Recently, we visited Tokyo Disney Resort for the first time and absolutely loved it! We were blown away by the resort and had the best time. I even managed to eat pretty well while we were there, much to my surprise!

I was a little nervous ahead of our trip as Japan is known for it’s lack of coeliac safe food generally, so I really wasn’t sure what to expect inside the resort. Staying onsite in the Disney ‘bubble’ also worried me as I knew I wouldn’t be able to access as many convenience stores and restaurants as in the middle of the city.

Before we went out to Japan I did as much research as possible so I knew how to read packaging to check for gluten (this was trickier than in the UK!) and was clued up on how to navigate the trip as a coeliac.

I’m hoping this post will give you an insight into how I found Tokyo Disney Resort as someone with coeliac disease and reassure you that it’s possible to survive the trip without completely starving!

To note before we begin: I would say it was generally challenging to know what was safe for me to eat in Japan, despite all my research. As time went on during our trip, I got used to the way things were working for me and I got more confident making decisions about what food felt safe enough for me to eat.
In places not specifically offering gluten free options I found it difficult to clarify details on cross-contamination without getting a default response that the food is not safe for me (even though sometimes this felt like a misunderstanding and it was actually safe). So I started to make decisions on what to avoid myself.
At home in the UK I would be way more strict with determining safe foods as there are no communication barriers and much clearer food labeling. I knew going to Japan would be a challenge and I decided to do the best I could do, making sure I was eating as safely as possible. I also took food in our case with me as back up in case of absolute emergency!
Most of the time on our trip we ate at places that I had researched and knew were coeliac safe, but being at the parks meant sometimes there were no 100% safe places available! I took a coeliac translation card with me that I could show people to explain my dietary requirements.

Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

First, we stayed at the stunning Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Admittedly, we found the hotel booking process quite hard to work out but in the end we decided to bite the bullet and spend the money to stay onsite. Despite the hefty price tag, the hotels were incredible and made our stay at the resort extra special.

Convenience store

Looking Glass Gifts, a small convenience store inside the hotel, was pretty well stocked with food and snacks. I didn’t really use the shop as I had brought SoyJoy bars and other snacks with me from our time in Tokyo city. However, if I had needed to there were a few safe options like fruit and Calbee crisps to pick up.

We didn’t visit the breakfast buffet at this hotel or eat in any of the restaurants, so can’t comment on how well they might have catered for me. I brought a bunch SoyJoy bars with me to the resort from central Tokyo which I ate for breakfast and mid-morning snacks.

Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta

We also had one night at Hotel MiraCosta, which was somehow even more stunning! We stayed here so that we could make use of a Disney Vacation Package to guarantee us entry to Fantasy Springs.

We bounced between hotels during our stay, but the luggage service meant we could have our bags moved to the next room while we were in the parks.

Breakfast at Oceano

Included in our stay was breakfast at the buffet in Oceano. Probably one of the fanciest buffets we’ve eaten at before! We even had a view of the park from the window.

As we were in a rush to eat and get into the park, I didn’t ask for the special dietary menu or for fresh food out of the kitchen (which I usually would when eating at a buffet). Obviously being a buffet I was a little careful with what I chose, but I had some fruit, yogurt (which I could read the packaging for) and veggies. All the items on the buffet were clearly marked with all allergen information so it felt safe enough for me personally as everything was plain.

I found generally there didn’t seem to be cross-contamination red flags with people using the wrong serving utensils for buffet items, it seemed like everyone made sure to use the correct utensils, but of course there’s no way to know for sure!

The parks

My main tactic in the parks was to use the allergen info webpage to search for safe foods and locate them at the different places you could grab food. I even added the webpage as an ‘app’ on my phone as I was using it so often.

Every time I used the page I had to accept the terms and conditions and select the park, plus my allergens - which was quite long! But once I’d done that I would use the ‘search webpage’ function to search the long list for restaurants, carts or even specific food items like ‘fries’.

Of course, the listed allergen I selected on the page was just ‘wheat’ in line with Japan’s food labeling requirements, so there could have been gluten in other forms not listed. I was aware of this and took it into account when deciding whether I thought food was safe to eat - more on this in my note at the top of this page!

Fries

I was able to eat chips! This was a great find for me as I knew I could fill up on some fries if I couldn’t find any alternatives. I did discover that they seemed to be serving more than one type across the parks, some of which contained wheat, so I had to check the allergen page carefully so I knew which ones I could have.

Each time I ordered fries we would go to the restaurant or pick up point to check that they were being fried in their own fryer. Every time, they were. It seemed they were making so many fries that they always needed their own fryer! Worth double checking though.

Meat snacks

Another great find was the smoked turkey leg. This was available in both parks so I had a few of these while we were there - super tasty and really filling. Marked as not containing wheat on the webpage, I deemed it safe enough to eat as the turkey appeared plain (just smoked!)

I also discovered the Tandoori Chicken at a few locations, which was a delicious tikka-style boneless chicken piece. Again, given this was marked as not containing wheat and was made with Indian flavourings so I assumed it was safe to eat.

Once or twice, I would locate some safe fries and either a turkey leg or tandoori chicken to make my own meal up - often the safe fries were offered at a different location so we had to do two separate pick ups!

Special Dietary Menu

I also tried the vegetable curry with rice, which is part of the special dietary menu offered at a few locations. There’s also a stew version but I didn’t try that.

When I made order I showed my allergy card to the server and a manager came over to put our order together. They showed me a tablet with all the allergen information on it and confirmed which allergens I needed to avoid. They called in the order to the back and we had to wait a bit so it seemed to be made up separately.

The curry was pretty nice, nothing special but still good. Great to have the option to have a more substantial meal on park if needed.

Drinks

I tried quite a few of the specialty drinks during our trip, mainly thanks to our unlimited soft drinks voucher as part of our vacation package! I would just check the webpage for drinks that didn’t contain wheat.

Some of the usual soft drinks offered all over the park were great. Our absolute favourite was Kirin Lemon, but also loved Kirin Orange, Fanta Golden Cider and the ‘Orange Drink’.

Popcorn

It would only be fitting to end on the most exciting snack I ate at the resort, the popcorn! Popcorn is extremely popular in the parks and you’ll find popcorn carts with LONG lines all over the place. Some of the lines looked insanely long but they move quick - so don’t be too put off!

Excitingly, there are lots of different flavours on offer. Naturally, some of the flavours like curry and soy sauce contained wheat so I had to avoid those, but there were plenty that didn’t contain wheat! The great thing was that each cart only served one flavour so there was no cross-contamination (while serving anyway).

I tried lots of flavours. My favourites would have to be honey and white chocolate, with special mention to the plain salt as you can’t beat it! We actively didn’t like the black pepper flavour, but had to give it a go!

As part of our vacation package we were given a free popcorn bag which you can see me very excited to wear in the photos below. Popcorn boxes were really cheap too so a great snack to keep me filled up as we were walking around the parks!

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of snacks and food I was able to eat during our stay. I was quite worried to be staying at the resort away from convenience stores I had got used to relying on, but I was able to find enough on park to eat well. Granted, I wasn’t being as strict as I would be at home in the UK with cross-contamination and so on, but given the situation I felt safe enough to eat what I did.

I would recommend doing as much research as possible before a trip out to Japan as I found it quite hard to navigate generally, but it’s totally doable!

Don’t let your worries about finding safe gluten free food put you off from visiting Tokyo Disney - it was truly magical and we would go back in a heartbeat!

- Zoe

Eating gluten free at Tokyo Disney Resort, Japan