Dining Plan and food allergies

[kathy87]

I know this is totally off topic but I also know that this board gets a ton of traffic. I wondering if someone could help answer a question about the dining plan and food allergies. I have a friend who's son is allergic to soy. Do the restaurant cater to kids with food allergies? Do you have to let the restaurant know ahead of time? Any tips would be greatly appreciated

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I'm going to move this to the Restaurant Board. They're the experts on WDW dining!

 

[ashlansmom]

Disney is a great place to dine when you have food allergies in your group. Our daughter is allergic to eggs so it really limits her choices as well. When you make your reservations have the operator note each ressie that there is a soy allergy. They will literally send a chef out to you at each restaurant. At Boma the chef came out and walked me through the entire buffet and told me what my daughter could and could not eat. At breakfast at the Poly the chef came out and offered to make a waffle with special mix so it would be egg free, so she was able to have an egg free MICKEY waffle. They bend over backwards and they are very specialized in this area. The reservationist may also give you the numbers of all the restaurants so you can call ahead as well if you are worried. We had no problems and everyone was just wonderful and really knew their stuff! If you go on the restaurant board you will find a lot of threads about allergies and how great they are with it. My pediatrician even raves about Disney and food allergies. We all know how hard it is to eat out AT ALL when there is an allergy!! I found out all my info from these boards as well before our trip last year!

 

[Lauren-n-Jeff]

IMO, there's no better place to vacation and EAT if you or your child or someone traveling with you has a food allergy. My son is severely allergic to peanuts and I was very nervous.... But I was completely blown away by how seriously Disney restaurants took the situation. Every meal we had, the chef came out to speak with us...at the buffets, the chef walked me through the buffet personally and showed me what my son could and couldn't eat (And at Animal Kingdom, the chef even brought out a ton of peanut free goodies for him to have throughout the day)

I even received an unsolicited phone call from the food supervisors at the Spirit of Aloha dinner show shortly before our vacation just checking with me on the details of my son's allergy.

The servers are actually not supposed to even start taking your orders if you have a food allergy at your table until you speak w/the chef... (at least that's what we were told by several servers in various parks)

IF you are making dining ressies, ask that the food allergy be added to your reservation... and just mention it again when you arrive to be safe. As the previous poster mentioned, when you make ressies, they can and SHOULD give you the #s to reach the restaurants directly so you can speak with them ahead of time.

Yet another reason Disney ROCKS!

 

[squirrel]

The chefs even talked to me at the CS places about what my lactose intollerant niece could eat.

There is some more information on the DisAbilities Board. I had a lady from one of the links send me a form to fill out with all of our ADR's. I e-mailed it back to her and the chefs at the restaurants knew that she couldn't have any dairy. They also made sure that they had dairy free cheese and some dairy free icecream at our resort.

 

[Halbleib1]

Disney is the BEST with any type of food allergy or metabolic disorder. My son has a metabolic disorder and can not have dairy of any kind. Disney is the Only place we are able to take him where the chef will personally come out to talk with us and make him a special meal. The chef also will hand deliver the meal to him so that there is no cross contamination or misunderstandings. The chef also brought my sons dessert out each and every time. At other restaurants we go to here at home the waiteress/waiter is always running back and forth to the kitchen asking if there is dairy in stuff. Although this is nice of them to do it is still very frustrating on all sides and at times leaves me wondering if they got the correct information.

I have been in restaurants at Disney where people just did not like what they were seeing on the menu and the waitress has had the chef come out to talk with the people. This just happened on our December trip at Tutto Italia a lady across from us did not like seafood or certain cheeses so the chef came out and made her a special meal that suited her tastes. So do not be afraid to ask they are very good with this.

Every trip we have gone to Disney we have always used the dining plan and never had any problems getting things substituted even when my son was 2 and not on the dining plan. We have never been charged more either just because the food is specially made. He was even able to get pizza at the counter service locations made with soy cheese. Charged the same as if we had ordered the reg. pizza.

When you make your adrs be sure to have it noted on each and every one that there is an allergy and what it is. We have only ever called the restaurants ahead of time at dinner shows because they do not have food readily available always for this situation. At all the other restaurants we just had it noted on our adr and when we got there if they did not mention it at check in we reminded them and they always sent the chef out.

 

[Halbleib1]

IMO, there's no better place to vacation and EAT if you or your child or someone traveling with you has a food allergy. My son is severely allergic to peanuts and I was very nervous.... But I was completely blown away by how seriously Disney restaurants took the situation. Every meal we had, the chef came out to speak with us...at the buffets, the chef walked me through the buffet personally and showed me what my son could and couldn't eat (And at Animal Kingdom, the chef even brought out a ton of peanut free goodies for him to have throughout the day)

I even received an unsolicited phone call from the food supervisors at the Spirit of Aloha dinner show shortly before our vacation just checking with me on the details of my son's allergy.

The servers are actually not supposed to even start taking your orders if you have a food allergy at your table until you speak w/the chef... (at least that's what we were told by several servers in various parks)

IF you are making dining ressies, ask that the food allergy be added to your reservation... and just mention it again when you arrive to be safe. As the previous poster mentioned, when you make ressies, they can and SHOULD give you the #s to reach the restaurants directly so you can speak with them ahead of time.

Yet another reason Disney ROCKS!

Correct. Some waiters would not even take our drink orders until the chef came out. But no one would take our food orders until the chef had been out. One time the waiter had started to take our order and I told them about my sons disorder and he stopped everything and said he would be right back with the chef. They do not want to cross contaminate the food in any way. It is esp. important at buffets and family style meals. They do not want to put "safe" food on the same plate with "unsafe" food. Also if it is severe enough they do not even want it at the same table. They are great about this. Luckily cross contamination is not as big of a deal to us as it is to some but it is great that they take this extra step.