Food Allergy and Your Kiddo

Four Proven Strategies To Plan Your Food Allergy Family's Walt Disney World Vacation

• Alice Hoyt, MD • Episode 87

Share episode

What topic would you like discussed? Text us!

In this episode, Dr. Alice Hoyt shares her insights on planning a Disney World trip with food allergies. She discusses her personal experiences and offers four key strategies: 

  1. Theme your trip
  2. Pick your priorities
  3. Plan your days 
  4. Dining safely with specific strategies (tune in to hear more!)

Dr. Hoyt emphasizes the importance of communication with Disney staff to ensure a magical and safe experience for families with food allergies.

Resources

📖 Navigating Food Allergies: A Parent’s Guide to Care, Coverage, and Confidence by Dr. Alice Hoyt - preorder from Amazon and more

For Parents ➡️ Office Hours for Parents

For Providers ➡️ Food Allergy Pediatric Hub

For Schools ➡️ Code Ana

For Potential Patients ➡️ Hoyt Institute of Food Allergy

🔎 Find an Allergist
AAAAI Allergist Finder
ACAAI Allergist Finder
OIT Allergist Finder

This podcast is the official podcast of the Hoyt Institute of Food Allergy. Information on, within, and associated with this site and Food Allergy and Your Kiddo is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to Food Allergy and Your Giddo. I'm your host, Dr. Alice Hoyt. Excited to talk to you today about Disney World. So many of you go on trips to Disney because Disney is very food allergy friendly. I know this firsthand because we just got back from Disney. We've been before. My husband, as many of you know, has a peanut allergy. And so we've always been very mindful of where we vacation because we want to be able to have a great trip, right? So when you're thinking about going to Disney though, there can be um it can be overwhelming. And so today in this episode, I'm putting together very succinctly, I mean, for real, I could talk about this for days and days and days. Anyone could, right? Like there's so much you can talk about with Disney. So this episode is really going to be a very tactical approach to planning your Disney trip so that you can eat safely, really enjoy your experience, and not be overwhelmed. So let's get started. Okay, so I have four strategies for really making the most out of your Disney trip. The first strategy is to theme your trip. There are so, so many things you can do in Walt Disney World. I don't even know how long it would take to do all of them, but chances are you're going for maybe a long weekend, maybe a week, maybe two weeks. I mean, wow, right? Whatever you're going for, though, you're not gonna be able to do everything. Going into the trip knowing that will help you because you're gonna see all of these amazing things when you get there, when you're researching, you're like, I want to do this and this and this and this and this. And you can't do it all. So a way my family has found that we can really get the most out of our trip is to theme our trip. And so what I mean by that is for one of our trips, we were like, you know what, let's go to Animal Kingdom and really just do Animal Kingdom. And some of you out there are like, what? You just did Animal Kingdom. Yes, we just did Animal Kingdom. And in Animal Kingdom, there's this uh Wilderness Explorer Guide, little like passport thing. You go all around the park and engage with the wilderness explorers um and uh learn about the animals. Kids get stickers to put in their wilderness explorer guide. Um, it's very cool. It's a really cool way to really enjoy the park. You still do the rides, you still eat the food, but but we themed that trip. We stayed blessed to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was just really amazing. And so, by really kind of putting parameters on that trip, we were really able to enjoy that trip. The most recent trip that we went on, um, we themed it as let's have fun, let's have it a little bit more of a relaxing trip. And so we enjoyed the resort more. We we happen to stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge again. We really like animals. We enjoyed the resort some. We weren't in the parks the whole time. Now, some of you are like, oh my gosh, what? You have to be in the parks the whole time, from rope drop to closure beyond fireworks, right? Um, and you totally can do that. And if you know going into your trip that that's the trip that you're going to have, that is gonna help inform the other choices you make. It's gonna help inform where you stay. It's gonna help inform what kind of food you're doing. Are you doing more quick services? Are you doing more sit-downs, right? And especially, um, I I know you listening, you're a food allergy parent, right? Or you love somebody, you love a child who has a food allergy. So food is going to be a really important priority for you to have access to really delicious food. And of course, this is a vacation and this is Disney. We want the kids to have the best possible time and not feel like they're excluded from anything. And so the first step to that, to having a successful trip, is to really theme your trip so that when you do get into that decision tree of should we do this or should we do this, but we don't have time for that, you can come back to the theme of your trip and say, okay, what really aligns with what we're really trying to accomplish with this trip? And that's gonna help you make the choice you want to make to have to have the trip that you want to have. Okay, the second strategy here. So I said I have four, right? So number one, theme your trip. Number two, pick your priorities. So once you've kind of like themed out what kind of trip you want to have, you want to look at all the different attractions they have, the rides, the shows. The shows have gotten like really good. At Hollywood Studios, there's so many really great shows. We did the Indiana Jones show. We I hadn't done that