Disney World

[swittenauer]

My husband, myself & our daughter are planning a trip to Disney World in June & we were wondering what we might run across as far as gluten free food. Anyone have any info on the food there or been there & know from experience? Thanks for any help you can give us.

[kabowman]

Do a quick search on this message board - I remember seeing quite a few VERY positive posts about eating gluten-free at Disney World.

[swittenauer]

I tried that first but didn't find much. I'll try again. Thanks! I'd love to hear something positive about going to Disney World as far as food is concerned.

[Nantzie]

I was wondering about this a while back myself. I found that Disney World does a great job at providing for gluten-free dining.

Here's the search page on the Disney World official webpage. Open Original Shared Link

They also will accomodate the kids if you want to do one of those Character Dining things where they get to have breakfast with Cinderella. Back when I was looking at this, I came across a post somewhere out there on the web about someone's child being treated really special when they were presented with their special gluten free food.

You can probably email Disney World and get a list of gluten-free items at the different places because it looks like just about every restaurant there has some sort of gluten-free option. It would be nice to know what is safe for on-the-go eating, as well as restaurants.

You'll have to give us a full report when you get back!!!

Nancy

[astyanax]

eating at disney world is AMAZING! every restaurant will accommodate (just tell them gluten-free when making a reservation) and i've had great luck also when we just walked into a restaurant without a reservation.

at the parks, the popcorn is gluten-free and sooo good! in magic kingdom, there's a stand in frontier land that sells only mcdonalds fries (literally no other food is sold there). i'm usually saving room for a great dinner at a restaurant so i just snack on popcorn during the day. me and my mom always stay at grand floridian and room service is AMAZING about accommodating me. they even made me a gluten-free mickey shaped waffle! they really understand not just gluten-free, but also cross contamination (our hotel chef told me he uses all separate cooking pots/utensils).

i really can't speak highly enough. what's so much fun is that at home i pretty much just eat out at the same few restaurants and always end up with the same stuff (plain steak, potato, etc). at disney you can eat at all types of restaurants, even italian! (they have gluten-free pasta) and really experiment with foods and sauces.

all in all, i can honestly say one of the big reasons my mom and i keep going back (i'm 25 now) is that it's so easy and fun to eat gluten-free down there.

some of my fave restaurants are the one at the wilderness law (i forget the name), CA grill at contemporary hotel, and the flying fish cafe at the boardwalk.

enjoy !!

[lovegrov]

Call the Disney dining number and ask for info. You won't find a better place for eating with dietary restrictions.

richard

[nothungry]

Disney World is the best place to go on vacation!!! Even the value resorts are completely stocked with gluten free foods (pizza, pancakes, macaroni and cheese). There is gluten free food available at all table service restaurants and even the counter service restaurants have gluten-free pizza and information on all allergens. Most sit down restaurants had bread and dessert avaiable. I contacted every restaurant before hand and spoke with every chef. They asked what kind of food I liked and made sure to have everything I wanted available. I am planning my next trip and I absolutely cannot wait. At disney I never felt like a weirdo discussing my dietary needs. Enjoy your vacation!

[Rachel--24]

Sheeesh...I'm really wanting to go to Disney World after reading these posts! When I get better that may be the first vacation I take!

[swittenauer]

Well, I'm getting really excited now. Every place should cater to food allergies like it sounds they do.

[SofiEmiMom]

We just got back from our first trip to Disney. We went last week for 5 days. Myself and my two daughters aged 3 and 5 are Celiac. We also eat casein free, peanut and tree nut free. One word about our experience....AMAZING!!!!! I swear, I would live in Disney if I could! I felt like a normal part of society there. My children felt like princesses. The gluten free options are too numerous to list. They have a contact person at Disney who deals specifically with allergies. She sent me a list of all of the gluten free items in the parks at the quick stands - not only that, it lists all of the items ingredients! I'll give you just one example....We had dinner at the Liberty Tree Travern (character meal) in the Magic Kingdom and we had:

Salad with dressing

gluten free bread with casein free margarine

entree: sliced roast beef, ham, turkey, mashed potatoes and gluten-free gravy, vegetables

chocolate brownie with gluten-free/cf ice cream!

