Question about dining with a food allergy

[jbmgsdmom]

My son was just diagnosed with a tree nut allergy. We are visiting Disney World in October and have all our ressies made. Should I call each of the restaurants to see if they are safe or do all the restaurants in Disney follow the same precautions? We have several buffet ressies and one at Teppan Edo. Thanks for any help. He is our 3rd child and this is all new to me. :0)

 

[koolaidmoms]

I have a DS who can't have much of anything. We heard that we should contact Special Diets and they should be able to help (I think they're closed on weekends).

Email: specialdiets@disneyworld.com
Magic Kingdom 407-824-5967 wdwmkspecialdiets@email.disney.com
Epcot 407-560-6395 wdwecspecialdiets@email.disney.com
Hollywood Studios 407-560-3551 wdwstspecialdiets@email.disney.com
Animal Kingdom 407-938-3288 wdwakspecialdiets@email.disney.com

Hope this helps some.

 

[jbmgsdmom]

Wow! Thanks for the great info.

 

[acc82]

Let me say that I have an anaphylactic allergy to shellfish and have to be very careful about what I eat (no japanese, chinese, etc...)
We went to disney last year in march and I've NEVER experienced such great attention to my allergy as I did at disney!!! You can feel totally comfortable there. You must let them know of your allergy. All I did was put my allergy on my reservation and then notified the staff of my allergy when I arrived to the restaurant. At every place I ate, from Ohana's to in the park restaurants, the chef talked to me personally to help me pick foods and asked what I was to order so that he could personally oversee the preparation. It was so relaxing not to have to worry about if I needed to use my benadryl/epi-pen!!!!!

 

[Zoebear]

I'll echo that. My son has a peanut allergy and we've been to Disney the past 4 years. He has never had a problem and Disney has been amazing.

I just wanted to add that if you go over to the DisAbilities board, there is some dedicated allergy information that I found every helpful.

 

[tinka-belle]

I have several clients with major food allergies, and they all LOVE going to Disney. Peanut & tree nuts are a common one that I see, and every Disney restaurant and buffet is set up to handle them. At the non-Disney owned or run places it can be a hit or miss but they are usually OK.

Call the dining line and have the allergy noted on each ADR. This will alert the retaurant, but mention it to your server as well when you are seated. A chef will come out to discuss the food, show you safe items at a buffet, or go over the a la carte menu with you, and with severe allergies most places will prepare something separately to avoid cross contamination.

Depending on the chef that day, some will even ask what you like from the menu and then prepare a safe version for you to eat. Others will get creative and present a really unique and yummy dinner, even at a buffet place.

All the CS places have a master book for food allergies. While your choices are more limited at CS, some will have separate ingredients for special diets, like lactose free, gluten free, etc. if you ask. Cross contamination might be an issue at CS though since there is such limited prep space.

By all means contact special diets too. They are great to work with and can make your trip stress free.

 

[hildarumpole]

Two of my kids have peanut, tree nut, and shellfish allergies. We've never had a reaciton at WDW. The chefs are amazing at handling food allergies. We ate at Teppan Edo a couple weeks ago. The manager talked to us about the kids allergies, then when the chef came, he double checked. He cooked their food first. The manager even came back after the food was served to make sure they were still o.k. At buffets, the chef will walk you and your child through and let you know what's safe and what's not. My kids usually get special off-buffet desserts, because the desserts almost always have a problem.

Contact the general special diets email about 2 weeks prior to your trip. They'll email you a form that you fill out with your personal info, resort, ADRs and allergies. They take care for forwarding everything to the chefs at each restaurant. When you dine, the check-in CM will usually confirm the allergy, but mention it if they don't. Also, confirm it with your server. Sometimes the seating CM forgets the allergy note. The chef will meet with you at your table and discuss safe options and any modifications that might be necessary before you place your order with the server.

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[jbmgsdmom]

I can not begin to tell you how greatful I am for all your comments. I know this sounds silly but I'm almost in tears. We just had my son tested yesterday and discovered all this. He is 3 yrs old and no one else in the family has food allergies so this is all new. I just cleaned my kitchen out and am having to give away some of my favorite spices and chocolate. it is so good to know that Disney takes such precautions and that we will be able to eat at the restaurants with ease. Thank You all!!!

