Food Questions - PN/TN/Egg/Dairy allergies

[3beauties1beast]

We're leaving for our cruise in a month. My DD has 4 of the top 8 allergies (plus strawberry & mango). Mommy is really looking forward to a break from cooking, but getting a little worried what they'll cook for her. So, anyone have experience with these types of allergies? What kinds of things can we expect?

She really likes pancakes, sunbutter & jelly, bagels, pasta, and fruits...and any type of "safe" dessert! Will we be good?

Did you have good experiences at the quick service places? Will the CM's show the packaging or know the ingredients for things like chips or fries?

What types of juice do they have onboard?

Also, anyone carried snacks, cheerios (can't believe they don't have 'em!), or special milk onboard? If they don't have things like sunbutter, I might add that to the suitcase too. I feel weird planning an entire suitcase of diapers & food for the cruise...thankfully we're flying Southwest.

Sorry that this post is so long (allergy worries keep a Mom up at night)!

Thanks so much for any info!

 

[3beauties1beast]

Oh, I forgot to mention that we're on the Dream double-dip. (Picked since they'll make DD's food on Castaway Cay. )

 

[lanejudy]

Have you (or your TA) contacted DCL to note the allergies on your reservation? That's important, especially with multiple allergies.

With multiple allergies, I would be cautious of the counter service locations. It will depend on your comfort with cross-contamination. Your best bet for meals will be at the MDRs; each evening your server will take her order for the next day.

I don't recall anyone indicating sunbutter was available. If it's important for you/her, you might want to bring it; you can grab slices of bread from Cabanas at breakfast time. I believe they'll have either rice milk or almond milk onboard as long as they know it's needed (again, the importance of noting the allergy on your reservation). I suggest contacting the DCL Special Needs department (407-566-3602) for specific questions/requests. That way you'll know what you need to bring.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[MunFam]

We just got off the Wonder (14 days) with our 4 year old who has peanut, treenut, and egg allergy. We also try to remain gluten free. We had an awful experience, so much so that they have actually given us a 25% off another sailing coupon because of it. 2 people had anaphylactic reactions while on board. The medical center handled them well, but yikes! They were able to offer us frozen waffles (not gluten free), frozen (and moldy!) mac and cheese, which wont help you, since you also have the dairy allergy. You "should" be okay with the fries, hot dogs, burgers (no buns). There was no sunbutter. There was a safe bread, and it happened to be gluten free. Fruits are a-plenty, so no worries there. We could not find a bag of chips to save our lives on board. Our DD ultimately ate Peel and eat shrimp, hot dogs, meat pattys, french fired, fruit, bacon, prosciutto, rolls and steak for 14 days straight with the exception of one soggy waffle and the one night that they served her a moldy frozen meal Mac and Cheese. I think it got defrosted, refrigerated and reheated and in the process rotted. I tried it, DH tried it and our server tried it. It was BAD!

With multiple allergies, I would be cautious of the counter service locations. It will depend on your comfort with cross-contamination. Your best bet for meals will be at the MDRs; each evening your server will take her order for the next day.

Ironically, we found this to be the opposite, we had the MDR serve UNSAFE food on more than one occasion but the quick service locations were great. The head chef came out and watched the food preparation happen. They served DD coleslaw on her "safe for the kids club prepared meal from the MDR kitchen" that I stopped by to see first, because I did not trust them and thank God I did. They also sent a cheese plate "compliments of the galley team" COVERED in nuts to our room, and I also have tree nut allergies. At that point, I burst in to tears because we still had 8 days left on our cruise and I just wanted to be home.

Honestly, if/when we do it again, I will do the exact same thing we did this time and pack an entire roll aboard with food. It took forever to get any sort of meal from the kitchen, even if we preordered the night before and our kiddo was always starving by the time the food came.

