I spent the end of last week in Disneyland, trying my darnedest to remember to document the allergy-friendly foods we ate. We were there for 4 days and mainly focused on getting gluten free foods for my celiac mom.

Day 1: Wednesday September 25th, 2019 Disneyland Park at The Disneyland Resort Anaheim, Ca

First stop around 12:30pm: Jolly Holiday Bakery (between the end of Main Street USA and the entrance to Adventureland.

So, I must admit. At stop one, I was RAVENOUS after travelling since 4 AM. That being said, I totally forgot to take photos, however, this meal was so successful for all of us (including my GF mom) that we came back on the third day of our trip. The allergy friendly food came up quite quickly, however they forgot to bring out the non-allergy friendly food, so this caused a delay.

Our order:

Jolly Holiday Salad (Gluten/Wheat Allergy Friendly [GF]) $8.49 - same price as the glutinous version. The main difference between this salad and the regular version is the freshly prepared aspect (as all allergy orders are - gloves are changed and the order comes directly from the back kitchen to the order recipient) is the lack of cheese breadstick. The breadstick is replaced with a very soft, quite delicious GF roll. My mom LOVED it. She usually has to resort to salads when we go out to eat, as they are often the only thing that could be made GF - but the addition of pecans and the roll really made my mom’s day. She even loved the vinaigrette, which is odd for her.
Grilled Chicken Mediterranean Salad [GF] $9.99. My cousin was with us for lunch and she has many food sensitivities. This salad is not usually on the GF list, however, it was something my cousin felt she could tolerate, so we just asked to switch the breadstick to the GF roll. She did not like the roll quite as much as my mom - though she did like it. For reference, my mom’s favorite GF bread is the Schar Ciabatta Roll and she dislikes the Franz GF bread.
Caprese on Foccacia $9.49. My sister ordered this sandwich. She does not usually have issues with food or digestion, but has recently been diagnosed with Rosacea- which comes with many potential dietary triggers- more on that in the future. Her review: Yum!
Oven-roasted Turkey on Ciabatta $10.49. I ordered this sandwich. It had a ton of turkey on it. It was very moist, which is incredibly important for digestability in my opinion. I ate most of the sandwich and some of the housemade chips. I had to restrain myself to not eat the whole roll and only a few of the chips - they were very good- but the high fat content can trigger some of my IBD symptoms.

Second stop around 7:15pm: Galactic Grill (on the path between Tomorrowland and Matterhorn Bobsleds

Again, I am garbage at remembering to take photos. However, we did get dinner at this Star Wars themed restaurant and it was acceptable. No delays when ordering this food.

Our Order:

Gluten/Wheat Allergy-Friendly Specialty Burger $11.79 Description:Angus Beef Patty, Applewood-smoked Bacon, American Cheese, Tomato, Pickles, Grilled Onions and House Burger Sauce on an Allergy-friendly Bun served with choice of Mixed Fruit or French Fries. This meal was slightly less wonderful than lunch. As I mentioned earlier, my mom is quite picky about GF bread. She did like the bread but it fell into many of the same pitfalls as other GF bread - it was too think on the top, got squished on the bottom, and fell apart too easily. She got the fries and they were definitely FRESH!
Veggie Wrap $9.79. This wrap was DELICIOUS. This was my sister’s order. I was going to go with it, but I get scared on these types of vacations to eat too many veggies (says the dietitian) and the description included corn relish, but we determined that the main “veggie” was black beans and my sister decided to try it. For context: my sister really dislikes cucumbers but she really loved this wrap. I tried it too, after determining there was very little corn in the bite, and man was it GOOD. Also, what a value for money! The sauce that comes with it is not really necessary as the wrap was delicious on it’s own, but the wrap came with fries and it was a delicious dipping sauce.
Kid’s Hamburger $7.99. One of my main strategies when going to Disney is to order kids meals. All of these can usually be main allergy friendly as well. I got the hamburger sans cheese and it was fine. The main benefit to ordering this way is that you get the small burger plus two sides plus a drink. Again, great value and lots of food. I really dislike food waste, and so the prepackaged apple slices and water bottle are great to take on the go as a snack for later. Another strategy for many spoonies is to eat small meals often, so the water and apple slices serve this purpose for me.

Day 2: Thursday September 26th, 2019 California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort

Stop 3 around 10:30am: Jack Jack’s Cookie Num Nums at the entrance to the Incredicoaster on Pixar Pier

The Incredicookie $6.00, served warm. Naturally gluten free shortbread cookie with blackberry jam. Served individually wrapped from a warming drawer. Listed as allergy friendly with no alterations. My sister and I went over to the bakery on Pacific Warf to get the Halloween special sourdough bread (easier to digest than other breads for me) and by the time we got back my mom had completely devoured this cookie! She loved it. It had been so long since she had her favorite cookie (shortbread) and it was fantastic, however I did not get to taste it so I cannot personally comment. She even wanted to come back for another one.

