When I was planning my trip to Walt Disney World (WDW), I did a ton of research on the vegan food available at the different parks. I was very surprised at the amount of options and how well Disney could accommodate a vegan diet. I wanted to share all the resources that I used when planning my vacation and I also wanted to share some tips.

• As soon as plan your trip to Disney World call Disney’s Dining Reservation Center at 407-WDW-DINE to make restaurant reservations. You can book up to 90 days in advance and most of the popular restaurants book up fast! I called a month ahead of my vacation and many of the restaurants were already all booked or had one or two openings.
• Use these resources to help plan your trip:
• Disney World Special Diet Information Site
• Vegan in Disney World blog
• Check out my flickr Walt Disney World folder for all my pictures
• Use Kitty’s resources on the website AllEars.net. I also emailed Kitty when I was planning my vacation and she sent me a huge email with tips and suggestions. Kitty = excellent resource!!!
• Every quick serve food vendors have a book of ingredients of all the food they serve. The book is available at the cash registers or behind the counters. Ask cashier or counter server to see the ingredient book if you have questions about a food item. For example Pecos Bill’s in the Magic Kingdom had a vegan burger but by asking for the ingredients book I found out that the bun was not vegan!
• Understand that Disney views lifestyle choices (being vegan) much differently than dietary restrictions (being allergic to something). In the above picture of a reservation ticket, Disney makes sure to note when a person has an allergy or a special diet. Disney takes food allergies very seriously. For example, I am lactose intolerant and they seemed to take that more seriously than when I told them I was vegan.
• Ask to speak to the chef at the sit down restaurants. I spoke with at least 6 different chefs during my vacation and they were more than happy to prepare something off menu. The key to talking to the chefs is to be patient (most of them are very busy) and not to be demanding (understand that they have unlimited resources but they will try very hard to create a wonderful vegan meal).
• Be patient and plan ahead. Try to eat during non-peak hours since it takes extra time to talk to a chef and have them prepare something special. Also try to eat before you get very hungry; no one wants to be around a grumpy person on vacation. You can also carry a vegan snack bar with you just in case, although there were plenty of vegan snack options available at the parks (pretzels, fresh fruit, pickles, and mixed nuts to name a few).
• If you have access to an iPhone during your vacation use my iPhone friendly Walt Disney World vegan dining resource guide, WDW Vegan (Beta). I used it during my vacation and it was a great alternative to carrying around printed resource sheets.