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.
