Disney World continually seeks ways to help guests with food allergies feel more at ease during their travels. If you or any member of your traveling group has a food allergy, you may be interested to hear about a current test underway at a few dining locations in Disney World.
For a limited time, select Disney World restaurants are offering menus specifically geared towards those with food allergies to allow ease of ordering directly from the menus. Test locations at the resorts include World Premiere Food Court at All Star Movies Resort, Flying Fish Café at Disney’s BoardWalk, and Kona Café and Captain Cook’s at the Polynesian Village Resort.
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, The Hollywood Brown Derby, Sci-Fi Dine-in Restaurant, and ABC Commissary are taking part in the test.
ABC Commissary
In these beginning phases, ABC Commissary’s menu focuses solely on Gluten-Free items. With the exception of the Chicken Tenders, the items are gluten-free versions of choices available on the regular menu.
Gluten Free Menu currently at ABC Commissary
Gluten Free Kids’ Menu and Desserts Menu
(By the way, please forgive the light reflection on the Kids’ Menu portion, which effectively removed the word “Gluten” from view. They aren’t “Free Kids’ Meals” 😉 . )
These menus are in testing for a limited time, so availability may vary during your travel dates. And, as always, guests will still have the opportunity to speak to Disney chefs regarding questions or concerns.
But it will be interesting to learn if this test expands in any way, and we’ll look forward to sharing more about the ways Disney continues to make travel and dining for those with allergies more comfortable.
For more information right now, check out our Dining in Disney With Special diets section, or invest in the DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-book, which has an entire chapter on dining with special diets.
Use code 2014 at the check-out for a special discount!
What do you think of the availability of Allergy-friendly menus? Please let us know with a comment!
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When I was at Sanaa last year, I was presented with a shellfish-free printed menu. It made it much easier to order.
I think it’s great that Disney is doing this. I never thought about food allergies much; my nephews were allergic when they were little, but it weren’t anything serious and they’ve since outgrown it. Now, however, I have a little cousin who has a life threatening peanut allergy and they go to WDW every year. He has to have an ‘eppy’ pen with him everywhere he goes. Everyone needs to eat when they’re at WDW, so it makes sense for Disney to accommodate all of their guests whenever possible. If guests can easily meet their meal needs they’re going to be more likely to vacation there for extended periods.
I really wish Disney would make more of an effort to cater to those who are vegan. By doing this, it not only allows some of us to actually eat in the parks, but it also addresses other allergies as well (gluten, egg, etc) being a vegan is not an allergy but might as well be since we don’t want anything that contains anything from an animal or cooked in anything that comes from one either. Disney does a good job, but it needs to be better
I think this is great my Daughter has several food allergies and Disney World and Cruise line does a great job making sure she can enjoy meals while on vacation. I too can relax a bit knowing that they are keeping her safe while she eats. We keep going back because of this and have only been on the Disney Cruise line Because they are the only line that will gurantee she will be able to eat.
Donna, my son has multiple food allergies as well (tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish), and we cruised on Carnival last summer with absolutely no problems at all! Every night at dinner, they brought us the dinner menu for the following night and he ordered for the next night. One night he was torn between steak or a cheeseburger for the next night so they made him both. They were very accommodating. Norwegian is also wonderful with this. On our cruise with them, one day we were getting lunch at the grill on deck and I asked the chef about cross contamination with his known allergens. The chef said to me that he would personally make him anything he wants and bring it to our table. And he did! My son got a fresh cheeseburger and french fries, and he was served at our table poolside! They treated him like a king and he loved it! No issues on either cruise. We we cruising with Norwegian again next summer.
We will be visiting in November and I hope these “tests” are still in progress! We have multiple food allergies. I myself am a celiac, but am also an avid lover of food. ( Probably why I visit this site several times a week!) I love having choices that are not just gluten free, but delicious and something I really want to eat. Thank you Disney for continuing to improve choices for guests with food allergies.
This is definitely a great development. I hope the GF menu items are permanent.
This is absolutely wonderful what Disney is doing. I know the chefs came to me personally the last 2 yrs being Gluten Free and a Vegetarian (since I’ve had digestive problems and was recommended to go this route) I changed my entire lifestyle around 3 yrs ago. The chefs walked me thru the buffets that I attended at Character Dining to let me know what was Gluten Free etc. I’m sure this will continue in the future esp w/so many dietary needs today w/the new era/generation. Looking forward to being down at Disney World again in Dec for 2 wks. I know that every time I come down there are always new menu items that you wouldn’t get back home which is great! Thanks to everyone that made this possible for many of us. xo 🙂
I have a dairy allergy and lactose intolerance and would love to see a vegan or dairy free menu.
