all of the things he reacts to DS tends to not react to whatever is on french fries as long as it was fried with them. The exception is the fries with caked on batters. So we grabbed food and I rushed into the pirate's league with the older two.
After the initial indecisiveness, I think DS thought I was giving him up to go become a real pirate? They were fine.

And emerged victorious!

(she is still carrying around the nailpolish everywhere, and stands around staring at it just like this all the time)
After doing the haunted mansion a few times and catching me up on PotC, it was time for DS to get his first haircut. I had made the appointment to be just after the parade, so we watched at the end of mainstreet near there and right before the end DH carried him over. A minute later I joined with the other kids to see a pleasant surprise-

That is Norma. I hope that's right and the pictures aren't clear on the name tag. But here she is back in 2010, giving my older son HIS first hair cut too:

It went well, we still like him with the short hair.
Next we had a strange first at disney world.
We had ADR's for dinner, and never before have we tried to go early and been turned away. Now that I've seen how tiny it is inside the Plaza I understand, but it was a bit surprising and frustrating. We rode the people mover a couple times and went back.
Once inside, the experience was great. The chef started DS out with a bunch of grapes (not pictured, but it was probably a pound of purple grapes still on the stem, so literally a bunch of grapes)
Then came the burgers, (DH and DD)

My veggie sandwich

DS went for chicken again:

And this chef also knows how to grill some good plain chicken. They make it seem easy, but it just doesn't come out this way for me.
DD had this:

DS had a standard bowl of vanilla rice dream. Somehow with all the bowls of rice dream, I never managed to picture one?

We caught me up on Fantasyland, experienced the fun line for Winnie the Pooh (we still remembered all the words we rode it so many times on our last trip) and stayed through Wishes.
Fun times had by all.

 

[luckylady]

Wow it took how long just for a plain burger with bacon!!!! Doesn't tak a rocket scientist to make one. WOW! I"m glad that DS was able to get good things to eat. I love Disney for that reason. THink it's wonderful that the same person gave both boys their first haircut.