in decades. Um, my kids thought that was like so cool, a little intense, but cool, right? We also did at Animal Kingdom the new Finding Nemo show that was amazing. Also, y'all, at um at Magic Kingdom, there is Enchanted Tales with Belle, where you go and it's like you're going into Belle's house, and the kids get to interact and put on a little bit of a play, and you get to meet Belle. It is so cool. So there are a lot of attractions beyond the thrill rides. Um, Country Bear Jamboree, they just redid that recently. Super, super cute, right? So you want to, and not just cute, like really fun. My husband and I we really get a kick out of it. Um, so you want to pick your priorities and start to list out and ask your family, okay, well, what things do you really want to do? And make your list because then you can look at that list of what everybody wants to do and make sure everybody gets to do most, hopefully, of what they want to do. And you're going into the trip, you're planning out, picking what you want to do, aligning it with your theme so that nobody's disappointed that, oh, we didn't get to do this and we thought we were going to. Planning goes a long way. You're a food allergy person, you get this. Planning goes a long way, especially when it comes to planning your Walt Disney World trip. Um, number three, the third thing you're gonna do after you've number one, themed your trip. After number two, you've picked out your priorities of what you really want to do. Um, you're gonna plan your actual days. So I use a Google spreadsheet for this and I plan out the the actual like day at the top of the spreadsheet. And if you're interested in the things that I use, then reach out um, you know, on Instagram at Hoyt FoodAlergy and um let me know what sort of things that you're interested in because maybe I'll expand on this um or do like a bigger blog post or something like that. Um, but okay, so strategy number three is planning out your days and like really planning this out. You want to know what park you're gonna go to going to go to that day or parks. You can park hop. Um you can go to one park and then go to another park and then go to another park. Um, it costs more on your ticket. You want to plan out what park you're gonna be at, where you're going to eat. A lot of times, where you're eating is really kind of anchoring your day, especially when it comes to families with food allergies, because you want to make sure your kiddo has delicious food, right? And of course, you want to plan out your attractions then. So I like to look at, okay, what's the theme of our trip? That's gonna inform where we're staying, what activities we really want to do. Okay, what day are we doing, what park? When we went this recent trip, it was fall break. And so we did a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So knowing that Magic Kingdom is a super popular park on the weekends, I mean, every day it's popular, right? But especially on the weekends, we did the Magic Kingdom on that Thursday, and it was a pleasant crowd. Um, so we were able to do pretty much everything we wanted. And we did the lightning lane. Um, we didn't do like the super fancy lightning lane, we didn't do the VIP tour, but it was it was great. It all worked out really, really well because we we planned, right? And we had expectations going in. We were able to meet those expectations, and we were able to adopt when we were like, um, or adapt when we were like, yeah, we don't really want to do this, let's go back to the hotel. It was great. And we had, you know, an amazing hotel. All the Disney hotels are fantastic. So strategy number three is plan your days. So plan out what park you're at, where you're going to eat. You research that in your pick your priorities of like where you want to eat, um, and then what attractions you really want to do. Okay, so then number four strategies. So number one, theme your trip, number two, pick your priorities. Number three, plan your days. And then number four is dine safely by being informed, right? Um, and by informing. So whenever you reserve a table service meal at Walt Disney World, you go online and you do it through your My Disney Experience app, and it is actually going to ask you what are your allergies, and you actually select it. That is probably the first time that you were writing that down, communicating that to them. You may have called Disney and inquired about that restaurant before you're actually booking it, but a lot of times, you know, I'll tell you, Disney is good. Well, Disney World is good with allergies. So, what we do is we we have followed these strategies. I go online, what is it, like 60 days before you can start booking this stuff? Before your the first day of your trip, you can start booking your dining reservations. So if you're staying on property and all this stuff is subject to change, right? Like, I don't work for Disney. This is just what I do in my free time. I love it. So you go on a couple months before, you book your dining reservations, you select then what your allergies are. Now, also day of, you were going when you're checking in, you're probably being asked by the hostess about allergies or the host. And if they're not, you're going to tell them. They usually ask though. And then your server will talk with you about it as well. There should be m multiple touch points here where they're asking about food allergies. Now, you absolutely can also say, I'd really like to talk to the chef. The chef will come out and talk with you about preparing you or your child's food safely. Disney really has set the standard for this where you don't get the eye roll like, okay, you get the we want to make your or your child's experience magical, like super magical. So don't be hesitant to have these discussions. These are critical discussions. Um, and if you're not doing a table service, then still, if you're, if