We packed:
-Giant bag of packaged popcorn for the shows
-Bag of safe pretzels
-Individual bags of Lays potato chips for
excursions
-Salami sticks (non-perishable)
-Pepperoni sticks (non-perishable)
-Tuna cans (non-perishable)
-Candy Bars and Candy that was safe
-Individual Oreos and a giant pack

We have heard the larger ships do a better job, but definitely be prepared, keep your guard up, and do not expect WDW-level food allergy awareness. I am hoping our experience was a one-off situation. We did everything right. We noted the allergies on our reservation (I am a travel agent, so I know it was done correctly), contacted DCL in writing via the medical form, they followed up by phone where we talked for 45 minutes, I stopped by to meet the serving team on embarkation day and go over allergies...we preordered all meals the night before. So really, there was no excuse...

 

[squirrel]

We just got off the Wonder (14 days) with our 4 year old who has peanut, treenut, and egg allergy. We also try to remain gluten free. We had an awful experience, so much so that they have actually given us a 25% off another sailing coupon because of it. 2 people had anaphylactic reactions while on board. The medical center handled them well, but yikes! They were able to offer us frozen waffles (not gluten free), frozen (and moldy!) mac and cheese, which wont help you, since you also have the dairy allergy. You "should" be okay with the fries, hot dogs, burgers (no buns). There was no sunbutter. There was a safe bread, and it happened to be gluten free. Fruits are a-plenty, so no worries there. We could not find a bag of chips to save our lives on board. Our DD ultimately ate Peel and eat shrimp, hot dogs, meat pattys, french fired, fruit, bacon, prosciutto, rolls and steak for 14 days straight with the exception of one soggy waffle and the one night that they served her a moldy frozen meal Mac and Cheese. I think it got defrosted, refrigerated and reheated and in the process rotted. I tried it, DH tried it and our server tried it. It was BAD!



Ironically, we found this to be the opposite, we had the MDR serve UNSAFE food on more than one occasion but the quick service locations were great. The head chef came out and watched the food preparation happen. They served DD coleslaw on her "safe for the kids club prepared meal from the MDR kitchen" that I stopped by to see first, because I did not trust them and thank God I did. They also sent a cheese plate "compliments of the galley team" COVERED in nuts to our room, and I also have tree nut allergies. At that point, I burst in to tears because we still had 8 days left on our cruise and I just wanted to be home.

Honestly, if/when we do it again, I will do the exact same thing we did this time and pack an entire roll aboard with food. It took forever to get any sort of meal from the kitchen, even if we preordered the night before and our kiddo was always starving by the time the food came.

We packed:
-Giant bag of packaged popcorn for the shows
-Bag of safe pretzels
-Individual bags of Lays potato chips for
excursions
-Salami sticks (non-perishable)
-Pepperoni sticks (non-perishable)
-Tuna cans (non-perishable)
-Candy Bars and Candy that was safe
-Individual Oreos and a giant pack

We have heard the larger ships do a better job, but definitely be prepared, keep your guard up, and do not expect WDW-level food allergy awareness. I am hoping our experience was a one-off situation. We did everything right. We noted the allergies on our reservation (I am a travel agent, so I know it was done correctly), contacted DCL in writing via the medical form, they followed up by phone where we talked for 45 minutes, I stopped by to meet the serving team on embarkation day and go over allergies...we preordered all meals the night before. So really, there was no excuse...

I have only cruised on the Wonder with my niece who is lactose intolerant. I have to agree with you as I found the chefs in the MDR's not very helpful. I would have to try and make suggestions on desserts for her as she would get dry cake with sauce drizzled on it while her sister ate a delicious sundae. The head server said they didn't have chocolate sauce that was dairy free for her sundae (Tofutti). Made no sense as they gave her some a few days before. Heck the kid would be happy with the raspberry sauce they put on her dry cake the night before. Any of the creamy soups she wanted were out. We would find out the next night at dinner they couldn't make it dairy free. Was completely different than WDW. She couldn't get mac and cheese (dairy free of course), pizza, soup. She was excited one evening to find out that the following night she could get angel food cake with strawberries (no whip cream of course). They only had original and vanilla soy milk and my niece likes chocolate. Since they didn't have Hershey's syrup, we couldn't make chocolate. So the main reason I listed her lactose intolerance was useless. She has almost completely outgrown it but my sister still doesn't give her regular milk. She still drinks soy. She does keep an eye on how much dairy she consumes in other forms (cheese, yogurt, etc.)

