Holidays with Food Allergies at WDW - a rant

[MissMuppet]

Hi all! I’m fairly new to the site and have been lurking for a couple of months now. I have a bit of a rant/question that’s been bugging me… Since I know a lot of us disabled folks tend to have coinciding food allergies, I figured it would be safest to post this here.

I have been scouring the web and this forum for days trying to figure out how to navigate the holiday menus (resorts, MVMCP, Jollywood Nights, and Festival of the Holidays) with a food allergy. I have a dairy allergy that isn’t very receptive to Lactaid, so I tend to have to be more careful with what I’m consuming during meals and snacks. I’ve been to WDW before and I’m very comfortable with the regular dining options and how food allergies are handled, so I won’t be requiring guidance for those parts.

However, I’m becoming increasingly frustrated by what feels like the lack of care towards those of us with food allergies when it comes to the special holiday menus and treats… One vegan cookie at EPCOT, one vegan cupcake at the resorts, and the prepackaged cookies they give to us literally all the rest of the year are most of what I’ve been seeing, outside of a meager handful of what feels like phoned-in plant-based/vegan snacks. Not even dairy-free cocoa, which is widely available. It’s really disheartening because I have been looking forward to spending time at the parks during the Christmas season. I’ve had stellar experiences in the regular season with dining at the parks with an allergy, so I guess I expected more efforts put into including us during this time of the year?

It feels like there are options available like bringing in outside sources to reduce cross-contamination (Erin McKenna’s comes to mind…) or hiring a special allergy-friendly chef and/or pastry chef who is knowledgeable in all of the allergy-friendly substitutions and who can dream up some great food choices for us all. Yet, we’re all pretty much overlooked during this time of the year. Everywhere I’ve looked: forums, blogs, actual Disney sites, and more have said the quiet part out loud that there isn’t much for us to get to enjoy at the parks during the holidays. Mostly beverages, a few small plants-based things, but not much else. With so many of us with allergies, why are we being snubbed? There are so many solutions and so many questions from us within the community, but they don’t seem to care… Which, if you’re going to make MORE money from guests with food allergies by actually including them, why not do that? Everything else lately seems to be for the money, so why not even try to make more cash? It makes zero sense to me.

But, alas, I digress.

The main question I came here to ask is this: is there a way to get a hold of someone at Disney prior to going during the holidays to get a full allergy menu for all of the special holiday items? All that I’ve found online is that Disney refuses to share these with us in advance of the events. We’re expected to wait in the long lines and ask to see the binder and speak with a chef and hope we can have something from the menu. If you ask me, that’s cruel and we deserve far better treatment after the thousands we’ve spent just to be there. Especially if we’ve doled out the extra cash for a holiday party. It just feels like they don’t care, that we’re just another tick-mark in a box and cash in their pocket. It’s truly sad.

Anyway… if you’ve made it this far, thank you. I needed to get this off my chest and out of my brain. I’ve been driving my poor partner bananas with my hyper-focus on how illogical and un-merry this whole experience is turning out to be. I just want nice things if I’m paying to be in a place that promises nice things, but that seems to be too much to ask in this day and age. I hope I’m not on an island with feeling all of these things, I’m afraid this will be read as a tantrum and not as it was intended to be… Looking forward to hearing from the community on this.

 

[mamabunny]

Hi - I imagine that you have already visited this page on Disney’s website, but did you have any success with reaching out to Disney directly?

From the FAQ section at the very bottom:

When should I contact Walt Disney World Resort about my special dietary or allergy-friendly needs?​

Answer​

Guests should contact Special.Diets@DisneyWorld.com in advance if you or anyone in your party has either 4 or more allergy-friendly requests, requires pureed meals, or adheres to a medically-restrictive diet (such as very low protein).​

​

Contact us after booking dining arrangements for your visit. We request that you don’t contact us any sooner than 14 days prior to your arrival. The Special Diets team will assist you in navigating the dining process, which may include providing the restaurants you intend to visit with your information and request in advance of your visit.​

°O° °o° °O° °o° °O° °o° °O° °o° °O°

It can’t hurt to reach out and ask - and in the interim, keep checking for the full menus for the Holiday dessert parties, etc. It felt to me like it took *forever* this year to get the full menus for Food & Wine; based on that experience, I’m not expecting to see full menus for Jollywood Nights (for example) till after the first party.

 

[Selket]

Hi all! I’m fairly new to the site and have been lurking for a couple of months now. I have a bit of a rant/question that’s been bugging me… Since I know a lot of us disabled folks tend to have coinciding food allergies, I figured it would be safest to post this here.

I have been scouring the web and this forum for days trying to figure out how to navigate the holiday menus (resorts, MVMCP, Jollywood Nights, and Festival of the Holidays) with a food allergy. I have a dairy allergy that isn’t very receptive to Lactaid, so I tend to have to be more careful with what I’m consuming during meals and snacks. I’ve been to WDW before and I’m very comfortable with the regular dining options and how food allergies are handled, so I won’t be requiring guidance for those parts.

However, I’m becoming increasingly frustrated by what feels like the lack of care towards those of us with food allergies when it comes to the special holiday menus and treats… One vegan cookie at EPCOT, one vegan cupcake at the resorts, and the prepackaged cookies they give to us literally all the rest of the year are most of what I’ve been seeing, outside of a meager handful of what feels like phoned-in plant-based/vegan snacks. Not even dairy-free cocoa, which is widely available. It’s really disheartening because I have been looking forward to spending time at the parks during the Christmas season. I’ve had stellar experiences in the regular season with dining at the parks with an allergy, so I guess I expected more efforts put into including us during this time of the year?

