Disneyland Paris at Lunch Time (part 1)

I am amazed how on one hand Disneyland Paris has timon and pumba on TV telling children to be healthy and eat their vegetables and fruit and on the other hand I have not been able to find fresh fruit since I got here. It's all about sugar and fat, and sadly meat.

We were looking for lunch today: without meat or dairy or eggs. It was nearly impossible !

1) we went into the Challet de la Marionette as on our allergy leaflet it said they should have the Natama menu and some veggie options.

They had a veggie burger with fries, but before ordering I asked the girl if it had dairy.

She took out a huge book with all allergy advice ingredients and told me that it had milk. She suggested that I take the chicken nuggets instead but I explained we don't eat meat. 
Her reply: "oh that makes things much harder !!"

Me: "Ok, so what can I eat?"

Her reply "chips?!?!?"...

So we left.

Challet de la Marionette is not vegan friendly 

2) Casey's Corner
We walked down Main Street and went into an American diner. There was a man at the door handing menus. I kindly asked him if there was anything without dairy and eggs he swiftly said "NO" so we left.

Apparently there was a salad on the menu but given his kindness of not trying to accommodate us we didn't bother staying.

Casey's Corner is not vegan friendly

3) We tried another restaurant from the allergy leaflet that should have the Natama menu (the gluten and egg and dairy free menu that Disneyland Paris advertises to have throughout the park): Annette's in the Disneyland Village area. 
We went in and there was a girl at reception. I asked her about the Natama menu showing her my Disneyland leaflet and she barely spoke english. She said there was "this" menu. I asked where, what menu options did I have, what could I eat. 
The lady got annoyed and pulled out a huge thick book: with all allergen advises and ingredients from the dishes they serve; without saying a word. I checked and the only two dairy free options were: chips and ketchup. 

So we left.

Annette's is not vegan friendly, or friendly at all. 

4) We tried out luck just in front of Annette's at Planet Hollywood. We were received by Natalia, a wonderful nice girl, who suggested the penne a la pesto with roasted vegetables for me. I also took a mango and raspberry smoothie. The service was quick, impeccable, the food delicious (there's also a portobello mushroom burger on the menu which you can order without cheese) and everyone was super nice to us. They also take your picture if you'd like a souvenir.

Planet Hollywood is vegan friendly

I rate Planet Hollywood

8/10 for the quality of food

9/10 for the decoration

10/10 for staff's friendliness 

8/10 for the price

Disneyland Vegan: Breakfast at the Newport Bay Club

We asked for information about things we could eat at the buffet breakfast.

The lady told us she would prepare soy milk (cold or warm as we'd like).

At the buffet they had mini breads, mini croissants, mini chocolate croissants, jam, all bran flakes, orange and apple juice, coffee, fruit salad (kinda looked like just out of a can) and at the end the lady came to our table with dairy and gluten free biscuits for us to choose from. Very nice!

I rate this

9/10 for the quality of food

9/10 for the decoration 

9/10 for staff's friendliness 

Vegan friendly - very much (if requested!)

Downside: I missed fresh fruit. I expected that a big hotel, part of a resort, such as this (aimed at families and children) would have fresh fruit such as mangoes and melons and bananas at breakfast. Maybe even someone making smoothies on demand with water or coconut water... ahah !

Bonus: we brought our own dairy free cheese and they have a fridge for "special needs people": such as allergy free products and medicament. So if you need to store your own food the reception will store it in a separate fridge.

The following days I found processed fruit for babies, cocoa powder with no dairy and grapefruit juice.

Disneyland Vegan: Auberge de Cendrillon vegan review

Disneyland Paris Vegan Experience review #1 - Auberge de Cendrillon 

Holidays at Disneyland ! Loads of things to do and eat... But what happens if you are vegan?

We have booked a couple of days and have breakfast, teatime and dinner included in our holiday package.

First we arrived and were incredibly well greeted by Ana Maria and Joana at the front desk. Ana Maria explained us everything about the parks and provided the meal vouchers. She exceeded expectations when she got us a leaflet about allergy meals and the best restaurants to get them.

Forseeing that it would be hard to eat around here, after looking at the restaurant menus online, I decided to simply say I am allergic. Not that I'm ashamed to say I'm vegan, I just find that unfortunately people tend to be more open to make changes for you for health reasons (even religion!!) than ethical beliefs.

So the first Disney Paris restaurant we tried was Auberge de Cendrillon 

We were however 12 minutes late to our table reservation because our bus had been late to the hotel.

[On the way in a young women and her daughter whispered "don't take the chicken", she looked quite angry. I answered "we don't eat meat". She stopped for a moment looked at us and said "that's very wise!". Not a great first impression! ]

Then we were greeted by a not-so friendly lady who, upon discovering we did not speak French, pointed nervously to her watch and groaned. Not a great second impression either!!

We were taken to our table. I pointed to the waiter that I did not want to eat anything with eggs or milk or meat, "maybe something from the allergy friendly menu?"

They do not have the Natama menu at this restaurant. (but should)

They suggested the vegetarian option which sounded very nice but upon confirming with the chef it turned out it had egg in it.

