Hi Melinda,
We are delighted to have you stop by the Disney Parks Moms Panel!
As a mom with two girls who have food allergies, I can empathize with your question. One of our girls is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish. The other is allergic to cashews and pistachios. We have been touched by the level of service we have received from Cast Members with respect to their allergies. Although we typically have received an
allergy-friendly menu in most restaurants we have visited, at table service restaurants, the chef will sometimes come to our table to review the menu and talk with our girls about what they can eat. In several instances, the chef has substituted an item so that they can still enjoy the full meal experience.
Before your visit, I suggest that you review the
Special Dietary Requests information and contact the team at Special.Diets@DisneyWorld.com if you have specific questions about uncommon allergies and/or the dining options that your daughter can enjoy. I also recommend that you make
advanced dining reservations and, when doing so, indicate the food allergies on the reservation.
Although we have always been able to manage the girls' food allergies well while in the parks and resorts, we did have one instance when we surprisingly, required additional assistance. On that visit, we arrived at the Club Level Lounge at Disney's BoardWalk Inn and the only sandwiches were peanut butter and jelly. The Cast Member in the lounge arranged for a turkey sandwich to be brought to our daughter with the peanut allergy and then a Cast Member from the resort hotel followed up with a lovely email offering additional assistance.
One other area of caution that I will offer are snacks. We always bring our own prepackaged snacks just in case and the girls will pick up a few prepackaged snacks at the resort hotel. If we are unsure of a snack that is not pre-packaged, we ask a Cast Member. If that Cast Member does not know, that person can typically locate another Cast Member to help us.
Melinda, the
award-winning service that the Walt Disney World Resort provides for guests with food allergies is one of the many reasons we return year after year. Our girls always say it is the one place in the world where they feel safe trying new and exciting foods. And that makes my heart melt EVERY TIME.
Magic and memories,
Donyell