Allergy Friendly Parks

Welsh Mountain Zoo
" We are able to cater for vegetarians, gluten free, dairy free, nut free and sugar free diets. Please phone in advance and specify requirements 01492 532938."

Disney Disney with food allergies Stories and tips
Storyland New Hamphire click Menu Ingredient guide

Silver Dollar City Allergy information Menu guide and prepakaged snacks and meals available

Alton Towers (UK) Allergy information

Hershey Park Allergy information, places to eat

Holiday World Santa Claus Indiana Food Allergy Information

Santa's Village in Jefferson, New Hampshire Food Allergy Information

Jennifer B, from Food Allergy Buzz, Allergy Review of Sesame Place Longhorne Pennsylvania

Calaway Park Calgary Alberta
"If someone in your party has a food allergy, cheak with an employee first at each location and they will give you a copy of the ingredients used in each product."

Dollywood Pigion Forge, TN Allergy information link (I had problems with link)

Australia Zoo
"A menu has been designed specifically for patrons who have food allergies and intolerences

Dorney Park &Wildwater Kingdom Allentown PA Special diets

* It is always up to you to decide what is safe and plan ahead

Toronto, Ontario with Nut Allergies

Our family recently took a trip to Toronto for a little family vacation. I will admit, I was nervous about food. We spent two nights in a boutique hotel because my husband had stayed there before and knew what to expect. We chose against a family hotel because of the pets and ice cream bars.

Our first night we inteded to have ice cream for dinner at Lootsalicious the peanut free ice cream parlour, only to find out it was closed. I wasn’t familiar with the territory so we weren’t up for searching for the nut free bakeries. We ate dinner at the old stand by – McDonald’s. We were pretty disappointed, however things could only go up from there!

The next morning it was raining! So we hopped in a cab and visited the Ontario Science Centre. We had a great time riding the “magic stairs” aka escalators. There were a couple food areas in the museum but there were also allergen signs mentioning they food labels were available. We didn’t stop for a snack, we went back to the hotel for lunch. They boys enjoyed eating their spaghettios in the cafe. They felt like real business travelers! After lunch they went back to the room to play in their “office,” the desk and chair. I think my son’s favorite part about the trip was the shower! It is pretty magnificent.

Later that afternoon the concierge made a few phone calls for us regarding dinner. She found several restaurants able to accomodate our allergy. We chose PizzaRustica (www.pizzarustica.ca) It is an upscale pizza parlor with a French flair. They do not use pine nuts in their pesto and actually mention food allergy accommodations on their menu. The owner was very knowledgeable and understanding. They also deliver. I took the boys to eat pizza outside just as the Blue Jays game let out. Lots to watch while we waited for our pie! It was very tasty., flat pizza with sauce, sausage and mozzarella cheese. They boys ate 1/2 a piece each, however it was comforting to have a place close by where we could safely eat and take leftovers back to our room for later.

Our trip consisted of hours of walking. We had a great time in the Eaton Center, although I still don’t understand the elevator system. Some floors we could only go up or down not both & if we were on the wrong floor we couldn’t get out without travelling to the other end of the mall. And the ice cream. My kids loved the big fountain in the center of the mall, however all the kids loved the fountain and all the kids had ice cream. Again we had to talk about our allergies. But they forgot about it rather quickly. Daddy met us for a walk and we went back to our room to jump on the bed and watch a movie!!

read more from Chris Popek's article

Second Trip Toronto, Ontario

2nd toronto trip.....we found Richman's peanut free bakery!!! They were fantastic!!! It took 20 minutes to convince my son it was OK to be in the bakery.

We purchased bread, cookies the size of their heads, small cookies, muffins, bagels, donuts, and biscotti. It was definitely worth the drive & our hotel told us they would order bread from there for us for our next stay!!!
We also visited Centre Island. We had a great time on the rides. It was crowded & I was nervous about the food situation but everything was ok. I just wish there had been something safe for my kids to eat, to tide them over. We also visited the fire department on the island...as well as the station on Adelade in toronto!!! We had a great visit. Reviews by Chris Popek from Clean Out The Pantry

Travelling to Amusement Parks:
Amusing? Sometimes

Go to the website of the amusement park you will be visiting and look for allergen information, usually somewhere under food/restaurants. More and more locations are posting this information on their sites. Print it out and keep a copy for reference at the park. HOWEVER, you never know how often the information is updated. Or maybe they ran out of the hot dog buns listed on the site and had to substitute with another brand. You just don't know, so you still need to be on the alert at the park.

With that in mind, look for contact information. Using the Hershey Park website as an example, yes, they do list the ingredients of some allergen-free foods online. They also provide contact information for those with questions about allergens. Use this contact information. Personally, I like to use email because then I have everything in print. Explain your situation, then ask whatever questions you have, such as:

May we bring allergen-free food with us into the park?
Who do we ask at the restaurants to let us see ingredient labels?
Who do we contact if we run into a problem at the park?
Etc.

Even if some of these answers are provided on the website, I like to have them with me in print in an email from a high-ranking employee of the park. Then if I run into any resistance, I can pull out the "permission slip."

