cruising with food allergies

[trtog7]

A friend wants to take her 10 year old daughter on a cruise for about 4 or 5 days.

Money is a bit of an issue but the daughter has extensive food allergies that can be extreme.

Any thoughts on a cruise line that handles this problem better than others or are they all about the same in this area

Also a few tips to give her to handle the problem

Thanks

[1025cruise]

Pretty much all cruise lines handle food allergies in the same manner. Pick a cruise, then contact the special needs department.

[Mary229]

I dined with a friend with food allergies.  She notified in advance, reminded the maitre d upon arrival.  They brought her a menu for the next day at the end of evening meal.  She would select her options and those options would be fixed for her with substitutes for her food allergies.  Her meals looked scrumptious.   This was on Holland.

[mjkacmom]

I’m pretty sure all of the lines are very good with food allergies, with special kitchens. They take them very seriously.

[crystalspin]

5 hours ago, trtog7 said:

Also a few tips to give her to handle the problem

My familiarity is on HAL with salt-free diets, but my hint is to plan to eat as much as possible in the Main Dining Room, and they may want to choose Fixed dining time so they will always have the same table and servers. (If they don't, the M'd and stewards will track down the meal she ordered the night before, but Fixed is very nice for other reasons too! It's fun to "get to know" and be known by the servers.)

 

Have to ask the Special Needs people about breakfast and lunch, which are frequently eaten in the Lido or buffet.

[GeezerCouple]

In addition to notifying the cruise line *in advance* (special needs department), also be sure at *every* meal to tell any waitstaff about your allergies when you order AND then double check again when they serve each course.

 

The kitchen is no doubt set up very well for such things these days, with special preparation areas.  However, mistakes can happen, anywhere.

 

Also:  Is this a life/death allergy, or more like getting sick or some particular side effect type of reaction?  Both types are of concern, but one is more important to make *certain* to avoid.  Let them know.

 

Especially in that former case (very severe outcome, or worse...) also arrange to have one contact person to discuss "the next day's meals" with.  The cruise line will probably have this arranged, but they may not know where to find you at specific times to go over menu selections and preparations.

 

These days, we've found "special diets" are handled much more easily; when one is checked in for a table prior to being seated, in many cases, the computer spits out a note indicating the special dietary restrictions.  I don't know if that is on all cruise lines, however.  The point is that in these cases, the waitstaff are alerted before you've even been seated.

 

If you might need any special meds, such as an EpiPen, I'd suggest always bringing it with you, "just in case".  (We sort of feel like such planning is like carrying an umbrella... that's often when it *won't* rain! 😉 )

 

One suggestion:  IF you arrange for anything really special (e.g., we've been offered a special preparation of one individual dish that ordinarily wouldn't be okay, but looked really appealing, and I had mentioned something like, "Gee, what a shame I can't eat *that*!"), please do arrange to have it served approximately when it was arranged.

That helps you now, plus others in the future, to continue to get those offers to cook something specific with special attention to *your* dietary/medical needs.  That's a win/win for everyone! 😉 

 

In our case, there's not a problem with simply "cross contamination", but for some people, there definitely could be. So make that clear, too.

We tell them that cross contamination is *not* a problem; they don't have to take as many precautions, although they might do so behind the scenes anyway, for safety or a matter of policy.  But in case it helps them in the kitchen, we don't want to have them spend more time or effort than is really needed.

 

Enjoy your cruise and your food!

 

GC

 

 

[mjkacmom]

1 hour ago, GeezerCouple said:

In addition to notifying the cruise line *in advance* (special needs department), also be sure at *every* meal to tell any waitstaff about your allergies when you order AND then double check again when they serve each course.

 

The kitchen is no doubt set up very well for such things these days, with special preparation areas.  However, mistakes can happen, anywhere.

 

Also:  Is this a life/death allergy, or more like getting sick or some particular side effect type of reaction?  Both types are of concern, but one is more important to make *certain* to avoid.  Let them know.

 

Especially in that former case (very severe outcome, or worse...) also arrange to have one contact person to discuss "the next day's meals" with.  The cruise line will probably have this arranged, but they may not know where to find you at specific times to go over menu selections and preparations.

 

These days, we've found "special diets" are handled much more easily; when one is checked in for a table prior to being seated, in many cases, the computer spits out a note indicating the special dietary restrictions.  I don't know if that is on all cruise lines, however.  The point is that in these cases, the waitstaff are alerted before you've even been seated.

 

If you might need any special meds, such as an EpiPen, I'd suggest always bringing it with you, "just in case".  (We sort of feel like such planning is like carrying an umbrella... that's often when it *won't* rain! 😉 )

 

One suggestion:  IF you arrange for anything really special (e.g., we've been offered a special preparation of one individual dish that ordinarily wouldn't be okay, but looked really appealing, and I had mentioned something like, "Gee, what a shame I can't eat *that*!"), please do arrange to have it served approximately when it was arranged.

That helps you now, plus others in the future, to continue to get those offers to cook something specific with special attention to *your* dietary/medical needs.  That's a win/win for everyone! 😉 

 

In our case, there's not a problem with simply "cross contamination", but for some people, there definitely could be. So make that clear, too.

We tell them that cross contamination is *not* a problem; they don't have to take as many precautions, although they might do so behind the scenes anyway, for safety or a matter of policy.  But in case it helps them in the kitchen, we don't want to have them spend more time or effort than is really needed.

 

Enjoy your cruise and your food!

 

GC

 

 

Been on NCL with celiac daughter, she ordered her breakfast and dinner every night the night before, and dinner wasn’t limited to the menu, they’d make whatever they could gluten free (tons of gf options) or she could pretty much order anything she wanted, and they’d make it. She usually called in the morning and had her breakfast brought to the buffet.

[Top_of_the_Cube]

Great responses!  A few cruises under our belts since my wife's condition manifested itself.  I do take it on myself to be vigilant, as much as possible, but the crew has been very accommodating, as seems to be the experience of those who are reporting above.

 

My wife won't eat in the buffet area, but we were told to just grab one of the floor managers and that person would be able to help us safely choose among the buffet options.

 

Not sure on other lines, but I remember reading that Carnival now has a staffed podium in the buffet area called "Menu Mates" where a person can go to get info on what they can eat with their specific dietary concern.

[BruceMuzz]

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.

[knitstrumread]

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. 

[SRQbeachgirl]

My son was born with multiple food allergies that resulted in several life/death situations. We almost lost him three times and likely would have had we not been near a hospital. We carried multiple Epipens for years.

 

Fortunately he grew out of all but one of the allergies, but when he was growing up we avoided going anywhere where we would not be within a few minutes of a hospital or could not control what he ate. We gave up cruising and all international travel for those years due to potential problems with language barriers. It just wasn't worth the risk.