CruisyGator

Newark has always been one of the worst airports in the country for delays. I would consider it only as a very last resort. I'm between LaGuardia and JFK at this point.

Thanks everyone. I know I can lean on Cunard but I do prefer to set our own pre/post travel up. I was sort of looking for a general warning for/against one or the other. Seems like a wash in most respects by the responses here. We're coming from FL, so I'll use whichever airport gets me cheaper flights. There are actually some pretty decent hotels nearby, as seen in this recently posted vidya.

Booking a cruise for next summer, and we are planning on flying in the day before and staying at a hotel near the Brooklyn cruise port. We don't intend to do a post cruise night there. We'd rather just go directly to the airport to fly home later in the day. Which NYC area airport has worked out the best for you? I'm really not familiar with them enough to say which is better or worse. Thanks!

I was recently on Carnival, and they totally changed their procedures. They now have a totally separate menu page for GF. I am an eggs benny fanatic, and I ate them every single morning but with different sides. They made it on their own gluten free bread which was some of the best I have had. After dinner, I would order what I wanted for breakfast, and also dinner the following day. I didn't have to do this, I could have just ordered, but the pre-order lets the kitchen plan my food out and it arrives much faster. The GF menu is right there in the app, and I liked that I had plenty of time to consider it. Just providing this for some contrast, as it looks like no two lines handle things exactly the same. This is kind of a trial run for how I'm going to document eating GF on cruise lines I'm trying. Next up is Regent, then Oceania.

Thank you, this absolutely peels quite a bit of the onion. Just knowing that I'll have real menu choices and not a dramatic subset totally chills me out. I am not a pizza guy on a cruise so I will likely just skip that. I mean, it's okay but if there is seafood or Asian dishes I will go for those every time. OTOH, fried food (as I'm sure you well know) is an absolute luxury for a celiac to be able to have at a restaurant. I will definitely be pushing the button on that to see what happens. There's an encouraging picture of fried shrimp here so - yay. I have to travel to Montreal for work and I have no problem there. I am really surprised to hear about Italy though. It's a gluten-centric diet there and I never expected they would accommodate as much as that. Mexico has kind of been the opposite. I do speak Spanish, but Mexican food by and large is naturally GF. Except for the flour tortilla, they just don't cook with wheat flour. I'm bookmarking the cards nonetheless. Thanks again for the really thorough post. I am gonna have a great time.

You completely misunderstood what I wrote. Like all people with this disease, we eat where we have a high confidence level that the staff both understands the request, and is able to deliver on it. I have many local restaurants that accommodate GF, and other dietary needs too. One even does GF waffles and fried food. There are websites and apps expressly dedicated to reviewing restaurants specifically on their handling of gluten free customers. I could never travel to, and stay in a country where I do not speak the language and expect to be able to eat GF. But visiting the same place on a cruise is a different story, since I don't have to worry about getting sick, since I eat on the ship. Cruising is therefore a big game changer for people like me with issues like this.

@EJL2023 Thank you very much, this is super helpful. I'm not on facebook so I would never have seen that.

Yessir. I always note that I am a Celiac when I book, and I also verify that they have that recorded each time I have occasion to contact the line. I'm going to document how this all works on O at a much better level than anyone has so far. Including pictures of the menus, the process, and of course pictures of the food. I will do the same for Regent. Giving them a try too. Cruising has literally reopened travel for me since being diagnosed some 11 years ago. There would be no possible way I could visit places natively and be able to eat. On a cruise, all those concerns vanish, because I eat on the ship. So far, Carnival has been the best approach. They now have a dedicated GF menu which I can choose to pre-order (food comes out faster) or just order like everyone else and absorb the slight delay.

Thanks, I did find that thread already and mined out all that I could before posting. There are no specifics, pics of dishes, examples of limited/redacted/GF menus compared to the original, etc. which is the type of information I am looking for.

No, this is March. It's a garden variety Eastern Caribbean cruise.

We went ahead and booked a 12 day cruise on the Vista based on the assurance that I can be accommodated as a Gluten Free passenger (Celiac). What I'm concerned about is that there are no specifics provided whatsoever. I'm told I will receive a menu the evening before where I can 'pre-select' what I intend to eat the following day. My concern isn't that I will get sick, or that I will starve. I know they can cover this at a very basic level. What I AM quite worried about, is that the lack of detail provided here, and the "you just have to wait until you're aboard the ship" approach is going to result in me being served food that is indeed gluten free, but is FAR below the standard of all the other plates at the table. Examples of this are what I call "lowest possible effort gluten free." "steak but with no sauce," or "hamburger patty with no bun and no fries." While I have to tolerate this in daily life, for the cost of this cruise my expectations are that I get the very same quality plate as everyone else at the table. And that the choices I am offered include replacement/reinvention effort by an actual chef, rather than just putting red X's through most of the menu. In each of all the dining venues. If anyone has some specifics to share, please. I'm all ears.