Stop 4 around 2:45pm: Carthay Circle Restaurant (main thoroughfare in California Adventure)

We had been to this restaurant once before, and for my mom to agree to spend this kind of money again, means this place has GOOD FOOD. In fact, the main reason she agreed to go back to this restaurant was the fresh gluten free bread they bring to the table, and will continue to bring to the table as much as you ask. The nice thing about this restaurant is that anything can be made gluten free (aside from the fried biscuits) and many other allergies can be accommodated straight from the menu or a custom order can be made to the kitchen.

Our order:

Carthay Signature Fried Biscuits $15.00. Always fantastic, though, be very careful if you are at all sensitive to dairy, lactose, or high fat foods.
Gluten-allergy friendly Pasture Raised Niman Ranch Pork Chop Zucchini Blossom, ratatouille, Smoked Tomato Sauce $35.00. Again, she loved it! Ate the entire thing all the way to the bone. Definite clean plate club.
Pan-roasted Filet Minon $40.00. According to my sister: so good!
Chicken Meatballs with Tagliatelle Pasta Sun Gold Tomato Sauce, Fresh Basil, Grana Padana Parmigiana $34.00. This is what I ordered. Very little dairy in this one. It was so rich and flavorful with halved golden tomatoes that burst in your mouth. Lots of peas as well, which was an incredibly pleasant surprise! This one is a no go for those with nightshade sensitivities. However, I ate most of the freshly made pasta and almost all of the ground chicken meatballs. Again, I find ground poultry the easiest animal protein to eat and I have no problem digesting peas.

Day 3 Friday September 27th 2019 Both Parks

Stop 5 around 10am: Pretzel cart in Tomorrowland

Okay, so my favorite treat(s) at Disney are the Mickey pretzels and churros. Obviously, this is my breakfast. We usually just have some breakfast bars in the hotel room in the morning with coffee, tea, or cocoa.

Stop 6 around 12:30pm: Red Rose Tavern in Fantasyland on the way to Frontierland

This was our only true failure of the trip. We tried mobile order considering this day was much busier than the previous two and my mom really wanted to try the GF pizza offered in the resort. It used to be offered regularly at Pizza Port before it became Alien Pizza Planet. For mobile order, however, we found it easily at Red Rose Tavern. The mobile order failed and TL;DR - we waited an hour and ended up having to cancel our order. So we returned to the best place we had been so far.

Stop 7 around 2:00pm: Jolly Holiday Bakery on Main Street

Our Order:

Gluten/Wheat Allergy-Friendly Jolly Holiday Combo $10.19. This is the signature grilled cheese and tomato basil soup combo made on the same yummy GF roll that is served with the salads at the bakery. SO GOOD!!
Jolly Holiday Salad the regular way with the yummy cheesy breadstick $8.49
Mummy Macaron $5.99 - Very rich and good
Arendelle Aqua Macaron $5.99 - Super Yummy!

The cast member made sure to clarify that these macarons cannot be considered GF as they are made in the main Disney bakery/kitchen. However, my mom does not usually have issues with communal preparation as long as the ingredients themselves are GF, so she tried the blueberry (Arendelle Aqua) Macaron, however, the Mummy Macaron was cookies and cream flavored (Oreo) and was therefore not safe.

Jolly Holiday Salad, can be easily made GF with the replacement of the breadstick with the same roll used in the combo pictured above.

Stop 8 around 6:30pm: Ghirardelli Soda Shop at Pacific Warf

Order:

One scoop butter pecan
One scoop Cookie dough
Medium Sea Salt Caramel Hot Chocolate

Everything was super yummy. My mom got the butter pecan ice cream and tried my order of hot chocolate.

Day 4 Saturday September 28th 2019 Disneyland Park

Ninth Stop around 9:30am: Popcorn Cart in front of the Rivers of America. Popcorn here is considered naturally GF as long as the only item sold at the cart is popcorn. A souvenir bucket filled with popcorn is $9.00. A fancy bucket is $18.00 filled with popcorn. A refill is $5.00.

Last stop around noon: Harbour Galley (across from Haunted Mansion exit by the Rivers of America)

Our Order:

Gluten Free Shrimp Salad $10.99 This salad is not usually on the GF menu, however, it was gluten free as prepared so my mom decided to go with it.
Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl $11.49. Always a good choice. We deliberately saved this for the last meal before we left as it is dairy-based clam chowder, but it is so nostalgic that I always try to have it if I am feeling p to it.

Airport Meal around 6:30 pm: Ruby’s Diner at John Wayne International Airport.

My mom was super excited to see a gluten-free bun on the menu, and as I mentioned before, she does well with communal prep spaces as long as gloves are changed and the ingredients are GF. She really liked her burger. The fries were questionable as the employee could not tell us whether they were fried with the chicken or other glutinous items. I got a turkey burger with no cheese and it was also quite good.

One final note.

Disney is probably one of the best places to go if you have any sort of food allergy, especially a gluten sensitivity or celiac disease. Quick/Counter service restaurants (especially when mobile order is working correctly). All allergies are accomodated for even at these restaurants when the items can easily be prepared without your allergen. All allergy concerns are addressed and are prepared in the back in a dedicated allergy space. At table service restaurants, the chef can come out and discuss harder to accommodate or multiple allergies. All allergen meals are brought out seperately with a allergen designation on them.

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