Epic Gluten Free Review

[ks&ks]

Hi!

We're back from our gluten free trip on the Epic. Can I say "WOW!!" I've written a review on CC and it should be posted shortly if you want to check it out.

 

To give you a little back ground we've cruised on other cruise lines gf, primarily RCCL with success.

 

The gluten free experience aboard the Epic exceeded our expectations. Our Asst. Maitre D' was so wonderful to us the entire week. When we embarked, we were directed to the Manhattan Room to visit the Asst. Matire D'. After speaking with him we realized that he had already called our room and left a message for us. Also, we had a letter in our room saying that our dietary restrictions had been taken care of and they were happy to have us on board.

 

After speaking with the Asst. Matire D' we realized the tremendous amount of gluten free options for us. We went ahead and pre-ordered dinner for that night and breakfast the next day.

 

Typically when cruising, we skip the buffet lunch because we can't risk cross-contamination. The Asst. Matire D' instructed us to go to Taste where we had gf bread, Cobb Salad, Grilled Chicken, New York Strip, Hamburgers & Fries, Baked Potato and Veggies for lunch (there were 3 of us)...we were shocked that we could actually eat lunch upon embarkation!!

 

We ate at Taste for breakfast and lunch and the Manhattan Room for dinner. We were so full we didn't desire to eat at the buffet etc. One time I did walk up there just to check things out at the buffet. We ate at Wasabi and had sushi several times as well.

 

The chefs were fabulous at making our dishes gluten free and tremendously tasty. I can't tell you how special they made us feel. Nothing seemed like it was a big deal. Eating out gf is often so difficult for us, but not at all during our cruise. I asked one night about the red lentil soup to see if it was gf. Our Matire D' responded "we can make it gluten free for you." On other cruise lines we were told what things were gluten free with little or no variation. On the Epic, we were asked "what would you like for lunch?"

 

One night we pre-ordered the Vegetable Samosa. When it was time to be served the next night our server said, "the Vegetable Samosa is made with wheat flour, would you like something else instead?" we responded with "sure." A few minutes later the server came back and said "the chef is going to make the Vegetable Samosa with gluten free flour!" We couldn't believe how accommodating everyone was.

 

Off hand a few of the dishes we had were:

French Onion Soup, Cream of Broccoli, Red Lentil, Arugula Salad, Caesar Salad, Cobb Salad, Endive Salad, Gluten Free Bread, Gf Bagels & Lox, Pancakes, Eggs Benedict, Shrimp Spring Rolls, Polenta Cake, Lobster with Grouper, Lamb, Skirt Steak, Mahi Mahi, Scallops, Prime Rib, Sun-dried Tomato Pasta, Flour-less Chocolate Cake, Cheesecake, Orange Sorbet and Carmel Flan. I have never been so full in my life....and it was wonderful. The grand total is 7 pounds gained!!!

 

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them.

 

Here's a few questions I've noticed from the past posts....

We did have fries 2 times at Taste.

The bars use some Island Oasis mixes for frozen drinks and they're gf.

The Kids Crew was great and dd band read "no food" on it.

 

I have taken a few photos of gf dishes that we had last week and I'll try to post those as well.

 

We've now found our favorite cruise line!:)

 

[ks&ks]

Hope this works...below you will find some food pictures I've attached. I took several photos and I can attach more if you want them!!

 

1st pic gf cheesecake

2d lobster and grouper

3rd sushi from Wasabi (I did have the wasabi but skipped the picked ginger and the soup)

4th Carmel Flan

5th Flour-less Chocolate Cake

[CruiseShelly]

Thanks from all us GFers that Need To Know! Sounds like NCL is really trying to accomodate us. Hope I have as good a GF experience on Gem in December.

[scubagoil]

Thank you so much for posting this information! My daughter and I just found out recently that we need to remove gluten from our diet. I hadn't even thought about informing NCL about our dietary needs until I saw your post!

 

I am excited to see they are so accommodating with this - I thought we would just be very limited in our choices.

 

We are not going on the Epic, but I'm sure the Sun will try to be accommodating as well.

 

 

:D:D:D

[mjkacmom]

Sound great! Is there any kind of list for gf foods at the buffet? I have 5 kids, 1 who is celiac, and they love buffets (because they're kids - I prefer a sit-down meal myself). I feel bad keeping the others away from the buffet the whole time (last buffet we went to, dd7 ate white rice and salad).

[Sauer-kraut]

Thank you so much for posting this information! My daughter and I just found out recently that we need to remove gluten from our diet. I hadn't even thought about informing NCL about our dietary needs until I saw your post!

 

I am excited to see they are so accommodating with this - I thought we would just be very limited in our choices.

