Will restaurants accomodate a "no-salt" diet?

[KPaul]

I am traveling to Disney in December with husband, daughter (5), son (3) and my parents. My father is on a medically required no salt diet. I was planning on doing Character meals for at least 4 of the 6 nights. Will restaurants be accomodating of someone with a medically restricted diet? We are planning on doing the DDP, and I was planning to use our TS meals for dinners. (We'll do bkfasts in our hotel room before going to the parks).

 

[smiths02]

Disney tries to accomodate
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...=GuestServicesSpecialDietaryDetailPage&bhcp=1

 

[hildarumpole]

No salt is going to be tricky. Your best bets for success are at traditional table service restaurants. Buffets and family-style TS may have a difficult time with accomodating, because most of the food is prepared ahead of time and kept warm or cold, as needed for replenishment. They may be able to make something, but you would have to contact the chefs and discuss it with them directly. Counter service meals aren't going to be easy. The do things like make a bunless burger or make sure an item isn't cross-contaminated by an allergen. Contact specialdiets@disneyworld.com. Let them know of your dad's dietary restricitions and they'll be able to help you plan accordingly.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Buffets are the saltiest places in all of WDW...we will not visit dinner buffets because the food is just about inedible

 

[KPaul]

Are any character dinners NOT buffet?

 

[clanmcculloch]

Buffets are fine. A chef will come out and discuss your needs and can prepare something customized to him. It's no different than allergies since a person on THAT restricted of sodium is typically at high risk of ending up in the hospital from not following that severe of a restriction. What you need to be prepared for though is that everybody else in your party can go straight to the buffet and grab food while your father has to sit at the table and wait for the chef to come out to talk to him and then wait for the chef to go prepare some food for him. This is slow. It's worth it for a person with special dietary needs but it's something to definitely plan for. I personally choose to not go up to the buffet to get any food until my kids are served their allergy safe food so that they're not sitting watching me eat while waiting. Our meals take a lot longer in general than most people and I do plan for that in my daily plans. Your kids will have to be able to sit that much longer because their grandfather will not be start eating at the same time as them and therefore will not be done at the same time. Just prepare for the extra time.

 

[TDC Nala]

Check on the DisABILITIES Forum to find the contact information for Disney Special Diets. It's going to be important that you contact Disney ahead of time with your father's dietary restriction, as it will most likely be necessary for the chefs at the buffets (and other restaurants) to prepare special dishes specifically for him. Where you are going to have a problem is CS restaurants as you cannot request special menus ahead of time at those.

 

[DCDisney]

For TS he won't have a problem getting specially made food but there will only be certain things they can do without salt. He may end up getting rather plain sauteed fish, chicken, or beef for every meal. At any buffet or family style meal which is all character meals it will usually take a very long time to have his meal specially prepared. For us it's usually at least 30 minutes. Eating at off times will help that be faster meaning dinners at 4:30-4:45-5 whichever is opening time. QS lunches will be very very difficult in the parks. Resort QS places have kitchens and extra foods where most of the park QS basically only have what is on their menus and any allergy foods they carry which aren't low salt. I think even the hamburger patties have salt through them. Perhaps your parents could break off and do a TS lunch each day? They might enjoy the down time. Each park has at least 1 TS that is not much more expensive than QS like the Plaza at MK, 50's Prime Time at DHS, etc. Definitely though once plans are made email special diets so you can fax back the form they give to the chef. If there are things he particularly enjoys it helps to put those on the form because in some cases they can plan for him. I'm assuming your parents will have a separate room too. You may want to talk to them about not doing the DDP because it would take a lot of work to make that work for them. There are cases where when you have serious or atypical food issues that they can get you something but not a full meal including dessert and with the DDP you will have prepaid even if he only ends up being able to get an apple and yogurt for QS meal. The DDP isn't really that much of a money saver when you don't have small kids anyway.

 

[KPaul]

Do the buffets generally have fresh green (vegetable) salads on them? My dad would probably be happy with a big salad.

 

[TDC Nala]

They usually have salads. They might even have undressed salads. But if you want to specifically determine if there is no salt on the salad, you should also register the dietary restriction with Disney Special Diets. Avoiding salt is very difficult in restaurants, it's usually thrown on everything.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Here is the first thing you need to do.

Email these people: WDW.Special.Diets@disney.com and ask them for their special diets packet.

They will send you a digital folder with information on common dietary restrictions and where to find the food to fit that.

There is also a form for you to fill out (notating your name, ressie #, the type of allergy, and where you are eating). Fill it out and send it back at least 2 WEEKS BEFORE YOU ARRIVE.

