First time with allergies, nerves

[Disneypro1]

Our son is allergic to chicken of all things. Luckily that’s pretty easy to avoid. Cross contamination doesn’t affect him. It’s not an actually allergy per say. Meaning anaphylaxis. He just pukes. lol. So not life threatening. But he would love chicken style dishes. Especially Chinese. Every year the immunologist says tell him to try it. A lot of food allergies not talking nuts or sea food. One can outgrow.

 

[KTR]

Our son is allergic to chicken of all things. Luckily that’s pretty easy to avoid. Cross contamination doesn’t affect him. It’s not an actually allergy per say. Meaning anaphylaxis. He just pukes. lol. So not life threatening. But he would love chicken style dishes. Especially Chinese. Every year the immunologist says tell him to try it. A lot of food allergies not talking nuts or sea food. One can outgrow.

One of my kids had that reaction to bananas and he did outgrow it. If that gives you any hope.

 

[jmako]

My daughter has severe life threatening allergies (all nuts & dairy). I strongly encourage you to make sure the allergy is noted in each & every one of your reservations. “For us” table service meals were easier to deal with regarding the allergies. When your server arrives at your table he/she should say “I see someone at the table has an allergy”. If they don’t, make sure you do. They should ask if you’d like to speak with the chef. You definitely want to do this. But please note, the length of your dining experience will be longer than normal. Which, is completely acceptable given the attention they’re giving you. At the buffet’s (like Chef Mickey’s) the chef will usually ask if you and your 6yr old would like to walk around the buffet so they can point out what’s OK to eat. We’ve even had a few times where (without asking) the chef offered to prepare something not on the menu for her to eat if she didn’t see something that looked appetizing. Disney is very, very good about allergies. However I do have to make you aware of one thing. Disney basically has two types of restaurants on property, owned & operated and operating participants. The Disney owned & operated restaurants are definitely a notch above when it comes to dealing with allergies. The operating participants say they uphold the “Disney Standards” but are quick to add that they also abide by their own dietary standards.

Unfortunately we learned this hard way. We had reservations at La Hacienda and the chef came out spoke with us, assured us he would personally prepare my daughters dinner. Which he did. Meal was awesome! Then came dessert. We said my daughter couldn’t eat the ice cream but could have the sorbet. A dessert waiter, not the chef, brought out the bowl of sorbet with a churro stuck in it. We said she couldn’t have the churro and explained the allergy and about cross contamination. The waiter looked like he didn’t completely comprehend what we were saying, but went away and came back with another bowl. Or so we thought. All he did was remove the churro and bring the same bowl back out. She had an anaphylactic reaction while we waited for the monorail. Epi injected on the platform and waited for the EMT’s. Ambulances are stationed at several locations around property. Ours got to us in less than 5 min after the cast member called them. Spent the night in Orlando General. This happened back in 2011 when my daughter was 7. She received a FP+ trip to the ER. To this day her Stitch still has the ER bracelet the EMT put on it to help relax her. I mention this because at the time we didn’t know there was a difference in restaurants. We blindly assumed we could put our complete trust in the process. You can’t. And you shouldn’t. Especially when it comes to allergies. We learned from that experience and have returned 5 times since.

My advice is much like everyone else's, use good common sense that you're already applying at home. Update each of your reservations to include the allergy note (A MUST), always carry Benadryl & 2 Epis and contact WDW Special Diets if you have any specific questions or concerns regarding WDW dinning with allergies. They can also tell you which restaurants on property are operating participants, if you want to know. It’s OK to eat at an operating participants restaurant, just be vigilant. Regardless of where you eat, ALWAYS speak with the chef. Quick service meals are a little tougher. Generally a manager or a shift supervisor will come to you first. Explain the situation and ask to speak with the chef. Table service is easy, quick service meals are a bit more of a challenge and definitely take longer. Just be patient and vigilant and you’ll be fine.

 

[4fordisneyworld]

Just a note for buffets (if it hasn’t been mentioned), the chef not only showed me what I couldn’t have with peanut and tree nut allergy, but he he offered to bring me food from the back. This is important as you never know what has been cross contaminated in the buffet line by guests.

 

[kylenne]

I don’t have children, but as an adult with a life threatening tree nut allergy, I’ve had nothing but positive experiences at the World and it’s honestly the only vacation besides cruising where mealtimes aren’t a major source of stress for us. Like others have said table service is going to be easier than quick service for the most part.

I will just say that I’ve found emailing special diets was a waste of time. We had an ADR for BOG dinner that we booked prior to the move to prix fixe, and were concerned about the desserts. An email to special diets just got us a canned response that did nothing to address the actual question. At the restaurant itself though, they were amazing.

 

[danikoski]

I'm not the original poster, but thank you all for your comments and pointers. We will by traveling in about a month to WDW with my 19 month old son who has a peanut allergy. We got lucky that he seems to be, based on allergy testing, only allergic to peanuts.

But because of his allergy, we are doing a lot of TS meals, especially for lunch. Luckily, we will be staying in a villa so we can cook/prepare some of our own meals as well. So a little less stressful, but with a toddler, I'm always worried he'll grab something he shouldn't. We have friends who have a child who had a peanut allergy (has been desensitized now), and they were very impressed with WDW. So I have high hopes for a relatively stressful free trip, at least food allergy wise.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Since your oldest is 12 it should be easier to have him understand that he will have to go without treats but I get it, it is still a bummer. My oldest is 10 and her 7 year old sister has had allergies and intolerances since she was 1 (now just intolerances to gluten and dairy). My oldest has gone without a lot of treats just to keep things semi equal between them. My purse has been filled to the brim with treats from home just in case we couldn't find anything safe in the parks. Quick service can be a bit of a challenge, it will take almost as long as it would to eat at a table service restaurant. Many people with allergies choose to speak to a chef at a table service instead of a manager at a quick/counter service. My daughter has been served something she was allergic to twice at table service restaurants in Disney (thankfully, it was caught before she ate it) but never at a quick service.

We focus on sippers and popcorn buckets as the 'treats' when we are in Disney (we make 2-3 trips a year). We have more large plastic drink cups than I would like in my house and finding places for large crazy themed popcorn containers is a bit of a challenge but it is a trade-off to make our kids still feel like the soda, water or popcorn is just as special as the crazy cupcake they are missing out on. Before each trip they get excited to see what special sippers and popcorn buckets will be available- they're hoping the Thanos sipper will still be there in August!