We rented a house to go to Romantic Times, the biggest romance convention in the country. It was in Orlando this year, and we decided to have a kitchen and a pool, all to ourselves.
I *highly* recommend this. The grocery store, Publix, was fairly GF friendly, and there's a Whole Foods 20 minutes from Disney World. Without this, we would have been sick, sick puppies.
There wasn't a lot of places that did gluten free. Heck, chips and salsa at the one Mexican place wasn't even safe. To their credit, their gluten free listing did not guarantee anything, as cross contamination was a problem. That was at a place called Chevy's. Not a chain we'll go to again. They get points for honesty, though. They really do.
We also discovered that while Disney is super aware of GF issues, and are very willing to help, there is no real gluten free breakfast out and about in the park. We ended up at the bakery watching everyone eat pastry while we had a banana. They can't even do a latte with soy milk. So...
The Ener-G hamburger buns they use are great, though, and the fries are all GF, so we had a tasty lunch in the Magic Kingdom.
The Wyndham resort on International, just off I4, was where our convention was, and their restaurant is mostly Italian food, which made us glad we didn't stay there. However, the day we had lunch there, the waiter, Ron, made sure we got a very safe chicken caesar salad. He rocked our socks.
The big winner was an unexpeted trip to Fridays off International Drive. 6424 Carrier Dr, Orlando, for you GPS types. Our hostess (I think her name was Michelle. Sorry if I'm wrong, honey) waiter Daniel, and their manager Brad, went way out of their way for us. Brad came with the allergy list, sat with us and helped us figure out what to eat, and then cooked part of it himself. Daniel was super nice about keeping the gluten eater's food separate from ours, and on checking in with us to make sure everything was good. It was only the second restauarant meal in Orlando that had been totally safe, and we really, really appreciated how a busy chain would really go to great lengths to make us safe and comfortable. It was a wonderful experience.
Thanks to Ron and Daniel and Brad for our good times in Orlando!
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