So the chef offered to cook something just for me. 

As a starter they served grilled vegetables with rocket salad. Now this wasn't great: the vegetables were cold (!!) and the rocket salad was dry (no dressing). But it was vegan and I was happy. (I believe this is part of their regular menu, which they serve with an egg on top)

Then I got served some baby potatoes with potato mash and mixed veggies. Another big rocket salad as a side with no dressing.

The potato mash tasted unfortunately a bit like fish, maybe cross contaminated (!!). The veggies were good and I got some olive oil (on request) for the salad dressing.

For dessert we got a fruit salad with melon, watermelon, apple and grapes (half was fresh fruit the other fruits seemed canned).

This is one of the Disneyland Character Dining experience restaurants. So this means while you are having dinner Cinderella, Prince Charming, Rapunzel, Sleeping beauty and many other Disney characters will come over and say hi and take pictures with you. That's the big plus at the restaurant, and that's what you're paying for here, not the food.

It's not a cheap meal, the food hasn't the wow effect you expect  for the price(even the "regular" foods off the menu are not that good; my boyfriend asked for the vegetarian option and it was very bland) but the experience is unique and the people working there try their best to accommodate your dietary requirements. 

I rate this

5/10 for food

9/10 for ambience 

8/10 for friendliness 

5/10 for price

Vegan friendly - yes (if requested!) but not great

I am a better Vegan than you are

In my opinion Veganism is a very personal path, actually a very intimate as it usually changes a lot in your life, not only your meals. Being Vegan for me opened my eyes to a lot of things, not only animal rights and slavery of course, it has made me realize a lot how things are connected in our planet (such as climate changes) and how our society makes us believe things (like the big Milk Myth).
I think when someone wants to start leading a Vegan lifestyle it needs to be for the right reasons, and when this happens, people won't just start eating meat one day. When done for the right reasons it is IMPOSSIBLE to go back to eating meat. This is a lot like doing a diet or giving up cigarettes, you need to want it and you need to know why you are doing it.

It is also important that when someone shows an initial willingness to do a life changing thing, like going Vegan, to have support. The first place where people will look is of course other people who have done it, so other Vegans.
I see a trend online, new vegetarians or recently turned Vegans go online and look for advice and for help from other Vegans and most of the time it hurts me to see what i call the:

I AM A BETTER VEGAN THAN YOU

effect. Being Vegan is all about showing compassion; towards everyone: humans and non humans. Why are we so hateful towards people [yes some still eat meat and eggs and milk] who are open minded enough to want to know more, who want to know what alternatives they have in their local shop to mode to a more compassionate and sustainable diet.

Should we really be telling them off just because they bought a pack of cookies that contained a hidden milk derived product? Should we not instead be happy that more and more people are concerned about avoiding non-vegan products? Instead of trying to compare who is "more vegan", who is a "better" or "purer" vegan we should motivate them to make even better choices.
Next time instead of hate towards them suggest a vegan alternative you love,
or tell them it's ok, we all have made that mistake at some point, that ALL vegans spend most of our time reading through ingredient lists.

Above all, show compassion about their choices not hate.
Nobody likes the vegan police, so why be one of them? Let's be compassionate about our differences and understand that everyone needs their time and needs to make some mistakes to reach their goal. 
Some of us turned vegan overnight after a video or a book, others decided to cut out one animal derived food at a time;
for some it was a quick and easy change, for others it was a long and difficult one
but the most important thing is where we all reach. And sometimes we can only reach our goals together. Next time you meet someone that is not being the perfect vegan you think they should be, understand their differences and congratulate them on their achievements rather than judging them for their mistakes. Your push of motivation might just be what they needed to hear today to continue on the right path. 

I was not raised Vegan

Knorr: suitable for vegans?

Is knorr suitable for vegans? 

These are my favourite vegetable stock cubes, they have incredible fresh taste as their texture is not dry but gel-like. Their ingredient list doesn't show any animal derived product but here's a confirmation of SFV:

So you're vegan? What's that?

No, I don't eat meat, not even a ''bit''.

... Err do you even know what a protein is?

No, I am not refusing your kindness in offering me cookies, I just don't want to eat milk and eggs.

Yes, I know fish is "healthy", it's an ethical choice not a calorie counting issue.

Sometimes I miss cheese, yes. But then I think that babies should be with their mothers.

Oh, eating 3 bananas for breakfast is weird? But eating baby pig sliced corpse with hen's period and coagulated breast milk from a cow is not weird?

No, my blood tests are fine. What about your cholesterol?

Why? Because I love animals.

Oh the Chinese are savages because they eat dogs? What was your lunch again: steak with bacon was it?

...protein? As if protein is our only concern: did you know that only 11% of meat eating adults eat enough fibre?

Plants have calcium too. Have you ever seen a women lactating without being pregnant?! Boom.

It's just hard if you are not willing to make changes and try new things.

Have you heard about Veganuary?! Sign up, you'll love it ! 

...

I told you: being vegan is great ! :)