Gluten free guest

Hello again!

My daughter's boyfriend is accompanying us on our next cruise, he has coeliac disease. My question is are we better to have a set meal time to get the same waiter each night? Does a different waiter serve him? (On an MSC cruise last year a lady at our table required GF and she had her own waiter and menu.) Have booked My time but think with 10 of us, a baby, a vegetarian and a GF we may be better with a set time dining! Any thoughts please?

I also have celiac disease so this has always been a concern. In my experience you are better off having a set time with the same staff. They quickly learn you dietary restrictions and provide appropriate advice. Otherwise you are stuck explaining the issues every night.

Go to the dining room upon boarding and discuss it with them. They will ask you to pick out your meals for the entire trip. It has never been a problem for me. I have also done the Chefs Table and the steakhouse and they accommodated me. I have always had the flexible dining time and had no issues whatsoever. It was a pleasant experience.

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My husband has a food allergy. We have found that it is always better to have a set time with the same wait staff.

MSC does do a superb job for those who have valid food concerns with the special person who takes the order for the next day's meals and brings them out so that there is no cross contamination with other meals being served.

On carnival, your waiter will be the one who brings out the meals. We were never offered the option of pre-ordering meals to ensure the meal was allergan free.

Just the fact that there are 10 of you would lean me to suggest a set time over anytime.

I too must be Gluten Free due to Celiac. Last year was our first cruise, we were on Carnival Legend. On embarking day, I spoke with the Maître D right away and explained my concerns. He assured me they were familiar with this type of food prep & the ingredient restrictions. He asked if every meal would be in the MDR or evening only. When I told him this was our first cruise, so I wasn’t sure, he replied that every evening in the MDR I would be presented with the menue for the next night. I was to pre-order for dinner and if I was eating there any other time of day, it would be taken care of at that time. I was told because we had “Your time/Any time dining” the meal prep may take 5-10 min longer (we didn’t notice).

When we arrived for our dinner each night, the Hostess had a printed paper with my name and request which she gave to our Waiter that night. Our Waiter would greet us at our table and confirm my name, my order & asked if there were any changes I wanted to make. After desert he would present the next evening menue, I told him my choices ( if something wasn’t GF he would tell me that they could alter that item for me or not -usually it was customizable). I found that the sea day Brunch was not as flexible, but I still had plenty of options.

I usually had my regular breakfast at the buffet (fruit & yogurt). I did see some GF cereals (Cheerios/Flakes).

Lunch was at the buffet too, GF pizza/GF at the sandwich deli...the staff at the buffet counters were all aware of GF and could always point out an item I needed to stay away from.

It worked out great and not once was I concerned, so much so that this year we have 2 cruises booked with Carnival again.

You will want to contact Carnival'

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I hate typing on phones... As I was saying, you will want to contact the Carnival Customer Service ahead of time. they have an fleet-wide program that is designed to meet your needs. I would advise in favor of the set dining time... I think in the long run it will be less stressful for all. Enjoy your cruise.

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This is my basic post about allergies..... We travel with a group that combined has allergies to peanuts, treenuts, shellfish, egg whites, chocolate, MSG and liquid dairy. Only had issues with 'user' error, no issues with Carnival. If you have a nut allergy, know that Carnival classifies seeds as nuts.

Each ship seems to do things a little differently. This has been our experiences on the West Coast ships.

If you have an odd allergy contact Special Needs before your cruise. If you have a 'normal' allergy no need to do so.

https://www.carnival.com/about-carnival/special-needs/dietary-needs.aspx

See the Hostess at embarkation when the Maitre 'd has hours. Hours will be in the FunTmes, usually starting around 1pm. The hostess will take that night's order. Each night the hostess or your waiter will bring you the next day's MDR menu-breakfast, brunch/lunch and dinner. If deciding between two entrees, order both. For brunch don't hesitate to order a breakfast and lunch if you want to eat both meals in the MDR. At ATD, an order slip will be generated and given to your waitstaff when seated. They will confirm the order with you.

Only issue we've ever had was one cruise DD's food arrived before mine.

For room service, they cannot make special for you but they can tell you the ingredients. No special area so there is always the possibility of contamination

Buffet is a minefield. Ask the Hostess or the Head Lido Chef or the Food and Beverage crew in the officer whites. DO NOT ask the line cooks or those serving desserts. They mean well but do not know the full recipes. Cross contamination is always a possibility.

