DAY FIVE - ALLERGIES IN DISNEYLAND

Everyone who visits Disneyland should experience a character breakfast whether your child wants to dine with the princesses or like us prefer Goofy and Friends at Goofy's Kitchen.
Goofy's Kitchen is located in Downtown Disney (outside the park) near the Disneyland Hotel.
Still in walking distance of the hotel.

The all you can eat buffet will satisy the wheat lovers in your family. They had everything - even things I had never seen like breakfast pizza?
The chef came and showed us what was good for us on the buffet. We enjoyed bacon and eggs and specially made gluten free pancakes and waffles. They had an omlette station and each omlette was made while you wait - but allergy sufferers be mindful the utensils are not changed between ingredients. I suppose if you asked the chefs would oblige to make it separately.

Make sure the camera is charged as the characters wander around all the tables and let you snap away those funny photos.
Highly recommend.

Here is the link: http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland-hotel/goofys-kitchen/

Outside Goofys Kitchen is the Monorail directly into the park. A great way to avoid the crowds at the gates.

Time for Dinner and JACKPOT again - we found PF Changs down the road at the Gardenwalk - two blocks from the hotel.
PF Changs have a gluten free menu - we shout HOORAY. We rang ahead and ordered takeaway as the place was packed.
By far the best meal so far gluten free fried rice and gluten free mongolian lamb and dessert as a big finish. GF chocolate dome with raspberry sauce.

Here is the link: https://www.pfchangs.com/mobilemenu/Item.aspx?sid=6200&mid=6&catid=84

Sadly this is the last day of our park hopper pass and after 3 x eleven hour days of shows, rides, parades, fireworks we still haven't seen and done everything - but we have enjoyed every minute.

So our best tip is:

Visit Disneyland during the week and out of american school holidays.

The weekends are very busy and the wait times on the rides go from 5 to 10 minutes during the week to over one hour for each ride on weekends.

The greatest disservice that Disney has - is not identifying gluten free on their menus in their restaurants - if you don't have the allergy listing of restuarants from the Chamber of Commerce or City Hall you will have great trouble.
Seems all the staff I asked do get requests from allergy sufferers often but no one does anything about satisying demand. After watching the television you will soon realise - every second advertisement is a lawyers company ready to sue for anything - it seems a very litigious environment. Probably easier for companies to avoid the issue than try to solve it.
But something is wrong when you walk into the biggest candy, lolly shop you have ever seen in Disneyland and nothing is gluten free - confirmed by asking the staff.

LEAVING LOS ANGELES FOR THE SUNKISSED BEACHES OF MAUI

Follow our allergy adventures

DAY FOUR - JACKPOT - ALLERGIES IN DISNEYLAND

JACKPOT

It was under our noses all along and we only discovered it on the last day.

The restaurant directly opposite the hotel - Howard Johnston is called MIMI'S.

As soons as the allergy word was mentioned out came the allergy checklist menu complete with a smile from our server.
It outlined all ingredients in the meals with columns to represent if affected by the top ten allergies nuts, soy, dairy, wheat etc including colours!! It did not cover fructose intolerance - however sufferers can easily work it out from the menu and lists of ingredients.
It even goes into detail about the sauces used in the dishes served and identifies any allergy issues.
Spoke to the waitress and they implemented it 2 years ago in order to help their customers and the demand for allergy friendly food.
The staff were friendly and the restuarant very welcoming - open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
I give the place 10 out of ten for service and attention to allergies.

Here is the link: http://www.mimiscafe.com/Restaurant.aspx?Id=56


After a great breakfast we went on a half day tour with the OC Wildlife and Beaches tour.
We were greeted by the lovely Cherie and driven in style in her luxurious vehicle to places of interest in Orange County.
It is true - people should take the time to venture away from Disneyland and visit the coast.
It is only a short drive and it was worth it.
Beaches are beatiful and even had time to do some seaside shopping at arty, creative Laguna Beach.
We saw some sea lions just off the coast and enjoyed a trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano to satisfy the history buff in the family.
Cherie was the perfect guide. As she suggested, due to traffic - the best time for a tour is in the morning.
The timing of the trip, half day is fantastic for those with children.

As the distance between places is short and there is plenty to see.
And the best thing about travelling with a local is that they know the best vantage points, or the good places to eat and shop.
I give this tour 10 out of ten - highly recommend.

Here is the link: http://www.ocwildlifebeachtour.com/

DAY THREE - ALLERGIES AT DISNEYLAND

After consulting our list of options for lunch in Disneyland, we opted for Jolly Holliday Bakery and their gluten free options. We had a turkey, lettuce and tomato roll. I purchased some GF muffins and brownies for our afternoon tea.

