Thread for allergy foods updates

[mom2girls1974]

Where is this special snack cart within WDW? it is very neat - and has a number of items my girls and I could eat - from what I can see, without ingredient lists......just wondering if there are a few of them, or just one .Thanks

 

[livndisney]

We also stayed at POP last September and I agree the chefs were awesome. The food was so good and the chefs were very helpful. We are going back to POP this August because of the chefs and the incredible food.

Between the experiences I had at Pop and the ones my friend is having right now, I doubt I will ever stay at Pop again. The staff was terrible during our last stay. The manager was so bad, Guest services contacted me to apologize. My friend is there now, moldy room, housekeeping got bleach on clothes and major ticket screwups. No thanks!

Hope others have better luck.

 

[livndisney]

Where is this special snack cart within WDW? it is very neat - and has a number of items my girls and I could eat - from what I can see, without ingredient lists......just wondering if there are a few of them, or just one .Thanks

Not sure what cart you are talking about. But if you mean the picture CarrieR posted, those shelves are located at Pop Century. Most resort food courts have similar shelves in the self serve area.

 

[DonnaBoo]

Between the experiences I had at Pop and the ones my friend is having right now, I doubt I will ever stay at Pop again. The staff was terrible during our last stay. The manager was so bad, Guest services contacted me to apologize. My friend is there now, moldy room, housekeeping got bleach on clothes and major ticket screwups. No thanks!

Hope others have better luck.

I am so sorry to hear this.

 

[cinderella73]

Not geared toward the OP but Disney themselves. - Why the heck would they put a peanut butter bar near the special diet options? Thats as bad as our grocery store that stocks granola wth nuts in the bin above nut free allergy foods!

 

[clanmcculloch]

Between the experiences I had at Pop and the ones my friend is having right now, I doubt I will ever stay at Pop again. The staff was terrible during our last stay. The manager was so bad, Guest services contacted me to apologize. My friend is there now, moldy room, housekeeping got bleach on clothes and major ticket screwups. No thanks!

Hope others have better luck.

I'm so sad to hear this. We've always had such great experiences at Pop. I will say we have a couple times had to get them to actually do the special cleaning we need (sorry but when I tell them we need a deep cleaning due to severe allergies, I expect that the air filter won't show a full inch of dust on it; yes it was unscrewed and sticking out so I could actually see this) but they were very responsive and did take care of us once we pointed out any issue. Then again, they weren't responsive to the time a toddler threw up in the pool after hours; they re-opened the pool 20 minutes later even though you could still see the product of the little girl being sick sitting on the bottom of the pool. Hmmm.... maybe I'm too much of a Disney appologist? These things really aren't ok but I still tell people that Pop's been great. I think the chefs being so great just make me accept anything. How were things in the food court?

 

[MSFCH10]

Leaving in two days and I am starting to panic that I haven't done enough research for my trip. My daughter was just diagnosed with peanut/tree nut/shellfish/fish allergies and thankfully we believe them to be very mild. We are still doing our best to avoid anything that falls into these categories. How hard is this going to be if we are mainly eating QS and not on the dining plan? I just don't want to spend my whole trip saying no while everybody else has whatever they want. I have read through a lot of this thread and am really just typing this out to let it out so I can get back to packing. Back to your regularly scheduled programming now!

 

[EEyorelover22]

If I were you, I would type out her allergies on a piece of paper, make several copies and keep them in your wallet. Hand it to the CS person and go from there. It's much easier for them if they can see it I think.

Please understand in this next statement that I am not minimizing the allergies in any way. Those seem to be pretty common and easy to work around.

I think you'll be okay, but I'd type out the list if I were you so you don't forget.

Have a wonderful vacation!!

 

[AEPaul]

Which parks are you going to within WDW? I may be able to help give you more info on the allergy-friendliness of your dining options, quick serve or otherwise.

 

[MSFCH10]

We are doing 3 days at MK (one of which we have a lunch scheduled at WCC), two at Epcot, two at AK and one for Sea World. Some of these days might turn into half days as we try to squeeze DHS too. On our departure day we are eating breakfast at CRT. Everything else will be QS and snacks. We have only known about the allergies for a few weeks and I am still a little surprised by it all. I just want her to enjoy herself as much as possible in a place where sweet treats abound. We had planned to do the kitchen sink this trip too but scrapped it once I read the ingriedient list.

 

[Talking Hands]

Not geared toward the OP but Disney themselves. - Why the heck would they put a peanut butter bar near the special diet options? Thats as bad as our grocery store that stocks granola wth nuts in the bin above nut free allergy foods!

