Finding allergy-friendly meals while traveling can be challenging, but the Disney parks are known as some of the most allergy-friendly vacation destinations you can find! Disney is dedicated to providing a safe and quality dining experience with a variety of options for all guests.
Most Disney Parks table-service restaurants and select quick-service restaurants can accommodate common allergies like eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, sesame, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat. For less common allergy-friendly or intolerance requests, restaurants will do their best to accommodate you if you need meals made without a certain food or ingredient like gluten, lactose, corn, citrus, nightshades, or MSG.
Guests with allergies can have a great experience dining at Disney Parks with a variety of options available. We will take you through our top tips for allergy-friendly dining at Disney Parks table-service and quick-service restaurants!
1) When making reservations for table-service restaurants, notify them if you have a dietary or allergy-friendly request. As you are making reservations on the app, you can look for the option to add a special dietary request. Once you arrive at the restaurant, be sure to remind a Cast Member about your request so that special diets processes are followed when preparing your meal.
Many table-service restaurants offer an allergy-friendly menu that you can choose from. If you don’t see an option that works for you, or if you have questions or need further assistance, you can ask to talk to the chef, who will be happy to discuss your options with you. See our top best sit down Disney World restaurants here and the best Downtown Disney restaurants at Disneyland here.
2) Use online menus to look ahead at your allergy-friendly options. If you have a particular restaurant in mind, you can check to see what the most recent offerings are for table-service and quick-service restaurants. This will be especially helpful if you’re still in the process of deciding where to eat, as many locations will have separate parts of the menu that will list items and the allergens they are free of, with labeled sections like “Gluten/Wheat Allergy-Friendly,” “Egg Allergy-Friendly,” “Fish/Shellfish Allergy-Friendly,” etc.
Keep in mind that smaller quick-service locations like food carts, festival kiosks, and pool bars may not have an allergy-friendly menu. For some of these options, you can request to see the product packaging to determine if you can eat a certain food item. Disney recommends dining at larger locations for the most allergy-friendly options and resources.
3) Don’t be afraid to speak with a Cast Member about allergy-friendly options. You can ask to speak with a chef or a special diets-trained Cast Member at most table-service and select quick-service restaurants, and they will help you find something that will work for you. For the smaller dining locations mentioned above, you can still request a special diet consult, but there may be a higher wait time for this.
4) If you are unsure about allergy-friendly dining, you can always bring your own food if you are more comfortable with this option. Just make sure that the food you bring does not require special storage, additional preparation, cooking, or reheating, as Cast Members will not be able to assist you with this. Even if you are planning on dining at the parks, you can always bring allergy-friendly snacks to enjoy throughout the day.
There are a few restrictions for bringing your own food, including no glass containers. While you can bring a cooler that fits within Disney’s size limitations (no larger than 24″ long x 15″ wide x 18″ high), these can’t contain loose or dry ice, so we recommend using reusable ice packs to keep your food chilled. You can see our guide to bringing food to Disneyland and our full Disney bag policy for everything you need to know!
5) While advance notice usually is not required for special dietary or allergy-friendly requests, you should contact Disneyland ahead of time if someone in your party has 4 or more allergy-friendly requests, requires pureed meals, or adheres to a medically-restrictive diet. Disneyland asks that in these cases, you contact them after booking dining arrangements no sooner than 14 days before your arrival, and the Special Diets team can help assist you in the dining process.
Disney aims to provide quality dining for all guests, and following these tips, you’ll be ready to enjoy your allergy-friendly dining experience at the parks. You can read our full guide to gluten-free dining at Disneyland for more guidance and tips!
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