Disney Does It Again...Our Allergy Friendly Vacation

The Magic Kingdom.  Can you find the EpiPen Auto-injector?

The primary focus of this post is to highlight our allergy friendly experiences while vacationing in Walt Disney World.  It's called the 'most magical place on earth' for a reason.  The entire experience was top notch.  Our kids had more food choices than their little minds could comprehend!

My husband and I always knew that we wanted to return to Disney World someday with our kids.  After discussing when we should plan our visit, it became evident to us that the ages 6 and 3 seemed to be the right of passage.  Those were the ages of my sister and I when we first visited Disney World and those of my husband and his sister.  Our trip coincided perfectly with our son's 6th birthday.  After squeezing in a party on his birthday, we left the following day donning our best Mickey attire.

Planning a trip to Disney World can be overwhelming.  Vacations are supposed to be an escape from the day to day life, right?  In the beginning stages I knew that I would need a vacation from this vacation, or so it seemed at the time.  I was a mom during the day and a travel agent at night!  I am not an overly spontaneous person so the idea of showing up in Disney World with nothing planned during the busiest time of year, a party of 7 and two kids with food allergies was insane!  The pressure was on to plan a fun trip that was food allergy safe.

Our trip occurred the week between Christmas and New Year.  I was warned by many that this was the busiest time of the year and #1 on the 'when NOT to visit Disney World' list.  Honestly, my husband and I were not bothered by this since our kids really did not know enough of what to expect other than my three year old insisting that we meet Elsa and Anna.  (I had already started prepping her that they might be stuck in a snowstorm in the event the lines were impossibly long to wait--she just smiled and said 'I can't wait to meet them'!)  Our party of 7 included my parents and my sister.  My husband and I felt that we had plenty support to conquer Mickey and friends!

I started planning our trip with booking our hotel.  We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria.  Not only was it was beautiful, the attentiveness of the staff was superb.  When booking our reservations, I had alerted the agent of our kids' food allergies.  The agent informed me to contact the food services team closer to our travel dates, which I did 3 weeks prior to our arrival.  I exchanged several emails with Robin, the Food and Beverage Administrative Assistant.  I clearly stated what our kids food allergies were and she provided me with several options while dining on site at Oscar's.  I appreciated her personal email and attention to details.  On a side note, the transportation to and from the parks was comfortable (no fees, just tips).  We found it relaxing to be 'off-campus' and did not mind the 15 minute bus rides.  The best part for me was being able to roll my jogging stroller (completely loaded down with snacks and STUFF) into the cargo space of the bus without having to fold it.  Small detail, but convenient.

It's funny when you tell people that your going to Disney World, all of the advice and recommendations that emerge.  I heard some of it, but then my brain turned to mush from DISNEY OVERLOAD!  The reality is, what is great for my family may not be great for yours, vice versa.  I had to focus on planning a trip that would accommodate my kids' food allergies (tree nuts, peanuts, eggs and sesame').  The one piece of advice that I found helpful was to make our dining reservations early since we would be traveling during the peak season.  After reading what felt like hundreds of blogs about Disney World (Disneyworld.com) and blogs about visiting Disney with food allergies (allergyfreemouse.com), I had a better understanding of what to expect.  We had 3 days to visit Disney parks.  We chose the Magic Kingdom (2 days) and Epcot.  This was when my travel agent skills emerged.  I was laser focused on planning our meals and decided to let the rest of our visit just happen.

Because we stayed 'off campus', the earliest we could book our reservations was 180 days in advance (on campus folks have extra privileges).  Sounds crazy, huh?  Well, during my weeks of reading all of those blogs, I learned a few tricks to booking:  persistence is key and in order to make your online dining reservation you will need to set up an account at My Disney Experience beforehand.  Familiarize yourself with the site as you will thank yourself later.  Our 180 day mark fell smack dab in the middle of our Fourth of July vacation!  Even more exciting was that I was suffering from a horrible sinus infection.  Miraculously, I mustered up the energy each morning, 5 AM central time to be exact, to ready my smart phone for making those dining reservations.  I kept seeing my kids' faces meeting the characters and found the energy I needed, while hanging half out of bed trying to get good internet connection (we were at a fishing camp on a bayou in South Louisiana).