Fill it out with the ressie numbers for your TS meals. They will stamp your seat ticket with an allergy/special diet and a chef is to come to your table to speak with the diet-restricted individual to find out what they can fix for them. Always double check with the server and make sure you speak to a chef before you order.

For CS places, just ask at the counter to speak to a chef. They will grab someone to talk to you about your options.

------

I have a black pepper allergy, which, if you ask the chefs, is just as bad as a salt-restricted diet considering salt and pepper are staple seasonings. I had a lot of trouble with the buffet at Chef Mickey's. The only thing I could have on the bar was salad (no dressing...) and dessert. None of the other items on the buffet were okay for me to eat.

Each chef at each place I ate (with the exception of Restaurantosaurus) made a special plate for me. I didn't have to worry about it at AK because the meal I wanted didn't have pepper at all, they looked it up!

Disney is exceptional at accommodating dietary needs. It may take a few minutes to get your order squared away, but I didn't have to worry about a meal the entire trip.

Where you are going to have a problem is CS restaurants as you cannot request special menus ahead of time at those.

All they will have to do is ask to see a chef at each CS place. They should be able to find something they can eat at each place.

I will recommend going to Sunshine Seasons at EP. He will have A TON of options there.

 

[KPaul]

Perfect! Thanks!

 

[clanmcculloch]

Here is the first thing you need to do.

Email these people: WDW.Special.Diets@disney.com and ask them for their special diets packet.

They will send you a digital folder with information on common dietary restrictions and where to find the food to fit that.

There is also a form for you to fill out (notating your name, ressie #, the type of allergy, and where you are eating). Fill it out and send it back at least 2 WEEKS BEFORE YOU ARRIVE.

Fill it out with the ressie numbers for your TS meals. They will stamp your seat ticket with an allergy/special diet and a chef is to come to your table to speak with the diet-restricted individual to find out what they can fix for them. Always double check with the server and make sure you speak to a chef before you order.

For CS places, just ask at the counter to speak to a chef. They will grab someone to talk to you about your options.

------

I have a black pepper allergy, which, if you ask the chefs, is just as bad as a salt-restricted diet considering salt and pepper are staple seasonings. I had a lot of trouble with the buffet at Chef Mickey's. The only thing I could have on the bar was salad (no dressing...) and dessert. None of the other items on the buffet were okay for me to eat.

Each chef at each place I ate (with the exception of Restaurantosaurus) made a special plate for me. I didn't have to worry about it at AK because the meal I wanted didn't have pepper at all, they looked it up!

Disney is exceptional at accommodating dietary needs. It may take a few minutes to get your order squared away, but I didn't have to worry about a meal the entire trip.



All they will have to do is ask to see a chef at each CS place. They should be able to find something they can eat at each place.

I will recommend going to Sunshine Seasons at EP. He will have A TON of options there.

Great advice, but I have to respectfully disagree with the one statement that they should be able to find something at each CS location. This is NOT true. There's good reason that Special Diets will tell you to stick with a subset of CS locations for special dietary needs. CS locations in the parks only have a fixed set of ingredients and can not specially prepare anything for you. Sunshine Seasons is the only park CS where I think they actually have a chef and even there they can't custom make something for you; they just have a much greater variety of foods that have been prepared using fresh (not frozen or processed) ingredients. Resort CS locations always have a chef present have a much greater ability to custom prepare food so they're a great option.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Great advice, but I have to respectfully disagree with the one statement that they should be able to find something at each CS location. This is NOT true. There's good reason that Special Diets will tell you to stick with a subset of CS locations for special dietary needs. CS locations in the parks only have a fixed set of ingredients and can not specially prepare anything for you. Sunshine Seasons is the only park CS where I think they actually have a chef and even there they can't custom make something for you; they just have a much greater variety of foods that have been prepared using fresh (not frozen or processed) ingredients. Resort CS locations always have a chef present have a much greater ability to custom prepare food so they're a great option.

I wouldn't have mentioned that if I didn't know first hand. My food at Sunshine Seasons was personally prepared by the chef there. He cooked off a piece of chicken breast without seasoning and served it with salad greens and other fresh veg. It took him 20 minutes to cook off the chicken breast, but I stood there and watched him do it.

Same with Pecos Bills. My burger was prepared individually in a "fresh" pan without any seasoning. I didn't have to worry about it at Casey's, and the staff checked "the book" at Restaurantosaurus and double checked the packaged ingredients on the shrimp po'boy. We ate at OPR at CBR one day, and again, they cooked my food separately (and I had to wait for it) at one of the counters there as well.

