12/19/13 12/19/13

Guest Review -- A WDW Vacation Free of Gluten -- Day Five

This series of guest reviews comes from blog reader Jaime. Her enthusiasm, excitement and love for Disney just shine through in her trip report, and I think you'll agree when you read them. Speaking with her before her vacation, I was just so excited to hear her recap when she returned. Jaime provided a thorough trip report, so I have broken it up by days. You'll want to make sure to read them all (I'll link to them in each post)! Thank you again, Jaime, for your awesome reviews!

Read Day One HERE

Read Day Two HERE

Read Day Three HERE

Read Day Four HERE

Saturday, November 30, 2013

This morning, we are having breakfast with our friends, Mark and Louise Mullen, at Kona Cafe.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

I’m the only one of the 4 of us to have eaten here before (it’s one of my favorite breakfast spots!)My sister always, always gets the Tonga Toast and I always, always get the Big Kahuna or the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes. But I’ve come across something in all my internet research the last few weeks – I saw a blog somewhere (and cannot figure out where exactly now) that said you could get Tonga Sliders here that are made with GF rolls! I decided that if I could get those, I’d go with that instead of one of my usuals.Chef Josh comes to the table and there’s some small talk while Ethan orders the Big Kahuna modified to be GF (allergy Mickey waffles instead of the pancakes and French toast). Chef Josh looks at me and I say “I heard a rumor that there’s something called Tonga Sliders?…” and his mouth fell open! He asks where I heard it. I incorrectly credit (blame?) Sarah since that’s where I got most of my GF info on eating at WDW. He says only he does them and he only started doing it 3 weeks ago and he can’t believe how fast that information traveled! (Sarah's note: I knew they used to be able to make a gluten free version and that they can make a vegan version with advance notice, but I had been told they stopped making these, so it's neat to see that they are starting them back up. Jaime's correct that I hadn't heard this!) -- UPDATE 3/2014 - The Tonga Toast Sliders are NO LONGER available. The restaurant stopped serving them due to cost.Here’s Ethan’s modified Big Kahuna:

Photo copyright Jaime J.

And here’s my GF Tonga Sliders:

Photo copyright Jaime J.

And for comparison – this is what the real Tonga Toast looks like:

Photo copyright Jaime J. (Sarah's note: This is NOT gluten free)

I’m in heaven! I traded Ethan one Mickey waffle for a Tonga Slider. Chef Josh comes out during the meal and is checking on us. I ask about the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes being modified and they don’t have a dedicated griddle, just the waffle iron. I asked, for future reference, if they’d do the allergy Mickey waffles with the pineapples and macadamia butter, because I really love them. He said yes, and then ran into the kitchen to bring me some of each! It was amazing! I put it on my waffle and on the Tonga Slider!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

This was an even better breakfast than I’ve had there before! I can’t say enough about Chef Josh or the Tonga Sliders!Lunch was at EPCOT today before we have to head back on the road to go home – what a fast weekend! We end up at La Cantina de San Angel since Mexican food is one of the easier ones to work around being GF. We were extremely hungry by the time we stopped, so I didn’t even bother with the manager, I just made sure the chips were corn, not flour. And I have no idea what anyone else ordered… (Sarah's note: the corn tortilla chips are not made in a dedicated fryer the last time I checked and were not gluten free. :( Ask a manager on-hand to make sure when you visit, as this may or may not have changed)

Photo copyright Jaime J.

I ordered the Nachos - corn tortilla chips with ground beef, nacho cheese, fresh tomatoes, jalapenos, black beans, and sour cream.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

It was fine, basic nachos… we were also very tired and bummed that we were leaving right afterwards.All in all, I was very impressed with the Disney training for counter service locations: every cast member we encountered was very knowledgeable about handling an allergy situation for a guest. As for the table services, it seemed hit or miss on whether you got a chef who enjoyed what he did or was just accommodating you.We’re going back in February and will go back to a few of these (Be Our Guest for lunch and dinner, Kona for breakfast, Mara for breakfast) and we’ll add some new places to Ethan’s list (Prime Time, Boma, Chefs de France). It will be interesting to compare the experiences since we were there over a holiday weekend vs. a slow week of crowds!Thank you so much Jaime for all the awesome reviews!! Do you have a trip report with a special diet that you'd like to share? Let me know by emailing me!