I have heard others mention all the great things they got on their cruise but they must have been on another ship.

 

[lanejudy]

@MunFam So sorry you had that experience! The majority of reports I've read about food allergies on the cruise have reflected a different experience. I certainly hope your's was unusual and it's better for your next cruise.

@squirrel I agree that "lactose intolerance" is handled differently than actual "allergies" on the cruise. Is your daughter able to use lactaid tablets or anything like that? I find that I am much better off handling my lactose intolerance myself than relying on servers/managers at restaurants -- whether onboard or elsewhere. My daughter also has a much more unusual medical diet, and again I find it much better for us to manage her choices than rely on others to understand. "Allergies" are very cut-and-dried, and the servers will generally err on the side of caution; often "intolerances" are not as well understood and treated more like an allergy.

 

[tup1830]

I have to agree, the allergy handling can be spotty, at best. While there are some rave reviews from some, others are on the deep end...like the ones listed above and my own experience.

First, my daughter has an egg allergy and allium (onion and garlic) allergy. She prefers simple porridge with some spices. The MDR chef made dry rice every night, and every night we told him just add more water and let it be a porridge consistency...not once was it done correctly.

Second, they would send a raita (a curried yogurt condiment) and it had huge chunks of onions...HELLO...ALLERGY!!!!

Third, they would take FOREVER. We rarely left earlier than the last 10 tables...that's after making choices/suggestions the night previous.

Fourth...and probably the most funny one, i come from the NYC area...lots of Italians here. A classic Italian dessert is zeppoles...even found in olive gardens. We had dinner in Palo and since most zeppole recipes don't include eggs, we asked for zeppoles for dessert, instead of just fruits with cream. The pastry chef comes by our table and looks dumbfound. He asks, what are zeppoles? This is an ITALIAN restaurant, and the head pastry guy doesn't know what a zeppole is. I said, its an italian donut and told him the ingredients to use to make it. I'll give it to him that he tried to make it, but honestly...these guys aren't chefs...they're cooks. They were taught to do one thing and its nearly impossible for them to do anything else.

 

[kuhltiffany]

On the Dream you should be fine. The Dream and the Fantasy both have separate "allergy" kitchens and also seem to have more knowledgable staff/servers as well. Our first 3 cruises on the Fantasy and Dream were great. Last one on the Magic not so much…

We also learned to get the Head Server involved from the first minute you step into the dining room. They are ultimately the ones who take responsibility for all "food transactions", so you need to make them aware of your needs and updated regularly of what has been good/not, etc. so they can attempt to step in as necessary.

 

[ajo]

We had a great experience on the Wonder with our two kids that have special diets because of their rare metabolic disorder. It's not an allergy, but it is similar because they can't eat meat, dairy, fish, or regular grains. We talked to the special diets folks before the cruise and they special ordered the pasta and pancake mix for our kids (it's not sold in regular stores). The Chef came out the first night and brought with him the products they had available on the ship in addition to the ones they'd ordered to make sure they were okay for the kids. Our MDR servers were great and they even served their special meal in the Club one night. I'm sorry to hear that others haven't had good experiences, but I can say that ours was fantastic.

 

[squirrel]

@squirrel I agree that "lactose intolerance" is handled differently than actual "allergies" on the cruise. Is your daughter able to use lactaid tablets or anything like that? I find that I am much better off handling my lactose intolerance myself than relying on servers/managers at restaurants -- whether onboard or elsewhere. My daughter also has a much more unusual medical diet, and again I find it much better for us to manage her choices than rely on others to understand. "Allergies" are very cut-and-dried, and the servers will generally err on the side of caution; often "intolerances" are not as well understood and treated more like an allergy.