I spoke to a chef or cook at each place we ate at and didn't have any problems the entire week.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I am traveling to Disney in December with husband, daughter (5), son (3) and my parents. My father is on a medically required no salt diet. I was planning on doing Character meals for at least 4 of the 6 nights. Will restaurants be accomodating of someone with a medically restricted diet? We are planning on doing the DDP, and I was planning to use our TS meals for dinners. (We'll do bkfasts in our hotel room before going to the parks).

I use no added salt, not even salt at home. I always ask for no salt "added" to my food when I order (home or away).
Only certain restaurants I have called ahead and they have been kind in the past...I am pretty confident that you can call ahead for specifics...

 

[clanmcculloch]

I wouldn't have mentioned that if I didn't know first hand. My food at Sunshine Seasons was personally prepared by the chef there. He cooked off a piece of chicken breast without seasoning and served it with salad greens and other fresh veg. It took him 20 minutes to cook off the chicken breast, but I stood there and watched him do it.

Same with Pecos Bills. My burger was prepared individually in a "fresh" pan without any seasoning. I didn't have to worry about it at Casey's, and the staff checked "the book" at Restaurantosaurus and double checked the packaged ingredients on the shrimp po'boy. We ate at OPR at CBR one day, and again, they cooked my food separately (and I had to wait for it) at one of the counters there as well.

I spoke to a chef or cook at each place we ate at and didn't have any problems the entire week.

Good to know that I was wrong about Sunshine Seasons. Makes me like it even more. We always eat there. The salad and fresh veggies weren't actually cooked to order for you but the chicken definitely was so great to hear!

Regarding every place having something available though, you were lucky that you chose well. I do agree that resort food courts will be able to prepare something but in the parks, there are some locations that don't have this ability and Special Diets will send a list of which places to stick with. It sounds like you chose places that are on that list (the 3 you mention were last time I looked). There are definitely lots of options around but I'd hate to have somebody wait in a long line only to find out that their only option is a package of grapes from a kids' meal. I believe that burgers are 100% beef with no fillers are seasonings in them so for somebody on a salt free diet any place that serves burgers can at least get a bunless burger specially cooked but a person can only live on so many of those and not everywhere actually has burgers. If you go to the World Showcase at Epcot then I'm not sure many CS locations can prepare a salt free meal. I'm not even sure there's a salt free meal option at Columbia Harbour House at MK. Knowing ahead of time just what accomodations can be made is very important.

 

[disfan07]

Great advice, but I have to respectfully disagree with the one statement that they should be able to find something at each CS location. This is NOT true. There's good reason that Special Diets will tell you to stick with a subset of CS locations for special dietary needs. CS locations in the parks only have a fixed set of ingredients and can not specially prepare anything for you. Sunshine Seasons is the only park CS where I think they actually have a chef and even there they can't custom make something for you; they just have a much greater variety of foods that have been prepared using fresh (not frozen or processed) ingredients. Resort CS locations always have a chef present have a much greater ability to custom prepare food so they're a great option.

I agree that it is more difficult but I disagree that you need to stick with the list from special diets. But it might depend on the allergy. I am allergic to peanuts (anaphylaxis), eggs, shellfish and sodium benzoate (preservative). I emailed special diets and they sent me a list of restaurants but we went to CS restaurants NOT on the list and they were all able to accomodate me. They all had food that was safe. So maybe it depends on the allergies but I have been able to find anything at pretty much all CS locations (except for the CS in china- peanuts make it off limits, UK-eggs in the fried fish, and any place where EVERYTHING is fried because there is egg)

 

[Quin]

For a very low sodium diet, it's not *just* a matter of added salt during cooking. Most foods have a certain amount of natural sodium content, and if the food has been processed or preserved in any way (either by canning or freezing) sodium may have been added during the process. My mother went into severe heart failure last year and we have become obsessive about tracking daily sodium content (with excellent results for her!).

Examples: a 4-oz piece of salmon naturally contains 270 mg of sodium whereas a 4-oz piece of tilapia has 1/3 of that amount. Brand X of canned green beans has 390 mg of sodium per 3/4 cup serving while Brand Y of canned green beans has 10 mg of sodium per 3/4 cup serving. Neither is "better" than the other; they just use 2 different processing methods.

Frankly, I would LOVE to bring DM back to WDW but had not realized that it might be possible to do so, particularly because of the need to eat at QS locations at least some of the time. I absolutely have to look into this in more detail. Would love to hear more from the OP or anyone else with experience of really severe sodium-restricted diets. Including all naturally-occuring sodium DM holds at 1000-1200 mg/day.