12/19/13 12/19/13

Guest Review -- A WDW Vacation Free of Gluten -- Day Four

Read Day One HERE

Read Day Two HERE

Read Day Three HERE

Friday, November 29, 2013Today is Ethan’s first day ever in the Magic Kingdom! I’m not sure who was more excited!Breakfast was granola bars in the car because we wanted to go to Be Our Guest for lunch, which meant getting in line early and eating an early lunch. I went picture crazy just standing in line!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Ethan found a Hidden Mickey on the last suit of armor on your right!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

It took about 15 minutes to get up to a cashier. I had been hoping for one of the self-order kiosks, but it wasn’t a big deal. We told him there was a wheat allergy and he listed the 5 items on the menu that were safe or modified to be safe. He rattled them off very quickly I might have gotten 1 or 2 wrong (I believe he said “tuna, quinoa, ham, roast beef, turkey”). (Sarah's note: See Sarah's post with some of the gluten free options listed HERE) I ordered the roast beef; Ethan got the turkey. We don’t normally get desserts, but I just had to try the lemon and raspberry cream puff. Because we had Magic Bands, they scanned that instead of giving us a rose tracker. We were free to find a table and get drinks (and wander and snap photos!).

Photo copyright Jaime J.

We were served fairly quickly – but no trolley for us! Our food came out on a human!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

I’d seen photos of other gluten free sandwiches here and they always came out on bread, so we were really surprised to see the buns! And, I don’t know if it was the ambiance or the company or the food, but this is the best roast beef sandwich I’ve ever eaten…

Photo copyright Jaime J.

The only thing that made this lemon raspberry cream puff “raspberry” was the single raspberry sitting on top. It’s just lemon flavored otherwise, but it was still very good!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Ethan and I agreed that if every meal at Be Our Guest was this good, we don’t want to ever eat anywhere else again!Dinner is at Tony’s Town Square.I haven’t eaten here in probably 10 years, but I kept seeing good review after good review for their GF pasta, so here we are. We checked in and found a seat in the waiting area (no pager, they call your name) where there’s a TV for the kids playing what appeared to be an endless loop of the movie Lady and the Tramp. One of the waitresses was coming around with a tray of tiny hot cups – they were handing out hot chocolate since it was really, really cold out (the low was supposed to be 37!)We were seated fairly quickly and the waitress was wonderful. She went to get the chef who was out extremely fast (I really wish I could remember his name) and was very helpful and friendly. We both ordered spaghetti and meatballs. He said he’d send out rolls first.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

These rolls were HOT! They were also very good and didn’t even last until the pasta came out! Bonus points on your rolls, Tony’s!Then there was the pasta and meatballs.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Ethan proclaimed the meatballs bland. I thought the whole dish was just so-so. I can make GF pasta at home better than this. (Now I remember why we didn’t come here for 10 years.) It wasn’t “bad”, just not anything you can’t do yourself.Now I know I said we don’t do desserts, but the waitress tells us the crème brule is GF – the Pistachio crème brule… we decide we can split it. It was fantastic.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

So aside from rolls and dessert, I’m done with Tony’s Town Square… again…Stay tuned for Day 5 of Jaime's trip report!

12/18/13 12/18/13

Guest Review -- A WDW Vacation Free of Gluten -- Day Three

Read Day One HERE

Read Day Two HERE

Thursday, November 28, 2013Happy Thanksgiving!We spent today at Hollywood Studios. We just missed rope drop, so we need breakfast. The only place I know that serves breakfast is Starring Rolls (it was also the only place listed in the Times Guide). We got to the bakery case and I asked about GF. All they had was some kind of strawberry parfait. Not very breakfast-y… so I asked about other places. She told me Fairfax Fare served breakfast also.The manager here tells us they can do the breakfast sandwiches on buns, but she’ll need to run and get them, so it’ll take a few minutes. No problem. I ordered egg, cheese, and sausage. Ethan ordered egg and sausage.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

I was excited about a breakfast sandwich – it’s been a while! This was a longer wait than we’d been having, but not anything to complain about. We could see the manager making our food when she got back. Ethan was just eating his, I was enjoying mine.Cross section of the egg, cheese, and sausage – anyone know what brand of buns these were? (Sarah's note: These are GNI Brand Buns)

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Lunch ended up being at Backlot Express.I wanted a hot dog and knew they had Udi’s buns here. Our manager was Dan from WI. He was one of the best! He came out from behind the counter and really talked with us about our choices. He went over the whole menu before asking if we had any thoughts or questions. He brought the cashier into the conversation when it was time to place the order and told us he’d be back – DO NOT TAKE FOOD FROM ANYONE BUT HIM! Wow! We could see him in the back making everything, too.It took a very long time to get the food, but it was totally worth it for the service Dan provided. He handed us the food with the last warning of DON’T EAT THE BAR-B-Q SAUCE FROM THE CONDIMENT MACHINE! Flame Tree should have told me that the other day…

Photo copyright Jaime J.

