Food Allergies Around the World Report

[erinch]

I was the original poster of the "food allergies around the world" question.
We just got back from an 8 day trip--3 at universal and 5 at disney.
I'm writing up our comprehensive trip reports, but thought I would share our experiences here.

Our 13yo DS has life-threatening food allergies to milk products, treenuts and peanuts.
(He was the one who nearly died as mentioned in a previous thread when his non-nut dessert was cut with the same knife as a dessert with nuts on it, and both my DH and I thought the other had given the family he was staying with the epi-pen.)

For this trip--(which also included a 2 week stay in ft lauderdale) I had a total of 5 epipens with me, for that life-saving redundancy. At both resorts I made his food allergy clear when I made ps's. (BTW--although I had "pre-registered the special need, it did not seem to show up on the computer as we checked into any restaurant.)

Universal: at one of the restaurants he ate 4 bites of peach cobbler, after we asked if there were any nut or milk products. We had made the extent of food allergies very clear. His mouth was immediately on fire. It turned out it was laced with ground pecans, which were not noted on the menu. I gave him the epipen within 3 minutes of ingestion. He was transported to IOA first aid, then transferred to centra care for immediate steroids and benedryl injection, then sent by ambulance to sandlake hospital. Part of what we are dealing with is severe reflux/gastritis which was the result of an allergic reaction at school in February, when they mixed hidden cheese in with the lettuce on taco bar day. Although we treated quickly enough to avoid an anaphylactic shutdown or significant respiratory problems, he was in a wheelchair in the parks for the rest of our trip. (Universal, BTW, responded graciously and with total acceptance of responsibility thru their risk management department. My son got "VIP" treatment for the rest of his time there, which helped his spirits, if not his stomach. More importantly, they immediately did a full retraining in both parks and have changed many things in their protocol of addressing food allergies.)

Disney:
The star performers were:
BOMA: the chef came out personally, walked us thru every item on the line, and made him a personal dessert of fresh sorbet and deep-fried mango. This was by far our best experience. I would make sure to takeany child with food allergies there--partly so they can experience how allergies ought to be treated.

Donalds' Breakfastosaurus in AK. The chef came out personally, walked us thru the line, and made him some special pancakes--which weren't very good, but the effort was genuinely appreciated.

The food court at PO Riverside. The "ladies" cooking were very knowledgeable about the ingredients of every item, and special-cooked him pizzas and other items while being very gracious and affirming. This was a great experience.

The crystal palace buffet: the chef came out, offered to special cook any items needed, produced elegant dairy-free brownies beautifully presented, and made it a great experience.

The "Still Needs Some Work" Department:
Hollywood & Vine Lunch Buffet: An impatient server and chef described at the table but did not take us thru the line. Produced some vile tasting (to us--someone else weighed in that they like it) rice dream ice cream for dessert, but seemed hurried and like the whole special request was screwing up the Goofy rotation.

Ohana's: The server may have been our "cousin" but she was in a hurry to move us thru our meal at lickety-split speed. Her smile grew ever more forced as we interrupted the script to ask all the food allergy questions and asked for special utensils for the items which could not contaminate the foods that DS could eat. When she brought out the caramel to go with the pineapple for dessert, I asked her what was in it. She said, "Just caramel;" and told my son he could eat it. If he had, it might have killed him. I made her go back to check with the chef, which caused her to heave deep sighs.


The "How About that Lawsuit?" Department:
Chefs de France at Epcot:
After making it extensively clear that the item my son was ordering had to be dairy and nut-free due to life-threatening allergies the chicken came out without the cream sauce, the fries were correctly substituted for the mashed potatoes, ---and THERE WERE CHEESE-COVERED TURNIPS ON THE PLATE TOUCHING THE CHICKEN AND THE FRIES! The server first denied it was cheese, then said it was in "layers" whatever that meant, and then tried to manually remove the turnips while leaving the rest of the plate. Her english was not good. another waiter intervened and made her take it back to totally redo the plate--I carefully checked the chicken to make sure it wasn't just transferred.

