Our office gladly houses clinical educators specializing in living healthfully and being true to what your body thrives on (or off, as is the case with food allergies, sensitivities and many other diseases of lifestyle). Please enjoy Michele’s experience navigating a family vacation to Disney.
“As the weekend warrior mother to a 6 and 4 year old, I spent
last weekend battling the crowds at Disney World. Like many Floridians, our family makes the
most of a three day weekend by visiting the Mouse. As a
family that deals with a few food allergies, I find navigating theme park
restaurants with food allergies or sensitivities can be incredibly frustrating,
however, over the last year or so, Disney Parks are making great headway at
catering to those with food allergies.
On an allergy-friendly scale, I find Disney World Parks are
fairly allergy-friendly destinations. Considering
that each the four Disney World Parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom and
Hollywood Studios) offer dining options for every purse and palate, they still recognize the value of offering allergy-friendly options across these dining
options too.
If dining at a quick counter service restaurant, I might ask
if a menu item contains wheat. Immediately, the counter person asks if I’m
asking because of an allergy. When I
reply that I am allergic to wheat, I find him or her flipping diligently
through a binder with all ingredients listed.
What a terrific way to relieve my fears of accidentally eating
wheat. My favorite quick service dining location is
the Sunshine Seasons Restaurant
located in The Land Pavilion at EPCOT.
This location actually brings the chef right to the counter to share
ingredients with guests.
When dining in a full service restaurant, I simply ask for
gluten free options and find the Head Chef of that restaurant at our table
within minutes. The Chef will point out
all of the gluten-free dishes and most of the time they’ll even offer to make
something completely original. The Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom is my absolute
favorite restaurant for their creative options. The
Wave located in the Contemporary Resort is another favorite – finer dining
that’s family and allergy friendly – WOW!
The Nine Dragons restaurant
in EPCOT has also prepared special dishes for us – they even have gluten-free
soy sauce!
Dessert is no exception!
Right down to the sweet endings, you’ll find the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom offers
soy ice cream AND rice milk ice cream!
Another exciting service I recently learned about is the
Disney Recipe ‘code’. When dining in any
of the restaurants across any of the Disney Parks and Hotels, you can ask your
server for the recipe. They’ll usually
take down your email address and you’ll find them in your inbox within a day! I tried this at BOMA in the Animal Kingdom Lodge….I was a little too excited and
asked for 5 of their recipes (BOMA is an African-inspired, gourmet buffet) and
sure enough, all 5 of those recipes were emailed to me! Their Coconut Seafood Curry is not to be
missed!!
So…..whether you’re planning to visit Disney World for a
week, a day, or a quick jaunt over for dinner….rest assured, there are
wonderful, allergy-friendly options throughout the Parks! Now if I can only figure out how I can spend
a night in that darn castle!”
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