Ideas for food allergies/sensitivities?

[DenverDis]

Would appreciate help from those who have navigated these waters. Just off the 10/8 Dream. We love DCL (platinum), but DW has developed some bad food “sensitivities.” Not “allergies”’per se, but bad stuff if she has gluten, onion, garlic, cream or milk. She is on a no/low FODMAP diet for those who can relate.

Dinner first at Palo was great and they were able to work with her. Dinner in the MDRs the last 2 nights was, honestly, pretty awful for her. We pre-identified her issues with shoreshide, talked to our server team the morning before our first dinner in the MDRs, but her two MDR dinners were both bad and served really cold. She did the best she could but watching her push her meal around her plate, and then just decline offers to try something else, wasn’t fun. Our server team wanted so desperately to bring her something good that she could enjoy, but it just wasn’t happening, and it became awkward. (I gave them all excellent remarks on the comment card because I know how important that is and it isn’t their fault). But things were so “meh” for her this time we are actually considering Celebrity for the first time after years of unwavering loyalty and exclusivity with DCL. This was becoming a challenge pre-pandemic, but this return for her to DCL was much worse on the food issues. So now my questions:

1) Anyone have better luck navigating these tricky issues to make cruises more enjoyable? Tips?
2) Palo is limited to one evening on these 3-day cruises. Has anyone had luck getting DCL to allow a second night for individuals with food issues that the MDR can’t seem to tackle (and I get it; they are mass producing food for thousands of guests)? I guess we could try Palo, Remy, and a night of French Fries? But we mostly cruise with friends who LOVE the MDRs (as do I, frankly), and it would be sad to have to forego them forevermore.

Maybe this was just bad timing. Our cruise had over 2000 guests and everyone’s food was a little slower and colder than usual. They are still getting their rhythm back. And I’m hoping I’m not coming off as whiny, I’m just looking for tips and solutions so we can continue to enjoy what we love so dearly. Food isn’t everything on a cruise, but it is a big part of the enjoyment of cruising. Thanks for any constructive thoughts.

 

[HiStitch626]

Have traveled with people with sensitivities and allergies and have not had the experiences you describe. I think your notion that they are still getting their rhythm back is probably correct.

Pre-Covid, DCL did allow you to book two evenings in Palo, as long as one of them was the first night. I do not know if that is the current policy or not. I guess if you are on the Dream class ships and that policy does return you could do Palo, Remy, Palo, but I do understand wanting to enjoy the MDRS.

 

[lanejudy]

You say you spoke with the server team in the morning before the first dinner -- but did she pre-order her meals each evening? That may be the best option as done for allergies. It does mean she's deciding what she'll eat a day ahead rather than the spontaneity of ordering at the table, but it allows the allergy kitchen (which is separate from the regular MDR kitchens) to plan and prepare appropriately.

 

[Kwami]

Have traveled with people with sensitivities and allergies and have not had the experiences you describe. I think your notion that they are still getting their rhythm back is probably correct.

Pre-Covid, DCL did allow you to book two evenings in Palo, as long as one of them was the first night. I do not know if that is the current policy or not. I guess if you are on the Dream class ships and that policy does return you could do Palo, Remy, Palo, but I do understand wanting to enjoy the MDRS.

Double Palo seemed to be an option when I was selecting activities. But that was a few months ago and my memory could be faulty.

The MDRs do have special menus for allergies. I'm surprised that you couldn't find something good one one of those. I sure hope that the servers offered them to you! I customize my meals quite a lot in the MDRs and I guess I've been lucky to never get cold food.

 

[Girl of the South]

My niece has recently been told she needs to be on a FODMAP diet, gluten free, no dairy, etc. And I still can't get my head around it because it really defies logic. No honey, only maple syrup. Only TWO Brussels Sprouts. My niece can't eat rice unless it's a day old (in the fridge overnight). If it's a challenge for her favorite Auntie, it's gonna be tough for a MDR kitchen.

