Food Allergies - Dining Plan or No Dining Plan?

[smiles637]

Planning my first WDW family vacation, and I'm stuck on an issue. My son has severe food allergies to milk, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts and shellfish. We're planning on eating at the WDW restaurants all the time, rather at the parks or at the resort restaurants, because I would only trust the Disney restaurants with handling food allergies. But my question is, since we're planning at eating at only the Disney restaurants, is it worth it to get the dining plan or would it be cheaper to just pay out of pocket?

Also, does anyone know what happens when there is some type of emergency at a Disney park/resort? Do you just call 911 or is there a faster way to access emergency?

Thank you in advance!

 

[larissawbb]

Do you mean Disney owned table service restaurants? My husband has celiac disease and both the Disney owned and not owned ones have been awesome. He’s only had an issue of cross contamination once at a quick service location. Overall, the quick service has been just as diligent as the table service. Getting the dining plan should be based on where you want to eat and your dining style. I would look over the various menus and prices to decide. You can google allergy menus to also help you decide.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

I'd reach out to Special Diets to see how well they can accommodate him at the meals you're planning. While his allergies are what they classify as common allergies, by having 4 or more, he should qualify for their assistance in assuring he gets lots of food he can safely eat at all of the restaurants in your plans. If they can work with you and your math shows the dining plan works for your family, then I wouldn't see why not.

 

[Pumbaa_]

Are you planning on only ts restaurants? How many meals a Day?

It’s really a math exercise.

 

[Random Ninja]

It’s not really a matter of food allergies or not, it’s a math exercise. Check where you want to eat and then run the numbers to see what’s more cost effective. I have 10+ food allergies, including some pretty weird ones and have done Disney trips both with and without a dining plan. Now that it’s just my DH and I, we never get the dining plan because it’s cheaper for us to eat OOP because we rarely get dessert and one of my allergies is alcohol so neither of us drink it.

 

[Hopefully]

What do you mean by “ only Disney Restaurants “. All Park restaurants are Disney Restaurants. All resort restaurants are Disney Restaurants. Either DDP or OOP will be the same. They will take care of you

 

[marcyleecorgan]

What do you mean by “ only Disney Restaurants “. All Park restaurants are Disney Restaurants. All resort restaurants are Disney Restaurants. Either DDP or OOP will be the same. They will take care of you

Not all of them are owned by Disney. There are several at Disney Springs that aren't and there are a few here and there at some of the resorts that aren't.

Either way... on-property food is expensively marked-up, so you cannot compare Big Bob's Orlando BBQ Shack to say, Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. Look at the Disney menus and price out what you want to eat. There's a Dining Plan calculator if you Google it.

 

[Lynn CC]

We traveled last year to Disneyland 7 of us. 5 of us have severe allergies. We did all TS meals & called and had them note on each our allergies, which are dairy, eggs, wheat/ gluten, oat, barley, seafood, treenuts & peanuts. We all have an epi...
chefs came out to discuss at each meal and made some great creations.
We are all going to Disneyworld in 3 weeks plan to do the same!
Disney does make an allergy bunch like us relaxed and confident to enjoy-meals together!

 

[Starwind]

As a previous poster said, it is a math issue. For our family, it is cheaper to pay out of pocket: we would not normally choose to do dessert [and with multiple food allergies sincluding dairy, dessert options are seriously limited anyway], and do not drink alcohol.

Before each trip I make an Excel spreadsheet and go through the menus of where we plan to eat and price out our most likely meal choices. Tally it up. It quickly becomes clear whether the dining plan will save money or not.

SW

 

[rdaky]

I think it's cheaper to pay out of pocket, food allergies or not.

That being said, my daughter has a dairy allergy, and while the restaurants do mostly have allergy menus, sometimes it was better for me to share a plate with her with my food than to order from the kids menu, which tends to be more limited in many places. Even my middle child who still generally orders off of the kids menu, got pretty tired of grapes and carrots pretty quickly.

And TBH, I had heard so much about how great Disney is with allergies. And I'll say that most restaurants were fantastic with allergies. A couple were pretty stressful, including one that charged us $4 to substitute a regular cookie for an allergy cookie.

 

[CynBeth]

A few family members have food allergies and we pretty much eat all meals TS. They usually do not have an app or dessert so we found it is not worth it for us to do the DP. We estimate what we think it will cost and get gift cards using my Disney Visa card.

 

[bwbuddy5]

Our only need was gluten free - TS has great allergy free choices and handle it well, but it definitely slows things down at QS. And you have to stand in a special place out of the way at many QS locations.

 

[rdaky]

Our only need was gluten free - TS has great allergy free choices and handle it well, but it definitely slows things down at QS. And you have to stand in a special place out of the way at many QS locations.

Yes! It slows things down for sure. We waited 30 minutes for someone at lunch at Be Our Guest just to tell us whether or not the spaghetti sauce had dairy in it.

 

[Dis703]

I have 3 boys with extensive food allergies and we find it works best to pay out of pocket. When you start mixing multiple top 8 allergens it gets harder to find safe (and appealing) options for snacks and quick service meals. We end up bringing some things to supplement and piece things together sometimes from more than one location. Dealing with food allergies is hassle enough I wouldn't add the hassle of the dining plan to it as well.

 

[smiles637]

Thanks all for the info. Yes, we're planning on eating at the TS restaurants. For those of you who have done Disney with food allergies, what restaurants did you have good experiences at?

 

[MonaMN]

We have had good experiences pretty much everywhere we have tried - but we are only dealing with peanut and tree nut allergies, which seem relatively easy.

 

[CynBeth]

Thanks all for the info. Yes, we're planning on eating at the TS restaurants. For those of you who have done Disney with food allergies, what restaurants did you have good experiences at?

We love Crystal Palace breakfast, Liberty Tree Tavern lunch, BOG dinner, Tony’s dinner, Tutto Italia lunch, Chefs dinner, Le Cellier dinner, Coral Reef for lunch or dinner, Boma breakfast or dinner, WCC breakfast, Trail’s End breakfast, Hollywood Brown Derby lunch, 50’s PTC dinner, Tusker House breakfast, and Rainforest Cafe at AK lunch. We have also been to dinner shows HDDR and SOA.

 

[FunFamily]

We have food allergies in our family. We have found it best to dine only at Disney owned restaurants. In particular we have been disappointed with the Landry's owned places Yak & Yeti and T-Rex (they also own Rainforest Cafe). Bongos (not owned by Disney or Landry's) was also a mistake, but one we caught early and thus departed prior to ordering.

Everyone we have met at every restaurant on property has been understanding and appropriately concerned. But the real key to enjoying a healthy meal is staff training, not just caring. The folks at the Disney owned places seem to have a much higher level of training.

Enjoy your trip!