Yes, yes, I know it is April 30th, and I’ve been back for about seven weeks. But the world definitely gets in the way of writing out all of the details of my trip.
Luckily, a few things happened when I was writing it:
- I realized that I was thismuchcloser to my trip next year
- I relived all of the magical memories. And yes, that is so “Disney cliche”, but if you’ve ever been there, that is exactly what they are
- I smiled for every second that I typed moments that I’ll never forget with my ultimate mom
- I was just so, so happy. Really! I could hardly sleep. (That might also be because it was my mom’s birthday party celebration day and I was thoroughly enjoying making, eating components of, then finally having a piece of this:
It makes it a little hard to sleep when you give up coffee 1.5 years ago then slam your body with copious amounts of caffeine.
Anyway!
I have finally updated half of the trip report. There are new versions of the tips in the 2012 report (and many of the old tips still apply), and I’ve done all of the counter service/quick service reports. It has the link to the 2012 table service reports, but it will not work yet (I’ll update when I’m finished).
I try to be as detailed as possible so please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions. In addition, if there is a place that you wanted to eat at that Idon’t mention, please comment and ask me about it–chances are I might have went there and there were no options available so I left (for counter service).
Table service, on the other hand, was prepped well in an advance. We did our 180 Advance Dining Reservations and were all prepped with our options:
- Sanaa
- Raglan Road
- Boma for both breakfast and dinner
- Kouzzina for both breakfast and dinner
- Citricos
- 1900 Park Fare
- Hoop Dee Do Musical Revue
- Le Cellier
- La Hacienda de San Angel
- The Wave
We had Mama Melrose on the list and Kona Cafe of the list and they were both replaced. When I spoke to the chef at Mama Melrose, he said that their only option for me (gluten-free and vegan) was pasta with plain marinara sauce, which I didn’t want to have (a little boring). We ended up going to Raglan Road instead on a whim.
We also replaced Kona Cafe because the chef didn’t call me back–even after two chefs called him and asked him to. We went to Kouzzina again because we (a) love the food (b) love the chefs (c) became friendly with them and had an amazing time (so we went to Kouzzina three times in total).
Finally, we didn’t actually make it to Boma for dinner. Without getting too graphic, I had a stomach flu, and the day before we left (a Thursday), I started vomiting at 3pm and didn’t stop until the Sunday. I’ve never been so sick in my life (I hadn’t thrown up in years), and when I look at my Boma details from last year, I still have some heartache. I was so sad to pick up that phone and cancel our reservation that evening.
Anyway, please check out the tips and the counter service reviews here.
I will be updating the rest soon!
Hi Laurie! Our 8 year old son has dairy, egg, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, coconut and sesame allergies and just wanted to let you and your readers know that we did Kona Cafe a few weeks ago (were there for Spring Break). Chef Brett was the special diets chef the night we ate there and he was fantastic! He came out and took time at our table getting all our allergies down. He suggested different options and assured us if he didn’t like what was made, he could make something else. Our son ended up choosing rice noodles with marinara sauce that he only ate 3 bites of (it was a bit sticky since they were rice noodles), but Chef Brett quickly replaced it with chicken teriyaki and rice as promised. And the highlight was dessert. Our 2 other sons got the regular make your own sundae, and the 8 year old got an almost identical one with strawberries to replace the M&Ms and Rice Dream ice cream. It ended up being our favorite meal of the trip this year!!
Thanks for continuing to share your tips, reviews and stories to help everyone navigate the food options. It can be very overwhelming to plan vacations with different diets. This was our 2nd year doing Disney and the notes I had from last year combined with tips from your site and others really made a difference!
I am so glad you piped in about Kona Cafe! I will definitely have that on my list for next year, then–seems like you had a great experience!
I am also very pleased it helped with your trip
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