You know that hot dog bun has already fallen apart, don’t you? I didn’t care; it was a hot dog ON a bun!Ethan ordered Grilled Turkey & Cheese - multigrain ciabatta with arugula and red peppers served with French fries or carrot sticks. He said it was very good.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Thanksgiving Dinner was at the Sci-Fi. I had been thinking about this meal for months now. I wanted the spinach-artichoke dip and chips and a specialty shake.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

The chef said I couldn’t have the spinach dip and I was so crushed, I didn’t even ask why – I don’t know if it was the dip or the chips! (UPDATE: My daughter asked on her trip – it’s in the dip mix). He was pushing the steak and the ribs. The voice in my head that says things that shouldn’t be spoken out loud was noticing the price tag on the “suggested” items.We both ended up getting the Build-Your-Own Angus Chuck Burger - Flame-broiled Beef Patty with Cheddar or Swiss, crispy Bacon, Lettuce, and Vine-ripened Tomatoes; choice of Cucumber Salad or French Fries. The hamburgers were wrapped in pizza crusts, I believe. It was tasty and I liked the texture of the crust with the burger. But I was really bummed about the spinach dip.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

I did get a specialty shake, just not the one I planned on – tonight (for the holiday) they had a pumpkin pie shake. It was amazing!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

And Ethan ordered a glass of wine. (sorry, so not a wine expert here)

Photo copyright Jaime J.

The movies and clips are always fun to watch. It was a lovely Thanksgiving, but we won’t be back for a while – just not enough variety on the menu to try.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Stay tuned for Day 4 of Jaime's trip report!

12/16/13 12/16/13

Guest Review -- A WDW Vacation Free of Gluten -- Day One

BackgroundHi, I’m Jaime. I’m 45 and live just outside of Chicago. Thanksgiving, 2013, found my new husband, Ethan, and I driving to Walt Disney World for our first Gluten-Free trip. I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy in June and, in a huge show of support, Ethan went GF with me. While I’m extremely lucky that my allergy is minor (it was only discovered because I was having a contact allergy to something else), the other benefits of being GF were a surprise to us both: my migraines are gone, my PMS symptoms have almost completely vanished, and both our ragweed allergies have diminished significantly! Plus we both felt this odd sense of being ‘clear’, physically and mentally… it’s a strange sensation to describe.I’m a WDW Vet – this was trip #39. Ethan has spent a total of ONE DAY in a Disney park in his life (I took him to EPCOT over a quick Super Bowl Weekend trip earlier this year), and he had never been to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, or Hollywood Studios. I have a lot to show him!After being diagnosed with the wheat allergy, I scoured the internet for advice. I made ADRs and changed ADRs and read more dining reviews and made more changes. We packed GF snacks and food for the car ride (I made tuna salad sandwiches for dinner – you have to love how GF bread doesn’t get soggy!) I also made one of my (not so) Famous Peanut Butter and Swedish Fish Sandwiches! Don’t judge – it’s like a portable peanut butter & jelly!Day 1: Tuesday, November 26, 2013We arrived in Orlando and headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I wanted to show Ethan around (this is where we’re staying on our next trip) and grab lunch at The Mara Food Court.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Ethan and I perused the menu for a few minutes while in line (and came up with a couple of possibilities) and when it was our turn to place our order, I just said “We have a food allergy.” The cast member immediately asked us to hold on one second, she was going to call for a chef. It took a few minutes for him to come out, but he was full of apologies (it wasn’t that long!). He asked what the allergy was and said there was a lot we could do. He mentioned the fries were GF. He asked what we were thinking about and mentioned that they keep Udi’s pizza crusts in back for the flatbreads. We had both decided we didn’t want to go too basic by ordering a burger or chicken nuggets this early in the trip (and we had dinner scheduled in 3.5 hours, so we were going to split this meal).I decided to push it a little and asked if he could do the chicken pita sandwich: chicken breast served on a warm pita with sun-dried tomato hummus, cucumber, tomato, and mixed greens with mint yogurt sauce with choice of Couscous or French Fries.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

The chef looked up at the menu, tipped his head back and forth while he thought, and announced “Yes, I can do that!”We were given a pager, got our drinks, and headed outside to a table. It took 7 minutes total for the pager to go off! I really thought it would have been longer. I went back for our tray and it was on a separate surface than someone else’s – I shouldn’t have been shocked by the care they took, but I was!The sandwich was delicious (the sauce was a little spicy) and, with the fries, plenty to share!

