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On 10/13/2022 at 6:09 PM, BruceMuzz said:

Bear in mind that there are over 3,500 different variations on food allergies / restrictions that a cruise ship can encounter on any given cruise.

Some are very simple  - like a food allergy.

Others can be very complex - like Ovo-pescatarian-vegetarian-lactose intolerant. Please do not laugh. We get requests like this all the time.

It gets more complex when there are as many as 20+ different food outlets on a big ship.

Then to complicate it further, some people like to change their food allergies and restrictions from day to day, depending on what they see on the menu.

 

It is very important to frequently repeat yourself - especially on a big ship - when you have serious food restrictions.

I recently had an experience for the first time. I'm allergic to shellfish, but not had a problem before, including while on a previous cruise on the same line, by not ordering any food with shellfish--it's generally not an unlisted ingredient, unlike say, corn or milk. This time, despite telling the server, I still had a reaction--I suspect there was a language barrier, which I find very disconcerting.  I didn't, of course, order anything explicitly containing shellfish, and never received an explanation of what went wrong.

Shellfish allergies are not uncommon--is it typical for ships to use shellfish in dishes where it is not listed as an ingredient? I'll never not notify in advance again, but I'm surprised that they would do this. 

On 10/16/2022 at 3:47 PM, Travel2Learn said:

Trying O for the first time and not sure whether to book a B veranda or concierge.  Does the B veranda breakfast room service menu include eggs?  

We were also on the Riviera with you for this trip. Great photos!

We had a veranda room, which we liked very much. The differences I heard about or saw is that a concierge room has a chaise lounge on its larger terrace, while the veranda room has chairs; bath salts are included for the concierge rooms, and they also have access to the separate hot tub and lounge area in the spa. The rooms themselves were the same size, I think. While we liked having a terrace very much, especially while watching docking or departing, we tended to spend more time lounging in the shade on the pool deck. 

On 10/20/2022 at 4:23 PM, clairol said:

Hi! No idea. No evidence of any cases. No testing. Nothing reported. Sparse mask wearing. We are wearing masks on buses and other crowded areas. Not everyone schooled to do so. But again no cases shared, reported or evident. Sorry not to have more information to share. 

While in the spa area I overheard another passenger refer to a friend being in "covid prison", i.e. confined to a cabin after testing positive. This was the only mention I heard about covid while onboard. One of my in-laws spent a week in a hotel after testing positive mid-cruise over the summer, after being very careful to mask everywhere except while eating. You do what you can...