Nut allergies and desserts... EDIT - Mickey Bars?!?

[lenshanem]

My DD is allergic to peanuts and nuts. I was looking at the food picture thread and so many were pics of desserts...

It made me wonder if my DD will be able to eat any desserts on board - most of the time they'll say they may contain nuts...

Curious if anyone has done the cruise with a nut allergy and were you able to eat any of the desserts?

Is the ice cream by the pool soft serve or dipped? I feel safe with soft serve, but not the scoops!

Thanks!

PLEASE SEE MY POST ON PAGE TWO ABOUT THE MICKEY BARS...

 

[mostyn17]

The ice cream at scoops is soft serve.

As far as the allergy goes, call Disney and have them put it on your reservation..also when you go to dinner the first night, talk to your head waiter and other waiters and let them know. The husband at the table next to us on November cruise was allergic to shell fish. They went out of there way to do everything they could for him.

Have a great cruise.

Travis

 

[Rence]

My father is allergic to fowl (chicken, turkey etc.) which is a tough one because so many dishes are made with chicken broth.

We notified DCL ahead of time and everynight they went over the menu with my dad letting him know what he could and couldn't have.

So notify them ahead of time and they will make sure you know each night what is safe and what is not. Remember nuts may also be in some of the entrees as well.

 

[pclaire]

Hi Shan, my dd7 is allergic to tree nuts. we just sailed on the July 17th cruise to Mexico, and every thing was fine. first, feel free to pm me about anything, I know how you're feeling. I faxed Disney the medical form ahead of time, so they knew about the allergy in the kids club and at dinner. The very first night, the servers said, hello, you must be Allison, and we hear you're allergic to nuts. They were very careful to tell us what desserts she could have, and pointed out what bread and rolls were ok. Her allergy is not so bad that we had to avoid nuts at the table, but if you have that problem, they'll accomodate. The head server was really really careful, and said she shouldn't even eat the chicken fingers, because they weren't guaranteed to have no contact with nuts, but we'd already had them, so I knew we were fine. Scoops is great, soft serve, so no cross-contamination. i always let her have extra sprinkles to make up for some of the desserts she couldn't have. At the dessert buffet the first day (parrot key), I had someone go back to the kitchen and find out what she could have. There were 2-3 things that were nut and peanut free. We missed the dessert buffet on pirate night (just couldn't stay up any longer), but you might need to be careful there cause it seemed to be dark and crowded and maybe be hard to find someone to go through each item with you. In our experience though, they are very careful and they take your concerns seriously. No brushing you off. I was a little concerned in Mexico, no, actually, I was scared sh**less, pardon my language - the epi-pen and benedryl never left my side. Everything was fine. On a positive note, the Benedry works for sea sickness too, and most people dont carry it with them, so We're a step ahead!! dont worry, enjoy yourself, and remember - how bad can it be - Krispy Kremes are nut free

 

[bhoffman]

We sailed as well on July 17 on Wonder and had a great experience. Although I will say, it was a little disappointing how LITTLE they had in the way of desserts with no nuts. It was hard finding something for my son to have. He is two so didn't deal with the kids clubs, however the wait staff was VERY careful with him. Pretty much other than the soft serve there are little to no desserts (at least the cruise we were on) that he could eat with peanut and tree nut allergy. There are m&ms at the same place that the soft serve is served at so watch for that if you get sprinkles or something that none got in them by accident. Feel free to pm me as well. My son had a great trip and Disney was VERY careful about the allergy. The head for all of Disney world is usually a speaker at the big allergy conferences so I know he takes allergies very seriously. This is a common, although serious allergy and they know how to handle it very well! Have fun!!!

 

[lwilliam]

I am also allergic to tree nuts, as is my son. Our other friend has
an allergy to anything with yogurt. We told our server the first night
we met him and every night he went thru the menu with us and explained
everything to us. He was SO CAREFUL. There was NEVER a lack of
dessert for me. THere was always a Mickey bar! During pirate night,
they brought banana bread to the table (I LOVE banana bread) - I asked
the waiter about the nuts, he quickly took the WHOLE basket away, and then came back and said 'no nuts'. I totally trusted him.
Good luck.