I know at one time my sister did buy lactaid pills for my niece. We didn't have any when we went on the cruise. I had previously taken her to WDW twice and the chefs there are fabulous. I knew it wouldn't be as great as WDW but thought it would be quite a bit better than it was.

 

[DahliaRW]

With DCL it seems that singular food allergies are easy for them to handle than multiple. That being said, I think they do a better job about it on the bigger ships. On the Magic I had to tell them every time I went to dine, even though it was noted on my reservation (on the Fantasy it popped up every time I showed up). Our Palo group reservation acknowledged that my gluten allergy was noted, yet when we got there they had no idea. So you do have to be assertive.

The one thing that was better on the Magic were desserts. On the Fantasy it was usually sorbet. On the Magic I got an actual prepared dessert every night. With an egg, dairy, and nut allergies, it's less likely they'll have many, if any, dessert options outside of sorbet.

I have always found the MDRs to be better than the buffet. On embarkation on the Magic I asked at the buffet about food allergies. The server was like "the meat and vegetables are fine, don't eat the bread". Uh, ok, but there are A LOT of options, and hard to know if seasoning has gluten. I was not happy. MDRs, they'll make whatever they can.

 

[3beauties1beast]

Thanks SO much for all of the responses. I am really hoping things go well, since I had heard such great things about WDW and DCL for kids with allergies (convinced DH this would be the PERFECT vacation for us). Also, was really thinking the double-dip & Dream would be our best route. Thankfully my DD is fine to eat the same things virtually every night...and she'll be happy with sorbet for dessert. I'll definitely pack some snacks for her, too. Good to know about the lack of Sunbutter.

We're all looking forward to family dinner in the MDR (Grandma & Grandpap are sailing too), was just hoping that we didn't need to eat every meal there. We can always get some fruit at Cabanas and make an SB&J sandwich for her at lunch. (We've got an aft room, so it's a quick trip to our room for anything we brought.)

I'll give the special needs office a call tomorrow. Thanks so much for the info on that, too. We have noted her allergies in the reservation and thought that was all I needed to do before boarding.

 

[dektolia]

We’ve cruised twice with DCL, a 4-night Dream (March 2014) and a 7-night Fantasy (January 2015). Both were positive experiences, though different from each other, and both were better than our 2012 WDW experience. Our DD has a dairy, egg, peanut allergy, so when cruising no dairy, no egg, no PN/TN. And no reactions.


The part that made it better than WDW (for us) is that they just asked what she would like to eat. They were able to make most things that she requested. (The hardest part was deciding from a blank slate.) Our head server on the Fantasy said that his goal was to make her dining experience as great/normal as everyone else’s.


We did not eat any quick service or room service on either cruise as we wanted the food to come out of the dedicated kitchen with the trained staff.


The first cruise our servers recommended pre-ordering the night before, picking up breakfast and lunch at cabanas and the MDR at night. Even with the pre-order, we were the very last table to leave most nights. I actually liked getting the food at Cabanas, the same person took our order and brought our food out, they would wipe down a table to make sure it was clean, and it was a lot quicker than eating at a dining room. Usually by the time the adults took turns getting food from the buffet they had brought out her food for us all to eat together. Every night our server gave us safe bread to take back to the room so we would have it the next day (can’t just pick some up at Cabanas) and gave us some single server cartons of chocolate and vanilla soy milk (the only nut-free non-dairy onboard both cruises). Our only lunchtime dining room experience was poor with constant reminders to the main server, the bread person, the drink person, the food person, etc that we had allergies and couldn’t have bread, was the substance in the glass dairy free, different person brought out the food, etc.

The second cruise our servers recommended pre-ordering the night before, but this time eating at dining rooms. I don’t remember it being as bad as the Dream as far as having to tell people over and over. I would go with the recommendation of your assigned servers as they’ll know what’s working best with that specific crew. The second cruise we told our servers that we wanted to get out as quickly as possible and we were able to get done in about an hour instead of two. Letting the servers know made a huge difference. There were a few nights we had to wait 15 minutes to put the pre-order in (so that it didn’t delay others getting food), but we just had one person leave with the kids while the other stayed to order.