After reading the ingredients - I nearly fell over. Who puts alcohol in a muffin???? They import their GF delights all the way from Frankfurt.

Hmmmm what is not right with this equation - Frankfurt is a long way from Disneyland???

Over all quite tasty, but not the greatest.

Then off to the House of Blues in Downtown Disney for dinner.
Husband had a great gluten free jumbaliya and said it was delicious. Whilst I had the salmon and child had chicken. Chips are done in same fryer as wheat so no go.

After dinner we enjoyed the fireworks, absolutely breathtaking.
To think this happens every single night all year round.
Any spot in Main Street is great - they can be seen from anywhere - spectacular.

DAY TWO - ALLERGIES AT DISNEYLAND

First stop:  For allergy printout of foods and restaurants

 - Chamber of Commerce for Califormia Park or City Hall for Disneyland side - just inside gates

Today we choose to start our Disneyland experience with California Park. As we have done our research a trip to the Chamber of Commerce got us a listing for the coeliacs but when I asked for an allergy list for the dairy intolerant - the answer is no. No lists for that allergy.

Tip Three: - as soon as you arrive go straight and book your pass for the World Of Colour on each night at 9pm.

This tip was also from a good friend - and it was a fantastic tip. The pass is issued from the kiosk at the Grizzly Bear ride. This entitles you to reserve seating for the show at night. If you do it first in the morning you will be in a coloured areas close to the front - where the action is. We did this and the seats were great. If you are not organised you will be squeezed along the street in front of the buildings. As thousands of people pass through the gates everyday - it pays to know the inside information.

Time to Eat

The weather was hot and they had a lot of cold iceblocks and icecreams for sale. My daughter tried the strawberry iceblock. The man joked and said it is very cold - watch you lips. Not taking much notice of the passing comment - my young daughter proceeded to start the iceblock. He wasn't kidding - it was so cold - it took the skin off her lips !!!! But even with half a lip, my daughter was not going to let this ruin our first big day at Disney. I tried the frozen banana - great for coeliacs and FM sufferers. YUMMMMM. I must have had ten of these over the next three days. Not good for nut allergies as coated in nuts and chocolate.
Be warned all the slurpies have fructose syrup in it and the vitamin water that is sold everywhere has sorbitol in it - not good for FM sufferers.
Nearing dinner time we could not wait for our booking at the Rainforest Cafe in the Downtown Disney precinct - outside the park but only by metres. This again - was another great tip from our friends who are regular travellers to Disney.
Here is the link: http://www.rainforestcafe.com/

This is a themed restaurant all decked out like a rainforest covering an indiana jones like temple with robot animals and complete with an indoor storm, light show and rain.
It is a beautiful place to see and an excellent place to eat. The children will absolutely love it.
I had booked the 60 days ahead and found they could only fit us in at 5.30pm. I see why - it is very, very popular.

Chef Dore came to our table and introduced himself and proceeded to run through our dietary requirements.
 He was a happy and nice gentleman who didn't exhibit the usual practice of rolling his eyes or glazing over when mentioning our allergies - so we were off to a great start.
He was very knowledgeable, understands cross contamination and even went to the effort of offering alternatives or dishes that we may be interested in trying. He was great at substituting food items for safe ones.
My daughter enjoyed a 100% beef pattie some carrots and lettuce, I had the best steak, mashed potato and carrots.
All prepared separate from the other meals. The fries were out as they use fryers for other meals.
No desserts were dairy free for daughter. But if you can have dairy - you will be happy.

If you do suffer allergies and are looking for great culinary experiences at Disney or from what we experienced in America, you will be sorely disappointed.
Unless of course, if you know a local who suffers the same allergy as you and can show you some local haunts.

I asked at many establishments about gluten free, but despite being asked about gluten free all the time - no one has done anything about supplying the demand for us forgotten few ( well not few - numbers growing everyday into the hundreds of thousands with allergies!)

After the full eleven hours walking - it was time to head back to the hotel.
Walking to the hotel at 11pm or midnight is no problem as people are everywhere doing the same thing.
Our hotel seems to be the local Aussie hangout.
Aussie families fill the pool at 10pm at night and a great spot to watch the fireworks each night.

DAY ONE - ALLERGIES AT DISNEYLAND

After a very long flight over, we have landed. I have now realised no matter how many emails or phone calls you make to airlines there will always be a break in the communication chain.

