Dear Disneyland:
First things first: Disneyland is great, it's fun, it's huge, people are nice, character actors are living their roles as princes and princesses... Everything is, to the detail, thought of: easy access for parents with young toddlers, security, fast access to people with reduced mobility, etc
Well everything except the food.
I was expecting a bit more care, more healthy options and less processed. Let's face it: your target group are children! In a time when sugar is being pointed as "addictive and the most dangerous drug of the times" ; where kids are eating at least 3x the amount of sugar they should per day all (causing childhood obesity) all I could find were sugary drinks, sweets, cotton candy and processed foods like hotdogs and burgers.
And believe me I've looked for healthy food.
I'm vegan; if you don't know what this means it is a lifestyle by which we exclude any products made from or tested on animals. This means I also follow a diet that does not include meat, fish, eggs, (cow's) milk, cheese or honey. And yes, there is plenty of food out there, tasty and varied and even the UN has come out saying that a vegan diet is not only healthy but that we should be shifting towards a more plant based diet and less of a meat based diet.
Anyway, as a vegan I had a REALLY hard time at your amusement park. However I spoke beforehand to your reservation support team and they assured that I would have enough vegetarian dishes on the menus (which could be perhaps adapted by removing the cream or cheese) or in last resort I could use your Natama menu: a menu free from all allergy causing ingredients such as milk, eggs, gluten and soy. So we booked our holidays and did not worry about bringing our own food.
Also in no restaurant whatsoever could I find openly a book with the allergen ingredients! As per new UN Labelling Laws, 2014, any foods sold loose at a supermarket or at a restaurant need to have the allergen information readily available and accessible. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN in your park. Every time I had to ask someone working in the restaurant and they would have to find the book and consult the list themselves.
Check it here if you like
http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/labelling_nutrition/labelling_legislation/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/labelling_nutrition/labelling_legislation/index_en.htm
But none of these points are being carried out by Disneyland!
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So our first bad experience was dinner at the Auberge du Cendrillon. The staff was nice trying their best to accommodate my 'allergy' to dairy. Unfortunately there was nothing on the menu I could eat or adapt. The chef served me some grilled vegetables as a starter (cold!!) and then as a main course vegetables, baby potatoes and potato mash (tasted like FISH!). And for dessert we got some melon mixed with canned fruit salad. Not too bad but I was expecting a wow effect for the 66€ we paid per person.
Second day we had a terrible time to find a restaurant to have lunch at. None of your fast food restaurants have heard about the Natama menu, I wasn't told this before.
Then we found out that the veggie burger (the only vegetarian thing on most of your menus) has MILK in it.
So we tried to get food outside the park.
Annette's, sent us away, they had never heard about the Natama menu. We had food at Planet Hollywood which had a vegan dish (penne with pesto) a la carte.
Now for dinner we went to Walt's - the famous Walt's. Fine decoration, lovely staff and wait: they had the Natama menu. What I did not believe was that Natama is just a brand of allergy free food that you can buy ready in a package. Processed food... frozen food, which at Walt's was served exactly like that.
The soup is nice but the pasta is terrible (and was frozen in the middle) and the dessert seems more like something a baby would eat rather than a vegan adult.
We paid 36 euros (!!) to eat frozen processed food out of plastic containers. It is an insult to your customers.
The next day we ate at Bella Notte where they also have one vegan dish a la carte (rigatoni with tomato sauce) - all other fast food restaurants had the some lonely veggie option, the veggie burger with milk. In the evening I cancelled our restaurant in the park and we ate in the hotel - Newport Bay Club. And guess what: the hotel did not have vegan options but the chef served fantastic tasty food: vegetables, potatoes and rice with no butter or milk. And we took salad from the salad buffet.
On our last day we tried the Restaurant des Stars (buffet) and the chef said there was no food for us, everything had milk or butter. So he wanted to serve the Natama menu. I told him how disgusting this food had been the first time and he was ok with us leaving the restaurant instead of presenting alternatives. We ended having lunch at the Rainforest Cafe which was to say the least: not tasty at all and overpriced; 19 euros for a plate of overcooked udon noodles and overcooked asparagus served with tomato sauce. If someone would serve me this anywhere else I would be ranging, but as we were is Disney-over-priced-everything-Land it was starting to be normal.
At dinner time we cancelled again the restaurant in the park and ate at the hotel, where the chef cooked again huge dairy free meal on request.
Not to talk about the amount of fresh fruit you find in park which is almost equal to 0. I only found fresh fruit on our 3rd day, in the Walt Disney Studio Park. Au contraire of the amounts of sugar you find everywhere and in every shop (cotton candy, popcorn, coke, ice creams).
For a park aimed at children, that plays these kind of videos in the hotel room:
This is a joke! You definitely need to revise some food issues!
Please provide more veggie options (one is not enough, 0 is not acceptable), more fresh fruit throughout the park, vegan or simply dairy free vegetarian options that would suit both vegans and ovo-lacto-vegetarians.
You should be aiming at making vegetables and healthy food mainstream and not the odd thing. If vegetables are not tasty, or not available as an option, how are you supposed to order them or promote them to children?
What happened this week at your park is not correct and in some way a form of discrimination. Especially after I asked your reservation desk what I could expect in terms of food. Note that I always mentioned at restaurants that I was allergic and not vegan, not because I am ashamed of my ethical stands but because I thought you MUST have an option for allergic people anyway. Not respecting someone's ethical stands is the same discrimination as the one towards someone not eating meat for religious beliefs. I would really like that this letter opens your eyes to the bad, over processed, sugar inflated food you serve at Disneyland. You need to change this. And I hope quickly, so the next health conscious or vegan will have a better experience than mine.
Thank you, and maybe see you next time.
PS: maybe learn from IKEA who started serving veggie balls alongside their famous meat balls. These veggie balls are vegan, cheaper than the regular meatballs and are delivered frozen to the fast food restaurant. It's THIS easy to serve vegan healthy fast food:
