Disneyland Paris gluten-free –
What can we eat in the Disneyland Paris amusement park? Can you talk as Disneyland Paris gluten-free?
France is by no means one of the most “easy” countries for celiac disease, as it generally doesn’t seem to be well informed, especially when it comes to explaining the problem in restaurants.
But it must be made an important premise…
The association of French celiac disease AFDIAG explicitly states that allergen is among the ingredients, so all those products that do not contain prohibited cereals (for example blé – wheat / barley – rye / orge – barley) can be consumed by the celiac subject.
If you find starch, or modified starch, without any specification, then the product is gluten-free, otherwise, you will find expressions such as “amidon de blé” or similar.
On contaminated products, then the sentence “may contain traces of grain containing gluten”.
This, moreover, is not valid only in France, but also in countries like Switzerland and Belgium, where celiacs make their purchases simply by looking at allergens on the label.
Inside this guide you will find:
We were there for you and we talked directly to a park nutrition manager, so we personally experienced the whole “gluten-free” offer: in this article, we put a definitive point on the gluten-free situation at Disneyland Paris!
Among the celiacs reigns a bit of confusion regarding this park: there are people who have not been able to eat virtually anything and others to which the chefs have cooked specially for them and for their children. Where is the truth?
We took an appointment with a park manager and we finally got all the DEFINITIVE answers we were expecting.
The park no longer offers the Natama menu free of gluten and many other allergens, which was present until 2019. We didn’t miss it anyway, as it was practically inedible!
There is now this sign in all restaurants and eateries, warning people not to worry if they have food allergies and to notify the staff:
This is actually not the case for celiacs, as there are no specifically gluten-free options: in every restaurant you can find the allergen book to refer to in order to know what to order, but which we know is not sufficient for the safety of celiacs.
In fast food style eateries such as “Cowboy Cookout Barbecue” where you order at the cash register, if you say you are celiac you are shown the allergen book, but when ordering I asked for example if the fries, listed as gluten free, were fried in a separate oil, and I was told that they were cooked in the same oil as the fried onions, so for us celiacs they were not suitable (however, I have read of other celiacs who were told they were suitable, so the people taking the orders are not very reliable either. ..). So by ordering based only on the allergen book, and the dishes in this type of restaurant being prepared in advance, there is no way to know if they have been contaminated, and they cannot even be prepared especially for us with proper care.
In the buffet restaurants, both in the park and in the hotels, the management is the same: when you communicate that you have celiac disease, you are given the allergen book, so again no control over contamination, a situation made worse by the buffet mode that is totally unsuitable for celiacs. However, gluten-free packaged bread is served, which is quite good, despite being unheated.
In these types of establishments you can try asking to speak to a kitchen manager to have something prepared separately and brought directly to the table, all will depend on the availability and competence of the person you talk to.
The managers, premising that the absence of contamination in the kitchen is not guaranteed, recommend eating in restaurants with table service and talk to the dining room manager and / or the chef to ask what dishes can be prepared more safely gluten-free.
As in any restaurant, we must therefore specify that we have celiac disease and try to find out if those who are in charge of preparing the dishes, know what celiac disease is and how best to avoid contamination of the dishes.
Notwithstanding what I wrote above, which remains valid, for the past few months Disney has been reintroducing into the park meals without the 14 major allergens, microwave-warmed, which can be found in table service or buffet restaurants.
These meals are therefore safe from the point of view of allergens and contamination, but we go back to the situation several years ago with the Natama menu, which was practically inedible: these also are not really good and for the price at which they are sold (menu ranging from about 22 to 50 euros depending on the restaurant) they are definitely not an ideal situation.
For breakfast, the hotels in the park have packaged foods that must be reserved in advance because they are not always available (bread and some pastries).
The hotels almost all have buffet-style restaurants, so the statement above applies.
To have accurate (and safe) answers about everything we can eat at Eurodisney, we took an appointment and spoke directly with a park manager.