 

We are not going on the Epic, but I'm sure the Sun will try to be accommodating as well.

:D:D:D

 

Make sure you contact the Special Access desk at least 60 days prior to your sail date. If booked with a travel agent have them put it on the contract that there is a dietary situation. Sometimes they will send a list of GF foods that need to be ordered specially, i.e. waffles/pancakes stuff like that.

[ks&ks]

Thanks from all us GFers that Need To Know! Sounds like NCL is really trying to accomodate us. Hope I have as good a GF experience on Gem in December.

You're welcome! When I was booking our cruise, I scoured through to try to find any gf reviews I could. I couldn't wait to post about our experience.

 

Thank you so much for posting this information! My daughter and I just found out recently that we need to remove gluten from our diet. I hadn't even thought about informing NCL about our dietary needs until I saw your post!

 

I am excited to see they are so accommodating with this - I thought we would just be very limited in our choices.

 

We are not going on the Epic, but I'm sure the Sun will try to be accommodating as well.

 

 

:D:D:D

I know you'll have a great trip! If you don't mind...let us know about your trip when you get back. It's so great to know that there are a lot more gfer's out there!!

 

Sound great! Is there any kind of list for gf foods at the buffet? I have 5 kids, 1 who is celiac, and they love buffets (because they're kids - I prefer a sit-down meal myself). I feel bad keeping the others away from the buffet the whole time (last buffet we went to, dd7 ate white rice and salad).

I did noticed that they had some stir fried items and a pizza making station...yikes!! I forgot to post that they did make dd a gf pizza at Taste. I'm not sure, but they might be able to pre-order a pizza or something for her when she eats at the buffet. I would talk to Maitre D' when you embark. We told our server our cabin number once we were seated, but you might be able to talk to the Maitre D' in the buffet area as well. One server said they have gf frozen bread. They might be able to provide her with that in the buffet too. Have a wonderful trip!!

[ks&ks]

Thinking about food makes me want to cruise again...soon. No cooking all week and I loved it! Here's a few more gf foods we enjoyed on our trip. :)

[scubagoil]

Make sure you contact the Special Access desk at least 60 days prior to your sail date. If booked with a travel agent have them put it on the contract that there is a dietary situation. Sometimes they will send a list of GF foods that need to be ordered specially, i.e. waffles/pancakes stuff like that.

 

 

Good to know... We booked though a cruise consultant at NCL, so I will give her a call on Monday. We sail on November 27th!

 

 

I know you'll have a great trip! If you don't mind...let us know about your trip when you get back. It's so great to know that there are a lot more gfer's out there!!

 

I will be sure to post about our experience when we return!

[VonChap]

Thanks so much for your GF Review! :D I think that NCL does the best job with GF food.

 

I am happy to read that it appears that they have switched brands of fries to a GF brand! I hope the Dawn gives me the same news.

 

Did you pre-order the waffles, pizza crust, etc? I have read conflicting reports about the need to pre-order the special items. Some say that all ships now carry everything, some say that only the Epic carries everything on the shopping list, and the Special Needs Department says that you still have to order the specialty items on all ships. Just wondering if you had ordered from the GF shopping list before you cruised.

 

Thanks for the GF photos!

 

Thanks,

Kim

[CruiseShelly]

"they have switched brands of fries to a GF brand"

 

I hope this is true as other posters have been advised the fries are not GF. I Love Fries!!! One of my favorite fall-back foods on HAL at the pool grill.

[ks&ks]

Thanks so much for your GF Review! :D I think that NCL does the best job with GF food.

 

I am happy to read that it appears that they have switched brands of fries to a GF brand! I hope the Dawn gives me the same news.

 

Did you pre-order the waffles, pizza crust, etc? I have read conflicting reports about the need to pre-order the special items. Some say that all ships now carry everything, some say that only the Epic carries everything on the shopping list, and the Special Needs Department says that you still have to order the specialty items on all ships. Just wondering if you had ordered from the GF shopping list before you cruised.

 

Thanks for the GF photos!

 

Thanks,

Kim

You're welcome!! I'm excited to hear about your trip on the Dawn as well. We'd like to try other NCL ships too.

 

We notified NCL when we booked, prior to 60 days, about our gluten free dietary needs. At that time we filled out the special request forms. We were informed by our PCC that it was not necessary to pre-order gf foods for sailing on the Epic out of Miami. However, we searched awhile and made a few calls. We ended up getting the pre-order forms through another PCC, just in case we needed them. We filled those forms out and sent them in.

 

After the first meeting with our Matire D' we realized all of the gf options and never mentioned that we had pre-ordered food. I did take a copy of the forms with us. We never specifically said that we had pre-ordered certain items etc. They may have realized that we did pre-order and that may be why there were so many options, such as the waffles and pizza crusts. I was so excited that I didn't think about asking about this onboard, but maybe someone else sailing gf can find out for us. They did run out of gf bagels by the end of the week, but it wasn't a big deal.

