Just back from HS; allergy scare & FP+ was....

[g8torphan]

more positive than negative

Stayed at POR for a couple of nights in Alligator Bayou. Just had a standard, but like it much more than last years Royal Room. The additional bed is awesome. We were in a corner room (3705), which I loved. Worst thing about POR is some of the bushes smell. Bad. It's a wet dog smell, but I think its only part of the year, so whatever. The boat ride to DTD is a nice treat.

Went to HS and got there right at RD, had to run over to Guest Relations to make sure we were FL Residents and then off to...

TSMM - 30min wait once we arrived due to our little delay entering, so we hit up Woody&Buzz first since we were able to walk straight through with no wait.

Then we hopped over to TSMM, wait was up to 45 minutes, but it wasn't that long. When we got out, Woody and Buzz had a line out the door (listed wait of 45min). So doing the M&G first worked out well for us.

Next up: StarTours!

Walked right on, no wait. My son LOVED it.
Wife went to get some breakfast from StarringRolls, but after waiting 20 mintues for a manager so she could discuss allergy info, non showed up. They comp'd her coffee and we met up and headed over to

Disney Jr.
Another giant hit with my son, I was a bit disappointed, but it isn't for me so who cares?
Left there and got a pic with Jake

Wife and son Headed down to meet Ralph&Vanellope while my SIL and I did the Art Class. Drew Olaf, actually came out pretty well.

Off to VoLM with our 1st FP+ of the day. No issues with that.
However, I was first in so I went all the way to the end of the row as instructed. Too bad you can't see much of Ariel from there. Kinda disappointing, but my kid loved it, and it was a nice break for me, so who cares? Also, couldn't the digitize the film? It looked terrible (lines running down the screen and such).

Went to the contained mad house that is HISTK playground. Cool, but hectic. But whatever, my son had a great time with slides.

Went over to Backlot Express and had lunch, not good. After a 10-15 minute wait for the Chef to discuss allergy info we were able to order (he was wronb on one thing BTW - the Kids Snack Packs has a cereal bar produced in a facility that uses peanuts and tree nuts, but we always read the ingredient list so we caught it) No food at any of the 'standard' restaurants on property are any good IMO. It's cafeteria food and it shows.

Walked over to B&tB for the 1pm show and noticed a line coming down the street. It actually started to rain at this point (only time during the day I put on a raincoat). They cancelled the show, I guess due to the rain.
Went back to Animation Courtyard to discover I'm Buzz, my wife is Cinderella, my son is Tarzan and my SIL is Ursula (she eats nice people for lunch!).

The rain stopped as we headed up to TSMM for our 2nd FP+ of the day. No issues, straight through. Didn't score well though.

Went to Muppets next. SB said 5 minutes and I've never had to wait so I believed it. Well, it was closer to 20, guess we just missed entering a show because we were again nearly all the way to the end of the row. Good times. My son has been watching old Muppets Shows on DVD, so he was all into it, which was awesome.

Around the corner for the 3rd FP of the day, StarTours. This time the SB line showed 40 minutes and the FP+ line was stretch a good bit down the walkway. It appeared to just be a time delay issue with scanning the bands. No issues and we were on the ride within 10 minutes.

My son wanted to do Disney Jr again and meet Sofia, so while he and my wife did that I went back to Art Class with my SIL for another lesson. This time it was Minnie. My Minnie was little bloated (fat face) but it was cool. I enjoyed the Olaf session more, but thought both were great.

Headed over to Sci-Fi for our ADR.
The Chef was great about discussing allergy info here.
Again, food was bleh.
I couldn't stomach another $10 BubbaBurger, so I went with the chicken wings. Decent, no great. The seats need a little more light. A maplight on the 'windshield frame' would be great. Directed at the food and not distracting to other guests. Loved the walls/trees/stars. My son was convinced we were outside!

A light mist was still falling when we came out and we still had and hour and half until F!. My son was fading fast, and said he thought they would cancel F! (not sure if the did), but he wanted 1 more ride.

Star Tours!
No wait again, 10 SB listed, but walked right on.

Back to POR for the night.

Woke up Sunday and ate and decided to go fishing.
Got the idea from an otter we saw swimming around eating fish.

Noticed a sign on the counter at the fishing hole mentioning an allergy warning. Turns out the soil for the worms is dirt with ground up peanut shells. Glad they had the sign as wasn't something on my radar. CM mentioned we could use hot dogs and that they work fine.
My wife, son and I discussed and decided it would be OK since he goes to baseball and football games where there are shells on the ground and has never had an issue.

We start fishing and in less than 10 minutes my son's arms develop a rash and start to swell up.
I put a quick end to the fishing expedition and hurry back to the room to start Benadryl and showers for all involved. Talked with the Dr. office and we were doing all the right things. The all important 15 minute window passed with no other real issues, so we were off to the pool.

Spent a few minutes swimming around and then had lunch and made the drive home. Got home with a couple hours to spare before the game.

So, in closing:
FP+ = good (rode our top 2 rides 5 times total and doubled Disney Jr) The vocal minority of chicken littles here are not correct. You can ride multiple times on rides, you can change "on the fly" and you don't have to traverse the park 2 extra times to collect little pieces of paper, not knowing when your return time would be until you made it to the kiosk. Picking rides 60days out is no big deal, and you don't HAVE to do that if you don't want to.

