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.
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