Talking Allergies

My family just got back from a SoCal vacation, and of course we visited several theme parks and Disneyland absolutely blew my mind with their level of professionalism, consideration and knowledge about anaphylactic allergies.

I called the Disney DINE number about 6 weeks before our trip to find about about possible safe food for my sons at Disney. The person answering the phones didn't seem overly knowledgeable about allergies ("What's anaphylactic?"), and I was not encouraged, but within the hour Chef Bill Orton (head chef of the Disneyland resort) called me back personally, assured me that our sons needs could be met at the parks, talked confidently about managing cross contamination etc. and recommended several restaurants. He also gave me his email address and asked me to email him the specifics of our restaurant reservations closer to our dates. He was also willing to accommodate us for 3 meals a day, for however many days we would stay!!! Happily, no problem at all. Needless to say, I was really impressed. However having already booked a hotel with microwave, fridge etc. and not really being up for the stress of many meals out, we decided on one lunch at the Cafe Orleans.

Emailed Chef Bill, right before we left and heard back promptly that Chef Sean was to be in charge of our meal and had been forwarded our email. On the day of our lunch I was very nervous. Now that tomatoes and most legumes have been added to my sons list, along with the eggs and peanuts, we almost never eat out. But Chef Sean came out to talk to us several times before our meal, and I felt really confident that we were in excellent hands. Our server was also excellent, taking no chances with any kind of cross contamination. Their meals were even served separately from our own, by a server wearing gloves. Needless to say it was safe and delicious. Our server even brought the boys special Nightmare Before Christmas tree ornaments, because they couldn't have dessert.

What a great experience. The best part (other than my sons eating safely, of course) was how everyone (especially chef Sean) made us feel welcome...not an inconvenience, not a freakshow, but special customers that they were really happy to serve. We even decided to go back again the next day, and were just as welcome. I was completely impressed. I'd heard that Disney was good with allergies, but had no idea how good!

I would highly recommend eating at Disneyland, no matter what your allergies are, and at Cafe Orleans in particular.

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1 son allergic to eggs, peanuts, green peas, chick peas, lentils and tomatoes
(avoiding tree nuts and most other legumes too)
1 son allergic to eggs, and has outgrown peanuts
Both with many environmental allergies, asthma and eczema

Thank you so much for this email. It is great to know that Disneyland can be so accomodating. We are heading there with our three boys, two of which are severly allergic to tree nuts and peanuts. We definately will be eating at Cafe Orleans when we visit in April.

I hope you have a wonderful and safe time!

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1 son allergic to eggs, peanuts, green peas, chick peas, lentils and tomatoes
(avoiding tree nuts and most other legumes too)
1 son allergic to eggs, and has outgrown peanuts
Both with many environmental allergies, asthma and eczema

That is the most unbeleivably encouraging thing I have heard of in a long time. Your post even made me teary. My kids are too small for Disneyland but maybe if we start saving now we can go in a few years.

I think that I will visit this section again.

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Mother of two.
One year old with allergies to flax, dairy, eggs, wheat, barley, rye, oats, legumes, kiwi. Outgrew soy!
Four year old with a peanut allergy.

Just got back from Disney World and I cannot express how impressed I was with their knowledge of allergies. My daughter is allergic to dairy which is in everything so we rarely eat out. Prior to our stay at a Disney Resort without a kitchen, we rented a condo nearby for three days so I could cook meals for her that would cover us for 6 days. When we got to the resort, I asked for a microwave. They immediately asked if it was due to allergies that I needed the microwave. It was put in my room almost before we got up there. They also told me that when I go to restaurants to tell the waiter that my daughter has allegies. I was sceptical but after a two days decided to give it a try. The chef came out and rattled off all these dishes that were dairy free or he would make her whatever she wanted. They even had allergy free nuggets and Fleishmans salt free margarine! My daughter was so excited even though she only trusted plain spagetti noodles and roasted potatoes. She got to feel like a normal kid eating restaurant food and not food from a tupperware dish that I had heated up. They also said they had Tofutti ice cream for dessert. Although this was tempting, we declined. Even at the parks, if you ask to see ingredients for french fries, hot dogs... the cooks will come out with a binder of ingredients to show you and will personally prepare the items for you to make sure there is no cross contamination. My daughter rarely ate any of the food that I had prepared and I didn't care. I was so happy I could have cried. They really do make sure everyone is happy as they are catering to mainly children. My daughter also was delighted that the parks carried Minute Maid or Nestle frozen lemonade cups. This was our first holiday that she could actually eat something that I didn't make. I am always reluctant but this time I felt they truly were prepared for each allergy.

I highly recommend Disney as a vacation destination. It's costly but worth every penny. Mexico is out for us as we had a terrible time with food there.

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11 year old Daughter Dairy allergic

What wonderful posts. Always so encouraging to hear how DisneyWorld and Disneyland are able to handle food allergies.

How interesting that venues handling thousands upon thousands of customers find a way to accommodate. Just shows you that, if the will is there to serve/help the customer, a solution can be found.

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

There's a group of families heading down there later this spring -- all dealing with various allergies. Disney has been great about setting up accomodations for them.

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self: allergy to sesame seeds and peanuts
3 sons each with at least one of the following allergies: peniciilin, sulfa-based antibiotic, latex, insect bites/stings

This is so encouraging!! We are hoping to go to Disneyland once the kids are a little older. Travel scares me now that we found out about our 5 year old's peanut allergy, so it would be great if we could go & feel safe.

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DSs 7,7,9 all PA