San Angel Inn:
Ordered chicken with ranchero rather than a cheese sauce, again making the deadly extent of food allergies clear. The chicken arrived cheese-free--along with beans covered in cheese, which was difficult to identify in the very dim light. Again had to send back for a re-cook. Server did not seem that concerned.

Now that I'm back, I'm writing the special needs department at Disney and each of the restaurants to commend those that did well, and suggest urgent retraining for the epcot restaurants, which do not seem to "get it."

 

[lisapooh]

My daughter loves rice dream iccec cream. I've tasted it and it isn't vile at all. WE usually get the vanilla as she is allergic to carob and strawberry.

We never have had a problem with the waiters in San Angelo. Maybe because we clearly state our needs in Spanish. Guess it helps to be bilingual. Often I don't think it is not caring but a lack of English skills in the wait staff there. If you have the slightest hint that there is a langauge barrier as for someone that is a native English speaker.

 

[erinch]

thanks for your input on the rice dream, Lisa Pooh.
I edited my post to indicate not all find it as unpalatable as we did.

At the San Angel Inn our server was extremely proficient in English.
It was a kitchen error which indicates a glitch in their procedural safeguards, which I hope they will address.

At Chefs de France I communicated in french and english with the server--
once again it was a procedural breakdown with the kitchen.
both errors were visibly discernible, but there was a huge difference
between the restaurants that were responsive and those that weren't.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks for the report. The more feedback people give to the restaurants (good and bad) the less problems and glitches there will be.

 

[lisapooh]

Had that happen with me with a dessert at Akerhus last trip. I asked for the dessert be served without the mango coulis as I am deathly allergic to mango. I have to say they were terrific. Immediately returned with a completely new dessert without the sauce and were very gracious about it too. And yes I was cheating on my diabetes but I had been running low all week so I figured that was safe.

 

[erinch]

one surmise I came away with is this:

aren't most of the world showcase restaurants at epcot owned and operated by 3rd party franchises?

The 2 places we experienced what could have been tragic errors were at epcot international restaurants.

The other minor glitches were more due to overworked servers than a flaw in communication between server & kitchen.
The majority of the disney owned restaurants truly went out of their way to accomodate us.
At the Crystal Palace I asked the chef what food allergy policies they had in place. He recited a whole protocol:
a server notified of a food allergy is required to alert the chef. The chef is required to "press" on the allergy to make
sure the extent of the allergy is understood.

We were in a hurry both times at Epcot & I did not have time to call for the chef & the manager. Not interested in getting the server in trouble. But my hunch is the same safeguard procedures are either not operative or else not enforced at the Epcot Internationals. If that is true, then a piece of wisdom to pass along is that those with serious food allergies should stick to the actual Disney operated restaurants. Unless these restuarants can be persuaded to undertake a retraining before a tragedy occurs.

As I said, this is an observation & question I'll be passing along as I write to guest services, the special needs department, and to the restaurants themselves.

I'm looking for more feedback: Has anyone else had a positive or horrific food allergic experience at the world showcase restuarants? (I'm making the destinction between world showcase & other epcot restaurants because I forgot to put into my report that we ate at the coral reef--where there's a new chef. My deathly allergy to fish was accomodated by substituting chicken for sea bass in a very tasty finish, so I wasn't condemned to the usual bland baked chicken. The server knew all the ingredients for my son, and brought out olive oil for the bread to sub for the butter without being asked.)

 

[lisapooh]

We have had excellent luck with the Lounge at the Japanese Pavillion. They have made my daughter some lovely vegetarian sushi rolls. (no dairy, peanut, fish, seafood or meat, onions or tomatoes).
No problems at San Angelo either for us.
Really bad service and treatment at the Chinese restaurant.
The Pub in England has been great and we had no problems there.
Did have the problem at Akerhus but it was quickly and pleasantly taken care of.
Terrible treatment at Alfredo's. So bad we refuse to ever return.