Dining with lots of food allergies

[ZPT1022]

Our trip is fast approaching and I know WDW is giid with food allergies, but how are they/ how are the options when you have kits of allergies? I was all set for gluten free/tree nut free/strawberry free but I'm nursing my baby and now have to be dairy free/soy free/ tree nut free/ peanut free/ fish free/ shellfish free/ gluten free/ egg free/ strawberry free. Will they still be able to work with me? How about counter service and snacks? I'm prone to low blood sugar due to my autoimmune condition and I have a harder time controlling it in the heat so finding snacks will be important. Should I just plan on bringing my own? Advice from anyone who has been there/done that appreciated. Apologies for any grammar or spelling issues, I'm typing one handed while holding baby

 

[clanmcculloch]

You REALLY need to contact Special Diets NOW. The more information you're armed with ahead of time, the better off you are. My girls have complex lists of food allergies as well yet we do really well at WDW. DD9 can't have milk, eggs, peanuts, hazelnut, brazilnuts, citrus, cranberries, blueberries or sesame. DD12 can't have gluten, milk, eggs, yeast, citrus, MSG or peanuts.

When Special Diets sends me all their info on various allergies, I come up with a chart of what safe foods I can find where and I print it off, laminate it and carry it around with me in the parks so I know where I can find things. Here's the one I put together for our upcoming August trip. You really do need to do this every time you go to WDW though. Things can change. I was surprised that I had to make changes from my chart from my June trip, but there had been a few changes when I recieved my new lists for August when I returned. Note that this chart won't work for you because I haven't verified YOUR entire list; it's what I've customized for my family. Each individual with food allergies would need to come up with his/her own personlized version. Knowing what can be found where is also helpful because many times CMs don't even know that their location carries certain allergy foods until I assure then that Special Diets told me the products are there and I ask them to look again (they always find the stuff and are shocked because they had no idea).

I've also found that the chefs in the food courts at resorts have a lot more flexibility than what you'll find at CS locations in parks regarding the ablity to make a wide variety of safe meals. At parks, you can order only based on the limitted menu there. At resorts, they can custom make any kind of food that you want as long as they have the ingredients.

I'm not sure on the strawberry but I believe the Itzkadoozie popsicles that are found all over the parks are free of all your other allergens. I know that they do have some real fruit which is why my kids can't have them (they have orange and lemon juice in them) but maybe there's no strawberry. Ask Special Diets about them. They're easy to find all over the place and would be a great snack for boosting blood sugar and cooling you down.

There are lots of places around the parks where you can find fresh fruit, both cut and whole. These would be perfect snacks.

I would suggest that you do carry some snacks with you. You'll have a stroller anyway (I'm assuming with a baby young enough to still be nursing) so it'll be easy to store snacks in the basket. Bring a soft sided cooler to keep anything temperature sensitive cool. I'm suggesting bring something in case your blood sugar start dropping. You don't want to have to start searching for a place to find safe snacks (though having a chart like the one above at least means you'll know exactly which places to look for rather than having to ask for help finding something and then having to search through a binder).

Those Enjoy Life chocolate chip cookies are AMAZING!!! We also use them at home. The cheapest place I've found them is amazon.com. I'm set up with their subscribe & save to get an additional 15% off and they just deliver them to my house on a regular schedule.

TS locations for the most part are going to be easier than CS, especially at parks. At your own resort, CS can be just as easy.

Do prepare for the fact that meals are going to take longer for you than for most people because your food has to be specially prepared rather than the mass production done for everybody else.

Is Rice Dream ice cream safe for you? It's served at all sorts of locations around WDW. Some places will also carry rice milk.

I do place an order with Garden Grocer for some breakfast foods so we can eat in our room. Many resorts will have rice milk in the kitchen that you can request but for me it's just so much easier to have it in your room (plus I can ensure it's the type my daughter likes; she's EXTREMELY fussy because she has some obsessive compulsive tendencies). It's just so easy to have breakfast in your room rather than have to go over to the food court to have to wait for a special meal to be cooked.

 

[ZPT1022]

Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it. GReat idea with the chart, I will definitely have to compile something like that so I know where I can (and probably shouldn't) eat.

On our past trips we've brought breakfast foods, eaten counter service lunch and table service dinner. We were planning on doing the same this time. Bringing the kids and everyone else's breakfast foods are easy enough, but mine will be a bit more challenging (not much I can eat that's shelf stable). Have you ever brought a small cooler on a plane trip? Did they allow it with a doctor's note? I usually have a "Naked" brand smoothie for breakfast along with a little something else and if I could bring those that would be the easiest but of course there are the restrictions on liquids. Normally we drive and it wouldn't be an issue but we thought with a little baby it would be easier to take the 2 1/2 hour flight than the 24 hour car trip.

We will probably eat lunch at the parks a few times, just because there's places the kids want to go and I hate making everyone else miss out due to my allergies. BUT, we do plan to take a rest back at the hotel almost every afternoon, so at the very least I should be able to get something to eat back at the resort (we're staying at the Contemporary).

All of our dinners are table service, so that should hopefully work out well. I'm actually pretty excited to be able to go out to eat. At home, the only place I can go out to eat is Red Robin, and due to the allergy stuff cooking at home means cooking 2 separate meals, so this will truly be a luxury to take 11 days off from cooking!

All that being said, have there been any restaurants that were truly wonderful with your allergies? OR any that you would caution us to avoid? Both counter or table service?

THanks again!