Its great that Disney has expanded their allergen free meals. However I have noticed less and less being offered that accommodates peanut and nut allergies and more and more gluten free being offered. Its great that gluten free has many options , but last check they had 5 gluten free snack offerings at Art of Animation Resort and 1 nut free. This has been typical of what I have been seeing across the parks. And the brownies they have that say gluten and nut free do not say if they are made on dedicated nut free equipment or just free of nuts. Its very confusing when guests with severe allergies need to know if something is made on shared equipment or just doesnt contain nuts. We need clear labels and more nut free options Disney. Please go back to the way you used to be. Even the Mickey ice cream bars that used to be safe are no longer so and the Divvies cookies are gone. What a shame.
We are great Disney people–three times per year. It’s come a long ways since 1958(Disneyland). Great restaurant service for gluten free; even buffets. However, it is so difficult in the park vendors. They used to have a referral book but not lately. Love to have a gluten free menu. Sing praises to Disney. Barb
As someone with a serious food allergy to chicken and alcohol (yeah, I know they’re not common) it can be difficult for me to go out to dinner. Chicken broth is hidden in mashed potatoes, stuffing and chicken is in almost any gravy/sauce.
Disney is the one place I feel safe going to get a meal. I’ve gone to the Liberty Tree and they’ve made me my own mashed potatoes, fresh turkey only gravy and made sure that there was no cross contamination. They are wonderful.
The chef at Coral Reef even brought out the entire book with ingredients for everything and helped me plan a meal that not only did I enjoy it, but was safe.
Disney is magic!
We come to WDW often – next time is in January. I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease, and was concerned about how difficult it might be to get gluten free meals in all the parks. After reading this, I am very relieved, and looking forward to our visit!
My DD is ana to milk/egg/peanut/tree nut. I really hate that Disney uses Tofutti products. Tofutti shares its lines with Kemp ice cream, and Tofutti is notorious for dangerous levels of cross contamination, yet they refuse to label for it on their packaging. I agree with the poster who mentioned that the GF crowd has way too many options, which is particularly irksome since genuine allergies to wheat protein and celiac patients are not more common than the other top 7; most “gluten allergy sufferers” are bandwagoners.
I think this is a great idea. I go to Disney often and sometimes feel like I don’t want to go through a song and dance about my allergies (dairy, pecans, alcohol, artificial sweeteners). I often feel that I have to limit eating to sit down restaurants so I can speak with the chef. My last trip was a few weeks ago and I loved the allergy menu at the ABC Commissary, although you have to be careful that the person taking the order is hitting the right buttons. I liked being able to locate what I could have and not hold up the line any longer than a normal guest. At the American Adventure it felt like forever going through the allergy book to make sure each item was safe. I did speak with the chef there, but found her knowledge to be lacking when she couldn’t even figure out that mayo didn’t have dairy in it. I always love eating at Cape May and have found the chefs really enjoy coming up with special meals and creations, of course I had to eat there and the items I couldn’t have she was able to prepare in the kitchen and modify. My highlight of the trip though was a fantastic desert created by one of the chefs at O’hana’s. My tablemate was envious :). So I like the options of a quick menu available, especially at quick service locations, but don’t want to lose being able to speak with the chefs to be certain on everything being clean. Two things I would like to see: stop treating dairy allergies as a subgroup of gluten allergies/diet craze, and confer about the name brands they are using when making their creations/substitutes.
Disney has come along way to helping Celiac Disease individuals be able to eat and not get sick. Yes, Gluten Free is not a fad for those who suffer of the disease. Disney goes above a beyond to help my son ans his twin sons not get ill when we visit Disneyland (Annual Passport Holders) and Disney World we have come twice this year. Other places who say they are Gluten Free usually in my son’s words, “they poisoned me”, and he suffers for days. It’s usually cross contamination and more places are now saying “Gluten Friendly” which just means that they cannot say there is no cross contamination. Disney does a good job for Celiac. I am sorry that they have not done as much for all the other allergies. We can just hope they they continue to work on more options for everyone. Keep writing , emailing and calling Disney with your issues and concerns. If we all do that they may be more change coming.