We went through with the party anyway even after all of the reviews about how horribly they dealt with allergies. Things could not have been further from the truth for us. Remember this is our experience and yours could be completely different but this is how it worked out very well for us.
When we checked in in the morning I spoke to a manager and he checked to make sure all of my child's allergies were listed on our reservation and they were. He then told me to alert a manager when we arrived in the evening and they would get a chef for us. Yes, a chef is at the event contrary to popular belief (at our event anyway). He then walk me over to the snack cart where we found out the frozen lemonade cups were safe and we chose our drinks which are water an soda pop out of a cooler like any other snack stand in disney. The manger stayed with us until we got all of our items and made sure we were well taken care of before sending us off to see the parade.
When we arrived at the evening event a manager walked up to me and asked for me by name. She then brought me to the chef who then led my to a cart. In that cart were several gift bags, for what I assume were all of the preplanned allergies and special meal requests, and she had a huge tray of freshly cut mickey mouse shaped fruit just for us. She escorted us to a table and would not unwrap the sealed fruit platter because she did not want to cross contaminate it so she had me do it. In the bag was a bag of chips, several bags of enjoy life cookies, a banana a bowl of cereal treats and several other items even including some frozen stickers. My child has several severe food allergies so I know our bag was more limited than some of the others. We were very please as was my child. She offered to get me anything else we could have possibly wanted. Everyone there was wonderful and they checked on us several times throughout the night.
Our food was all prepared separately and I brought a cupcake from our hotel that I made. We can not have any of their allergy free baked items. We can only have the enjoy life cookies.
The drinks were cans of soda pop and water in a cooler separate from the fountain style specialty drinks. Which made my child happy because we got to just walk up and ask for our own drinks as many times as we wanted. Unlimited pop for any child is a plus but we actually had more water than pop.
No we did not get a tiny elsa or anna cupcakes or get to do the fondue but we had a great time anyway. We were too busy dancing watching the show and singing to be worried about how many cupcakes we could have gotten.
You have to let them know you are coming with severe allergies so they have the time to prepare what you need. If you show up at 9:30 and are expecting special food it might not be possible. They may be able to show you some items that were not prepared with nuts but you never know with that many people around what may happen. Yes, there were nuts on the food tables so there is possibly cross contamination there but our chef was very clear she made our food separately from what was out.
Just make sure they double check in the morning when you checkin and you may be surprised what they come up with. Good Luck and always ask before you try something. This of course was our experience and I am sure there are others that had a completely different experience than we did. I just wanted to ket you know there is a safe way to be included in the special events.
Good Luck and safe eating to all of you!!
Thanks for any help.
