Dairy/Egg Allergy

[terp4life]

I have a child with dairy and egg allergies. In searching for past threads on food allergies I found mostly nut related allergies. I am sure that DCL is great with allergies, as I have had many good experiences with WDW. I have been on another cruise line with my own allergies, and there the Maitre'D came over to me each night with the next nights menu and went over the safe selections and took my order to ensure safe preparation. My understanding is DCL does the same. However, my questions are about any predeparture requests/forms.

1) Although I am sure the chefs can prepare safe food from what they have, is there a level of stock they keep on board of allergen safe foods? For instance, in my experience, most WDW restaurants keep an "allergy safe" roll, cookies, and milk alternatives on hand. But, obviously there is limited storage on these ships. If I want my son to have soymilk with his breakfast, do I have to request it ahead? And does that mean I have to do the sit-down breakfast every morning? What about a dairy/egg/nut free ice cream sunstitute?

2) I have informed a phone representative of the allergies. I was not told any paperwork was required. I found one medical form on the website, but it did not list food allergies. It was for things like oxygen and medical devices. However, in old posts I found via searching this forum I saw posts of people who discussed faxing a form, any help directing me to what might be required would help.

3) Anyone order an allergen safe celebration cake? My sons birthday will be onboard, and the only thing I have ever had at WDW and could not finish was the allergen free cake they made him last year. Utterly gross! In their defense he hates chocolate so I requested vanilla, which is harder to make flavorful when you can't use dairy or eggs. But man, my own are 100 times better than the one they had, and believe me, I am not a fabulous baker!

Thanks in advance. As I said the phone rep said I just needed to list in on the reservation and it would be taken care of on the ship. But in my experience, the phone reps for Disney (across the board - WDW, DVC, etc) are inconsistent in the knowledge of these types of issues. Don't want an unfortunate surprise when we get on board.

[Shmoo here]

Originally Posted by terp4life

I have a child with dairy and egg allergies. In searching for past threads on food allergies I found mostly nut related allergies. I am sure that DCL is great with allergies, as I have had many good experiences with WDW. I have been on another cruise line with my own allergies, and there the Maitre'D came over to me each night with the next nights menu and went over the safe selections and took my order to ensure safe preparation. My understanding is DCL does the same. However, my questions are about any predeparture requests/forms.

1) Although I am sure the chefs can prepare safe food from what they have, is there a level of stock they keep on board of allergen safe foods? For instance, in my experience, most WDW restaurants keep an "allergy safe" roll, cookies, and milk alternatives on hand. But, obviously there is limited storage on these ships. If I want my son to have soymilk with his breakfast, do I have to request it ahead? And does that mean I have to do the sit-down breakfast every morning? What about a dairy/egg/nut free ice cream sunstitute?

2) I have informed a phone representative of the allergies. I was not told any paperwork was required. I found one medical form on the website, but it did not list food allergies. It was for things like oxygen and medical devices. However, in old posts I found via searching this forum I saw posts of people who discussed faxing a form, any help directing me to what might be required would help.

3) Anyone order an allergen safe celebration cake? My sons birthday will be onboard, and the only thing I have ever had at WDW and could not finish was the allergen free cake they made him last year. Utterly gross! In their defense he hates chocolate so I requested vanilla, which is harder to make flavorful when you can't use dairy or eggs. But man, my own are 100 times better than the one they had, and believe me, I am not a fabulous baker!

Thanks in advance. As I said the phone rep said I just needed to list in on the reservation and it would be taken care of on the ship. But in my experience, the phone reps for Disney (across the board - WDW, DVC, etc) are inconsistent in the knowledge of these types of issues. Don't want an unfortunate surprise when we get on board.

As long as the information is on your reservation, I think you'll be OK.

DCL does prefer, if you have any special requests relating to allergies, that you let them know ahead of time. Yes, they have a limited space there, but are willing to use the space for specific requests.

AFAIK, there's a Special Services Form that may (or may not) need to be filled out. But, you'd have to look that up and see if it applies.

Sorry, I can't help more, but we have no allergies here.

[chubby_faye]

We cruised the Fantasy last year and had a great (almost too good/overbearing in a good way) experience. My youngest daughter is not allergic to milk but is somewhat sensitive. Because of this we give her soy milk. No biggie. We did not mention it ahead of time and just asked for soy milk when we boarded. Well, this "flagged" her has having a milk allergy so our server did not want to give her ANY that had dairy in it. The chef made her special desserts that were dairy free. I finally started ordering extra things for me and just gave it to her. Also at every meal, our server would bring her extra soy milk to take back to our room. So in a good way, they will accommodate any food allergy

[ducklite]

I would strongly encourage you to eat in the dining rooms instead of the buffet for all meals.

I am allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, coconut, and mollusks. You'd be surprised what those items are hidden in. Last week I was at Disney World, trying to eat in the food court in the Land Pavillion. I'm glad I spoke to a chef, because almost everything had a hidden allergen in it.

At the buffets it's usually very busy and can be difficult to get a chef to walk through it with you--and if they do, it's often yes, no, yes, no so quickly that you can't absorb it.

[terp4life]

Thanks for the guidance and reassurance, I appreciate it. I will have to use the buffet when we arrive for lunch, got an early PAT - not that I fully understand this system Depending how that goes we may end up doing lunches at the MDR. I think for breakfast we willl stick to the buffet, my son is a cereal soymilk fan for breakfast. If he wants special pancakes or waffles one day we'll head to the MDR.

[luvn2oxfrd]

my son has dairy, soy, egg, and peanut allergies. DCL is very accommodating. make sure you speak with your head waiter. they would give me the menus for the next day and i would order all his meals in advance. even at a buffet, there is always a head waiter overseeing. make sure he is aware of the allergy and he will make sure you have safe foods (they actually sign off on a form at each meal.)

anecdotally, on his second DCL cruise, my son kept breaking out in hives. not enough for his epi pen, but enough that i was giving him benadryl constantly. i couldn't figure out what was wrong. i assumed it had to be some kind of cross contamination issue! then it dawned on me...he was allergic to his sunscreen allergy kids sure to keep us on our toes.