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Dinner tonight is at The Wave in the Contemporary Resort.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

There were many things on the menu that looked good to me: Herb-salt Seasoned Beef Tenderloin - with tomato-green bean salad with Cypress Grover Creamery Lamb Chopper Cheese and citrus-herb butter, Thompson Farms Pork Tenderloin - soy-pineapple honey marinade, pineapple salsa, bonito and cauliflower mash, and the Dry-rubbed Flat Iron Steak - au gratin potato and winter vegetables.The waitress (Diane) took our drink order and said a chef would be right out. About 5 minutes later, she came back and asked if anyone had come out. Um, no.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

I didn’t think the restaurant was all that busy, but when Chef Tom came out, he appeared rushed and stressed. He apologized for the wait, but was looking around the restaurant as we talked, so the sincerity of it fell kind of flat. He checked what the allergy was and asked if we had anything in mind. I said I had heard good things about the pork and the flat Iron Steak. He said the pork was out because of the sauce, but he could do it plain. So I chose the flat iron steak. Ethan chose the beef tenderloin.Chef Tom called Diane over and gave her our orders within earshot. After he left, she went over them one more time to make sure. I appreciated her care with the order. She left to go get GF rolls for our bread service. I have to admit to being surprised, and I can only attribute that to the fact that neither of us has had more than 2 hours of sleep in the last day and a half. Of course, when the bread service comes, they were out of rolls and we got GF bread.

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Is that Udi’s? It doesn’t look like it to me, but I’m not good at telling the different breads yet. And the butter was yummy!We were exhausted and famished and finished the bread and butter off very quickly. The entrees took about 10-15 minutes.Ethan’s beef tenderloin:

Photo copyright Jaime J.

And my flat iron steak:

Photo copyright Jaime J.

Both were cooked perfectly and this would have been an amazing dinner if we weren’t so tired. The au gratin potatoes were fantastic. It turns out I’m not a fan of winter vegetables. We will go back, just not anytime soon.Stay tuned for Day 2 of Jaime's review!!

8/23/13 8/23/13

Guest Review -- A WDW Vacation Free of Gluten, Wheat, Dairy, Eggs, Red Food Dye, Peanuts, and Tree-Nuts

*This Guest Review comes from Julie W. and contains a comprehensive look at her family's trip to WDW from the point of view of Julie & her daughter Naomi-Ruth, who has endured food allergies and intolerances to gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, red food dye, and most recently life-threatening reactions to peanuts and tree nuts. Thank you Julie & Naomi-Ruth for this lovely review!

“Does that have Gluten in it? Or dairy, eggs…”

Going out to eat on vacation is certainly a highlight for most people. However for my daughter Naomi-Ruth (6) it can be a bit confusing and scary. You see since birth she has endured food allergies and tolerances to gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, red food dye, and most recently life-threatening reaction to peanuts and tree nuts. Needless to say, dining out for her requires a lot of planning and knowledge.

It does seem more and more that local restaurants have gluten or dairy free options, and many places will let you look at the ingredient listings. Just going to McDonald's is a small feat, but imagine being away from home on vacation for over a week?

This is one reason why my family continually travels to Walt Disney World in Florida. This place gets it and caters to children and adults like my daughter with such ease and knowledge it can be a little less stressful figuring out what she can eat while we are there.

Just recently we went to Walt Disney World in June for a week. Before we went, I checked menu lists on allears- dining menus and checked the allergy reference lists from Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW's reference sheets .

I made lists of brands that I knew she could have and jotted down items that we could order off the straight menu or would need to get specially prepared. In an attempt to help another guest who may be curious about how to order and what are the options but not to overwhelm you with EVERYTHING...below is a small review in my daughters perspective, with descriptions from myself and pictures too.

"I love going to Disney World! I like Its a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and the Ariel Ride (the new Under the Sea ride in the Fantaslyland Expansion)."

[when asked what do you like to eat there?]

