Can You Go to Disney with Food Allergies?

More like HOW to go to the parks with a food allergy.

If you or someone close to you has a dietary restriction, you know the extra hassle of eating in public — choosing a restaurant, ensuring there are options for the person with the allergy, checking with the rest of the party to make sure that they’re okay with that choice, informing the wait staff, and sometimes even talking to the chef.

More often than not, step one of choosing a restaurant is the most challenging as many restaurants do not offer special dietary requests or have filling options (aka salads). Luckily, Disney has made it easier for someone with a food allergy to not feel excluded or guilty for requiring dining adjustments.

Common Food Allergies

As stated on Disney’s website, the majority of their table-service and quick-service restaurants are capable of accommodating common food allergies outlined by the Food and Drug Administration — eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, sesame, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat. They can also attempt to accommodate less common allergies and/or intolerances to gluten, lactose, corn, citrus, nightshades, and MSG.

To make it even easier, the My Disney Experience App has menus for all the restaurants on property and includes allergy-friendly menus with more information for each place.

How to find the allergy-friendly part of the menu:

1. Open the My Disney Experience App.

2. Find the restaurant you are interested in (you can search for options, find dining locations on the map, or choose Mobile Food Orders in the menu).

3. Once on the restaurant’s page, select View Menu.

4. Scroll to the bottom of the menu, past the beverages.

5. Depending on the restaurant, there will be an Allergy-Friendly heading with different options below. It will state if it is Gluten/Wheat Allergy-Friendly, Egg Allergy-Friendly, ect.

6. If there is not an Allergy-Friendly Section, there will be a disclaimer at the bottom stating, “Guests may consult with a chef or special diets trained Cast Member before placing an order.”

While many places will have options and make the experience hassle-free, and maybe even a little bit magical, if you have any questions or concerns, please ask a Cast Member! If you’ve learned anything from our previous articles, please let it be that Cast Members want you to have a magical time! They most often will go out of their way to help accommodate and make everyone feel included.

Plan in Advance

If your allergy wasn’t covered above, you may need to reach out to special.diets@disneyworld.com or note in your reservation in advance to ensure accommodations are met.

Reasons to reach out in advance

• Someone in your party has 4 or more allergies (reach out within 14 days of your reservation)

• Someone requires pureed meals (reach out within 14 days of your reservation)

• Someone adheres to a medically-restrictive diet (reach out within 14 days of your reservation)

• To request a Kosher meal (reach out at least 24 hours in advance of your reservation)

• To request a Halal Meal (reach out at least 24 hours in advance of your reservation)

Special Ticketed Events

Many of the Extra Magic Hours Events at Magic Kingdom have free food (Halloween: candy, Christmas: cookies, along with popcorn, beverages, Mickey Bars and more). When scanning into the parks and receiving the special event wristband and sometimes goodie bag, let the Cast Member know there is an allergy and they will give you something to signify that. For example, at Boo Bash in 2021, they gave out bags to collect candy. They had bags that were a different color to notify Cast Members to give these guests either the allergy-friendly option, ask what their special request is, or give them a ticket/token to stop by the allergy-friendly table at the end of the night and pick up allergy-friendly snacks and candy.

Credit: MickeyBlog

Tips From Personal Experience

1. Always pack snacks! This is important whether you have an allergy or not. Pack small items to eat while you’re waiting in lines or between meals that you know you like and will hold you over. For example granola bars, fruit snacks, fruit, crackers, etc.

2. Mobile food orders. This takes away the added pressure of having to talk to the Cast Members, waiting to see if they have options you like and can eat, and waiting on the food. Most quick-service restaurants have allergy-friendly items on their menu that can be added to the order.

3. Eat small, often. This tip works great for Epcot. Instead of planning a sit-down meal, if you see something small that you can eat and interests you, go for it! Epcot has such rich, cultural food options that it’s better to eat small (around the world, obviously).

4. Try finding allergy-friendly options that are filling. I know you can feel guilty when it seems that the meals are based around your allergy, but don’t worry about it at Disney! Almost all the restaurants have allergy-friendly options along with a ton of options that the rest of your party will be able to enjoy.