Disney World Counter Service

[yelloww]

Thanks everyone! This is our third trip there, so I know some of it, but we haven't been in five years so I wasn't sure what has changed. I saved those links and made a lunch reservation at a place I don't love, but it works (Liberty Tree Tavern) so at least we have some place for lunch.

[twinturbo]

Have a blast! I'll have to hit you up on places when you're done. Vacation plans for next month.

[SweetandSour]

Be our guest lunch may be ok too. It's set up as a quick service. You order from a touch screen. You can filter the menu to your allergens,  and it will tell you what you can have.

I'm guessing dinner would be fine too, but it's sit down instead of quick service.
 

[twinturbo]

Has anyone w/FA ever stayed at Shades of Green? I highly doubt that (A) I'll use it (B) I qualify for access. It's Disney's military family service. My dad's pushing for it. The only thing that's getting my attention is the possibility it's more for less money. I won't cry if it's not going to work out I'm fully prepared to pay to experience it as the civilian I am. No stone unturned, KWIM.

[hezzier]

Yes, we had multiple rooms under DH's name.  He was active duty at the time, but retired military are allowed to use it as well.  I cannot tell you how it was for allergies because DS was less than 2 yrs old so wasn't diagnosed.  We really brought food for him anyway. 

The rooms were fine.  It was really a excellent price.  I think we got discounted tickets from there also.  We ate at one restaurant that was terrible, and they had a grab and go for quick breakfast stuff as well as a little shop for basic food (juice, milk, snacks).  I remember an old fashioned ice cream shop also.  Not sure if it's been redone since then.

You had to take a bus to get to a park.  I don't think it took too long.  It was a pain to get the stroller on and off the bus.  Polynesian is across the street so sometimes we walked over there to get on the monorail.

Ask Mary M, I think she stayed there with friends a couple years ago.

We stayed at the Beach Club/yacht club the next time.  We really liked its location.

[hezzier]

We had to book it really far in advance, could have been 6 months.  The 2nd trip we took was more done with only about 3 weeks notice.

[yelloww]

I've stayed both on and off site, but not at Shades of Green. Personally, it doesn't matter to me if I'm offsite. Even when we stayed on WDW property, we still rented a car (I don't have the patience at the crack of dawn to ride on a bus full of loud people- I do enough of that IRL) so we could get from place to place quickly. If not, some of the restaurants we booked would have been a hour to travel by shuttle for less than a 10min drive.

[MaryM]

We never stayed at Shades of Green.  We were hoping to with some friends but it didn't work out.

[SweetandSour]

I always like to update our food findings.

We did the Flower and Garden festival at Epcot. They have booths with food. Some places were a no go, but they all had a binder. It was great, just like food and wine.

[yelloww]

We are home! So on this trip we dealt with dairy, egg, and on allergies for ds, and a gluten allergy for dh.

The only counter service we got a turkey leg at Typhoon Lagoon (which is amazing, btw!) and the popcorn bucket in MK.

Saturday: First night we ate at Captain's Grille at the Yacht club. Food was great. Dh and ds both had Portuguese fish stew there. They had gf rolls for dh and egg replacer rolls for ds (enerG). Ds had tofutti ice cream for dessert. Dh had gf angel food cake for dessert and he said it was probably the best he's ever had (he's only has this allergy three years now and misses desserts.)

We ate there so that we could wander over to the nearby footbridge and watch the Epcot directors after dinner.


Sunday:
Our power day through the parks. We were there from 8am until 12:30am except for 3hrs when we returned to the room to shower for dinner/go to dinner.

Ds and dh had sandwiches for breakfast that we brought in the car with us the day before.

Lunch was at Liberty Tree Tavern in MK. I still do not like that place. Second time. Service is SLOW. Waitstaff was SLOW. Food was only fair. We got burgers there. They had the appropriate rolls for everyone. Fries were done in their own fryer. I'm. I'm not going back- that was our second time there and I only booked it because nothing else was open.

Ran over to Hollywood Studios on the afternoon for a few hours. I don't think we ate anything there.

