<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Thanks for all the responses.  Here is a summary:

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Multiple people suggested Story Book Cafe in California Adventure park.  It is the *main* GF
kitchen in the Anaheim parks.  Apparently (from one of my teenage celiac friends) they *always* have GF bread, muffins, brownies, etc.  on hand. Give them advance notice, and they can do even more. The California Adventure chef is the one who trained most of the other
Disney chefs in GF technique.  They have a GF menu.

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Grand California is awesome!  Bill is the chef at the Grand Californian/Storytellers, and his phone number is 714/239-5610. For general gluten-free dining in the park the
number is 714/781-3569. Ask for Chris and he will give you a full rundown. Make sure to call him the day before you go.  Storyteller's restaurant offers many gluten free options:  Spaghetti, pizza, warm bread, toasted sandwiches, etc. Even still, all of the restaurants we went to, I would just ask for the chef to come to our table and he/she was always extremely knowledgeable on what gluten free meant, and could always accommodate us nicely.

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Several people said that all of the popcorn and cotton candy in the park is GF.  They do have
fruit stands at the park, and McDonalds stands which have GF french fries, shakes,
etc.  Many people take additional snacks with them.
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When we entered a park restaurant we asked for the manager re. a special diet request and they usually did the ordering personally with us or even brought out the head chef. We had nothing but pleasant assistance in every restaurant.

CA Adventure is a different story.  They do not have the same contract with vendors as D’land, so they are limited.  We just went to their McDonalds which is called Sky Palace/Rocket Burgers or something like that and had a bunless burger and fries.  I would make sure you ate first before going into that park.  They have lockers right at the entrance so snacks from home would be a good idea.  It has more of a fun, old-fashioned carnival, junk food feel.

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The only place that I feel comfortable recommending is Ariel's Grotto.  We call from our cell phone during the day (the Disney Dining #) and make a reservation.  The chef always comes out to talk with us.  It's a easy character meal with Ariel at the entrance and then a few other characters and a conga line.
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The key is to contact them directly for every trip to get the latest and greatest information.  Also, the phone number for Disneyland's (California) Chef Chris is (714) 781-3463 for your convenience. It is very important to speak to a chef or manager for any trip because the menus change and the vendors change ingredients without notice.

Notify Chef Chris Justesen by email at [log in to unmask] or Chef > Alan Crowder for Disneyland Magic Kingdom - [log in to unmask] and > Chef Ricky Hidalgo for Disney's California Adventure [log in to unmask]

For Walt Disney World in Florida, the contact person is Brenda Bennett 407-824-5967 or [log in to unmask]
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Disney's California Adventure (DCA) might as well be an extention of Disneyland itself.
Both parks have a nearly identical food situation.  The only real difference is that the food tends to be better in DCA.  You can make reservations for both at the same number:
714.813.3463.  At the family and character dining restaurants, it always pays to call
ahead - the day before if you can.  I have never requested a GF meal ahead of time, though.  I will have to try that next time.  Your best bet at DCA is either The Vinyard Room (mostly Italian, and pasta heavy, so I haven't been there since my diagnosis, but it is the best restaurant in the resort), or the character dining at Ariel's Grotto, which the kids seem to love.  Reservations at both are generally a good idea.  Now for the warning:  I have a problem calling Dinseyland or DCA very GF friendly.  While the management tries to be as accomodating as possible to those with special dietary needs, the staff itself tents to be somewhat
undertrained in such matters.  So, please be very careful and take nothing for granted when eating there.  The good thing is, once you find someone who knows what they are
talking about, they will tell you everything you want to know.  The Cast Members (CMs) at all food locations will show you complete ingredients information upon request, even at the outdoor vending carts.  At the dining locations and restaurants, you can almost
always get the head chef to come and talk with you personally.  Unfortunately, when the locations get busy, these sorts of accomodations tend to be disruptive and the CMs can get
dismissive of requests, even though meeting them is policy.  For this reason, I strongly recommend you schedule your meals for off-peak times.

The biggest problem is lack of consitency between dining locations.  French fries are my big issue - some locations have dedicated fryers but most share them with other breaded foods.  There is no way to know this without waiting in line, and often the CMs taking orders does not know.  I have had head chefs at Disneyland actually go get me an order of fries from
one of the McDonalds french fry carts, which is a very positive example of how accomodating they can be, but it does not always work out this way.
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In Anaheim if you are looking for a nice restaurant check out JW Steakhouse in
the Anaheim Marriot (next to the Convention Center).  I had steamed lobster tail, mushrooms and green salad with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I was fine, like eating at home. He even left the paprika off of the lobster tail just in case. It was delicious. I also had a bite of steak (which is aged and seasoned with only salt and pepper) and it was delicious as well. I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone with Celiac. I'm not sure how kid friendly it is, but we went when they opened (at 5) and it was not busy and I would assume they
would be accommodating.
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If you go to City Hall when you first enter Disneyland, you can ask for the GF dining info and they will give you a printed sheet with info about what is GF at each dining location in Disneyland and in California Adventure.
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We have eaten lunch at Redd Rockett's Pizza Port (in Disneyland's Tomorrowland) many times -- you do not need advance notice and the chefs are very knowledgeable about the GF diet -- they will make you rice pasta in a separate, clean pot and will let you know which of the sauces are GF.
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Try going to www.goodhealthpublishing.com for a list of 59 national/regional restaurants and their lists of gluten/wheat free items. There's also a gluten free dining card that can be presented to restaurant personnel to ease the ordering process.








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