The catering supplier for Virgin Australia needs a lesson in allergy awareness.
For eg. lets feed a lactose intolerant child - yoghurt and the same child who is fructose intolerant - honey, watermelon and peas. I do realise that it is a big ask to know what foods are unsafe for people with this condition, but when you provide them safe food lists in multiple emails and phone calls - it should not be that hard?
So the child did eat her plain chicken and her GF bread roll but had to forgo some of the vegies and selected fruit.
This is the part where I mentioned bringing on board your own prepackaged food to supplement the mistakes.
Mistakes will happen but how comforting is it to know there is a back up plan. Small problem solved.
How much stress is it for allergy sufferer or parents of a allergy child to survive such a long flight without eating much at all?
Also the last thing you want to do when you get off the plane is forage for food.

Tip One: Have lots of small change in the local currency for tipping.

Once off the plane we waited for our shuttle to take us to the hotel. A friend had a great tip : if you are one of those people who could rip someones head off after a long haul flight and cannot wait the extra time while the shuttle meanders along the highways going to everyone elses hotel and leaves yours to the last - adding another hour or so to your holiday transport time - hire a private driver.

We were lucky - we arrived after midnight and we were the only ones in the shuttle - so we went direct to the hotel - The Howard Johnson. This hotel was recommended by a friend and she was not wrong it was fantastic in many ways - location - only 500 metres from Disney gates, clean, tidy, several pools and water parks for kids, best beds I have ever slept in and cheap $588 for a week. Beds and towels changed daily and in room safe for your passports. Friends of ours stayed in the Disneyland Resort within the Disney precinct - but very expensive per night.
Here is the link for hotel: http://www.hojoanaheim.com/

Food Foraging

Strangely enough, after seeing the email photos of Walmart, my daughter wanted to see the store and see if the myths were true. There is one a short taxi ride from the hotel. It is really large with a combination of supermarket and general goods. When I asked the staff if there was a health food aisle or a dedicated allergy aisle like here in Australia at Woolworths or Coles - there was none. The answer was - you will have to check each individual product ingredients! Now I like to shop - but no spending all day in a supermarket to try to seek out suitable products. Our plan - stick to the basics - fruit, vegies, chicken or meat, corn tortillas, corn chips. Everything was loaded with high fructose corn syrup from tomato sauce to even ham. No wonder we have a health epidemic. No rice crackers in sight.
Remember buy some plastic plates and some cutlery, cling wrap or bags as your room has a microwave.
An upside to the store was they will call you a cab back to your hotel for free from the customer service desk - store policy.

Tip Two: Get your Disney souvenirs at Walmart - Half Price

All disney merchandise is half price than the same item in Disneyland itself. Same products cheaper price.

Aussies with Allergies Abroad - Travel Tips for Disneyland California

PRE-PLANNING FOR YOUR HOLIDAY

Anyone who knows me, knows I like to be organised. The last thing I want on my holiday is stress and fuss - primarily hunting and gathering food for our allergy meals.

Booking your flights

Computer booking systems for airlines only allow for one allergy to be listed. Problem one.
Ring the airlines and get them to make a note on your ticket for allergy meals or if you have multiple allergies.
In our case we had one gluten free traveller, one traveller who has fructose malabsorption (so no garlic, onions etc) is gluten and lactose free and one husband who eats anything put in front of him - no allergies.

If you have life threatening allergies you will need to fill out an airline medical clearance form and have it signed by a doctor. 
Here is the link for the Virgin Australia site : http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/plan/special-needs-assistance/medical-conditions/
It was our lucky day, when we rang Virgin we had a lovely girl called Sasha who also suffered allergies and knew exactly where we were coming from. She suggested the best procedure to follow to ensure your meals are covered in flight is to email the airline 3 weeks out, then one week out from departing and then ring 24 hours before to ensure your meal actually makes it to the plane.

Our condition is not life threatening, but for customs reasons I got a letter from my doctor outlining my daughters allergies and dietary requirements.

A phone call to Aussie customs says that passengers are allowed a small esky with dry ice 2.5kg no bigger – restricted liquids no more than 100ml of each item and no more than 1 litre in total.

Esky classed as luggage in carry on.

Sandwiches, cakes, fruit etc all exceptable - except all fruit must be eaten on the plane or disposed of on the plane prior to landing. Packaged goods are ok to declare when getting off, as long as no seeds etc.

Booking meals at Disneyland

To ensure stress free meals - Disney requests you book sit down restaurants up to 60 days in advance.
The number is 001117147813463. Tell them you have allergies in advance.
We were lucky enough to email Bill Orton the Head of Disneyland Chefs.
It is his job to inform the chefs at the locations how to serve the meals. More about our meals in later posts.
I could not believe how far in advance we had to book, but it was worth it. The restuarants book out very quickly and the unorganised could be left with a boring hot dog for dinner if they don't plan.
The Disneyland website has a section on allergies and a list of all the outlets with food items listed especially for coeliacs. The link is : http://disneyland.disney.go.com/plan/guest-services/special-dietary-requests/

When to book for Disneyland

Best time to go to Disneyland is during the week.
We went Thursday, Friday and Saturday on a three day pass.
We had no waiting time for rides on Thursday about 10 minutes on Friday and then on weekends when all of Anaheim came as well, it was over an hour wait on each ride.