 

[bhoffman]

Yes, I should ammend to say there is always the mickey bar, however, as you know anyone with a peanut allergy should be VERY careful eating anything with chocolate as it is almost always with the risk of cross contamination at the plant. My son did eat a Mickey bar about 3 times and did not have a reaction although as you well know, chocolate is a matter of personal comfort if you are willing to "risk it". I took lots of smarties and skittles for my son and filled in with those when I wasn't comfortable or there were no options...also, fyi, they sell peanut m&ms outside the theaters for the concession so you may want to look around when you sit down for either any "left over" from the last show or anyone eating them....

 

[DVCDawn]

Shan:

Hi! We have "spoken" many times about peanut and tree nut allergies on the Dis boards. I hope you and your family are doing well.

My family and I were on the Wonder over the 4th of July this year and we had a great time. My DD6 is allergic to peanuts and my DD3 is allergic to tree nuts. As previous posters have said, your head server in the dining rooms are your best defense. Ours, whose name was Arnold, was EXTREMELY cautious. Anything not made on the ship he would not vouch for. As an example, at lunch on embarkation day I spoke to a chef about the chicken tenders and pizza. He assured me that they were peanut and tree nut free and offered to bring out the ingredient lists for my review. They read clean and, with a little trepidation, I let the kids eat them. Later that day, at dinner, the head server advised against the chicken tenders, citing that they were made off-site. I have to admit, I was happy that he was so cautious, but somewhat dismayed at the mixed info I had received. Anyway, I decided that they had eaten them without incident and they had them several more times during the cruise.

As you guessed, most of the desserts are pretty much off limits. The soft serve at Scoops is safe (ask to read the ingredient list; I did!) and the cones were, too. I strongly suggest that if your children like ice cream to have some every afternoon on deck because there is almost nothing at dinner they can have in the way of desserts. As a matter of fact, they are pretty limited on appetizers, too. At dinner my children generally had fruit for an appetizer as well as dessert. There were two nights in which they were able to eat desserts off the menu -- Pirate Night and at Animators Palate. On Pirate Night they had a merengue "treasure chest" filled with fruit, which they thought was fun. At AP they were able to eat the sugar-free dessert (sugar free pound cake and a cookie) but my DD6 said it tasted like cardboard. One night at Lumiere's they did have a cherries jubilee dessert served over vanilla ice cream and our head server arranged for them to just get the cherries.

If I had to do it again, I think I would run up to Scoops during dinner (Scoops closes at around 8:00) and grab a cup to bring into the dining room or put in the fridge in the stateroom. I'd also pack some prepackaged desserts my kids enjoy, like Hostess cupcakes, and bring them to the dining room with us. We cruised with my husband's entire family and dinner took a long time -- even longer when you're 3 years old and can't eat the yummy desserts everyone else is eating. We had more than a few tears at the dinner table, and frankly I couldn't blame them.

As far as the kids clubs go, my children didn't spend a huge amount of time in them (DD3 was still kind of shaky on the whole potty-training thing). I was able to register them online, which I recommend you do even if your kids don't plan on spending much time there. It was a big time saver. On the online registration form there is an area where you can indicate any special medical issues/needs your child has. On embarkation day, all you have to do is pick up your pager. When we did, they knew all about my kids' allergies. The CM even indicated which activities would be unsafe for my kids (the 5 - 7 age group bakes chocolate chip cookies one day). Over the course of a 4-day cruise that was the ONLY thing DD6 could not do. Also, and this is my favorite part, upon entering any kids club, each child must hold our their hands and the CM puts a few pumps of hand soap on them and instructs them to walk directly to the sink and wash their hands. Heaven!!!

Shan, if you need anymore info, please PM me. Have a great time!!