The park manager we interviewed has expressly stated that NONE KITCHEN, either in the park or in the hotels, can be careful about cross-contamination: the various cooked and served dishes can’t be considered 100% safe.
You can certainly find more prepared chefs, willing to cook you fries, rice, or other dishes, but we have to try to understand if they really know how to handle the contamination. Furthermore, keep in mind that most of the staff in the kitchen and halls are made up of “seasonal” boys and girls, who have no preparation on it and often don’t even know what celiac disease is or what gluten is.
So ask the staff which dishes are gluten-free, is a viable route, but it doesn’t give you security from the point of view of cross-contamination.
There is only one restaurant with a gluten-free menu in Disneyland Paris and it’s Planet Hollywood, at Disney Village (an area just off the park, with various venues, created for nightly entertainment, but open all day). Their menu has various gluten-free options: appetizers, burgers, pizza, pasta, salads and grilled meat.
Here is the detailed review “Planet Hollywood gluten-free“.
Also at Disney Village, you can eat a gluten-free focaccia at Starbucks. Reading on the internet it would seem that the gluten-free offer is 2 or 3 sandwiches and a cake, but we found only this focaccia here (while in some Starbucks in Paris we found nothing).
The focaccia was individually wrapped and is heated 2 minutes in the microwave, still wrapped.
I must say that it’s very good, both the bread and the filling and it’s a really big sandwich at the price of € 5.95.
We returned in September 2022, but found nothing gluten-free, although it’s reported on the Internet that a gluten-free sandwich is still available at Starbucks locations.
Ice cream is NOT guaranteed in any park venue, and cross-contamination is absolute. For example in “The Gibson Girl” ice-cream parlor even if there were 1 or 2 gluten-free flavors (always ask staff, tastes may change) most of them, if not already stuffed with biscuits or brownies inside, is served with only one spoon for all flavors.
Also, on top of all ice-creams, they put a waffle: even asking not to put it, the attendant will prepare your ice-cream after touching the waffle of the previous ice-cream 🙁
With the crowd that there is usually in the park, it’s unlikely that the person who serves the ice cream will change the gloves, wash the spoon carefully, or take a new ice-cream pack just to make your gluten-free ice cream … anyway, you can try to ask.
On the ice-cream front there is a good news: from July 2017 at the Disney Village, there is a Grom ice-cream stand, all without gluten, like any Grom ice-cream! In addition to the cone, they also sell gluten-free cookies! To find out more, let us refer to our article about Grom gluten-free ice-cream parlors with all information about their products.
Grom’s setup is “temporary”, so you can find it from June to October.
In September 2022 we no longer found it, so it may have been removed permanently or present only in the summer months.
Bad note … 2 medium cones cost € 10.50.
To make you understand how Disney’s staff is, in most cases, totally unprepared: the first time we went to the Grom stand, we asked the girl who served the ice-cream a confirmation that it was all gluten-free and she told us that it was all with gluten!
We were not absolutely convinced of the thing, as Grom doesn’t have a production chain with gluten, so we came back the next day and ask the new attendant, which instead confirmed to us that it was obviously everything without gluten (ice-cream, cones, and biscuits).
From this anecdote, it can be understood that the manipulation of dishes and foods in “promiscuous” places is certainly problematic for celiacs in the park.
Finally, as packaged ice-creams there are these:
We checked the packs of Algida’s ice creams sold in the park: both Magnum and popsicles, don’t have the word “gluten-free”, but there are no prohibited cereals among the ingredients (go to the beginning of this article to better understand the handling of food at risk in France).
For packaged candies and chocolates sold in the park, we never found the sentence “gluten-free” on neither of the packaging. However, there are always well-defined ingredients and, in some products, there is this sentence: “they may contain traces of cereals with gluten” (go to the beginning of this article to better understand the handling of food at risk in France).
Candies by weight: for this type of candy, the staff has an allergens’ guide and can indicate which candies are gluten-free.
The problem though is that the spoons are all kept together, so candies with gluten are taken with the same spoon as gluten-free candies. Candies have no flour around, so the contamination is not so direct, but it’s good to know they come into contact with the same spoon.
Packaged popcorn in stores doesn’t have the sentence “gluten-free” but have ingredients with specified allergens. Checking well, some packages have cereal with gluten and others haven’t (go to the beginning of this article to better understand the handling of food at risk in France).
The popcorn sold in the park, in the stands where they make them fresh, have gluten. 🙁
The french fries in the fryers of the various facilities of the park are all at risk of contamination and those packaged don’t have the sentence “gluten-free” but, as usual, allergens are well-specified and there are some of them without glutinous ingredients (go to the beginning of this article to better understand the handling of food at risk in France).
In the Walt Disney Studios park there is a food truck (green-colored, on the left as you exit the first building with stores and fast food) that sells only fries, so, at least for cooking, there is no risk of contamination: just ask if the fries being fried are gluten-free (it is good to always ask because they can change without notice the type of fries used).
Definitely, on the “food” front the park is not good, and it’s preferable to take something with us so as not to risk going hungry.
As a restaurant with a gluten-free menu, we have Planet Hollywood, which isn’t bad at all and has a good selection of gluten-free dishes.
We adults, good or bad, can arrange us more easily; the problem arises for children who are, in the end, the true “protagonists” of the “Disney experience“.
In our opinion, the important thing is to not let our children miss the opportunity to visit and enjoy the beauty of the Disney’s park: they haven’t to give up anything, as much as possible, just because of Celiac disease.
Organize yourself by taking your son’s favorite “Disney-style” sweet and savory snacks (popcorn, chips, candies, biscuits, chocolate bars, etc.): as soon as they want something, take out a treat from your “Mary Poppins backpack “, so they will not miss anything about “Disney magic” 😉
In the Disneyland area there is the “Val d’Europe” shopping center (accessible by car, bus, and RER) with a large Auchan supermarket: there you will find plenty of gluten-free products, plus fresh bread of the brand “Genius“, which is very good, even without the need to be warmed or toasted.
Always in the supermarket, you will find many products that are always safe, such as prosciutto (ham) and various Italian or Spanish products that have the sentence “gluten-free”.
So for lunch, a nice sandwich with chips bought at the supermarket, fresh vegetables and fruit, juices, yogurt and everything you like. If you only look at the ingredients, then there are a lot of things to buy: only if you are looking for the sentence “sans gluten” (gluten-free), then buyable products are dropping drastically, but in this supermarket, they are still enough (with Italian and Spanish imports).
For eating, we are all right and then … go on with the rides, the Disney characters, princess and pirate dresses, the shows, the parades and the beautiful “Disney Illuminations” show featuring projections on the castle, fireworks, games of lights, water, and smoke … absolutely not to be missed!
Since you have been asking for “gluten-free” information in Disneyland Paris, we’ve been trying to search as thoroughly as possible on the subject, personally trying out many locals and products and creating this detailed guide on “Disneyland Paris gluten-free“. If you find this information useful, sharing it on your social network, it will help many other people who are not yet well-informed on the subject.
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4 commenti
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Dušan Vrban ·
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Viveresenzaglutine ·
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Dušan Vrban ·
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Viveresenzaglutine ·
Thank you for the excellent review, really helpful. Was afraid that Natama is same disaster as in Gardaland, Italy. Plastic food for hospital. Really bad that having millions of visitors they cannot provide good food for allergies…
Hi, Natama is far way worst! In Gardaland I think you had the Schar’s packaged meal, such as lasagne, cannelloni and pasta. Sorry to tell you that Natama is worst 🙁
In Gardaland since last summer there is also a “gluten-free kiosk” with various gf option such as pasta, meatballs, french fries and more, not bad.
Not even sure what I had in Gardaland, but it didn’t look or taste like anything. 🙂 I’ll have the backpack lunch today for Gardaland, it’s the easiest and best tasting.
Otherwise Paris is indeed quite limited on gluten free in restaurants. Yet Little Nona is a10, must admit. 🙂
That’s for sure! Have fun