 

[cab0ad]

Two of my kids have peanut, tree nut, and shellfish allergies. We've never had a reaciton at WDW. The chefs are amazing at handling food allergies. We ate at Teppan Edo a couple weeks ago. The manager talked to us about the kids allergies, then when the chef came, he double checked. He cooked their food first. The manager even came back after the food was served to make sure they were still o.k. At buffets, the chef will walk you and your child through and let you know what's safe and what's not. My kids usually get special off-buffet desserts, because the desserts almost always have a problem.

Contact the general special diets email about 2 weeks prior to your trip. They'll email you a form that you fill out with your personal info, resort, ADRs and allergies. They take care for forwarding everything to the chefs at each restaurant. When you dine, the check-in CM will usually confirm the allergy, but mention it if they don't. Also, confirm it with your server. Sometimes the seating CM forgets the allergy note. The chef will meet with you at your table and discuss safe options and any modifications that might be necessary before you place your order with the server.

Have a wonderful trip!

Did they cook your kids food on the grill? My son has a peanut allergy and has always wanted to try a japanese steakhouse but we skipped it our last trip thinking that they would cook something for him in the kitchen and then bring it out instead of cook the food on the grill. I may add this to my list for next time if they cooked your kids food on the grill!

 

[cab0ad]

I can not begin to tell you how greatful I am for all your comments. I know this sounds silly but I'm almost in tears. We just had my son tested yesterday and discovered all this. He is 3 yrs old and no one else in the family has food allergies so this is all new. I just cleaned my kitchen out and am having to give away some of my favorite spices and chocolate. it is so good to know that Disney takes such precautions and that we will be able to eat at the restaurants with ease. Thank You all!!!

I'm sorry you are going through this. It IS very hard when you first learn about it, isn't it? I promise that it gets better and easier though.

My family has been loyal Disney vacationers because of my DS10's peanut allergy. It is the only place we've ever gone on vacation that he has been treated like a king rather than told he had to "miss out" because of his allergy. Ohanas was the best experience we have ever had at a restraunt. The head chef, TJ, told my son that he was his personal chef for the night. He made a special dessert for my son (since he couldn't eat the normal dessert) that had kids in the entire restraunt looking at our our son in envy! I kid you not--he looked like he was the king of the world when his "special" dessert came out. For once he had the best food and everyone else was jealous!

 

[hildarumpole]

Did they cook your kids food on the grill? My son has a peanut allergy and has always wanted to try a japanese steakhouse but we skipped it our last trip thinking that they would cook something for him in the kitchen and then bring it out instead of cook the food on the grill. I may add this to my list for next time if they cooked your kids food on the grill!

Yes, they cooked my kids food on the grill. My kids were delighted to watch their food being cooked by the chef. He was very funny and entertaining. Teppan Edo doesn't use any peanuts or peanut oils in cooking. The only peanut issue was with the pastry desserts, because they don't make them there. It was one of my kids favorite restaurants of our last trip. They've already asked to go back.

If someone has a shellfish allergy, the Teppan Edo manager recommend the early seatings of the day, because they clean the grills thoroughly each night. They do less thorough cleanings between cooking sessions. It's just a scrap down of the build-up. We had a 12:05 ADR, which was perfect. The grill had been cleaned overnight and not used prior to our visit. My kids had absolutely no problems with their shellfish allergies.

 

[TDC Nala]

There is also information about dining with food allergies on the DISAbilities Board.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

You can also get a downloadable e book from passporter called Open Mouse. This has all kinds of usable info. My niece has both nut and shellfish allergies that are prety severe. My sister can't eat eggs. I have two special needs children. My sister and I have both found this book very helpful.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would suggest going to the disABILITIES Forum and look at Post #3 of the disABILITIES FAQs. There is a large section in that post dealing with special dietary needs, as well as many related links. You can get directly to the disABILITIES FAQs by following the link in my signature.

This is a very common topic of discussion in the disABILITIES Forum.

 

[jbmgsdmom]

Thank you all for the incredible info. What do you do about snacks through out the parks? Are the ingredients listed somewhere? We had planned to do the DxDP so their are a lot of snacks on our trip. Some of the credits we will us for drinks but my kids have already been planning some key snacks they want to get.

 

[hildarumpole]

When you contact Special Diets, they'll email you a list of snack foods with allergen info. Ingredients may change, so it's always best to double-check the packages when you arrive. For things that aren't pre-packaged, ask a CM about ingredients. There should be an ingredient binder available.