"Mickey waffles, fruit, fries, and treats. Disney makes me my own special food [big smile]

We ate in Italy for lunch and the nice cooker [chef] made me my own pasta and I had the best rolls ever!"

So how does one go about ordering a special allergy free meal at a Table Service Restaurant at Disney? The first thing to do is INFORM. You can either note the allergy needs online or over the phone when you make your dining reservation and/or inform your server upon being seated. Next step EXPLAIN (in detail) before you order your meal, either the head chef or manager of the restaurant will come to your table and go over what food items the person in need CAN NOT have. They will describe what offerings they do have and you can decide on a meal together. Sometimes it is a completely custom made meal or a version of an item on the existing menu.

At Via Napoli in Epcot, we were able to get pasta that was gluten, dairy and egg free, sauce on the side, diced plain chicken, and her own rolls made with tapioca.As you can see in the picture above the portions were quite generous and my daughter was beyond delighted.

"I also got to eat in Belle's ballroom and had steak and green beans, fries too!"

I couldn't eat the grey stuff so I fed it to my Mom, she said it was delicious

Again at Be Our Guest restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, we INFORMED our server, and the chef came to our table and we went over her needs and ordered the perfect meal. She even received her own basket of tapioca rolls. She couldn't drink the fancy juice fizzy drink, but our server was able to give her same plain juice to drink in that fancy light-up cup her grandmother bought her.

"My favorite dessert was the Mickey sundae, it had two cookies. I didn't have to share with anyone!"

This dessert was presented to her at O'Hana in the Polynesian resort after our dinner there. It was a huge scoop of dairy free ice cream (they had chocolate or vanilla) and two Enjoy Life chocolate brownie cookies, plus special chocolate sauce. I was quite impressed.

"I like smoothies, I got a blue one while we watched the fireworks."

One night in the Magic Kingdom we stopped for dessert at the Counter Service stop called Sleepy Hollow. We ordered her the Liberty Swirl Slush-a combination of Fanta strawberry and blue raspberry NOTE: yes this most likely has red food color #40 in it, but it was shortly after this trip that we realized this dye was causing a skin irritation for her, I think she drank a gallon of red Kool-Aid at my Aunt's).

"I like hamburgers especially when I get a bun! it was the best bun ever. I even told the food person that."

On our first day, we had lunch at Contempo Cafe inside the Contemporary resort. At this Counter/Quick Service location there are ordering kiosks, where the guest handles the ordering process themselves. Typically at at Counter Service when you need a special order item, the guest needs to speak with the manager first, in which you would INFORM your order taker. At this place you can go up to the pick up window and let them know. Sometimes this process can take awhile, depending on how busy the restaurant is. Luckily for us, the manager was right there. We INFORMED and EXPLAINED to the manager we'd like to order a hamburger NO bun unless they could accommodate Naomi-Ruth's allergies. And as you can see in the picture above they could. Her order took no longer than the rest of our food.

Another quick service example I had in ordering for her was in Epcot at the Liberty Inn. Our family had started out late that day and decided to eat in the park unplanned, not a bad idea but tricky for Naomi-Ruth. I asked her what she wanted to eat and I'd try and find it. She said she really wanted a hot dog. I used my iPhone and quickly brought up the menu list via allears again. I saw they had hotdogs with toppings on the adult menu, so I kept my fingers crossed and headed over there, while the rest of the family was eating in France.

Luck was on my side as the ordering lines were short and I asked to speak to a manager to order an allergy free meal. I told the cast member what I was looking for "a hot dog meal" and what the allergies were. She basically put together a custom order for me of a plain hotdog, tapioca hamburger bun (since they didn't have gluten, diary AND egg free hotdog ones...and I knew Naomi-Ruth wouldn't mind) plus some sides, which included fries in a dedicated fryer. I probably waited less than 10 minutes for my order to be up, which resulted in one happy girl.

her response:

"This is a weird hotdog bun, but I like it, thank you Mommy I love you!"

In the end, we had no complications with ordering for her, with a little pre planning and know how, you can do this too. Naomi-Ruth's next Walt Disney World trip is coming up very soon in September and we are already making her food wish list. Oh and she did get those Mickey waffles, a special plate of her own was delivered to our table by the head chef at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Resort (please note Mickey didn't actually bring the waffles)

Thanks for reading, Julie!

Thanks, Julie & Naomi-Ruth for this delicious review! I can't wait to hear how your next trip is and what delicious treats you get to enjoy!