DDP Kids Meals and Allergies?

[becka]

I am considering the DDP for our family for our next trip but I am not sure for two reasons. #1 my DD will be just under 3 and we will have to pay OOP for a kids meal for her many places and #2 my DS has food allergies that eliminate almost all of the kids meals. My biggest concern is #2.

Does anyone know how the DDP is handled for kids with allergies to most of the kids meals? He is allergic to dairy and corn (including all the corn syrump/corn starch in almost all processed foods). Will they make special meals for him and count that as one child credit or are we going to end up having to pay OOP for something to get substitutions, etc.. ?

Thanks!

 

[Maddie2]

I would think they would prepare/serve whatever he could eat and make the portion size according to his age. It sounds like Disney goes out of their way to work with people with allergies. You could call and find out for sure -- (407) WDW-DINE.

 

[DCDisney]

For TS you will have no problem getting something made that he can eat for a kids price. CS will probably be difficult but with your other little one needing a kids meal it should balance out quite nicely. In terms of allergies one thing that was universally easy for me at CS was ordering a burger no bun since the burgers are 100% beef. The big pretzels for snacks had very few ingredients so they may work. There is also a frozen fruit bar at ice cream stands that I think could be a possibility too. Lots of places have sugar free jello for kids that would probably also be safe (if you allow nutrasweet).

Yvonne

 

[amarberry]

My 2.5 yo DD has a severe egg allergy, we are avoid peanuts and tree nuts until she is 4 (per her allergist), and we are vegetarians, so she is very limited with what she can eat when we go out. Not so much a big deal when we are at home and go out once a week to restaurants we are familar with, but this is a major stressor when we are on vacation. One of the main reason we keep going back to WDW for our vacations is because the chefs have been so helpful and accomodating to us.

Because of her dietary issues, we aged our DD up to 3 last fall during free dining (we all bought 1 day tickets then I got an AP and we upgraded DH's). We also were at WDW in December and were not on the dining plan. We were treated the same way (excellent) on both trips. At every TS restaurant, a chef is required to come out and talk to you. We ate at the Plaza twice in December and told the server I really didn't need to talk to the chef on our second visit, but I was told that the chef had to come out and talk to me. Several times, my DD was made special meals. We were charged the standard kids meal price when we paid OOP or 1 TS credit when we were on the dining plan.

CS restaurants were a little more tricky. They just can't be as accomodating to make special meals, but they do have ingredient listings at every cash register. We were able to get a meal modified at Columbia Harbour House (the Chilled Chicken and Cheese...they were able to make us one with no chicken, but extra cheese). I found it very helpful to review the menus at allearsnet.com and then email Brenda Bennett (you can find her email address on the DISabilities board). For example, she was able to inform me that the CS mac and cheese has egg in it, but the pizza doesn't. She also gave me ingredient listings for the park snacks.

My other suggestion, is to ship a box to your hotel of non-perishable "safe" food for your son and bring a lunchbag into the park (this was suggested by Brenda Bennett). We bring dried fruit, cereal bars, crackers, etc. for DD. Since your DD will be under 3, you could try and bring food for your DS and use any unused children's CS credits on her.

Best of luck to you!

 

[amarberry]

Oh...I forgot to mention that we had great luck at a couple of the buffets which would be a very good deal for you with an under 3 and a child on the meal plan. A couple of places had rice rolls that they made for DD and Crystal Palace had a gluten free, egg free, dairy free brownie. There were lots of other things like that which we were offered.