 

I'm so glad you enjoyed the photos! I can't tell you how excited I am about sharing our gf adventures and cruising NCL!:D

 

"they have switched brands of fries to a GF brand"

 

I hope this is true as other posters have been advised the fries are not GF. I Love Fries!!! One of my favorite fall-back foods on HAL at the pool grill.

We had two types of fries. The first time my dd had small, thin fries and the second time she had fries that looked like they had been baked and were shaped like steak fries. I was hesitant about their gf status. I double checked with our server and they said they had checked with the chef to make sure. My dd is very sensitive and seemed to do OK. Hopefully, they will continue to carry this brand of fries! As always, we have to be food detectives. As you all know, you can never be too careful! :)

[SueSea]

I'm delighted to read how NCL was so attentive to your needs! Now that's customer service. NCL gets knocked pretty hard when it doesn't provide the level of customer service it should (and rightly so), so it's great to hear when they do well.

[4nzic1]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW!!!!! :) This will be my first time cruising NCL and I faxed in my special needs form last week regarding my wheat/gluten and yeast allergies. I've sailed RCCL and Carnival and they have always made sure that there was plenty of food available that I can eat. The main dining room staff on both lines were wonderful at preparing my food, making sure I had gluten free breads, desserts etc. Again, thank you for your review and making me feel confident that food is the last thing I need to worry about on Epic. :)

[4nzic1]

Thank you so much for posting this information! My daughter and I just found out recently that we need to remove gluten from our diet. I hadn't even thought about informing NCL about our dietary needs until I saw your post!

 

I am excited to see they are so accommodating with this - I thought we would just be very limited in our choices.

 

We are not going on the Epic, but I'm sure the Sun will try to be accommodating as well.

 

 

:D:D:D

 

Make sure you get your form completed and send ASAP. My TA faxed mine over a week or so ago saying she needed it completed ASAP for my Oct 16th sailing. So I faxed it back within the hour. When I sailed Carnival and RCCL, I had to complete the form myself and fax directly to Carnival/RCCL no later than two weeks prior to sailing. I rememeber the first time I was diagnosed with wheat/gluten allergies two years ago I totally forgot about it and went on a cruise within months of being diagnosed. I HAD A MISERABLE TIME!!! Because the only thing I ate were rice, baked potatos and chicken, fish, beef, pineapples and salad ALL 7 DAYS!!! :) Trust me, I haven't made that mistake since. :) I still can't stand the taste of pineapples today because that's all I ate the last two days because I was sick of rice, potatoes and meat. LOL Since that experience I make sure the first thing I tell my agent when she books me for a cruise is 'I have gluten/wheat allergies....as of this year, I now have to add yeast to that list. :(

[VonChap]

"they have switched brands of fries to a GF brand"

 

I hope this is true as other posters have been advised the fries are not GF. I Love Fries!!! One of my favorite fall-back foods on HAL at the pool grill.

 

I LOVE fries too! I will ask about them on the Dawn and report back. It is not only that the fries need to be GF but the fryer has to be GF too. Perhaps we were told on other ships that the fries were not GF because they were made in a fryer that was used for other food.

 

I will investigate on the Dawn and let everyone know. Sounds like Epic fries are GF! (but always ask)

 

K

[ge0rgette2]

Just rec'd my list of GF foods from the help desk - via email.

 

I was just curious, how do they know who's food is who's when onboard?

 

I should order the 'staple' things for myself during the trip...

I see the carry Van's waffles - love them!!!

Anyways - Waffles, box of 10 - thats at least a 5 day supply - is that how I order things.. How did you know what and how much to order?

 

Any assistance would be great! :) Thanks!!!

:cool::o

[VonChap]

Just rec'd my list of GF foods from the help desk - via email.

 

I was just curious, how do they know who's food is who's when onboard?

 

I should order the 'staple' things for myself during the trip...

I see the carry Van's waffles - love them!!!

Anyways - Waffles, box of 10 - thats at least a 5 day supply - is that how I order things.. How did you know what and how much to order?

 

Any assistance would be great! :) Thanks!!!

:cool::o

 

Your food is tracked by your cabin number. When you first board the ship, go to lunch at the MDR. (not the buffet) Ask to speak to the Maitre 'D. They will start the process of tracking you to your cabin number to your box of food. They will also help you select your first dinner menu. I think that it is important to board the ship and visit the MDR when it is open for that first lunch (usually noon-2PM).

