Diners with Celiac Disease -- please help!

[MainStreetFireman]

A dear friend of our family is planning a family trip to WDW. While her husband and children do not have restrictive diets, she has Celiac disease (an uncommon disease where gluten (a protein common to most grains) is poisonous to her).

Have any posters with this disease found Disney restaurants capable of accomodating their needs? If so, I would appreciate hearing specifics. Thanks in advance for your help in making this family's first time a special one for everyone!

 

[mbanks21]

DIsney is probably THE most accomodating place in the world for people with allergies. When you make the ADR have them notate the res and theyll even give you a phone number to call the restaurant directly and talk with a chef. When you get to the restaurant you can also talk to a chef and they tell you how they specially make the persons meal.

 

[ClareH37]

A dear friend of our family is planning a family trip to WDW. While her husband and children do not have restrictive diets, she has Celiac disease (an uncommon disease where gluten (a protein common to most grains) is poisonous to her).

Have any posters with this disease found Disney restaurants capable of accomodating their needs? If so, I would appreciate hearing specifics. Thanks in advance for your help in making this family's first time a special one for everyone!

I love coming to Disney, I can feel like I'm eating 'normal' food, particularly pasta and pizza

When I make my ADRs I have them make a note I have celiac disease, then when I arrive at the restaurant I also make sure they have a note (they always have), again when the server comes to my table if they don't say anything I just mention it again, and the server then either gets the chef to talk to me or will come back and advise what I can/can't have.

Regarding CS restaurants most have gluten free options, e.g. gluten free burger buns at Liberty Inn, gluten free tuna rolls at Columbia Harbour House - Disney have a wonderful lady called Brenda who will send you information on where you can get gluten free options at the CS restaurants (her email is brenda.Bennett@disney.com), when you go to the CS restaurant let the cashier know and they'll organise someone to talk to you to go through what can be done. I had an amazing gluten free flatbread made specially for me (I didn't like the sounds of any other appetiser) at the Grand Floridian Cafe one lunch time.

From my past experience Disney really is a great worry-free place for a celiac to dine

 

[cheesekate2005]

You can't go wrong at WDW with Celiac Disease! I have CD, so does my daughter. We have been to WDW 4 times successfully and are heading back again with my extended family which has 6 celiacs in all!

My advice is to make reservations for some table service restaurants, have the food issues noted on the reservation, they will have it on the reservation when you check into the restaurant and the chef will come out and talk to her about what he can make or what she can have off of a buffet. Get in touch with Brenda Bennet or one of the others who works with special diet requests, they will get you a list of counter service meals and locations, and snacks at all of the parks that are gluten free. If you do a search for "gluten" or "celiac" on this board, you will find a lot of reviews and helpful information from celiacs. If you need more specifics feel free to PM me.

 

[Steffiesunshine]

Here is a page I found regarding other's experiences at Disney with celiac.

http://allears.net/din/guestceliac.htm

 

[MainStreetFireman]

Thank you all for the great info. I have passed this on to my friend. She could not believe that there would be so many people to help with her challenge at a place as big as WDW. I told her you just need to know where to find the right people on the right board!

Thanks again kind DISers for sharing the wealth of info!