I felt sick when I left because I had eaten so much! I rarely get that 'full' feeling anymore. I was giggling for hours after that meal!

Please e-mail me if you'd like and I can let you know every place we ate. I have so much to say about all of the restaurants we ate at. And we never eat out at home, so I was nervous. Everything was a dream! It was a 'magical' time, as they say at Disney! We ate lunch and dinner at a restaurant every day for 5 days and none of us got sick!

My e-mail is kfanelli@mac.com

[TeachK71]

I went in 2004 and they were wonderful. I didn't have to do too much in advance. Just a few days before my visit, I picked where I wanted to eat and called the reservation line that covers all parks. I did have to make reservations, but had two good meals in the Magic Kingdom and one great one in Epcot. At the Magic Kingdom I ate at a place in Hometown Square that is a pasta place (sorry don't remember the name). It is themed with Lady and the Tramp stuff. At that location the chef came out to talk to me and took my order, I had rice spaghetti with gluten free meatballs. They also had really good Cybros rolls for me all wamed up and toasty. That same night we were at the Liberty Inn which was a character dining (fun even though we were two adults). Again the chef came out and spoke with me ahead of time and brought me each course of the meal. They even had a wam gluten free brownie for me while my husband was eating regular apple pie...so that didn't bother me since I had the brownie. Then at Epcot, we went to the German Biergarten restaurant...which wasn't as easy to find things to eat, but my husband wanted to go there. At that location, the chef came out and went over everything on the buffet with me as to what I could have and what I could not have. SO overall, it was wonderful and it was great knowing I would be taken care of. I have heard that the turkey legs they sell on carts in the park are gluten free and they used to say the McDonald's fries they sell are too, but I am sure you have heard McDonald's is no longer saying they are gluten free. So good luck and have fun! I know this is long, but I hope it helps.

[elfkin]

I posted a thread about this in the dining out forum (sorry, I was new then). This was some of what I said there. You can find it under "Fabulous Walt Disney World Experience". I reviewed a lot of our experience there. It was wonderful. Hope this helps! (It was on pg. 7 of the dining out forum as of last night)

In response to the question about animal kingdom and magic kingdom:

Open Original Shared Link has a whole section of info. on the gluten free Disney experience

I cannot remember exactly where it was, somewhere under dining.

It had phone numbers for chef's and other tips. Here is some info. that I still had on it:

Animal Kingdom

Restaurantosaurus:

Mc Donalds French Fries - designated fryers

Salad - gluten-free/ dairy-free

Burgers - 100% all beef, no fillers

Petri-Fri:

Fries- designated fryers

Asia:

Hot dog and fries (no bun, of course )

Stir fry- gluten free

Turkey Leg Cart:

gluten free

(Between Flame Tree Bridge and Asia)

Flame Tree:

Ribs- gluten-free/dairy free

Chicken - gluten-free/dairy free

Salad- gluten-free/dairly free

(We ate here! It was a counter service restaurant. Ask for the mananger, explain that it needs to be uncontaminated. We had no problem, he was used to it. It was very good and reasonable.)

Carts

Strawberry juice bars

orange juice bars

frozen lemonade

Africa

Fruit stand

Tuskers

Rotisserie Chicken

Grilled Salmon

This is all of my info. on Animal Kingdom. We were only there once. Of course, check it out as you go to make sure everything is still the same. Remember to make priority seating reservation for any sit-down meals before leaving home. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ONCE THERE UNLESS YOU LUCK UP ON IT. The name of the excutive chef for that park at the time of our visit was Chef Robert R. Adams (407) 938-2441.

The Disney Dining Priority Seating # is (407) 939-3463

Tell them first thing that you have special needs, they will mark it in the computer and make sure you are taken care of.

Magic Kingdom

Executive Chef (407) 824-5967

Tony's Town Square:

gluten-free pancakes, bacon, eggs, fruit

gluten-free pasta AND MEATBALLS, bread

My son loved this meal! We ate dinner there, the meatballs were YUMMY.

Liberty Tree Tavern ? It is listed, but no menu.