 

You can order anything on that list in the quantity that you think you will need for your cruise. So, for waffles, if you think you will eat more than 10 waffles, you need to order a quantity of 2 or whatever. NCL is buying in the same quantity that we are at the grocery store--its the same boxes. Pizza crusts come in single servings. So, if you want more than one pizza on the cruise, I would order more than one pizza crust.

 

Even though GF bread is on all NCL ships, I still order a loaf of sliced bread. (same size loaf that we buy at the store) I have been on cruises where they run out of the general supply bread because others are only using the "general supply" instead of pre-ordering bread.

 

Have a great Gluten Free cruise!

 

Kim

[ks&ks]

While I was catching up on this post, I realized I forgot to mention about the gluten free pancakes we had. My dd and I both had pancakes, she had them twice. We both agreed that the pancakes were probably some of the best gf pancakes we've ever eaten. She mentioned that they weren't very filling the first time she got them as they were smaller in size. So, the next time we ordered them we got fresh fruit to begin with and a side of bacon which we were told was gf as well. :)

 

We also packed a suitcase of food. We used the excursion packs of pre-packaged food that I had made for every port. One morning we ate a couple of Udi's bagels and muffins, that I brought from home before we got off the ship. However, I brought several other pre-packaged items that I didn't end up using...which is a good thing!!

[ks&ks]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW!!!!! :) This will be my first time cruising NCL and I faxed in my special needs form last week regarding my wheat/gluten and yeast allergies. I've sailed RCCL and Carnival and they have always made sure that there was plenty of food available that I can eat. The main dining room staff on both lines were wonderful at preparing my food, making sure I had gluten free breads, desserts etc. Again, thank you for your review and making me feel confident that food is the last thing I need to worry about on Epic. :)

You're welcome!! You will have a wonderful time on the Epic! The Matire D' we worked with Vaz and we met with him in the Manhattan Room upon embarkation. He may still be on board when you are sailing. Vaz is wonderful!

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Thanks for posting your review! I would love to try the Epic and now I know someone has had a good GF experience. Did you find you had to order all your meals in advance or were you able to order off the menu just before a meal?

 

Cheers!

Michelle

[ks&ks]

On embarkation day we were able to go to Taste and have a gf meal that wasn't ordered ahead of time. We found that pre-ordering was so easy we just preferred to do it that way. We ordered breakfast, lunch and dinner for the following day, after dinner each night. By pre-ordering I think we were able to request more non-gf items to be made gluten free and didn't have to wait as long.

 

Our Matire D' said many of the items on the menu are gluten free or the items can be altered to be gf by leaving off sauces etc. I'm sure you could go to the MDR and they could show you which items would be safe etc. We just found that we had tons of gluten free options by pre-ordering and most of our meals became worry free. We could eat at any dining room we wanted and did not have to decided that in advance. After you are seated at your table you give the server your cabin number and everything is taken care of! Our week, do to port schedule changes, lobster night was changed. It was fun to know in advance what the menu was! :D

[samnewbie]

Your food is tracked by your cabin number. When you first board the ship, go to lunch at the MDR. (not the buffet) Ask to speak to the Maitre 'D. They will start the process of tracking you to your cabin number to your box of food. They will also help you select your first dinner menu. I think that it is important to board the ship and visit the MDR when it is open for that first lunch (usually noon-2PM).

 

You can order anything on that list in the quantity that you think you will need for your cruise. So, for waffles, if you think you will eat more than 10 waffles, you need to order a quantity of 2 or whatever. NCL is buying in the same quantity that we are at the grocery store--its the same boxes. Pizza crusts come in single servings. So, if you want more than one pizza on the cruise, I would order more than one pizza crust.

 

Even though GF bread is on all NCL ships, I still order a loaf of sliced bread. (same size loaf that we buy at the store) I have been on cruises where they run out of the general supply bread because others are only using the "general supply" instead of pre-ordering bread.

 

Have a great Gluten Free cruise!

 

Kim

 

 

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the information.

 

My husband also requires a gluten free diet being a coeliac (believe you spell it celiac in the us - we are in the uk)

 

We have had the forms since we booked at the beginning of April to preorder food but havent as yet as we do not sail until August 2011.

 

We also havent filled them in as we had no idea how many of each item to order as we didnt know pack sizes etc as in the uk a pack of bread rolls only have 4 or 5 in, bagels if we can get them are in 2's! and a loaf is miniscule, so your info is fab!

 

I am however wondering though if pack sizes etc will alter on the med cruises due to the supplier and brands they can obtain so will probably hold off ordering until the first few sailings in the med to see if makes a difference.

 

The other part on the form we are totally unsure about is the long list of various spices and flavourings??? Do we really need to order this sort of thing?

 

Many thanks,

 

Sam :)