Excellent GF Vacation

[Cassandy]

I just got back from a long weekend with my brothers, gluten-free, and it was excellent!!

This is my third trip in three years, and for the other two trips I had to wait for a chef and another 40 minutes to get my food, every time.

This time, though, GF is the new PN/TN and now I get everything super-fast, and it's such an awesome change and I'm really happy! There's always something available on the menu, and it all came out in 5 minutes or less.

I ate at Kona Cafe (the Samoan, which is pulled pork hash (no english muffin) with hollandaise, poached eggs and arugula), Ohana (which was amazing, I had salad, GF bun, coriander chicken wings, rice, vegetables, steak, the chili-lime shrimp, and the biggest most delicious GF chocolate lava cake with ice cream and chocolate sauce), Raglan Road (the scallop forest, split with my brother, fish and chips, and onion rings, all GF. But I would be super careful about the GF dessert, because it's a strawberry-apple crumble with GF oats on it, but some people with celiac can't have oats, or don't tolerate them well, like me), and Biergarten (TONS of stuff, like sauerkraut, braised cabbage, hot potato salad, roast pork, cucumber salad, and lots of Enjoy Life chocolate bars and cookies and a berry compote for dessert).

Also had a ton of quick service (burgers and fries, macaroni and cheese and broccoli, rice cream at Norway) and the best banana-split mousse cake at Starring Rolls in HS.

So if you are going GF, then you're in for a really big treat because it's excellent and the food was great.

The only tiny problem I found (which maybe wasn't so tiny), was that cashiers, when they were busy, would tell me that there wasn't anything gluten-free on the menu, even when I had the paper from Special Diets saying that there was. In those cases I just asked for a manager who always, 100% of the time, found me a great meal. I think Disney needs to step up on the training for the front line cashiers though, because being busy isn't an excuse for not doing their job.

But still, so excellent and I'm really looking forward to going back and eating more

 

[Notso]

So glad to hear of your good experience! We are going in two days with our celiac 2yo. How did you get a list from special diets? I've contacted them several times with no more than a canned response. I'd love a list to go on!

 

[Cassandy]

The canned GF response was actually how I got the information; the email that they sent had a PDF attached that listed all the GF alternatives available at certain restaurants, and Casey's was on that list. It did take a while for them to get back to me though, and it was definitely a cut-and-paste email.

But I find Special Diets to be really helpful, but only for more crazy dietary needs (when I went in June I was gluten-free, dairy-free, and on pureed/soft food, and Special Diets was super awesome about making sure everyone knew what I could and couldn't eat). Special Diets really isn't necessary for just celiac/gluten-free.

Which is an awesome thing, because it makes spontaneous eating so much easier

I hope you guys have a great trip!

 

[hcipi]

We were last in WDW in aug. 2011, my teenage son has Celiac and reacts violently to gluten so if he gets it he is on the floor in extreme pain. With that being said, we still eat out and 98% of the time we order smart and he is fine.
Our last trip was the most amazing, he was incredibly happy and said he felt "normal". When I called for special diets (our trip in 2006 you used to be able to speak with someone and everything was set before you arrived) however the 2011 trip and even now you make a notation on the ADR that you have a food "allergy" (even though celiac is not an allergy). I was so nervous.... however in most Disney restaurants we were met with the Chef who spoke with my son, asked what he liked and wanted and then my son was beyond happy when rolls, amazing tasting food, not just plain food with nothing on it appeared and even dessert came too-not just vanilla ice cream.
Disney doesnt just give you food with out gluten....they MAKE gf food!!! There is a big difference as many GF people know.
If you want more specifics on restaurants that are awesome I can give more details but here is a quick below..
Ohana-breakfast and dinner AMAZING!!!
50's prime time-great
Kona Cafe-great
Le Cellier-great
Living Seas-OK (I got food poisioning there btw)
Crystal Palace-dissappointing
Alot of quick serve were good too....

so happy to be going back and knowing food is not going to be a hassle!!

 

[Momloveshockey]

Glad to hear this. We are about to go on our first GF trip to Disney. Nice to know I won't starve. We are on the QS dining plan. There seems to be lots of choice at all of the parks.

 

[disfan07]

We were last in WDW in aug. 2011, my teenage son has Celiac and reacts violently to gluten so if he gets it he is on the floor in extreme pain. With that being said, we still eat out and 98% of the time we order smart and he is fine.
Our last trip was the most amazing, he was incredibly happy and said he felt "normal". When I called for special diets (our trip in 2006 you used to be able to speak with someone and everything was set before you arrived) however the 2011 trip and even now you make a notation on the ADR that you have a food "allergy" (even though celiac is not an allergy). I was so nervous.... however in most Disney restaurants we were met with the Chef who spoke with my son, asked what he liked and wanted and then my son was beyond happy when rolls, amazing tasting food, not just plain food with nothing on it appeared and even dessert came too-not just vanilla ice cream.
Disney doesnt just give you food with out gluten....they MAKE gf food!!! There is a big difference as many GF people know.
If you want more specifics on restaurants that are awesome I can give more details but here is a quick below..
Ohana-breakfast and dinner AMAZING!!!
50's prime time-great
Kona Cafe-great
Le Cellier-great
Living Seas-OK (I got food poisioning there btw)
Crystal Palace-dissappointing
Alot of quick serve were good too....

so happy to be going back and knowing food is not going to be a hassle!!