This is an especially important technique for parks that don't have as many allergen-free options. We have been allowed to bring food for Katherine to various locations that don't usually allow outside food and have never been questioned. But I had my email copies with me just in case someone asked. In these instances, I had to dig around on the websites a little more to find someone to write to. Sometimes I've used the generic "contact us" address and my email was forwarded to the appropriate person. A reply may take awhile, so as soon as you know where you will be going, start writing.

Traveling with food-allergic children is stressful. Sending them off on their own is even more stressful. So until all amusement parks become as forward-thinking as Holiday World, write those emails. Write them before to ask your questions, and write them after to say, "Thank you."

Posted by Sarah Hatfield at No Whey Mama Blogspot

Petition For Banning Nuts

Banning Peanuts From Airlines (click to sign petition)
This petition has been started by Elizabeth Goldenberg, a Canadian lawyer and the parent of a child with food allergies, as an urgent call to action to support the proposed ban of peanuts on airlines.

Airplane policies regarding allergies

Northwest Airlines
Peanut Allergies

Continental Airlines
Special Meals and Nut policy

Air Malta
Special Meals

Air Canada 
Customers with special needs and  Special Meals

Sunwing Airlines  Special Assistance

Air Transit  Special services

US Airways  Peanut allergies

Hawian air  Customers with Disabilities

American Airlines  Planning Ahead

Westjet  Guests with Allergies

Delta  Special Concerns

Virgin Blue (Austrailia)  Medical Conditions

British Airways (UK)  Special meals

Egypt Air  Special Meals

Cathay Pacific  Peanut Allergy and  Special Meals

Sama  Food and Drink

Travelling by plane with dietary restrictions

Many commercial airliners offer gluten free, low lactose and allergen free meals, as well as a wide range of medical, religious and cultural in-flight meal options.

Various airliners now offer - particularly on international and long haul flights - special meals for passengers with dietary restrictions of medical, religious or cultural nature. There are many options depending on the airliner, class and route, including for example: vegetarian and vegan meals, meals for diabetics, low salt, Kosher, low cholesterol, meals for kids and toddlers, Hindu meals, Muslim meals, in some cases meals appropriate for the blind, as well as gluten free, low lactose and meals for those with one or more food allergies.

read more by Cynthia Schuck in the article from Special Gourmets Travelling by plane with dietary restrictions

Helpful Website

LonelyPlate.org allows the allergic consumer/parent, to rate and search out restaurants, hotels, airlines and kid-friendly venues from an allergy perspective. Search by state or province within United States or Canada.

Airplane and travel tips

We've traveled a lot both domestically and internationally with our allergy kid. Fortunately, we haven't had any reactions. We take precautions and always travel with our medication. We take the chewable Benadryl tablets just for convenience.

A product that has really been helpful to us has been Plane Sheets (http://www.planesheets.com/),
which reduce the possibility of my little guy picking up peanut dust from the airline seat.
I would also caution travelers to examine their rental cars. I was so preoccupied with the condition of the plane seats that I did not think about the cars we were renting... which are often times, really filthy! When we went to Disney in Orlando, I found opened bags of snacks under the seats!

Read more of Ria Sharon's article on traveling with food allergies here.

Trip to Jamaica,
did not go as well as we had hoped

When we arrived, we filled out a form about our allergy, and were told it would be given to the chef. The first problem was there were three restaurants, and we didn’t know which chef. The first night we ate at a restaurant, we asked about the ingredients in the chicken fingers. We were told there were no milk products, but our daughter had a reaction, and later when my husband read the ingredients, there was milk in the ingredients.

So we had planned for that, and had taken a suitcase full of food for our daughter. By the second last day we were there, they finally seemed to be expecting her and asked what special meal we would like them to make, but we said we’d just prefer to use our own food. They were agreeable to heating up a can of soup, or a package of noodles for supper. They did have soy milk. We were also disappointed that the only breakfast option was a buffet meal – fortunately we had taken a box of cereal.

Although we were disappointed (there was also no fridge in our room as we had asked, but since we took all non-perishable goods we didn’t need one anyway), we managed rather well. We had no trouble with customs and taking food into Jamaica, as I had a complete list of what was included in the suitcase, and since we ate/left most of it down there we had no issues on our return.

I was disappointed in Air Transat, as we had requested a lactose-free meal for the plane, and none was available. We were told that specialty meals were not available on flights that were not overseas, but our travel agent was not told that when we requested the meal, and we’ve heard mixed comments about whether or not that is the case.

I guess the long and short of it is that because we were prepared for worst case scenario, we were fine. I think in the future I would either do the same thing (make sure we had food for all our meals), or plan a trip in a location where we could rent a kitchenette, or have access to a vehicle to go to a store and find our own food (I’m not a very adventurous traveler, so hopping in a cab to go to a local grocery store is not a comfortable option for me). Fortunately our daughter’s reaction was mild (although not anaphylactic, we carry an epi-pen). I can’t say the experience was one that gave me any confidence about traveling with allergies. I wish I had a better experience to report.


From Kathie send comments, or questions to resolutewriter@yahoo.ca