DVCDawn

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks sooo much everyone.
I will probably PM some of you later when the cruise gets closer if you don't mind.


I have sent in her medical forms already.

It sounds like pretty much what I guessed - no desserts.

I'm happy to hear Scoops is soft serve, though! Is there also soft serve on Castaway Cay?

FYI - I have let DD eat the Mickey bars before, but I have since been told they are no longer safe. I even had someone from WDW food and beverage send me an email in which it indicates it is not safe. This was a real bummer to us. Do they have any other WDW frozen treats onboard like those Itzadoosies?

I'm surprised about the chicken tenders. Goodness, what were they able to eat?!? This is a tad disappointing to hear...

We also love Krispy Kreme! Do they have those onboard? Maybe someone could get one for her at dinner for dessert???


As for the kid clubs, did they let you leave their EpiPens?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[tvguy]

We don't have any allergies in our family, but were very impressed at the throughness of our wait staff, who more than once the first night questioned if anyone had any allergies, and specifically asked about nuts, wheat, milk, eggs.

 

[daipp]

I 've had my allergy to nuts for 34 years (although it's actually impossible to be allergic to ALL nuts because they are so looslely related to each other) and was impressed with DCL. As already said I mentioned it to our Head Server (Zoran) on our first night of our last cruise and he went through everything with me.

However, after having an allergy for so long I feel I'm au fait with most things but it never harms to ask!

David

 

[DVCDawn]

Shan:

I can answer some of your questions...

Do they have soft serve on Castaway Cay? Yes, but not necessarily the same chocolate and vanilla found on board. The day we were there it was strawberry frozen yogurt and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I did ask the CMs about whether there were nuts/peanuts in either and they said no. I let them have the strawberry frozen yogurt, although, I admit I was a little nervous.

Do they have other WDW frozen treats on board? No, except for Mickey bars. We were pretty bummed about no Itzakadoozies either, however, I remember reading somewhere on these boards that you can ask for an ice pop at Scoops. I think they don't advertise it, but they might have some back there. It certainly doesn't hurt to try, right?!

What did my kids eat? Breakfast was usually cereal (individual boxes were available), eggs or pancakes (which I checked out with a chef). In general buffets frighten me and I usually avoid them at all costs, however, when you're on a ship in the middle of the ocean you don't have much choice. We did have two non-buffet breakfasts -- one in Tritons and one room service. At the buffets, if they wanted eggs, I stuck to the omelets made to order section. None of the add-ins were peanut/nut related and they were cooked in butter. For lunch, we went to Beach Blanket buffet once and ate on deck, by the pool on the other days. At the buffet a chef came out and walked the line with me, but did not offer to make anything separately in the kitchen as none of the items offered contained peanuts or nuts. The chicken nuggets were there, and of course, my DDs went straight for them. As I mentioned in a previous post, they didn't have any problems with them although our head server in the dining room did! Around the Mickey pool on other days we had hot dogs, pizza or cheesburgers without incident. At dinner, there were considerably less choices, but the kitchen was always willing to make pasta, which DD6 prefers to almost anything else. I recall my DDs eating pasta, pizza, roasted chicken and broiled fish as well at dinner. Mostly, though, it was hard for them to sit through everyone's appetizers and desserts when they really couldn't have any of them. Fruit was always available as a kids appetizer and at dessert. Luckily, my DD3 often chooses fruit over ice cream anyway so she handled that whole thing better than her big sister.

Krispy Kremes? You know, they may have been on board, but if so, they were in the big buffets next to something like sticky buns with walnuts!

EpiPens in clubs? ABSOLUTELY. The times I dropped my DDs off at the clubs, I also left two sets of EpiPens and a bottle of Benadryl. They were happy to take them.

Shan -- I'm going to PM you with my email address so that you can contact me directly before your trip with any last minute questions.

DVCDawn

 

[NowaSki]

Shan,

We've been on two DCL cruises with our DS (7) who has a severe peanut allergy, and we feel the staff did a great job at keeping us informed as to what was safe and what was not.