I think your best bet is to not tell them what you CAN'T have as it's overwhelming. I would give them two or three ideas for a dinner such as:

Broiled salmon, no butter or spices
Steamed green beans , no butter or spices
Baked potato, no butter or spices

Broiled chicken breast (wow, did you know Kangaroo is on the approved list?)
Salad with lettuce, cucumber, carrots, 2 cherry tomatoes - side of olive oil
French Fries

If she can eat rice:
Stir fry with shrimp, rice, baby spinach, shredded carrots in peanut butter (like make a peanut sauce?

I bet they would be more than happy to make a special meal - you just can't tell them to be creative. It's too hard. And bring your own salad dressing or balsamic vinegar, maybe some oyster sauce? My niece can eat spaghetti squash but probably not in great supply on the ship.

What did she have that she could eat at Palo??? Maybe tell them what worked for her there? My niece does eat a lot of french fries when there is nothing else (like in the airport) and travels with a huge jar of peanut butter. She also likes something from Trader Joes called Giant Peruvian Inca Corn (corn nuts). It's a very tough combination of things one can't eat. You could also bring some of those vacuum packed tuna packets and a tube of mayo? And add that to a plain salad.

I know what you are going through and wish you luck . . but I do think the more specific you are about what you DO want, the better.

 

[Disneyland_emily]

Doesn’t the ‘lighter fare’ menu come as basic as it gets? While plain chicken/steak/fish/veg is not exciting it would’ve been an easy ‘hot’ option that should’ve been quickly available.

not accepting the servers ‘help’ on replacements yet still rating them excellent gives no incentive for them to make it better for future cruisers.

 

[Travel60]

While I'm not on the low FODMAP diet, I occasionally have some similar eating issues. At home, I eat as plain and close to "off the farm" as I can. Agree the lighter fare menu is good. Piece of plain meat and a salad does it for me.

 

[Starwind]

Your experience is definitely not the norm for DCL's handling of special dietary needs; at least it isn't in terms of pre-covid standards, and from the few reports I have seen post resuming sailing isn't the norm now either. Not to say things don't go wrong, they can and do [looking at you, Wafflegate], but usually DCL handles special diets pretty darn well.

I have multiple food allergies and one of the reasons we sail with DCL is because of how well they handle food allergies. If you search posts by me with allergy or allergies you will find a number that deal with sailing with food allergies, including some extensive ones on the process/experience [pre-covid, as the last of our 8 sailings was December 2019]. I suggest reading those for a better view of the overall process.

But some quick thoughts:

- If things are not going well and your immediate serving team of Server and Assistant Server can't solve it, *engage your Head Server*. This is especially true when dealing with special diet needs, as the Head Server is the one that signs off on special diet orders, and at least in my experience they are much more involved with your family than other families because of that. Part of their job is solving problems - use them.

- pre-order ALL meals the night before at dinner. Yes, it takes spontaneity out of things, but it usually makes things so much easier overall, and it gives the chefs time to adapt and create more customized dishes.

- your serving team will tell you where they will be working for breakfast and lunch; you don't have to eat at those locations, but I find it is easier if you do, at least most of the time. Sometimes though we do like to eat at cabanas to watch the sea go by -- but I found a way to do that is to eat the meal in the MDR where our team is, and then go have drinks in Cabanas

- for dinner, the "lighter fare" menu is my fallback... it is about as basic as you can get, because you are looking at simple chicken breast, steak or fish [and it can be done with no seasoning at all, so just the plain meat], plain white rice or potato, and steamed veggies [which again no seasoning or anything]. And you can swap parts of that into the main menu... so eg a main menu entree but have the steamed veggies instead of whatever veggies would normally come with it. They can also always do a basic garden salad - almost all their dressings on board have milk so I did a lot of oil and vinegar for dressing, or just plain.

- when we sailed on the Dream, they had allergy menus, which were great ! I don't know if they have brought them back yet or not. For me because I have multiple food allergies I actually could not order straight from them, but they were helpful - and because they have them it means they have some desserts that are already safe for me, which didn't used to be the case most of the time I ended up doing a mishmash of normal menu and allergy menu and whatever I ordered it had to be modified to be safe.