Learning from many food blogs that I had read, I made a dining A-list and a B-list.  I based them on their food allergy friendly reviews and the characters we wished to see.  I am glad that I did this because I did NOT get many A-list choices.  I quickly went to my B-list and got all of them.  In the event you find your A-listers available later, you can change your reservations.  For each reservation that I made (including Downtown Disney), I was able to indicate that someone in my party had a food allergy under special dietary requests.  When we arrived for each dining reservation, the staff already knew about our food allergies and the manager or the chef came to our table to discuss dining options.  We encountered this for EVERY reservation made!   My husband and I were completely amazed at how effortless this seemed for the staff.

Here are the places we dined and how we ranked them out of five stars.

Downtown Disney  

Bongo's Cuban Cafe' (***)

The food was very tasty but the restaurant was short staffed and therefore the staff seemed stressed.  They were attentive to our food allergy needs but I was not overly confident of the follow through.  I gave it three stars for the lack of service.  We ate without incident and the food was tasty.  The kids enjoyed the blinking cups and that they could press a button on their cups to change the lights.

Magic Kingdom

Be Our Guest (*****)

This place, of all of the ones we dined, impressed my husband and I the most.  They do not take lunch reservations (dinner reservations highly recommended).  We decided to wait 45 minutes in a cold, light mist for lunch in Belle's castle.  We were all glad we did!  When we entered the castle we were greeted by a hostess, who promptly directed us to an available computer to place our order.  The menu was easy to navigate and there was a box to check for food allergies.  Once we checked the the food allergy box we could select the allergen(s) to avoid.  It was at this time that the chef came to the computer we were standing and assisted us in our selections and recommended safe lunch options for our kids.  If that was not enough, the chef saw the food through the entire process, delivered it to our table with a friendly smile and a little food allergy flag inserted into each of the kids meals.  He brought a variety of Enjoy Life cookies for the kids to have for dessert.  The service I had read about was real!  The kids were so mesmerized with the castle and seeing the enchanted rose that lunch was an afterthought.  As for the rest of our party, we thought that the food was delicious.  My sister and I each had the French Onion soup with a quinoa cake.  One of our kids had tomato soup and the other had a grilled cheese.

The Plaza Restaurant (****)

Not an overly large restaurant, but it was cozy and the staff was outstanding.  After being seated, our waitress asked my husband and I who were the two in our party with food allergies.  We pointed to the kids and she immediately spoke to them, not us, about different choices they could have for dinner.  She brought me laminated sheets listing of all of the restaurant's food items and their ingredients.  The chef came out a few minutes later to see if we had any questions.  He made recommendations to us and asked the kids what they wanted to order.  I truly think my kids thought they were famous.  The chef delivered the food here as well, complete with a food allergy flag:)  Then the chef said that he would return to take our dessert order.  While enjoying our dinner, Cinderella's castle lit up the evening sky resembling Elsa's ice palace in FROZEN!  I thought my daughter was going to fall out of her chair!!!!  We had met Elsa and Anna that morning.  Dessert was certainly an afterthought at this point but warmly welcomed when it arrived.

Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe' (**)

This is a quick service establishment that had lines out of the door the day we ate lunch there.  When it was our turn to order, I mentioned that my kids had food allergies.  I was given a sign to hold up indicating that someone in our party had food allergies and was politely asked to step aside.  Within 3 minutes, a manager came to take our order and note our dietary needs.  Then we stepped back into our place in the line.  The manager told us that she would be the one to follow our food through until the end.  Our trays were purple and the others were teal (I think).  The service was remarkable but unfortunately the food was not too great.

Chef Mickey's (***)

Located in the Contemporary Resort, this buffet style restaurant delivered on their service, desserts and entertainment, but not the buffet.   The service was what we had come to expect; be seated and wait for the chef or the manager.  When the chef appeared he proudly walked me through the entire buffet, including the impressive dessert station!  He pointed out safe foods for our kids to eat.  The chef was very informative and said that if we had any further questions to ask for him.  As dinner progressed,  we settled into an evening filled with music, dessert and meeting Mickey and friends!


