Experience with Gluten free dining

[iluvdis]

We will be traveling with my brother-in law who is on a gluten free diet. I have read reviews from disney travelers who have eaten at Disney with this diet restriction, but am curious to know the experiences of others. We are looking to make ADR's for five table service locations. How are the counter service locations at dealing with this request?? Thanks for any information!

[mycutiepatooties]

Well all I can say is don't worry one bit. Disney will be super accomodating for his gluten free diet. We went to WDW in 2006 with our daughter who has food allergies (milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts). It was hands down some of the best dining we've ever experienced! I emailed someone named Brenda Bennett with (MK Special Diet Dept.) and she emailed me several pages of very detailed info. re: ingredients, brands, places that have dedicated fryers for example. There was tons available for people who eat gluten free. Get a hold of this info.!

Have the CM note the gluten free issue and have it added to all of your TS ADR's when you make the reservations.

For all of the Counter Service restaraunts there is a 3 ring binder kept behind the counter. Ask for it before you order. It is full of labels taken off products and ingredient lists for everything served there. I was able to look through it to see if sauces/condiments/salad dressings were safe as well. After I had a few things in mind that I thought were safe to order for her, I had a manager come over and asked quickly about cross contamination and just asked again to be certain the ingredients were current and updated. Never had any issues. The manager usually made her food personally and allowed substitutions because 99% of the time she can not order what is on the kids menu for the dining plan. If there was something on the kids menu that was "safe" (say all beef hot dog, grapes, jello etc.) then she had to order that and couldn't substitute even though she'd eaten that same meal several times already at other counter service locations all week and was quite tired of it. That was the only bummer about the counter services--alot of them are the same old thing.

Go to allears.net and use the menus they have listed to research what is served at the different counter service locations to try and get more variety. I wrote down 2 options for counter service for each day on my itinerary for the day so that I had it with me in the parks if one place was really crowded, or the food didn't look safe for her.

We had a really good experience overall. I'm certain you will find plenty of yummy things to indulge in. WDW even has gluten free brownies/desserts too. Have a great trip!