Food = bad and not just at HS, but POR too.

IF YOU HAVE A PEANUT ALLERGY DO NOT GO ONTO THE FISHING PIER.
The soil/shells has contaminated all of the surfaces and I doubt the pier would ever get 'washed'.

POR is great. Big, but great.

I'd like to see the Allergy Station at AK extended to all parks.
It puts the control back on their consumer and reduces delays when ordering. The current system seems to marginalize (for lack of a better word) the person with the allergy when that isn't the case with other disabilities at the park. Having to wait 10+ minutes in hopes to speak with a Chef and then still be given wrong info is troubling. Not to mention the failure of anyone to arrive at StarringRolls. Disney wouldn't treat a person in a wheelchair that way, so why someone with allergies?

 

[Dan Murphy]

Nice review, g8. And good tips on the allergy situation. It should help others here on the planning board to be cognizant of those items.

Great pictures of your little guy.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I was going to say what a nice little report, until your last line, which was kind of unnecessary.

 

[g8torphan]

Thanks Dan!

We had a blast and are looking forward to our May trip.

I think SuperBowl weekend is a hidden gem. Even though HS was a Not Recomended park we were very successful. Only things we missed that we wanted to do were shows that were cancaled.

Sent from SPACE!

 

[cosmicdaisy]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience food wise. We've been 4 times with food allergies and have only had 1 lackluster experience. Since I've also been with my dad who is wheelchair bound, I can attest to a lot of waiting and at least from my experience, the two different situations really cannot be compared. Two totally different different ball games.

I'm glad you found more positive than negative and enjoyed FP+.

 

[RoxyMat]

Thanks for the tip about the fishing pier! We'll be at POFQ next summer, and my son is *very* allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Even if I had seen the warning, I might have thought, as you did, that his sensitivity wouldn't include shells in the area, but it's always better to be cautious.

My experience last summer with table meals and chefs coming out to talk to us was pretty good, except for Yak & Yeti, where I took the server's word about a dairy free item (the chicken fried rice, not something I'd expect to have dairy, anyway), but the chef did come out and warn us a little while into our meal. Luckily, my son is a lot less sensitive to dairy than he is to nuts, so he didn't have a reaction, but I understand how you feel, and I'm much more careful about ingredients at restaurants when I'm out with my son these days, since servers might have the best of intentions, but not up to date knowledge about the menu.

And I've come to accept that while HS is the most fun for us, other than MK, the meals are not going to be that great, unless we want to splurge on the Brown Derby. I guess it's a trade off...

 

[CNYDisneyFan]

Thanks for the review and pics. So can't wait to go in May.

 

[g8torphan]

I'm sorry you had a disappointing experience food wise. We've been 4 times with food allergies and have only had 1 lackluster experience. Since I've also been with my dad who is wheelchair bound, I can attest to a lot of waiting and at least from my experience, the two different situations really cannot be compared. Two totally different different ball games.

I'm glad you found more positive than negative and enjoyed FP+.

I used the wheelchair as the only other example I could come up with, but you're correct they are certainly different. And I can't compare the 2 because that isn't something I have dealt with

I really think the Allergy Station is the best way for WDW to accommodate those with food allergies. Like I mentioned it puts control back on the consumer (so WDW is 'protected') and allows for a '1 stop shopping' type of situation where I can plan out what is OK and what isn't all at the same time for the remainder of the day.
Then the lack of response at Starring Rolls wouldn't have mattered so much (although that place is a cross contamination nightmare for allergies).

As for the food itself, I'm going to have to figure out a better way for May.
I know HS has the worst food options, but if McD's, Wendy's, Zaxby's, BK et al can mass produce food that at least tastes edible (although very unhealthy), why can't WDW do it?

 

[AliceandAriel]

I used the wheelchair as the only other example I could come up with, but you're correct they are certainly different. And I can't compare the 2 because that isn't something I have dealt with I really think the Allergy Station is the best way for WDW to accommodate those with food allergies. Like I mentioned it puts control back on the consumer (so WDW is 'protected') and allows for a '1 stop shopping' type of situation where I can plan out what is OK and what isn't all at the same time for the remainder of the day. Then the lack of response at Starring Rolls wouldn't have mattered so much (although that place is a cross contamination nightmare for allergies). As for the food itself, I'm going to have to figure out a better way for May. I know HS has the worst food options, but if McD's, Wendy's, Zaxby's, BK et al can mass produce food that at least tastes edible (although very unhealthy), why can't WDW do it?

I'd say for your HS days to pack safe food to bring in, of head back to the resort mid-afternoon for late lunch/early dinner if you have better luck there with food. Heck, even try DTD. HS is known to be the worst place out of all WDW for food, we have had rotten experiences there too so we know how you feel.

I do agree there should be allergy stations in all of the parks. Would make for such an easier experience.

 

[TxAnn]

Good trip report. Thanks for sharing.

I am not familiar with the allergy station at AK. Can you explain?

 

[Betty Rohrer]

only problem with the allergy station I can see is if the product get changed. at the small park where I work allergy info is in a notebook but sometimes we get a different allergy product for supply company. so info might not be correct. an example allergy chicken tenders were listed as nondairy but supply company was out of usual ones and sent different brand which were dipped in milk. only check because of a reaction of guest. as I said not sure how they update for that happening and yes it does happen.