Disney With Food Allergies: 3 Things You Need To Know Before You Go
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These tips work for all food allergies, including dairy, gluten & wheat, nut, peanut, egg, soy and sesame, fish and seafood, and any of the top 9 allergens.
Listen to this episode of the Food Allergy Made Easy Podcast. You’ll get everything you read here, plus personal stories and experiences:
If you’re reading this post, then you likely manage food allergies and are either heading to Disney World or thinking about it. If so, I want your family’s vacation to be allergy-safe and magical!
I love Disney World with food allergies, but there are a couple of important but little-known facts that you need to know.
But first…
If we haven’t met, I’m Corinna.
I’m a 17-year food allergy mom turned Food Allergy Mentor and we’ve traveled the WORLD with multiple, severe food allergies (peanut and tree nut allergies and gluten intolerance). We’ve been to the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Bahamas, Mexico, and all over Canada and the USA too.
We’ve been to Disney World many times and Disneyland and even Disneyland Paris too.
All this experience has allowed me to help hundreds of food allergy families travel safer, with less stress and anxiety with the Food Allergy Travel Workshop and travel blogs.
But let’s talk about Disney.
When it comes to Disney World with food allergies, families feel very secure about the food there.
Disney has created a reputation for being allergy-friendly and has become a trusted vacation spot for many, many food allergy families.
But do you know that there are some important and often overlooked things to know when it comes to Disney with food allergies?
In this post, I’m spilling the tea and sharing 3 things you need to know about Disney with food allergies so you can have the safest and most magical vacation ever!
Don’t go to Disney World without reading this post first!
A Recent Trip To Disney With Food Allergies
At the time of recording/writing, we came back from a trip to Disney World a couple of months ago. This isn’t our first time there, this was actually our 5th. Not only have we been to Disney World several times, but we’ve also been to Disneyland several times and even Disneyland Paris.
I tell you this, because I want you to know that I have a lot of experience with Disney with food allergies and traveling too. And I’m not making recommendations based on what’s worked for just one trip. What I’m talking about here is based on our experience from several trips.
Along with the 3 things you need to know about Disney with food allergies, I’m going to be talking about a tool that I’ve found that is super helpful when planning a trip to Disney World.
These are Disney World Food Allergy and Gluten-Free Guides. Let me tell you, I wish I had known about these guides sooner because they make going to Disney World with food allergies and celiac much easier. Now that I know about these guides, I wouldn’t go to Disney World without them.
They made our trip safer, and easier, and we saved tons of time because they told us exactly where to go to get the food that works for my daughter’s allergies so we didn’t have to spend a lot of time searching all over the parks for safe food and treats. Because nobody wants to spend a HUGE amount of money for a park day and then search for food all day. Not only that, but I love that they get automatically updated so that I can be assured that we have the most up-to-date information too.
Here are 3 little-known facts about Disney with food allergies you need to know before you go.
Disney is great with food allergies, but they’re not perfect!
While Disney World has a great reputation in the food allergy community, taking precautions is still important.
Walt Disney uniquely manages food allergies, and I honestly didn’t fully understand how it all worked until I received my Disney Food Allergy Guides. These guides explained how Disney manages food allergies and all the ins and outs.
For example, until I read this guide, I had no idea that because of how Disney manages food allergies, if you are concerned about “may contain” statements, it’s ALWAYS best to talk to the manager or chef. Honestly, I had no idea about this before and we just ordered off of the allergy menus and assumed it was ok. But if you look, Disney has a disclaimer stating that they use ingredients with “may contain” on the labels, and unless you talk to a chef, that risk is up to you.
I have to be honest because I heard so much about how good Disney is with food allergies, I was tempted to ignore that disclaimer. I just thought it was a “cover your butt” statement. But I also didn’t feel right ignoring it because I knew that at the time we would never eat an ingredient with a “may contain” statement at home, so why would I do it on vacation? Vacation is the last place we want to take any extra risks.
So when I finally go the Disney Food Allergy Guides it all made sense and I realized that we needed to do things differently.
So this last trip, when we were there, we noticed that when you tell them you have an allergy, they’ll ask if you want to speak to a chef. If you say, no, they will even put it on the receipt saying that you “declined a chef consult” so that they can refer back to it if there’s a problem.
So I’m really glad that I learned this information about “may contain” from the Disney Guides so that we could be as safe as possible.
*When you click on the link you will be brought to the Mouse Ear Memories Website. I completely trust and recommend this website for its Disney Guides!
2. Disney World is great with one allergy, but it is much more difficult if you have 2 or more food allergies.
If you have multiple allergies, table service restaurants are much better at accommodating your allergies. They are set up to help with almost every allergy and can change menu items based on your needs.
That said, table service restaurants and quite expensive and you usually need to book way in advance. They also take a lot of time out of your park day.
This is why we usually opt for quick-service restaurants in the parks. But quick-service have their limitations, and you need to know how to navigate them. In fact, I HAVE a whole episode specifically about Disney World Allergy Menus, so if you want to know more about that, make sure you listen to episode #8 called Unlock The Magic of Disney World Allergy Menus. Or go here to read the blog post about Disney World Allergy Menus.