I would say if there’s anything you really need to have, to bring it with. The supply on the ships was inconsistent. The second cruise we just brought Sunbutter and a container to keep the bread in. We ended up collecting snacks to keep in the room over the course of the cruise (like cereal and fruit from Cabanas) and we would order something extra at lunch - fruit or jello- to be able to have an afternoon snack on hand without waiting so that the wait for dinner wasn’t a big deal. The Fantasy didn’t have single serve soy milk, they always brought it out in cups so it didn’t really work to take it back to the room. We drink mostly water so it wasn’t a big deal. Both cruises gave us the bread from our table in the MDR to take back (which then worked for breakfast/lunch bread the next day). The safe pasta is the gluten free pasta and my daughter didn’t like it, so that didn’t go over well. She ate mostly steak and sweet potato and asparagus. They made sorbets for her every night, which she loved. One night they made a chocolate cake with coconut whipped cream which looked amazing to me, though she liked the sorbet better.

Pancakes they could made safely but not waffles. There were no safe doughnuts/muffins. I don’t know for sure about bagels, but I don’t think so as we always struggle with breakfast options and she never had one. She did have toast (with earth balance) and oatmeal (which would have been safe at Cabanas except for CC), but she mostly ate pancakes for breakfast. They didn’t have Sunbutter but they did have jelly and bread. For dessert, they would bring a safe jello from a separate kitchen (at Cabanas it has merengue with egg), sorbet, cake, and they gave us a box of Enjoy Life cookies to take back to our room. They had apple and orange juice for sure, but there may have been others.

Feel free to PM me with any other questions. We’re planning to go again as it’s the most relaxing vacation I can think of with food allergies that doesn’t involve me having to cook the whole time. Based on the other replies though, I’ll definitely stick with the newer ships with the separate kitchen.


Have fun!

 

[dektolia]

I should also mention, when we ate at Cabanas on the Dream with the dairy/egg/PN/TN allergy, they said "what would you like to eat", and that same person showed up about 15 minutes later holding a plate of food, confirmed that s/he had the allergies correct and handed us the food. Other than the packaged cereal, she didn't eat food that came from the buffet (or quick service or room service). It all came from the separate kitchen whether she ate at Cabanas or in a dining room.

 

[dbarker]

Err on the side of caution. I have food allergies (corn, soy, barley, msg). I would order my meals (on the Fantasy) the night before, just to have our waitress let me know the next night that I couldn't have what I had ordered the previous night. I got so frustrated with the experience. Especially since I had read nothing but rave reviews about how they handled food allergies.
And no, they are not overly cautious about all of the ingredients. I had ordered something that passed the chef's OK, just to discover the hard way that it had something in it that I was allergic to. Luckily I don't have very bad reactions.

 

[3beauties1beast]

I should also mention, when we ate at Cabanas on the Dream with the dairy/egg/PN/TN allergy, they said "what would you like to eat", and that same person showed up about 15 minutes later holding a plate of food, confirmed that s/he had the allergies correct and handed us the food. Other than the packaged cereal, she didn't eat food that came from the buffet (or quick service or room service). It all came from the separate kitchen whether she ate at Cabanas or in a dining room.

Thanks so much dektolia! Where will I find "the person" at Cabanas? I've never gotten checked in at a cruise buffet before (pre-kids). Thanks also for your suggestions at the MDR. DD2 is a super rambunctious toddler, so I already was thinking that she would arrive a little late (suggestion from a helpful toddler thread). DD1 is very mature, so would normally be fine for long dinner...especially with so much going on..but 2 hours each night might be pushing it. I'll be sure to ask them for quick service.

DD will be so excited to have pancakes every morning! Good to know about the lack of bagels, and the soy milk & Earth Balance.

