Food Allergies and Universal Studios

[dizcrazee]

Hi there everyone, we are planning our first trip to Universal this summer and are staying onsite at one of their hotels. We are planning to drive to the disney resorts to eat dinner in the evenings due to my daughter's severe peanut/tree nut allergies, and have breakfast/lunch in the hotel room (we'll rent a fridge).

However, we are wondering if there are any places at Universal that might be safe. Does anyone have any experiences with restaurants at/around Universal as far as dealing with food allergies?

Also, we would like to go to the luau at the Royal Pacific Hotel (where we are staying), but only if they don't have the peanut sauce like they have at the Polynesian luau. My daughter really wants to see the show with the hula dancers, and we'd like to make that happen if possible. Anybody know anything about this?

 

[minniejack]

margaritaville is fantastic and reasonably priced. We ate at Margaritaville in Myrtle Beach, too recently, and they expanded their gf menu again. Many choices. And they stay open late.
If I go again, I would stay at the RPR because they also said they could tweek the menu, but we just didn't go there for some reason. Tchoup Chop said they could work w/you.
My son was glutened at Lombardi's and me at PBH club level.

Have fun! We love Uni as you can see by my siggie, but we're heading to Disney only this August mainly because of the food choices.

Here's a link on the celiac forum http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index.php?showtopic=36847

 

[dizcrazee]

Thank you, minniejack! I will check these places out!

 

[itradehilton]

Thanks for the great link. I was worried about what we would eat the days we go to universal.

 

[dancer4life22]

universal isnt great with allergies. margaritaville was awesome but other then that.....

the luau isnt good at all. i went and saw the show but had a completely seperate meal of salmon. just salmon o and some pineapple.

 

[happymommy]

Hate to say it, but I agree with the PP. My son has food allergies, and once we discovered how wonderful Disney was, we have gone many times.

We tried Universal one trip, staying at the Portofino Bay Resort in a club room (we thought it would be as nice as AKL club, but nope...) In the club lounge, there was almost nothing he could eat. The staff was not helpful at all, and the restaurants were very limited with what he could eat.

We didn't find anything close to the degree of help we've gotten at Disney when we went to Universal, so he stuck with very basic foods. I honestly don't really want to go back to Universal, but my son liked the characters and things, so maybe one day we will. We won't stay on property, though, as now I found out he can get their version of a GAC (we get one at Disney for other health reasons, asthma makes his stamina less and he's severe ADHD almost autistic at times, depending on the day). The reason we stayed on property was mostly for convenience and the front of the line deal.

I hope you have a better experience than we did!

Also, our room reeked of cigarette smoke every day, so day two they gave us an air purifier for the room. Someone above or below us smoked constantly and it came in through the bathroom vent. We've never had that at Disney - even though I complained, they couldn't move us so just gave us a filter which helped but not completely.

 

[livndisney]

We have never had any sucess with dining at Universal with allergies. Dining in the parks is "challenging" to say the least. Alot of the food is mass prepared, so cross contamination is a real concern. Employees are not really trained to even know what goes into most food. And we have yet to find a chef available. Even GS and FA have tried to contact a chef with no success.

 

[dizcrazee]

Oh my, how distressing. I think we might need to re-consider where we are staying. I mean, we can drive to WDW in the evenings for dinner and eat breakfast/lunch in our room at Universal, but I'm not too enthusiastic about supporting them with our hard-earned money if my daughter can't eat there safely.

I think I'd rather that money go to Disney, who usually bends over backwards for her.

 

[happymommy]

That's why our money goes to Disney!