 

[clanmcculloch]

I love grocery delivery services. Garden Grocery has what I need as products so I just go with them. wegoshop allows you to specify whatever brands and even whatever stores you want. If GG doesn't list what you need then check WGS. I pack dry goods and paper products in my luggage (I fly SWA so we get 2 bags per person and this leaves nice space for souvenirs for our return flights) and then order perishables, fragile items and liquids. We tend to dine similarly to you with the breakfasts in the room, CS lunch and TS dinner, though this coming trip we're trying out a few TS lunches/brunches to see how well that works with our daily schedule.

I've never tried to bring food items that don't fit in our 3-1-1 bag onto planes. I've heard conflicting stories of bringing liquid food items through security. To me it's easier to just get it delivered to the resort than to worry about it. Hopefully others will share their experiences.

I strictly stick with Disney owned restaurants because they're just set up so much better for handling allergies, especially complex lists. I look over menus online to see if there is much on the menu that it looks like my kids would like with some simple modifications. While chefs will bend over backwards for us, I do try to keep things as simple as possible. Once exception is 50s Prime Time Diner because OMG THAT GFCF FRIED CHICKEN WITH GFCF MILKSHAKE IS AMAZING!!! I don't know if they make it to order or if it's premade. This will be our first time trying it since going egg free as well so I'm crossing my fingers that they can make some for DD12. We've had plenty of good experiences at restaurants and don't know how to choose our favourite. Many will say 'Ohana but we haven't eaten there yet (I will in August) plus I just learned from this wonderful board that the chef who set up their amazing allergy practices has now moved to Grand Floridian Cafe though I'm assuming (hoping, praying, etc) they'll still do all the same things they did under his leadership. People either love or hate their experience at Crystal Palace. We had an extremely frustrating experience with a chef who if I wasn't on my toes would have made my daughter very sick. I've read other similar experiences there. I've also read raving reviews of their allergy accomodations. I'm tempted to give them another try if it fits into my itinerary, but there are so many good restaurants around the monorail that we typically go to those since we've had great experiences with them (Chef Mickey for dinner A+, 1900 Park Fare for breakfast & Dinner A+, 'Ohana gets rave reviews consistently).

At Epcot, you'll definitely want to eat at Sunshine Seasons. Best CS location of all WDW in-park CS for food allergies.

Check with Special Diets to see if turkey legs are safe. I know they're free of our allergens but that doesn't necessarily make them safe for you.

Our one bad experience at a Disney owned restaurant was at the Wave. DD12 was up throwing up all night after that one (she has a very specific pattern of symptoms on a very consistent time table when she consumes specific foods so we know it was from the Wave). To make it worse, the chef insisted that it couldn't be from there. It was the concierge at our hotel who made sure she was ok, offered a doctor and called to check on her several times (CMs at Disney are the BEST). The chef from the Wave didn't seem to care.

One thing I will add is that we'll likely never stay at an Epcot resort unless it's in a villa with full kitchen because there are no CS locations around the lagoon that can prepare safe food for my kids. TS locations can do things for us but we like some CS meals at our resort.

 

[casper_jj11]

Hi! I love the chart you did. I have a question though... one of your kiddos is peanut allergic right? I noticed popcorn down for both kids... special diets told me that the oil for the popcorn is made in the same facility as peanut oil... I"m so very new at this (dd only has peanut allergy and only discovered a few months ago)... does this mean same facility but no cross contamination or did we get different information?

 

[clanmcculloch]

Peanuts is very mild for my kids. They can't have obvious peanuts but I don't worry about cross contamination/same facility type stuff. For both girls it's their mildest allergy and only results in mild symptoms when they eat actual pieces of peanuts. I do even make sure that it's clear on my allergy form for Special Diets that we only avoid obvious peanuts.

I think we're both members of the AVC in TGM. That's you I chatted with about The Cake Shop, right?

 

[casper_jj11]

I think we're both members of the AVC in TGM. That's you I chatted with about The Cake Shop, right?

That's right!

That makes perfect sense. I'm so new at this peanut allergy thing that I'm not sure what's safe and what isn't. Her allergist said that 'may contain' is fine, she has to ingest it but to worry about cross contamination in buffets, etc. She has only had one reaction and it resulted in flushing, nose running and facial swelling. It came under control with benedryl but we carry an epipen at all times now because the dr said it would get worse with each exposure.. I"m having a hard time reconciling that with 'may contain' being ok

So, while I'm trying not to obsess about it, I also want to avoid a problem if we can... I don't want to be looking at a binder every time we go to a restaurant though. Others have said breads of all kinds are a problem but I've never seen a bread here in Ontario that says 'may contain peanuts' and special diets listed allergens on their hamburger and hotdog buns and it didnt' include peanuts. I take this as meaning this is safe. But I'm wondering why others have a problem with them... I"ve heard some say that with a peanut allergy, 'don't eat bread of any kind in WDW"... what's your take on this? You've been so often with this in the forefront, I'd love your pt of view...

 

[clanmcculloch]

I've heard people say that with a peanut allergy you want to only eat the allergy bread which also happens to be gluten and milk free too.

It really does depend on the severity of the allergy and your comfort level. If you've experienced that reaction with eating actual pieces of peanut and not from cross contamination or contact then I'd probably not worry as much about same facility statements though I would be cautious of statements regarding being manufactured on shared lines until I learn more about individual companies' cleaning practices. Of course that's just me and how I feel. Each allergy is different and each person's comfort level is different. I do carry an epi pen even though the scariest reaction we've gotten from anything is DD10 getting uncontrollable shivers for about 10-15 minutes from sesame seeds even though hazelnuts come up much higher on her allergy tests (she used to eat Nutella several time per week but never had a reaction beyond stomach upset; I ordered the epi pen because of how high the allergy registered on tests but I do worry about sesame as much).