I'll be calling the number given earlier, and hopefully can get the brand of milk they have on board. We recently have had some issues with carageenan...don't have appt with allergist until right after the cruise. So, I'd feel comfortable if I at least could check out the brand. I'm sure the family packhorse (aka DH) would be happy to not have to schlep a case of milk onboard!

 

[3beauties1beast]

Have you (or your TA) contacted DCL to note the allergies on your reservation? That's important, especially with multiple allergies.

With multiple allergies, I would be cautious of the counter service locations. It will depend on your comfort with cross-contamination. Your best bet for meals will be at the MDRs; each evening your server will take her order for the next day.

I don't recall anyone indicating sunbutter was available. If it's important for you/her, you might want to bring it; you can grab slices of bread from Cabanas at breakfast time. I believe they'll have either rice milk or almond milk onboard as long as they know it's needed (again, the importance of noting the allergy on your reservation). I suggest contacting the DCL Special Needs department (407-566-3602) for specific questions/requests. That way you'll know what you need to bring.

Enjoy your cruise!

lanejudy - I called the Special Needs dept today, and they basically told me to just go to the MDR during embarkation to get things squared away. They couldn't tell me the specific brands of anything, and it didn't seem that I could request anything. Did I do something wrong?

 

[squirrel]

lanejudy - I called the Special Needs dept today, and they basically told me to just go to the MDR during embarkation to get things squared away. They couldn't tell me the specific brands of anything, and it didn't seem that I could request anything. Did I do something wrong?

Everything goes to a call centre. I don't think you can actually talk to anyone that deals with the ordering of food for the ships.

The buffet is also fine for finding food. Just let someone know that you have a child with allergies and they will get a chef for you. He/She will walk down the lines of items on the buffet and tell you what is safe. Then they will make fresh from the kitchen the items you want as they make sure it hasn't been contaminated by utensils.

 

[laceltris3]

We have always had good experiences so far on both the Fantasy and the Wonder for my now almost 4 year old son who is allergic to PN/TN/sesame allergic. We also are careful with coconut as it showed positive on the RAST, although he has not yet had a reaction. We have not pre ordered but did get a walk through on the buffet. I think they are pretty good with peanut and tree nut and can see how egg and dairy would be harder. I don't think its particularly hard to make chicken strips, pizza or macaroni safe from nuts. We did prefer breakfast and lunch in the MDR, particularly on the Wonder, but that is because the buffet was a madhouse and we could never find anywhere to sit (it was cold and rainy in Alaska, so everyone was inside). When we checked in at the MDR every serving team knew about the allergies. One day they came around and offered breakfast bread items and our server intercepted and pointed out it was not safe becuase of cross-contamination. One night they gave him a Mickey bar and came back in a panic until we confirmed that coconut oil was ok, but we had confirmed for the head server the first night it was fine as he had pointed out it was in many of the desserts. I have cancelled cruises on other lines in no small part because I couldn't get comfortable that he would be safe.

ETA that they were even very good about the sesame which is not as common. While once or twice the bread would have sesame seeds, they always put it on the other side of the table and offered to get safe bread from another MDR. Once there was a tahini spread for the bread and they brought it to us but made very clear it was not safe for my son.

 

[lanejudy]

lanejudy - I called the Special Needs dept today, and they basically told me to just go to the MDR during embarkation to get things squared away. They couldn't tell me the specific brands of anything, and it didn't seem that I could request anything. Did I do something wrong?

My apologies if I gave the impression specific requests can be made. It has always been my understanding that if the allergies are noted on the reservation, DCL does their best to have safe products available onboard. If DCL isn't aware of the need until after a passenger boards, there is likely no opportunity for them to obtain certain products so a safe alternative may not be available. I have not seen a list of brands available on DCL such as are available for WDW; that may be due to the various itineraries which may change.

So as long as you have provided advanced notice (by having the allergies noted on your reservation). We've had no problem finding appropriate foods for my daughter's unusual diet, but I never requested specific brands. I'm sorry to hear you didn't find the Special Needs Dept. to be helpful answering your questions -- I've always had good experience with them.

Enjoy your cruise!