It feels like there are options available like bringing in outside sources to reduce cross-contamination (Erin McKenna’s comes to mind…) or hiring a special allergy-friendly chef and/or pastry chef who is knowledgeable in all of the allergy-friendly substitutions and who can dream up some great food choices for us all. Yet, we’re all pretty much overlooked during this time of the year. Everywhere I’ve looked: forums, blogs, actual Disney sites, and more have said the quiet part out loud that there isn’t much for us to get to enjoy at the parks during the holidays. Mostly beverages, a few small plants-based things, but not much else. With so many of us with allergies, why are we being snubbed? There are so many solutions and so many questions from us within the community, but they don’t seem to care… Which, if you’re going to make MORE money from guests with food allergies by actually including them, why not do that? Everything else lately seems to be for the money, so why not even try to make more cash? It makes zero sense to me.

But, alas, I digress.

The main question I came here to ask is this: is there a way to get a hold of someone at Disney prior to going during the holidays to get a full allergy menu for all of the special holiday items? All that I’ve found online is that Disney refuses to share these with us in advance of the events. We’re expected to wait in the long lines and ask to see the binder and speak with a chef and hope we can have something from the menu. If you ask me, that’s cruel and we deserve far better treatment after the thousands we’ve spent just to be there. Especially if we’ve doled out the extra cash for a holiday party. It just feels like they don’t care, that we’re just another tick-mark in a box and cash in their pocket. It’s truly sad.

Anyway… if you’ve made it this far, thank you. I needed to get this off my chest and out of my brain. I’ve been driving my poor partner bananas with my hyper-focus on how illogical and un-merry this whole experience is turning out to be. I just want nice things if I’m paying to be in a place that promises nice things, but that seems to be too much to ask in this day and age. I hope I’m not on an island with feeling all of these things, I’m afraid this will be read as a tantrum and not as it was intended to be… Looking forward to hearing from the community on this.

My (now adult) son has anaphylactic allergies to nuts and shellfish and he finds getting the info about special foods (Epcot booths or party foods at MK) to be tedious and it is. For the MNSSHP this year I went to the Cheshire Cat cafe place in the MK that had a few different party desserts and looked for one he could eat. They brought out the massive binders for me to look through. Yes - I had to hold up the line that entire time but he's never had a special party dessert item. She also brought out the wrong binder the first time.

I understand they don't want to publish their allergy friends foods ahead of time because the composition could change - and restaurants are MUCH easier to deal with - but seeing that massive white binder always gives me a sinking feeling that I'm gonna be there awhile (cause that used to be the way they always did it everywhere when he was a toddler lol).

I don't think you'll get much in advance from Disney. If you have to strictly avoid all dairy - at least it is one of the common allergens. Our bigger problem is "may contain" on things that don't have nut.

 

[hsmamato2]

I may be in the minority here but I've been bringing my (now adult) allergic kids to Diseny for many years,and I do think they do an amazing job of producing ingredient lists when needed. Even the little qs or booths can produce helpful lists when asked,so we always did. This is so rare,most other places are not like this

 

[AprilsZoo]

I may be in the minority here but I've been bringing my (now adult) allergic kids to Diseny for many years,and I do think they do an amazing job of producing ingredient lists when needed. Even the little qs or booths can produce helpful lists when asked,so we always did. This is so rare,most other places are not like this

I don’t think OP’s concern is about Disney not being allergy-aware/-friendly overall. They’re saying that when it comes to the specific holiday offerings, the allergy alternatives seem to be few and far between, when or if they exist at all. For example: no dairy-free cocoa. With dairy being one of the most common allergies, I agree with OP that this does seem to be a pretty glaring oversight.

When we were at DLR in October, I noticed that while there were a LOT of Halloween goodies in the park, there were none that were designed as allergy-friendly alternatives, i.e. gluten-free decorated cookies, etc. I know that it’s not possible to make alternatives that will work for everyone. But it is entirely possible to make a sugar cookie that is gluten-free & nut-free. And I’m confident that the chef’s at Disney can “imagineer” some awesome treats if they were given the opportunity.

 

[maxiesmom]

I don’t think OP’s concern is about Disney not being allergy-aware/-friendly overall. They’re saying that when it comes to the specific holiday offerings, the allergy alternatives seem to be few and far between, when or if they exist at all. For example: no dairy-free cocoa. With dairy being one of the most common allergies, I agree with OP that this does seem to be a pretty glaring oversight.

When we were at DLR in October, I noticed that while there were a LOT of Halloween goodies in the park, there were none that were designed as allergy-friendly alternatives, i.e. gluten-free decorated cookies, etc. I know that it’s not possible to make alternatives that will work for everyone. But it is entirely possible to make a sugar cookie that is gluten-free & nut-free. And I’m confident that the chef’s at Disney can “imagineer” some awesome treats if they were given the opportunity.

You are kind of contradicting yourself. You say you know Disney can't make alternatives for everyone, say dairy is a common allergy, and then claim they should at least make gluten-free nut-free treats.

For every accommodation they make there will be someone else who steps up and complains it isn't for them.