Onshore--- we bring allergy cards. I made our own but you can buy some at selectwisely dot com.

You can only bring off commercially prepared food. We bring cereal bars, boxes of cereal, bottled water, hard candy etc.

Many ports will check. Some will do a physical search, others use dogs. You do not want the cute Labrador to sit next to you. I've had them alert on my Lemonheads.

Kids clubs have a form to fill out. There are some snacks served at times. The younger kids meet up at the dinner buffet certain nights. Ask the counselors what's on the menu.

Gluten Free has a few different things. Cruise Critic has lots of info about GF. Use ‘gluten’ or ‘celiac’ in the search engine. Know there’s at least GF pizza, noodles, bread available.

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IMHO Assigned Dining is best for any group over 4 pax. No waiting and no need to decide what time to meet for dinner every night.

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Wow, less than 1% of the population actually have celiac disease. If you read this board it seems like many others are just gluten free.

Wow, less than 1% of the population actually have celiac disease. If you read this board it seems like many others are just gluten free.

Friend isn’t celiac but has some sort of arthritis. Being gluten free has helped her immensely.

My husband has Celiacs and we feel Carnival does a great job. For several cruises now we have done anytime dining and had no problem. If we like the waiter we have the first night (and we always have) we request to be seated in his area each consecutive evening. Each evening they will bring him the menu for the next night so they can prepare his choices gluten free.

. On embarking day, I spoke with the Maître D right away and explained my concerns. He assured me they were familiar with this type of food prep & the ingredient restrictions. He replied that every evening in the MDR I would be presented with the menu for the next night. I was to pre-order for dinner and if I was eating there any other time of day, it would be taken care of at that time.

 

When we arrived for our dinner each night, the Hostess had a printed paper with my name and request which she gave to our Waiter that night. Our Waiter would greet us at our table and confirm my name, my order & asked if there were any changes I wanted to make. After desert he would present the next evening menue, I told him my choices ( if something wasn’t GF he would tell me that they could alter that item for me or not -usually it was customizable).

I usually had my regular breakfast at the buffet (fruit & yogurt). I did see some GF cereals (Cheerios/Flakes).

Lunch was at the buffet too, GF pizza/GF at the sandwich deli...the staff at the buffet counters were all aware of GF and could always point out an item I needed to stay away from.

.

This pretty much sums up our experience last year on the Liberty. My daughter has to have a gluten-free diet. She learned that to get GF toast at breakfast in under 20 minutes, it was best to call ahead of time. The waiters in the dining room were so careful that they refused to allow her to order a dish she wanted -and was sure was GF- but they thought wasn't safe.

Buffet is a minefield. Ask the Hostess or the Head Lido Chef or the Food and Beverage crew in the officer whites. DO NOT ask the line cooks or those serving desserts. They mean well but do not know the full recipes. Cross contamination is always a possibility.

Yes! So true. My daughter asked a buffet server if something on the buffet (can't remember what it was now, I think a pudding or custard) was gluten-free, and he said it was. She brought it to the table and while she was eating it, I asked her if she was sure it was okay. Spooked by my question, she went back up to the line. A different server was on duty, and he said it wasn't gluten-free. Fearing the onset of the prolonged and excruciating pain that happens with gluten ingestion, she was desperate to run back to our room for a large dose of activated charcoal. While she was dosing herself, I called the Hotel Manager to find out for sure. It turned out to be fine. Scared the crap out of my daughter, though.

We do late seating all the time so we always have the same wait staff. Just give then the head waiter the heads up on the first night of your Gluten issues and as someone already posted, they will give you then gluten free menu for the following night and put together your order. Its worked out great for her over the past 7 or 8 cruises. Good luck

To be honest, if you do YTD, they will give you or your hostess a little slip that goes to your wait staff. They will be alerted to your restrictions as well as to your pre-ordered meals. They will bring you the menu for the following day in YTD as well as in fixed-time dining. If you are more comfortable having the same wait staff every night, you can request to have the same staff each evening when you check in. IMHO, there is no reason to avoid YTD due to the dietary restrictions. (BTW, this is based on personal experience.)