On our first cruise in '03, each night the chef would come to the table and point out what was safe and not safe. My DW asked to see the packaging of the Mickey Bars before they brought one out for him. So, our server brought out an unwrapped Mickey Bar for us to review the ingredients list.

Our last cruise in April, our server and assistant server were on top of it. One night there was some bread that had nuts, so when the assistant server brought the baskets to our table, the one she placed at our end did not contain the bread with the nuts, but the one she put at the other end of the table for our tablemates, did have the bread with nuts. She pointed this out to us right away so we made no mistake.

Our server and the head server both assured us that all the kid's menu items where peanut/nut safe. As for the desserts my DS enjoyed the Mickey Bars. Each night when the server would go over the menu, he would point out items on the adult menu with nuts, even though DS would only be picking from the kid's menu.

We are still paranoid about what he eats, even though he has learned to always ask, and if he has doubts he just won't eat it. The staff definitely made us feel comfortable and DS did not go hungry. As a precaution, when the kids would go to the clubs, we would always pick them up before meal times, because we felt more comfortable eating with them.

For the excursions, we would take a couple of the dry cereal containers with us from the breakfast buffets for the kids to snack on.

 

[Talking Hands]

I have an allergy to aspartame and am diabetic and I found that they really didn't do anything to accommodate me at all as far as desserts were concerned. All the diabetic desserts were made with aspartame. The only option for me was fruit which is a carb abd very limited in my diet as well. I was very disappointed.

 

[lenshanem]

Thanks again everyone!

DVCDawn - thanks sooo much! That is nice to know about the pasta. She'd eat plain noddles and butter for every meal if I let her.

I think I might look into the Mickey Bars again... My DD LOVED those things and if she could have that for dessert each night we'd be set. Last I was told they were made on shared equipment and were no longer deemed completely safe, but this seems to change with the wind. I even tried to call the manufacturer directly, but WDW food and beverage was more helpful. Wasn't it Nestle?

 

[3xthecharm]

I faxed Disney the medical form ahead of time, so they knew about the allergy in the kids club and at dinner.

I would love to know the fax number. I already had the doctor fill out the form, but I'm not sure where to send it. My son is severely allergic to most fresh fruit. It is easier to avoid than peanuts. But, it is so unusual that most have never heard of it before.

 

[lenshanem]

Bumping cause my parents are down at WDW right now and they asked about the Mickey Bars. The person at the cart told them they have not been told they were not safe for peanut allergies and that it is the only ice cream type of item that still doesn't have a may contain warning label on it...

I'm so confused! First I was told by WDW Food & Beverage they were safe, then a year later I was told they were not, now??? And it seems even some of us on here have been told conflicting info.

It sure would be nice if my DD could have these for dessert at dinner on the cruise...

I would love to get a definite answer on this! Thoughts?!?

 

[goofysgirl]

I would love the answer to this also, as my DD is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. She has eaten these bars for numerous years without any issues, but I had never thought to look to see if there was a warning label on them.

I would call DCL and ask them to research this, or ask them to point you in the direction of someone in the know. They will be able to do alot of the leg work, where we may just be calling everywhere without any luck.

We have always found our servers to be very mindful of Tara's allergy and very creative as to what she could have for dessert.

 

[bhoffman]

Good luck. Seems no one knows an "official" answer on these. I was told they were safe and my son ate them for a week every night and was fine. Not saying they would be safe for everyone but no problems here with a peanut/tree nut allergy....I always think...if in doubt, avoid!

 

[pclaire]

this is a little off topic, but while we're on the subject of kids and food allergies - FAAN is selling teal rubber bracelets (like the Lance Armstrong ones) for their PAL program (friends of kids with food allergies). We gave them to all the kids in my daughter's new class yesterday, and gave a little presentation about nut allergies. each bracelet comes in a bag with a list of ways friends can help - dont share fiood, etc. The proceeds go to research. My dd7 thought the whole idea was great, and so did the rest of the 2nd graders!!