Because the peanut butter bar may also be a special diet option item. I don't see the problem as long as it is wrapped and sealed and in a separate bin. People have to take it and pay prior to opening the bar and eating it. Now the store that has a granola bin above the nut free allergy items I can see a problem because of possible cross contamination of the nut free items. I am assuming the bins are the self serve type. If they are prepacked then again I do not see the issue.

 

[Forevryoung]

Leaving in two days and I am starting to panic that I haven't done enough research for my trip. My daughter was just diagnosed with peanut/tree nut/shellfish/fish allergies and thankfully we believe them to be very mild. We are still doing our best to avoid anything that falls into these categories. How hard is this going to be if we are mainly eating QS and not on the dining plan? I just don't want to spend my whole trip saying no while everybody else has whatever they want. I have read through a lot of this thread and am really just typing this out to let it out so I can get back to packing. Back to your regularly scheduled programming now!

My cousin has similar allergies (just add sesame). It was really easy- and I don't do it every day because she's not my kid

The standard "no" was the baked goods (no cookies/pastries/specialty breads except their allergy ones). The rolls for hamburgers were safe. Sunshine Seasons was the toughest for her to pick something safe if I remember correctly.

We learned early on that it was easier for my cousin to pick what she wanted to eat and then for us to ask if it was safe because a surprising number of foods (WS counter service options for example) were safe without modifications. Lots of ice cream for dessert- next trip I will be bringing cookies for her (the only safe ones are gluten free).

 

[shelby101301]

So, do they still have the allergy books to check at quick service? That hasn't changed, correct?

I have never filled out the forms before. With diagnosis of allergies, we bought DVC so free dining is never an option. I am used to cooking/packing most of our food. We drive down from PA so bring stuff from home and of course shop at public/whole foods/Walmart.

But this time, we did opt to eat at 4 ts restaurants. Should I still fill out forms or is thread basically saying they are now obsolete.

Sorry for all the changes. DS has thankfully grown out of egg allergy , we use Udi's all the time, but having been there done that, I sympathize. Now we just deal with cashews/pistachios and gluten. DH and I are also gluten free( no we are not being trendy.... DH has true intolerance and my hair falls out when I eat gluten - thyroid related)

Thx for all the info you have been sharing.

PS- has anyone been charged for leaving a credit card required ADR because they felt a family member couldn't eat? We are eating at Ohana, Crystal Palace, Biergarten and San Angel.

 

[disney fan4]

So, do they still have the allergy books to check at quick service? That hasn't changed, correct?

I have never filled out the forms before. With diagnosis of allergies, we bought DVC so free dining is never an option. I am used to cooking/packing most of our food. We drive down from PA so bring stuff from home and of course shop at public/whole foods/Walmart.

But this time, we did opt to eat at 4 ts restaurants. Should I still fill out forms or is thread basically saying they are now obsolete.

Sorry for all the changes. DS has thankfully grown out of egg allergy , we use Udi's all the time, but having been there done that, I sympathize. Now we just deal with cashews/pistachios and gluten. DH and I are also gluten free( no we are not being trendy.... DH has true intolerance and my hair falls out when I eat gluten - thyroid related)

Thx for all the info you have been sharing.

PS- has anyone been charged for leaving a credit card required ADR because they felt a family member couldn't eat? We are eating at Ohana, Crystal Palace, Biergarten and San Angel.

My son and I both have gluten allergy, along with several others and we had a great experience at O'hana. The chef was great, he made a safe version of every dish for us.
We were there in March and when we contacted special diets they did still send form. Don't know if that has changed but hope not. It was nice that the first thing every cm did was confirm that we had someone in our party with food allergies. And they did still have the allergy books at qs.

 

[shelby101301]

Thanks! That's so great to hear! We ate at Ohana pre-allergies and I was having trouble imagining eating there gluten free. (I miss eating out Chinese so bad!)

 

[Elinor Dashwood]

Thanks! That's so great to hear! We ate at Ohana pre-allergies and I was having trouble imagining eating there gluten free. (I miss eating out Chinese so bad!)

If you love Chinese food and need to eat gluten free, try PF Chang's. They are amazing with food allergies!

 

[clanmcculloch]

I just wanted to share my current status since we've all been very frustrated by the lack of communication for a while now from Special Diets.

This morning at 10:23 I emailed Special Diets with a detailed list of questions for our upcoming trip. Knowing that it's Sunday and that in the past it's taken a couple days to get the generic form letter type response I figured I wouldn't hear back for at least a few days and that it would be the generic response again and that I would have to resend my questions several times before I actually got across the point that I have specific questions.