For now, I want to talk about how Disney navigates food allergies as single allergies, which makes navigating multiple food allergies more difficult. For example, my daughter has tree nut and peanut allergies and gluten intolerance. To Disney, this is seen and set up as 2 different allergies because, at the quick service restaurants, they lump peanut and tree nuts together, and then gluten is a separate allergy.
This means that when my daughter chooses a meal, we have to make sure that the meal she chooses is on BOTH of the allergy menus. That means there is usually only 1-2 meal options that will work for all of my daughter’s allergies at each quick service location.
I’m not complaining, because it’s nice to have at least one meal that we know is safe at each allergy location, BUT this can come as a bit of a surprise to people who don’t realize this about Disney with food allergies. I think people just think that there are tons of options for people with food allergies, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case. There are options, but often they are very limited, and the options will definitely go down when there are more allergies.
Many people ask whether you can bring your own food to the parks, and yes, you are able to bring food, but you must be able to carry it all on your own.
But there was one day when we were in Magic Kingdom, and we found that we were all super hungry earlier than we thought we would be. We had eaten all of our snacks, but lunch was still far away. We were starting to get hangry and we all know what that’s like!
So we set out to find a snack that was safe.
Let me tell you, this wasn’t easy! After looking at the Disney Food Allergy Guides, we realized that In all of Magic Kingdom, there were about 3 snacks that would work for my daughter’s allergies.
I want to share this with you because I don’t want you to be surprised once you get there.
You still have to FIND all the snacks and food, and because its so busy and there are so many snack and food stands, it can feel like you’re trying to find a needle in a haystack. On top of that, there’s nothing worse than having to stand in line to find out about a food item and then it isn’t even safe and you have to start over!
So in this case, we used our Disney Food Allergy and Gluten Free Guide. It told us EXACTLY what snacks would work for our allergies and WHERE to find them so that we could go directly to the stand without searching for hours or experiencing disappointment. Honestly, I was so thankful for the Disney Food Allergy Guides that day!
3. Not every quick service stand has allergy menus, and its best not to use mobile ordering if you have multiple allergies
Ok, so in every park, there are about 3-4 restaurants that have allergy menus. Now this doesn’t mean that you can’t get allergy food there, BUT it does mean that you will have to wait for a chef and you won’t know if they can accommodate you.
Because of this, we try and stick to the restaurants with allergy menus. because they are already set up with the right allergy procedures and the staff will be better trained to handle allergies. We don’t want to take unnecessary risks, and we know we can usually find at least 1 option that is safe using the allergy menus. So for us we head to the quick service locations that have allergy menus, instead of taking the time to try another restaurant that may not work.
So you may think, you can just order using mobile ordering once you know which restaurants have allergy menus right? Well, if you have more than one allergy, It’s unfortunate, but mobile ordering just isn’t set up for this. So as allergy families, we lose a bit of convenience because of this, but even so, we do couple of things so that this isn’t as much of a problem.
We try and eat at “off times” so the restaurant isn’t so busy. We usually go early, OR we time our meals for when a parade is going by.
Going at off times allows the staff to focus more on our allergy foods, but it also saves us time waiting in line. I love doing this for these reasons.
*When you click on the link above you will be brought to the Mouse Ear Memories Website. I completely trust and recommend this website for its Disney Guides!
Here’s an example of one of the guides:
So to recap. The 3 things you need to know about Disney World with food allergies are:
Do not let your guard down at Disney. They are amazing with food allergies, but it’s still important to ask questions and double-check your snacks and meals.
If you have two or more allergies, unfortunately, it can be a bit more difficult to manage. Its not impossible by any means, but you will need to consider how this may impact your trip, so you can make the most of your time and money.
Number 3 was 2 tips:
The first one is that not every quick-service restaurant has allergy menus, so you’ll want to research those in advance
AND
The second is if you have multiple allergies, you will not be able to use mobile ordering. That said, you there are things you can do to lower the impact this has on your trip.
Conclusion
When we go to Disney World, we do as much research BEFORE we go and I use our Disney Food Allergy Guides to ensure we know exactly where we can find the food and snacks that work for us.
If you’re going, I highly recommend the Disney Food Allergy Guides because they will make your trip less stressful and more magical, which is why we’re going to Disney in the first place, right?
Here are a few reasons you should check out these guides:
You’ll know all the insider tips and tricks for food allergies at Disney.
The guides will help you reduce stress and anxiety for your trip.
You’ll learn how Disney manages food allergies and you’ll be more knowledgeable about where mistakes can be made so you can double-check.
You’ll be able to share the guides with travel companions so they understand the extra steps required for food allergies at Disney and why they may need to be patient. They will also learn how to order for you if needed.
AND MOST IMPORTANT:
You’ll know exactly where to find all the best allergy-friendly food and treats so you can enjoy your trip and not spend hours searching or feeling disappointed, and nobody has to miss out!
If this sounds good, here’s a link to the guides so you can check them out:
*When you click on the link above you will be brought to the Mouse Ear Memories Website. I completely trust and recommend this website for its Disney Guides
Here’s an example of one of the guides:
DO YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION?
Check out this post: Unlock The Magic of Disney World Allergy Menus
Or this one: Delight in Gluten Free At Disney World
Or this one: Must-try Snacks for Peanut Allergies at Disney World.
Or this blog if you’re wondering what to do with your EpiPen on the plane.
Was this post helpful? Let me know if you have questions in the comments!