you're doing the walk up, um, the quick service, you're gonna talk to the cast member. That's what they call the team members, the employees, cast members. You're gonna talk to the cast member and let them know about the allergy. When you're looking at a Disney allergy menu, yes, they have separate allergy menus for people who have food allergies. If, say, you have a peanut allergy, on the different options that are okay for you, it's going to say for peanut allergy. So that's a little bit different from other menus that I've seen, but at Disney World, that's how they do it. If you have a peanut allergy and you really want this fried chicken dish and it's safe for you, they're gonna say it's for peanut allergy because you can have it. It is for you. It's for you. You know how how Disney does, it's it's magical, right? Okay, so those are my four strategies for how to really have a successful Disney trip. Um, I'm gonna recap them. You want to theme your trip. Number two, you want to pick your priorities. Number three, you want to plan out those park days. And then number four, you want to dine safely by informing and then by being informed, talking with them, making sure that all those ingredients are safe for you, safe for your kiddo, and you're really going to have a very, very, very magical experience. I I'm sure some people are wondering, well, what are some of your favorite places to eat? Some of my favorite places to eat in Walt Disney World. In the Magic Kingdom, we really like Skipper Canteen. It's themed after the jungle cruise, and so the cast members um are kind of silly and make some silly jokes. And the menu is pretty good. You know, in Disney World, if something is like spicy, it's not like really spicy. Um, it's very mild, spicy. And y'all know I'm from Louisiana, so like I'm used to a little bit of heat. Not I don't like a lot of heat, but like, you know, I like season, a little spice. Um, and so at Skipper Canteen, they really do a great job with most of their dishes. Um, I had one recently, tastes like chicken because it is, which is historically delicious, but they changed a recipe and it was not as well seasoned. Um, and so talk with your cast member about your your server about what are some of their favorite items. That's something I really like to do. And especially when you're ordering from the allergy menu, you know, you're talking through all the ingredients, even though it's it's very clearly listed for the top nine allergens, you still, especially if you have an allergen that's not on those top nine, you were talking through everything. And again, don't hesitate to talk to the chef. This is the place to do it. So it really communicate, inform, and be informed. Um, but that's one of my favorite places to dine. We really like, we really like the brown derby at Hollywood Studios. So you're probably like, okay, wow, she does a lot of sit-down restaurants. We do a lot of sit-down restaurants. Um, you know, we have young kids. We like to be able to just kind of like sit down, but because of the food allergies, we do like to kind of be able to just like sit down, look. We also um we like to be able to just kind of like take a break and rest a little bit. And we like, I really like to have a seat. And sometimes at busy times, if you're going to a quick service, sometimes it can be hard to find a seat, but other times it's like perfectly fine, right? Or you might be doing a trip where you're just like, well, we're go, go, go. And that's what's nice about Disney World is you can do kind of whatever trip you want to do. And if you're using these strategies, then the first thing you're doing is you're theming your trip to really identify, like, we're gonna be in the park, like from rope drop, that's when it first opens, to when it absolutely closes, or you know, we really want to try the different pools at the resorts. We did that too. That's super fun. Um, other favorite places that I like to eat in Epcot, I mean, it's Epcot, like you can eat in so many amazing places. France, of course, has an amazing um little cafe. Um, they also at the land, they have a really good kind of food court style where you can get allergen-safe things. And again, like if you're somewhere and you're you have any questions, I mean, you should be talking with the cast member about food allergies. They want to know it. Disney does not want to have, right? I am not um representing Disney. I have no relationship with Disney other than they get some of my money because I love going to Disney. Um, but they don't, they they want you to have a magical time. That's literally what they're all about. And then at Animal Kingdom, oh, Tusker House at Animal Kingdom is really fun. However, it is a buffet. And so you want to really be mindful of buffets if you have a food allergy because, of course, of cross contact. So whenever you're booking, um, you want to talk, go ahead and call those restaurants. If you're interested in going to Tusker House or another buffet, then call and see what sort of accommodations that they can make for you. Um, again, Disney is very, very good about accommodating to make sure you have a magical, magical experience. And so, you know, we've gotten questions about Disney. And so I wanted to give you guys my strategies of what I do to have a really magical trip so that you and your family, if you're thinking about going to Disney, that you too can have a magical trip. So it's great to join you today. Thanks for taking the time to listen to this episode. God bless you, God bless your family, and see you later. Have a magical day. Thanks so much for tuning in. Remember, I'm an allergist, but I'm not your allergist. So talk with your allergist about what you learned today. Like, subscribe, share this with your friends, and go to foodallergy in your kiddo.com where you can join our newsletter. God bless you and God bless your family.