A few minutes ago (3:35pm) I got a call from Special Diets. Yes, they phoned me rather than sending a generic email after my first email. I was shocked! The CM from Special Diets did say that they no longer send out the lists of products and/or where they're found and was apologetic for that (I already knew that but I was hoping for a few specifics since I asked some specific questions) but she did say that she was going to make sure that each of the chefs I had questions for or ADRs for would contact me. We'll see if that happens but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it clearly wasn't just a generic call. I hadn't actually included my phone number in the email so I wonder if it's that they flagged the fact that I've been as often as I have or that I was so frustrated last trip and they marked that in my file but obviously they looked up my file in order to get my phone number. She did ask if it was ok to send me the latest version of the dietary request form to fill out which of course I think is ok. She said to be sure in my email to say that I had spoken with her and that she said to ensure that it is sent to the chefs. She felt confident that the chefs at the various locations would be able to answer all of the questions I have including questions about products that they carry at their individual locations (though I suspect I'm out of luck on questions about specific park CS locations).

I don't know if everybody is getting this level of attention or not but right now I'm feeling good. Hopefully the follow-through is just as good. Maybe they're getting the message that people are getting frustrated? Maybe this is a sign that they're listening? We can only hope.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I just spoke with one of my favourite chefs, Chef Dan, who has helped us several times at Pop Century. I was so excited when I heard him say his name because he's always been so wonderful to us. Anyway, here's the summary of our conversation regarding AoA.

The tandoori station is all off limits to us because they use yogurt in the marinade plus the oven they use is a dedicated tandoori oven where the risk of cross contamination is high.

His waffles are a mixture of the Namaste and Bob's Red Mill mixes with some oil, rice milk (Pacific brand) and sugar added.

He's going to look at the salad dressings that he's got and maybe even make up something just for me since I do like the salad station and will likely order it a couple times if there's a good dressing. I think he said it's the same station where they have the build your own yogurt bar in the morning. He was thinking out loud about cross contamination with the fruit (my kids can't have citrus) so I suspect that the fruit toppings in the morning are in the same place that the veggies are kept at lunch and dinner. I'm trusting them to do a thorough cleaning while swapping them.

They do have rice pasta available for the make your own pasta station. The marinara sauce is free of all of our allergens (including gluten, milk, eggs, nuts) plus he's going to see what he can do for maybe some kind of alfredo or cheesy sauce using rice milk and mozzerella soy cheese.

The only gluten free pizzas he has are Amy's and frankly he isn't happy about that but it's what he's got.

The soy milk is the Kikomann Pearl but he said he'd try to get something else in for us because when we're at WDW, DD14 typically drinks soy milk with most meals but the Kikomann contains gluten.

He did say that the Babycakes stuff sells really fast. I'll have to keep an eye on that. Hopefully when we go down for dinner (which will be most days we're there) there'll still be some left.

He said he'll be giving me another call in a few weeks when he's had a chance to do look at what he can get in and what he's got available and we'll go over our options in more depth. I'm so excited!!!

 

[crwinter]

We're heading down to Disney this week and I've finally been able to get a few of the brands confirmed and just wanted to pass them along. Obviously, these are the brands used for people with food allergies - not from the general menu.

For anyone new to heading to Disney with food allergies - this is just a list of brands you might see when a restaurant is offering that product. It doesn't mean they have all of these options at every restaurant.

Chicken Tenders - AllergyFreeFoods
Pasta - Tinkyada
Pancake & Waffle Mix - Bob's Red Mill and/or Namaste
Dairy Free Cheese - Daiya
Pizza Crust - Udi's
Soy Milk - Kikkoman Pearl
Rice Milk - Pacific Natural
Almond Milk - Silk
Margarine - Earth Balance
Hamburger & Hot Dog Buns - Udi's
Donuts - Limited, but Kinnikinnick
Muffins - Udi's
Ice Cream Substitutes - Tofutti and Rice Dream
Popcorn - Rocky Mountain
Prepackaged Treats (i.e. - cookies) - Enjoy Life & OMG

Hot Dogs used throughout the park are still John Morell.

Hope this helps give people a chance to research brands for their specific needs!

 

[HsvScrapGirl]

Not geared toward the OP but Disney themselves. - Why the heck would they put a peanut butter bar near the special diet options? Thats as bad as our grocery store that stocks granola wth nuts in the bin above nut free allergy foods!

It is for all Special Diet needs which includes more than just people with food allergies. People with diabetes also fall into this category and many of them are advised to eat peanut butter because it is a good, easy, and quick protein. Unfortunately I have been learning a lot about this because I have gestational diabetes right now and have been encouraged to eat more nuts. My son is allergic to milk and peanuts. We have found that he can tolerate almonds and pecans, so I keep almonds in the house for my snacks right now. Not a fun balancing act, but we are making it work.