I'm surprised that crystal palace was disappointing. But it might also be ablou personal taste. We went over christmas and went to crystal palace twice. I am gluten free because of a wheat allergy in addition to about 10 other allergies and I stuffed myself full at CP! The chef was wonderful....salmon, ratatouille, cucumber salad, better salad, potatoes, etc. plus an allergen free brownie. I was amazed!

I agree with you about 50s prime time. The chef there was amazing as well! The salmon, potatoes and asparagus I had was outstanding

We also ate at Sci Fi, 1900 park fare, the plaza, pop century, sunshine seasons, studio catering company, Columbia harbor house, and cosmic rays. All were wonderful experiences and were able to accommodate all of my allergies.

I am one who does not contact special diets. I never saw the point of it and I had no problems finding things to eat. But that's just my experience.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I think that there's a chef at Crystal Palace who's nowhere near as good as the others. In fact, I've read many reports of scary allergy situations there but I've also read many more amazing ones. I've just assumed that the bad ones are all the same chef because of just how polar the reviews are. We had a not so great experience ourselves though our experience was several years ago. The chef didn't seem to "get" that deli meats laying on top of cheese wouldn't be safe for somebody with a milk allergy and thought that lemon poached salmon would be safe for somebody with a citrus allergy are just two of the things I caught. What he did finally make was fine and he even went out of his way to get hot dogs from Casey's for my DD but it was scary just what he didn't seem to understand.

 

[glencoe]

Let me clarify my comment about Crystal Palace and being disappointed....we had breakfast there. It was the usual busy but happy, the chef came out and went over things with my son, seemed not as attentive as the other chefs at the other places we ate TS meals.
The waffle was a frozen vans, where at Ohana's it was a fresh mickey waffle for example. Just seemed more personalized at other places. Crystal palace is a fav. for us but compared to the other TS experiences we had w/ GF as an option it was disappointing.
The kids still want to go back our next trip however!

 

[Elisa]

Did you really get Coriander Chicken wings at OHana's? This is my favorite food at Disney and I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to get them. There are many gluten free reviews that show the chicken wings plain. The only thing in the recipe that we can't have is the soy sauce and I was hoping they had the gluten free soy sauce to substitute. So how were yours? Gooey and sticky, or more dry?

 

[3Sapphires]

Its so good to hear so many positive gluten free experiences!

 

[Cassandy]

I really had the coriander chicken wings at Ohana. They were saucy and delicious.

This is a picture:

I had them on January 26th, 2013.

The whole meal was fantastic. I will cherish it for many months and years.

 

[clanmcculloch]

We've never been able to get the wings with the sauce at 'Ohana but we've got a lot more foods to avoid than just gluten. I wonder if they just tossed them in the gluten free terryaki sauce or if the regular sauce is gluten free?

 

[ermarie73]

Let me clarify my comment about Crystal Palace and being disappointed....we had breakfast there. It was the usual busy but happy, the chef came out and went over things with my son, seemed not as attentive as the other chefs at the other places we ate TS meals.
The waffle was a frozen vans, where at Ohana's it was a fresh mickey waffle for example. Just seemed more personalized at other places. Crystal palace is a fav. for us but compared to the other TS experiences we had w/ GF as an option it was disappointing.
The kids still want to go back our next trip however!

That's surprising...I've eaten GF at Crystal Palace three times and always had freshly made Mickey waffles. The most recent was May of 2011. I certainly hope they haven't changed to Vans permanently, those Mickey waffles were the BEST!!

 

[clanmcculloch]

That's surprising...I've eaten GF at Crystal Palace three times and always had freshly made Mickey waffles. The most recent was May of 2011. I certainly hope they haven't changed to Vans permanently, those Mickey waffles were the BEST!!

This is the first time I've ever read this. Every single dining review I've ever read has said that they don't have Mickey waffles and that all you can get is Van's.

 

[Cassandy]

We've never been able to get the wings with the sauce at 'Ohana but we've got a lot more foods to avoid than just gluten. I wonder if they just tossed them in the gluten free terryaki sauce or if the regular sauce is gluten free?

Definitely not teriyaki sauce. My brother had one of mine and one of theirs and said they were the same.

Also, I've had two types of gluten-free/dairy-free waffles at Crystal Palace and neither of them were Vans (which I eat at home, so I would totally recognize).

One was a regular type Mickey waffle (2012) and the other was a pancake-type Mickey waffle (2011) that looked like this:

They were both good, but I've had some cross-contamination issues from their buffet before, so now I just ask for only food from the kitchen.