Epcot

Can you find the EpiPen Auto-injector?

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (****)

This hidden gem came recommended by a friend.  I am glad I heard her!  Upon arrival, we had our picture taken with Belle then were surprisingly greeted by 4 other princesses once seated!  They all stopped by our table, at different times, for a photo-op.  Akershus was worth the money.  It was nice to experience a taste of Norway (buffet of appetizers).  There was more food here than one could possibly want!  Lots of great choices on the menu and a festive atmosphere completed our experience.  In addition to the superb service, I really appreciated the entire plate of assorted allergy friendly cookies that our server brought for our kids' dessert.  Turned out they were Enjoy Life cookies.  The kids did not know this.  I know is seems like no big deal, but my son (6) refers to them as 'allergy' friendly cookies.  For me to watch our kids be included so effortlessly was heartwarming.

Coral Reef (****)

We were pleasantly surprised with our relaxing and tasty meal at Coral Reef.  This full service restaurant was perfect for our late night (8:40 PM) dinner.  There's something about watching fish swim around so gracefully that soothes the mind.  The chef was very accommodating and knowledgable.  The fish we ordered was fresh and delicious.  Our kids really enjoyed their grilled fish and fries.  Coral Reef was a great ending to a fabulous trip.

Overall, our trip to Disney was truly an allergy friendly experience!  Even though we did not get to try a Baby Cakes cake to celebrate our son's birthday (he really wants a cake from a bakery), we were all delighted with our vacation.  We encountered the nicest, most service oriented people in the world!  Everywhere that we went we encountered polite staff who were eager to serve and went above and beyond to provide us with impeccable service.  Walt Disney World's attention to detail and their ability to include EVERYONE made our vacation dreamy.  Our kids loved the parks and dining out was no big deal.  The latter is what made the trip so memorable for me.  The kids were included in every aspect of the trip but more importantly to have choices like everyone else proved magical.  Sometimes the smallest things make us smile the biggest!  Turns out I did not need a vacation from our vacation.

Dairy Allergy Family Travels…South of the Border!? Travel preparation checklist and timeline.

This is the last installment in this topic and is in a format I hope you can easily adapt to your plans.

4 months in advance	Booking Airfare: Take the first flight of the day. The planes get the best cleaning overnight and you will be dealing with airline staff that is fresh and more likely to be customer friendly. Of course the farther in advance you book the better. Strategically, if you sit at the back of the plane more people will pass by you with contaminants on their hands.   Likewise sitting in the aisle increases your chance of 2nd hand exposure.  Weigh this against your need for emergency potty breaks.
4 months in advance	Booking ground transportation: Nothing to remark here!
3/4 months in advance	Booking lodging: Location.  Beach resorts tend to be grouped on a single strip in a tourist zone.  In Mexico this means that you are farther from local facilities; you’ll want to know how far you are from the city center, emergency care and grocery stores. Key management staff.  Before we arrived, we started weekly communication with the reservation staff, front desk management, and the medical advisor (doctor on staff). Short emails reminded them of our allergy.  It started with requests for Restaurant menus to see what was off limits etc.  We went so far as to share resources (Welcoming Guests) from the FARE website. Kitchen Staff: Our initial request to prepare our own food in the restaurant kitchens was declined.  So we started a dialog of how to train the servers and cooking staff about allergy awareness sharing more FARE resources!  Fortunately we were accommodated with a kitchenette, so it became a moot point. Cleaning staff: For people with environmental allergies a visit to the desert in the middle of summer is, well, a great idea!!  Cleaning a sandy room in a low humidity environment is easy.  This is compared to our experience in Cancun, where humidity is high, vegetation, pollen and mildew is more of a concern.  HVAC in Houston (the most air conditioned city in the nation) is great, anywhere else…eh.  We take it for granted that the air inside will be cool and dry.
2 months in advance	Introduce medical staff: This was a little miracle.  By chance the hotel doctor on staff had been in residency in Houston.  By chance our allergist is from Latin America.  As a professional courtesy to both I arranged introductions by phone before our arrival.  Now these coincidences were more than I could have planned for, but the Drs. common experience and compassion for healing was one more way we bridged the awareness gap.
2 weeks before travel	Meet with allergist: This is where we received the signed documents identifying all medications that we are travelling with, what their purpose is, and also the statement that foods are necessary to ensure safe food is available throughout the trip and not only the flight.
Day of travel	Arrival at the terminal: Do not take advantage of curbside check in!  You don’t want risk your checked luggage not making it to the ticketing counter and have someone hold it up because of the food and  / dry ice.
Day of travel	Ticketing and check in: Here is where you have to explain that you are carrying the cooler full of perishable foods.  This is where United charged for the hazardous material (dry ice) and the cooler gets labelled as such with additional stickers.
Day of travel	TSA: We were able to get through check without incident.  Be prepared with print outs from the TSA website describing their policy; in case you get a new hire.
Day of travel	Boarding the plane: United did not allow preboarding for small children by policy.  But if you can show that you are doing them a favor by entering the back of the plane 1st and not holding up everyone else they may see it your way!  This will allow you a little more time to wipe down the seats and armrests around you.
Day of travel	In flight : While we did not benefit from this, airlines in Canada have implemented a buffer zone.  The flight can be arranged so that flight attendants make a proactive effort at restricting nuts during flight.  You have to make the arrangements a few days in advance of the flight.