The Castle (I cannot remember the restaurant name):

This is where he ate the rolls! I cannot remember what else.

Sleepy Hollow:

caramel corn

Aloha Isle:

Pineapple Dairy swirl

Cosmic Cafe:

rotisseri chicken

all beef hot dogs and hamburgers

Main Street Ice Cream Shop:

ask manager for gluten free from the back

hamburgers, hot dogs (w/ no bread), ketchup, Turkey legs, frozen lemonade, snow cones, Orville Redenbacher popcorn, frozen banana, Mickey shaped pops with vanilla ice cream and choc., Nestle's Itsakadoozie ice treat, baked potato - all gluten free

Fast Food counters keep a book that shows pictures of each food item and lists the ingredients.

Chef Mickey's is in the Contemporary Resort (the one the monorail goes through), and is easy to get to from the magic kingdom. They were wonderful.

I hope this is helpful to you.

I would recommend going to AllEarsNet for the whole scoop if you can.

[hez]

My family will be going to Disneyland in March. I phoned the reservation line regarding a charcter breakfast reservation. I spoke with her regarding my gluten-free diet. She was very aware of celiac and put me thru to the head chef. Chef Chris phoned me back and listed everything we could have. I suggest you call. Your mind will be quickly put to ease once you realize they really do understand celiac dining! Have a great time!

Hez

[swittenauer]

I called & made the reservations for eating. They were very helpful & said any restaurant would be able to help us when we get there if we just ask for the chef that he will come over & let us know what can & can't be ordered. We are super excited & I think my husband will leave there full & happy.

[mbg98]

I called & made the reservations for eating. They were very helpful & said any restaurant would be able to help us when we get there if we just ask for the chef that he will come over & let us know what can & can't be ordered. We are super excited & I think my husband will leave there full & happy.

Disney was so accomodating to my gluten-free diet last month when we were there. They were truly AMAZING! I could eat in the parks, at a quick service or at a sit down fancy dinner, Disney makes it all about you! We loved it so much we bought in to the Disney Vacation Club and will now be going every year even twice a year sometimes. Have a great time!

[dionnek]

This is so great to know! My sister lives in Orlando and we will be going in October for her wedding (taking my soon to be 2 year old for her first time to the Magic Kingdom). I am so glad that they are so accomodating and look forward to visiting my sister more now!

[Lister]

well i can definatly tell where im going to go on my next vacation sheesh sounds like a gluten free paradise

[Smunkeemom]

okay, so I was reading because I was curious, I really want to take the girls now!! (okay I really wanted to take them before since I haven't been either, but now I REALLY REALLY want to go) it's going to be magic for them. I know it now.

how cool. I am so excited (although we can't go until next year)

[swittenauer]

It seems like our whole trip will be gluten free since I did a posting on Atlanta places to eat also since we are stopping there for a few days on our way down. Thanks everyone!

[dionnek]

Does anyone have any recommendations of what hotels to stay at in Disney? After reading this, I want to stay at a Disney owned hotel when we go in Oct. (since they will have gluten-free food for me)

We will have a 2 year old with us so need someplace that will have a play area and cool pool for her, but also want something that is fairly nice for my husband and I (not that any Disney hotel wouldn't be) and want to keep it under $200/night. Any suggestions would be appreciated

[swittenauer]

We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside & it looks to fit that exact description. If you go to the Disney site or allears.net they have a ton of info. I also read up at epinions.com about the different Disney hotels.

[Lister]

mcdonalds just lost there contract with diseny permamently because disney does not want to have anything to do with child hood obesity. So no more frys in the park

[swittenauer]

Well they weren't going to be eaten anyway by any of us I'd say.

[Guest TerpyTaylor]

Disney was totally wonderful for my family too! We went there last Christmas and every place was so accommodating. My mom and I brought some snacks with us, but as far as lunches and stuff, we just asked and they took care of us. There was one place in MGM that specially made portobello mushroom "burgers" for us because their hamburger meat had something with wheat in it. (We'd told them that we could have hamburgers with no bun if their meat was gluten-free). It was so delicious and they were great about it!

Have fun in Disney!

[swittenauer]

Great! I love to hear about good experiences like that.