When boarding with a Food Allergy, Do you need to report to a MDR right away?

[cgolf1]

Somewhere on here I saw it mentioned that people with food allergies should report to one of the main dining rooms when they board the ship. Is this just to confirm the allergy, or do they allow you to peorder that nights meal, I am gluten free? Or is this not needed at all? It would be nice to be able to preorder the first nights meal to make the first service go smoother for the 3 non GF people in our group.

[Arizona Wildcat]

4 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

Somewhere on here I saw it mentioned that people with food allergies should report to one of the main dining rooms when they board the ship. Is this just to confirm the allergy, or do they allow you to peorder that nights meal, I am gluten free? Or is this not needed at all? It would be nice to be able to preorder the first nights meal to make the first service go smoother for the 3 non GF people in our group.

You need to notify Princess in your Cruise Personalizer of your special needs now.

I suggest stopping by the MDR to verify that they have your notification.

Have found the first night always a bit chaotic so easier to just let your server know of your needs - both then and at every meal.  Also having a fixed dining time and table would make things go more smoothly.

Never assume they looked at your profile alert on your medallion.

 

[CPs4591]

I have been learning about this too.  Try some searches on this board about dietary restrictions and allergies.

i know on the website/app there is a place to put in both allergies and preferences.  But then people say to let the manager of the MDR know.  Now, I think you can do this right away, especially if you eat lunch at the MDR after boarding.  
if you are celiac, this is a whole different story because all your food will need to be prepared to avoid cross contamination.  (I am GF but NCGS so don’t have to worry about cross contamination).  There is a thread on here titled something like Goodbye Princess no help on dietary restrictions.  Try to find that.  The person was emailing and not getting a response but was using the wrong email.  In that thread some nice people post the correct email address to send in advance.  If you are celiac, I think going to the MDR and speaking to someone right away as well as filling out the info on the app and sending an email to the proper email address will at least get you started.  Then I think once on board they will give you a menu for the next day so your food can be prepared separately.

At least this is what I have been able to piece together from nice folks responding on here.  I am in the same situation as I have not cruised a big ship for awhile.  I have been reading some of the live blogs on here because people post the menus.  I’m finding that I can eat many of the starters so am thinking many of my meals will be a lot of the starters.  I do know they have GF bread and pasta.  Good luck.

[memoak]

We don’t do anything pre cruise or upon boarding. We can look at menus and see what is in the dishes. We then ask questions about what ingredients are used   We are not going to be bound to ordering a day in advance when we have no idea how we will feel the next day. Also many servers and managers have no idea what is in some dishes. For instance the chocolate sauce for desserts often contains peanuts 

I mean do you actually go through this process in land based restaurants ?

 

Edited May 2 by memoak

[cgolf1]

54 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

You need to notify Princess in your Cruise Personalizer of your special needs now.

I suggest stopping by the MDR to verify that they have your notification.

Have found the first night always a bit chaotic so easier to just let your server know of your needs - both then and at every meal.  Also having a fixed dining time and table would make things go more smoothly.

Never assume they looked at your profile alert on your medallion.

 

 

We did set it up ahead of time, my wife is very impressed with the app compared to X and HAL, and my wife verified when she called this week because they applied it to both of us. It is just a learning experience with each line I sail. Thanks for the info.

[cgolf1]

11 minutes ago, memoak said:

We don’t do anything pre cruise or upon boarding. We can look at menus and see what is in the dishes. We then ask questions about what ingredients are used   We are not going to be bound to ordering a day in advance when we have no idea how we will feel the next day. Also many servers and managers have no idea what is in some dishes. For instance the chocolate sauce for desserts often contains peanuts 

I mean do you actually go through this process in land based restaurants ?

 

 

No but I am also very limited in land based restaurants we can go to unfortunately, and we do lots of research when traveling. Airports are rough and we usually just pack beef jerky or something similar for me. 

 

What I have liked is that by preordering, they can substitute things to make a dish for those with allergies that if you ordered the night of they couldn't. Having done galley tours on different lines, they all seem to have a separate area where the food for people with food allergies is prepped. So even if one is careful in what they order, it may be prepped in a common area and risk cross contamination. It depends on the person if that is ok or not.

 

I really wish I wasn't gluten free, because I/we miss out on a lot because of it especially when looking to eat out. At home it is really a non issue. 

[pedirn]

I have not gone to dining room when boarding in years.  I always fill out on website and app the need for a gluten free diet.   Upon boarding for the last few years there has always been a note in my cabin from dining room director saying they are aware of my dietary needs.   When given my menu on the first night I mention need for gluten free diet to waiter and they always bring a head waiter over who assists me on the first night and also assists with selecting meal for following night.   This person works with me every night in pre ordering my meals.