Dinner was over at Olivia's cafe in Old Key West. This is the third time I've been there and it is a hidden gem! portions are huge, dinner was delicious, and friendly fast service. Again they had a variety of rolls and gave ds an olive oil mix for dipping.  Ds got a pasta seafood dish. Dh got a fish special, I think.(I forget)  but he was blown away with how good it was. This is the one restaurant in all of Mk that I have booked for every trip and probably my favorite restaurant there (I've been to probably a dozen restaurants there.)

DS got more tofutti for dessert and they gave him sprinkles and Hershey's syrup for it.

Then we went back to the park and they powered through more rides since the park closed at 1am. I got a frozen coke icee over in tomorrow land, but otherwise, no food there.

Monday was Typhoon Lagoon. You can bring in coolers there, but no glass. So we brought sandwiches and drinks with us. Ds had that turkey leg for lunch and my bff's kids had the sandwiches we packed. They were staying on site and flew in without a cooler. The allergy free foods were up in the main restaurant there, so we made do with what we brought for the most part.

Dinner that night was with my BFF and her family, so we had  another dairy allergy added in. We ate at Shutters in Old port royal which is part of the Carribean Beach resort. The chef was great and even brought out soy butter for ds and our friend. They had a set of rolls that was dairy egg pn and gf. Warmed up, they didn't taste like cardboard apparently.

The food was great (of course) dh had a steak, ds had another fishy pasta dish, our friend had surf and turf. The dairy allergy peeps had tofutti for dessert. Dh had gf cheesecake and they put bananas foster on it, which is one of his favorite things so it was a huge treat for him.

Then we left the magic of Disney and went over to clearwater. Had some good food over there, but the atmosphere at disney is so much better for FA's. It is the first time that dh hasn't felt awkward about asking gf questions.

[SweetandSour]

Just wanted to stick this in here.

Via nappoli in Epcot can do nut free meals, but pretty much pasta only. We went for pizza, and were told it's a cross contamination issue so it was a no go for me. We actually ended up leaving because we didn't want such a heavy meal with a temp of 99. Disappointing, but they were willing to make safe food if we had wanted to stay.

Also, the Mara quic service at animal kingdom lodge is overpriced and kind of meh. Food was safe, but I wouldn't eat there again.

We tried the quick service in China. It was so good.
San Angel Inn made a safe dessert for us.

We also did an Epcot Wind Down. It's adult centered.  21 and over. They offer it at 4 countries from 9:20-11:00 pm.
You can choose the Rose and Crown,  La CavaDe Tequila,  Morocco,  or Italy. We chose Mexico. They do a flight of alcochol and appetizers. You can also order more drinks and another bite of food.

We learned how tequila is made and had a tasting class. It was really cool. A chef still stopped by our table when they served the food.

Eta: hit post before I was done! We also did a tour and my food was nice and safe. I highly recommend keys to the kingdom if your kids are old enough I believe it's 16 and older.

We also ate at Tortuga in Magic Kingdom. I haven't seen it mentioned,but it's quick service Mexican. The burritos are where it's at.

[spacecanada]

Thanks for the update.  We are going to WDW in November and haven't made dining reservations yet.  We'll be sure to consider all your recent experience. 

Were safe snacks readily available at carts and kiosks around the park, or are they more difficult to find?  (We never had a problem in 2012, but we stuck to fresh fruit most of the time.)

[SweetandSour]

The popcorn has coconut oil, but that's ok for me and we had popcorn. Some carts have nuts. We also split a turkey leg. Dole whips looked ok for my comfort zone and the ingredients were ok to me, so I had one of those too.
The shop in Canada has gummy feet that have a peanut free symbol.  The USA has rice Krispy snacks that we didn't get but claimed they were nut free on the website. I regret not getting one, but we were so full from dinner that night I skipped it.
Bakery is still bad news.
We stuck to splitting a quick service,  like a brat in Germany for example.

They do have the allergy books, so I'm sure you could read about a pretzel or something.

[tigerlily]

I didn't see the new Allergy/Sensitivity kiosk at Animal Kingdom mentioned. Near the entrance. They don't give you all the options at every restaurant but list a few for each restaurant at Animal Kingdom. The kiosk also sells lots of mainly GF items.

Long wait for the pamphlet and the binder system works great.