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Food Allergy Newbie and Dining at WDW

LiloFan3

Earning My Ears
Joined
Apr 25, 2017
Hi All -
Curious to hear about your dining experiences w/ a food allergy. DS was recently diagnosed with a severe dairy allergy. For those of you who have a food allergy/travel with someone who has a food allergy -- where are your favorite places to eat? Do you eat at QS and snack places? Any tips you can provide would be awesome.
TIA
 
DOLE WHIPS!!! dairy free.

me, personally, if I had allergies I'd stick to TS where you can discuss things with the chef first. the QS places do have ingredient lists you can request. and of course do your research ahead of time on menus to see what you can reasonably expect to be safe/
 
We have done a few qs most have a separate menu. This will be my first trip with more food allergies I'm dairy and gluten now which makes it a little harder I'm sticking to ts this time.
 
With only a dairy allergy you will be able to eat pretty much anywhere. Disney is amazing with handling food allergies and is well versed, particularly with the top 8 allergens, on how to handle them. The quick service locations all have an allergy menu that lists items as free of certain top 8 allergens and you can ask if you have questions about an item you don't see there. Just make sure you tell the CM you have a dairy allergy when placing the order. The one thing I will say is that if you have a question ask it to the manager NOT the CM on the register. While they may appear like they know what they are talking about they likely do not. We had a bad experience listening to a CM who took our order and appeared to know the process.

TS restaurants also have allergy menus. At buffets if the allergy is severe enough to be concerned about cross contamination you can ask them to prepare foods in the kitchen and have them brought to your table. Just make sure you always mention to your server that you have a food allergy at the table.
 
I suffer from allergies that are not part of the top 8 and have found Disney to be AMAZING. I am allergic to nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes...) and also pineapple and strawberries (yea, I'm fun!). I make note on my reservation that I have allergies, I then also tell the person I am checking in with that I have them. I made a business card with my allergies listed which I then hand to the waitress which then usually brings out a chef.

Obviously you wouldn't need to go that far for a dairy allergy but just noting it and alerting the people will do wonders. They will keep you safe! :)

As for places, I stick to table service with my favorite being Jiko. :) Have an awesome trip!!
 
I have a ds with a dairy allergy also (I have a dd with a severe peanut allergy and who is also gluten free). We have been able to dine just about everywhere and my ds with the dairy allergy is always treated to some special meals. We do both CS and TS.

Years ago, eating CS was harder for us but the last several years, the CS meals have been just as great. The manager will come up and show you the menu options that do not have any dairy. They will prepare the food separate and use dedicated fryers (or whatever cooking method) to keep the food from cross-contamination.

You do not need to worry. Your ds will be just fine! It's the one place I can feed my dairy allergic kiddo very, very easily. Like I mentioned, I also deal with a peanut allergy and gluten intolerance. Those are both easier to manage in our life at home than the dairy allergy. Dairy is in everything and no other place goes out of their way to accommodate us like Disney does!
 


I have a ds with a dairy allergy also (I have a dd with a severe peanut allergy and who is also gluten free). We have been able to dine just about everywhere and my ds with the dairy allergy is always treated to some special meals. We do both CS and TS.

Years ago, eating CS was harder for us but the last several years, the CS meals have been just as great. The manager will come up and show you the menu options that do not have any dairy. They will prepare the food separate and use dedicated fryers (or whatever cooking method) to keep the food from cross-contamination.

You do not need to worry. Your ds will be just fine! It's the one place I can feed my dairy allergic kiddo very, very easily. Like I mentioned, I also deal with a peanut allergy and gluten intolerance. Those are both easier to manage in our life at home than the dairy allergy. Dairy is in everything and no other place goes out of their way to accommodate us like Disney does!
Thanks!! :)
 
I'm strictly gluten free, and also need to avoid dairy, spinach, alcohol, and coffee. I've been able to eat almost anywhere we try at Disney. With only a dairy allergy, they should have no trouble accomodating you at either quick service or table service. Be prepared that you may only have two or three options for DS at some of the locations with smaller menus, but there will always be something. Many restaurants have allergy menus now that you can order directly from, and allergy orders should be identified differently with either a green colored tray and/or a wooden "allergy" pick in them, but it anything makes you feel uncomfortable you can always ask to speak to a chef or manager. Places without allergies menus (or if you have multiple allergies) will often bring you a chef either way. We like the allergy friendly chicken tenders and fries that are served at some of the quick service places at the parks. There are usually also healthier options like a chicken breast or fish, both for adults' and kids' meals. In terms of table service, we've always had good luck at most places. The only time I had bad allergy experiences at table service were at Wolgang Puck's in DS and Ohana (where the chef brought me a free creme brulee because it was gluten free but he forgot about the dairy. The he felt bad a replaced it with fruit and chocolate fondue...the chocolate also had dairy in it. Very nice of him, but not safe for me to eat.) For snacks, I highly recommend dole whip and popcorn from the carts which are both dairy free as of my last visit. There are lots of Popsicles and things too. All the Disney-owned snack carts should also have an allergy binder that you can ask to view which lists all the ingredients in a snack. I use this a lot just to make sure ingredients haven't changed from one visit to the next!
 
For snacks, I highly recommend dole whip and popcorn from the carts which are both dairy free as of my last visit.

Ooh, and speaking of popcorn! If you like sweet popcorn or kettle corn, etc, there's a new maple popcorn at Magic Kingdom you can only get from a popcorn cart in Frontierland, and it's delicious, and dairy free.

I also realized I didn't list any specific places I liked to eat for allergies. We like Tusker House/Boma, Crystal Palace, Be Our Guest, Coral Reef, Skipper Canteen (many of their menu items were created with allergies in mind and don't need to be modified. I had "fried chicken" that was naturally free of gluten, dairy, and alcohol!), Liberty Tree Tavern, Columbia Harbour House, Sunshine Seasons, Cosmic Ray's, Flame Tree Barbecue, and we've had good quick service at Pop Century and Animal Kingdom Lodge, and decent at Caribbean Beach. I've also heard good things about being able to get really good dairy free ice-cream-like desserts and sundaes at Beaches and Cream (with rice or soy ice cream), but we haven't tried it yet. We're going for the first time on our upcoming summer trip, and hoping to get a dairy free version of the No Way Jose sundae with the chocolate and peanutbutter sauce... Yum...
 

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