[Cloudyrain]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

We don’t do anything pre cruise or upon boarding. We can look at menus and see what is in the dishes. We then ask questions about what ingredients are used   We are not going to be bound to ordering a day in advance when we have no idea how we will feel the next day. Also many servers and managers have no idea what is in some dishes. For instance the chocolate sauce for desserts often contains peanuts 

I mean do you actually go through this process in land based restaurants ?

 

By advising them before you go they ensure that they have the resources to accommodate any specific requirements/replacements. Also they ensure that you can discuss your needs with someone who does know the ingredients etc. 

 

It’s different for land based restaurants: they tend to be smaller venues, not serving several thousand customers on one night in a closed-environment. So we go to restaurants which have generally the same menu every day, with a full book indicating all the allergens and which items can be modified etc. On a cruise ship they make a few hundred dishes, prepped in advance, and often the specific substitutions/alterations need advance notice as they can’t just quickly whip up a dish without risk of cross contamination etc.

 

But I appreciate it varies depending on the severity and type of allergen: we have varying allergen requirements, and for one it’s very easy to avoid/substitute, for the other it’s very difficult and therefore we need to advise everyone and closely asses options. 

Edited May 2 by Cloudyrain

[memoak]

23 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

By advising them before you go they ensure that they have the resources to accommodate any specific requirements/replacements. Also they ensure that you can discuss your needs with someone who does know the ingredients etc. 

 

It’s different for land based restaurants: they tend to be smaller venues, not serving several thousand customers on one night in a closed-environment. So we go to restaurants which have generally the same menu every day, with a full book indicating all the allergens and which items can be modified etc. On a cruise ship they make a few hundred dishes, prepped in advance, and often the specific substitutions/alterations need advance notice as they can’t just quickly whip up a dish without risk of cross contamination etc.

 

But I appreciate it varies depending on the severity and type of allergen: we have varying allergen requirements, and for one it’s very easy to avoid/substitute, for the other it’s very difficult and therefore we need to advise everyone and closely asses options. 

We never ask them to whip up anything. Our allergies are peanuts and ocean white fish. So pretty easy to tell ingredients from the menu. I do wish the would keep the peanut butter cookies away from the others at the IC

[Cloudyrain]

1 hour ago, memoak said:

We never ask them to whip up anything. Our allergies are peanuts and ocean white fish. So pretty easy to tell ingredients from the menu. I do wish the would keep the peanut butter cookies away from the others at the IC

You might not need to, and that’s great, but some people do need modification’s making due to the nature and impact of their allergens (especially if they are multiple and also co-exist with other food or dietary restrictions). It’s also why I said some allergies are easier to avoid than others, and therefore the need to advance notify depends on the specific allergy, or type of allergy, in question. For our dairy allergy it requires more effort as they often put butter on the veggies/potatoes, so we do ask they provide some without butter as it’s an easy thing to amend if they know in advance as it isn’t easy to do on the night. Plus it’s an ige allergy and therefore we couldn’t risk just eating around food containing dairy.
 

However,  he also has a non-ige allergy to beef, and therefore it’s really easy to just take the beef off a plate, or order a non-beef product. 
 

Not everyone with an allergy needs to notify them if they can generally work around their allergies, but some people do need to pre-order and modify menus to be able to eat anything at all. Especially when on a ship, at sea, where medical help isn’t as readily available.

[ldubs]

5 minutes ago, Cloudyrain said:

You might not need to, and that’s great, but some people do need modification’s making due to the nature and impact of their allergens (especially if they are multiple and also co-exist with other food or dietary restrictions). It’s also why I said some allergies are easier to avoid than others, and therefore the need to advance notify depends on the specific allergy, or type of allergy, in question. For our dairy allergy it requires more effort as they often put butter on the veggies/potatoes, so we do ask they provide some without butter as it’s an easy thing to amend if they know in advance as it isn’t easy to do on the night. Plus it’s an ige allergy and therefore we couldn’t risk just eating around food containing dairy.
 

However,  he also has a non-ige allergy to beef, and therefore it’s really easy to just take the beef off a plate, or order a non-beef product. 
 

Not everyone with an allergy needs to notify them if they can generally work around their allergies, but some people do need to pre-order and modify menus to be able to eat anything at all. Especially when on a ship, at sea, where medical help isn’t as readily available.

 

This makes an incredible amount of sense to me.  If I had a severe food allergy, I would definitely make the effort to discuss it further once on board.  

[cupcakewalk]

On 5/2/2024 at 11:07 AM, memoak said:

I mean do you actually go through this process in land based restaurants ?

 

Yes. Absolutely.