That's it!  best of luck & Buen Viaje!!

Dairy Allergy Family Travels…South of the Border!? Online resources we found helpful

I've taken longer than I intended to post the second part of this blog.  Vacation will do that to your inbox; you return to a mountain where there was once a molehill.

It is now July and I hope that this blog will find you in time for your own summer travels.  There are plenty of online resources for traveling with food, so I am providing you with a “what really happened” report.

One of the first things we found in planning our trip to Mexico is not all packaged foods are distributed outside the USA.  No problem, we all know about ‘care’ packages being shipped overseas, so it seemed reasonable that we could pack food we know to be safe.

The most important resource is the Transportation Security Administration website - If you can’t get it past security, you can’t eat it.  Then the airline’s website - If you can’t get it on the plane, you can’t eat it.  Then Mexico’s customs website - If you can’t get it in the country you can’t eat it.

One by one:

1.       TSA allows the transport of more than the typical 3.5 oz. of fluids in carry on luggage.  It also allows for much larger quantities in checked luggage: http://www.tsa.gov/traveling-formula-breast-milk-and-juice

You will need to get a statement from your doctor describing the medical need for food / medicine in your carry on luggage.  Checked foods simply need to be packed safely against leaks.  All items contained within the cooler and the total weight of the cooler + foods need to be labeled on the outside, visible to a TSA inspector.  United has a 50 pound limit before they charge for extra weight, but we were well within this limit.

2.       Related to transporting food is the need to keep it from spoiling; United Airlines has a policy for packing perishables in dry ice (the FAA does not allow liquid gel coolants).  They also have a policy for charging you.  This was ridiculously expensive and it is considered a hazardous substance.

http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/07/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html

United Airlines fees for traveling with dry ice:

http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/baggage/fragile.aspx

We found that United’s limit of 5.5 pounds of dry ice was more than enough to chill a 35 gallon cooler for a 4 hour flight.

3.       Guidelines on what foods can be brought to Mexico:

http://www.mexadventure.com/baja_travel/Food_Bring_to_Baja.cfm

http://www.mexadventure.com/baja_travel/meat_produce.cfm

I'm not sure what happened here.  I understood from official websites that so long as meat was prepackaged, vacuum sealed, with U.S.D.A stamps that bringing meat from USA to Mexico was ok.  I was angry when we arrived in Mexico to find my TSA approved lock and most of our food missing. Instead I found a crumpled up TSA inspection form and no explanation.   Perhaps the lock failed and the cooler busted open on the conveyor belt; but there was a little of everything left; meat included.

  Maybe someone was hanging out in the airport and was really hungry, like that Snowden guy.  I hoped it was simply a fugitive of international espionage and not someone who didn't know the policy.