We went on the 5th September for two weeks, which was outside the school holidays for American children. You need them to be at school so there is less people in the park.
Weather was hot and fine.

Packing for Holiday

• Ensure you take your medication and lots of aspirin or panadol.
• A packet of gastro-stop would also be handy. (Wish I would have followed my own advice!)
• Take enough prepackaged food to last through the number of flights you will be taking and any tours you are going to take - I will explain later why.
• Scan your passports and travel documents into your email - so they can be accessed anywhere at anytime.
• Make sure you have travel insurance - I will also explain later what happened to us.

Plenty to read on for.....

STAY TUNED FOR OUR TRAVEL TIPS FOR ALLERGIES ABROAD

DISNEYLAND - CALIFORNIA AND MAUI

            MILEY CYRUS JOIN THE CLUB

Just read in a magazine than Miley has now joined our club of gluten free and dairy free.

ANOTHER NEW PRODUCT - RICK GRANT'S CHICKEN SEASONING

Fantastic a chef who is covering all the bases and offering fructose friendly.

While this was easy to make and quite tasty - I do shudder at having to fry in alot of oil.

The only comment I have is that it has an overpowering taste of pepper.

Score for taste: 6 out of ten

GREAT NEW PRODUCTS FOR THE FRUCTOSE CHALLENGED

Hi everyone,

This week has been about trying new things.
We experimented with Queens Strawberry Gelato and made it on water.
VERY VERY NICE.
It is very sweet, so it it only a sometimes food in our household.
Comes in lemon, chocolate and vanilla.
The chocolate is not dairy free and I did not check the vanilla.

Highly recommend the strawberry - however you do need an icecream machine.

                                           DELICIOUS STICKY SESAME CHICKEN LEGS

Cheap, easy and the kids will love them.
Have them as nibbles at a BBQ or for after school snacks or lunches, or easy, fast after work dinner.

You need:
...

Chicken drumsticks or wings
2 tablespoons of tamari soy sauce
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon of lemon or lime juice
1 tablespoon grated ginger
Sesame seeds

Mix everything together in bowl and coat chicken, place in a baking tray.
Cook in oven on 180 degrees for 3/4 hour with alfoil on top.
Remove alfoil and sprinkle with sesame seeds and cook for another 15 mins.
Take chicken out of tray and reduce the sauce in a small pan and pour over chicken.
Serve with a salad or vegies.

For more recipes see our $5 ecookbook on ebay - Fructose Malabsorption - Gluten free and Lactose free Cookbook

With the help of some great techno friends, the cookbook will soon be available as a mobile app.
So we can share our recipes with a brand new audience.
Off today to try a TOTALLY GLUTEN FREE HIGH TEA.
This should be fun.

DELICIOUS PANCAKES WITH ONLY THREE INGREDIENTS

YOU MUST BE JOKING - IT IS THAT EASY

*You must have a pancake maker for these*

All you need is:

• 3 eggs
• 1 300ml tub of Liddells lactose free plain yoghurt
• 1/2 cup of GF plain flour

Mix together and place in pancake maker for 3 mins

Your kids and family will love them - soft and fluffy - they way they should be served.

Top with 100% Queens maple syrup and some berries or banana

ENJOY  ENJOY  ENJOY  ENJOY  ENJOY  ENJOY  ENJOY ENJOY

$5 eCookbook available on ebay

Welcome everyone to my page, let me tell you about our fantastic cookbook.

If you have been newly diagonised with an allergy - fructose malabsorption, gluten intolerance, irritable bowel, coeliac or lactose intolerant this book will help you with simple, budget, family and child friendly delicious meals to get you through the week.

This book outlines our journey from symptoms to diagonsis to mastering meal times.

31 pages of recipes from treats to desserts and yummy main meals.
Simple to prepare and fast to have on the table every night.
I use a fantastic double up technique which saves the leftovers and turns them into a completely different dish the following night.

Still need convincing - read our fantastic feedback from hundreds of happy customers.
Good health to you all.

Here is the link:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/COOKBOOK-FRUCTOSE-MALABSORPTION-GLUTEN-FREE-LACTOSEFREE-/271001308043?pt=AU_Non_Fiction_Books_2&hash=item3f18efcb8b

HI everyone, I am very new at this, so strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride!!!