Eating Gluten Free at WDW Resort Food Courts

[firstwdw]

We recently stayed at Wilderness Lodge where my GF DS found plenty of kid friendly gluten free options at the counter service rest. However, the chicken tenders, fries, Mickey waffles etc were cooked in the resort's table service: Artist Point and then brought down to us at the counter service Roaring Forks.
Do the moderate resorts and value resorts offer gluten free kid friendly things such as chicken nuggets and MIckey waffles? Or do you really need to stay at a resort with a table service where they cook these things separately even if you order them a the counter service?

Any gluten free experiences with counter services at the resorts info is appreciated. What resorts are best for this? We want to figure out where to stay next but ensuring our child has options he will eat and like that are GF is a huge priority. Just not sure we can swing the WL room rate ! But unsure if the values or moderates with just food courts even offer this type of service at counter service restaurants/ food courts.

 

[adisneymama]

We recently stayed at Wilderness Lodge where my GF DS found plenty of kid friendly gluten free options at the counter service rest. However, the chicken tenders, fries, Mickey waffles etc were cooked in the resort's table service: Artist Point and then brought down to us at the counter service Roaring Forks.
Do the moderate resorts and value resorts offer gluten free kid friendly things such as chicken nuggets and MIckey waffles? Or do you really need to stay at a resort with a table service where they cook these things separately even if you order them a the counter service?

Any gluten free experiences with counter services at the resorts info is appreciated. What resorts are best for this? We want to figure out where to stay next but ensuring our child has options he will eat and like that are GF is a huge priority. Just not sure we can swing the WL room rate ! But unsure if the values or moderates with just food courts even offer this type of service at counter service restaurants/ food courts.

We stayed at Pop last year with our GF DD who is now 10. The chefs at the Pop food court were great. It was actually one of our favorite places to eat if we were eating a cs meal. I know she had some type of pasta and meatsauce one night, cheeseburgers, chicken fingers etc. The chefs there got to know us by name! Loved it!

 

[snorris49]

I haven't eaten at Pop Century since food allergies, but I've heard they are one of the best for accommodating special diets.

It's worth noting too that the new food court restaurant at Art of Animation called Landscape of Flavors is now serving Babycakes mini cupcakes, so I'm betting they are gonna be really great with food allergies. And they are walking distance from Pop Century too.

 

[jlr9882]

I haven't eaten at Pop Century since food allergies, but I've heard they are one of the best for accommodating special diets.

It's worth noting too that the new food court restaurant at Art of Animation called Landscape of Flavors is now serving Babycakes mini cupcakes, so I'm betting they are gonna be really great with food allergies. And they are walking distance from Pop Century too.

We stayed at POP last year with my son with over 20 food allergies! They were great. I can't remember the chef that we had most of the trip, and that called me several times before the trip to ask about the allergies. He ordered food for him to have on hand. We were on the dining plan, and every where treated him like a Prince. With all my son's allergies... pizza, mac and cheese, chicken, hotdogs, hamburgers, etc from the kid's menus are out. I will have to check out Babycakes next year, and see if they can prepare something for my little guy.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but my experience has been that the lower the "level" of the resort, the better the CS locations are with allergies. It's not that the deluxe resorts don't prepare safe foods, it's more that because the moderates carry more ingredients due to larger menus than deluxes and values carry more ingredients due to larger menus than moderates, the chefs at values have more to work with than those at moderates and the chefs at moderates have more to work with than those at deluxes.

We eat at our resort at least once per day when we're at WDW. Our favourite CS was definitely Pop. POFQ did a great job as well, they just didn't have nearly as many options. We walked over to POR a couple times while at POFQ and I don't know if it's that because we hadn't contacted anybody ahead of time because we weren't staying there or something else was going on but it seemed that every time we were there they were out of some common allergy ingredient though the chef did still do his best each time. At Poly the chef did prepare some nice meals as well by going up to Kona but we didn't try there often as there just aren't nearly as many options.

I can't wait to try AoA this summer. I'm nervous about our stay at FW and suspect we'll be making our way over to WL and/or CR a few times. Actually, we really need to head over to say hi to the chefs at Poly. I know I didn't say much about the CS there but the TS and Club Level are AMAZING and we just adore the chefs there and like to say hi whenever we're at WDW. I'll probably take in Kona Island Sushi Bar since we don't have any ADRs there.

 

[primrosea]

We stayed at Pop in January of this year and were very impressed with the gluten free selection we had at the food court. The chefs were very accommodating and we felt very well taken care of. We had all kinds of options and we were even made special items not on the menus. One chef said "What is one thing you have really missed since going gluten free?" He then busted out the best stir-fry and fried rice I have ever had. We would stay at Pop again just for the food.

 

[SDSorority]

AoA has babycakes cupcakes in their to-go case. That by itself is awesome!

OP.... we ALWAYS pack as many snacks as possible to bring with us if we don't have a car. We actually don't go to WDW without a car anymore and always make a grocery run to the Publix by Gaylord Palms (around the corner and down a little bit from Pop). I pick up things like fruit, Udi's bread (shelf stable), almond butter, Glutino crackers, veggies, canned salmon or tuna, Ani Chun thin rice noodles (I bring one of those electric tea kettles to "cook" in whenever I travel anywhere), cinnamon, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder (I make a mean noodle dish in the room mixing the rice noodles with spices, olive oil, and cut up peppers and onions... YUM!), Fruit Leathers, nuts, Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty Hot Cereal (also made in the tea kettle with some cinnamon, cut up apple, and some almond butter...YUM!), yogurt, water, cheese.

OH, and we HAVE to hit up Babycakes like... every other day.

Luckily all of the Value rooms are coming with fridges now. We have gotten to the point where we no longer deal with the Value resorts and only rent points (from the lovelies on the DIS) so we can have a kitchenette space. It makes, for us, the trip just that much better, for really a nominal cost difference when taking eating stress into account.

That doesn't help you at all... or maybe it gave you some ideas?? Best of luck!

 

[adisneymama]

We stayed at Pop in January of this year and were very impressed with the gluten free selection we had at the food court. The chefs were very accommodating and we felt very well taken care of. We had all kinds of options and we were even made special items not on the menus. One chef said "What is one thing you have really missed since going gluten free?" He then busted out the best stir-fry and fried rice I have ever had. We would stay at Pop again just for the food.

This was pretty much our experience as well. I believe the Chef's name was Jose. But don't hold me to that! LOL Anyway, he asked us the same thing when I asked if he had a menu with GF choices for DD. He just said "What does she want?" LOL and then fixed it! I'm kind of sad we won't be staying here this time but we will be close by at CBR and I am sure we will make it over to POP for some great food!

 

[shelby101301]

Wouldn't it be awesome if they started serving babycakes all over the world? Wishful thinking, I know.