Be warned, this was an expensive investment, but we managed to buy all we needed in Mexico.

As a side lesson, we found during our trip to Walmart that labeling in Mexico captures the Big 8 Allergens!

milk eggs fish crustacean shellfish tree nuts peanuts wheat soybean

leche huevos pescado crustáceos nueces de árbol cacahuates trigo haba de soja

Next week I will detail our checklist; putting the plan on paper.

Blog entries to come:

·         Travel Preparation Checklist

·         Travel Plan Timeline

Dairy Allergy Family Travels…South of the Border!? Coordinating Medical Action Plan with Local MX Medical Care

Early in my son’s life we were in Florence, Italy when an ambulance arrived at the restaurant where we were dining.  My wife and I joked that perhaps we shouldn't eat there anymore.  I realize now it was in bad taste to the restaurateur, and horribly insensitive to a soul who might be scared for his very life.  Fast forward four years, the biggest concern I had in traveling to Mexico was ensuring my son would have access to high quality medical care…should such an emergency occur.

How do I get those questions answered?

In Houston, with the Texas Medical Center, superhighways, and EMS transport around every corner; we have an extended support network of sorts.

But, outside the USA?   What hospital do we go to?  How do we get there?

It turns out, hospital names and locations were the simplest to answer, but nothing more we could really do about it.  If we found ourselves in need of emergency care we knew that we would have cross language barriers & maybe preconceptions about food allergies versus intolerance at the absolutely worst time.  This is where we sought help.  Instead of planning for emergencies, we planned for safety.

Cabo is marketed to American tourists. Tourists who think it’s fun to sit in the middle of a desert under the summer sun.  With five star management, large scale Food & Beverage operations, pools and lifeguards, they even have a U.S. trained Medical Doctor on staff.  After booking the flight and room, my next order of business was to contact the good doctor and gain his support as our champion.

El doctor was instrumental in communicating our needs to upper management.  This voice of authority cannot be overemphasized.  Armed with the invaluable FARE web resources in English and Spanish we overcame both language barriers and skepticism.  Emergency care plan(Sp)  Emergency care plan(En).

From top to bottom, the entire staff was aware of our arrival and requirements by the time we arrived!

We also included our Allergist in our travel plans, who provided additional documents describing in Spanish the various medicines we were carrying (BRAND and GENERIC NAMES) and the purpose of each.  I read stories of emergency providers misinterpreting prescriptions and dosage requirements and wanted to avoid both.

So, we were prepared with letters of introduction signed, sealed, and delivered.

Blog entries to come:

·         Online Resources that we found helpful

·         Travel Preparation Checklist

·         Travel Plan Timeline

Dairy Allergy Family Travels…South of the Border!?

For any parent of a child with a severe Dairy Allergy I know what you are thinking.  Well I know what I was thinking, “How in the world will I manage to feed my child in a country where every course has dairy as a main ingredient”? We knew it wouldn’t be easy. And, we knew that it would take some planning and coordination.   

My husband and I have always loved to travel internationally. Traveling with our son as an infant with food allergies was a piece of cake (dairy free), even traveling with him as a toddler was manageable. But now that he is five it seemed that it would be near impossible. Just the thought of taking on a trip and managing his dairy allergy in a foreign country increased our anxiety level. It took us two years to finally work up the courage and take on the trip. Thank goodness for our support group! After a few conversations with our favorite food allergy mom blogger Nuteggactly, and after reaching out to our support system, we worked up the courage.   

Once we decided we were up for the task, we felt it made sense to travel to a destination we had visited in the past. Our criteria was simply that we stay at a resort where we felt they could accommodate our needs and provide us with a comfortable stay. The goal was to get our hands around handling food allergies outside the USA and the sooner the better.  

First stop: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Here we come! Allà vamos 

Stay Tuned…………………………….

Dairy Allergy Family Travels…South of the Border!? Blog entries to come: Coordinating Medical Action Plan with Local MX Medical Care; Online Resources that we found helpful; Travel Preparation Checklist; Travel Plan Timeline