- I found the app very helpful because it meant that I could see all of the menus for the entire cruise. So during the day, I would look at the menus for the next day and figure out what I most likely wanted to order. That saved a LOT of time doing the pre-ordering at dinner, too. When it came time to pre-order, I would say what I wanted and ask if it could be done -- since I was reasonable about what I was asking it almost always could be, or the server would say yes, but with this modification. Sometimes it couldn't be, and then I would give my plan B choice or go to my lighter fare menu fallback [sometimes i just ordered from the lighter fare menu anyway because that if what i felt like!]. I also sometimes would order something like a soup that was at one of the other restaurants the same night, if i preferred it to my restaurant's choice, and that was always fine [er, and one cruise when they figured out i LOVED butternut squash soup, they just brought me some - safe!! - each night I didn't even have to order it ].

- in practice with my allergies I end up having a lot of entrees made without sauces and without seasoning. sometimes it is obvious the sauce/seasoning is a no go so the order is made to omit it; other times it is made as normal but to be made safe and then when i get it it is clear that to make it safe meant no sauce or seasoning, while other times i get a different sauce than everyone else, etc. And then other times I just feel like a ligher fare day

- none of the DCL ships have a separate allergy kitchen, but they do have designated areas within their kitchens where the allergy meals are prepared. They have whole protocols for how allergy and special diet meals are ordered, prepared, and served.

- you can bring some of your own food onto the ship. It has to be commercially packaged and factory sealed [i.e. unopened]. I usually bring some packaged snacks [Made Good, Enjoy Life] to have just in case and for port adventures. But you could also bring something like a safe shelf stable salad dressing [eg by Fody] and then once opened keep it cold in the stateroom fridge [keep in mind the fridge is more like a cooler than a fridge and tends to keep things either cool or close to freezing... so be cautious what you are needing to keep cold from a food safety standpoint].

Hope these ideas and my previous posts help.

SW

 

[Snowwhyt]

I too have the onion and garlic allergy. On my AZ vacation last month I had been giving two dinners in a row with onion. The first was a $125 for my meal the second was standard pizza place. I threw up at the pizza place but the first meal was such a minimal amount I just had some tummy problems. So I understand stand how travel is difficult. Local restaurants too though.
Here are my DCL experiences. I did have a flavorless bare chicken breast brought to me once, icky. So now I bring a short sauce options list so I am not “bare” for my meals. Also it helps to have the head waiter and his supervisor involved. They are the ones who make sure it’s coming to you hot. Because it’s a problem when it comes from other restaurants on the ship(Not all kitchens are set up for every meal type). Sometimes it sits ready for someone to take it the next steps, which is why some ended up cold to me because transportation had flaws. That’s where the head/supervisor is expected to come in. You should get your meal as soon as it is available often from someone other than your servers tell them it’s okay if it comes early but you don’t wish to keep the group waiting.
Say you hope to have meals with the family but would prefer early meals over cold meals. That sets a path for problem solving for them.

Good luck, I’ve cruised 6x. My last 4 cruises were great. First two had some issues and I still got a cold meal my last trip but they remade it for me, even though I just asked for a quick pop in the microwave.

 

[Ravens girl]

This thread has been helpful as my husband also has an allium (onions and garlic and any other in that family) allergy. If anyone has other tips I’d appreciate them.

 

[ptisme]

I have celiac so no gluten. I also have a severe sensitivity to pork that I have had since my mid 20s. I also developed sensitivities to dairy, sesame, corn, yeast, and several grains used in GF breads.

I have found a dressing that is made of Olive oil and lemon juice that has individual packets that I take with me traveling. I also take packets of Tamari sauce (true soy sauce - not make of wheat) so I have seasoning no matter what. I rarely eat grains or dairy as my body just doesn't like it.

I sailed in early September on the Dream and had a good experience. I pre-ordered all my meals every evening (except Palo brunch which was sooo good) so when I went to breakfast, my meal was already ordered and they just had to make it, same with lunch and dinner. My server was really good about going over my options and seeing what could be modified and what couldn't. I ate really well. What is interesting is that the Pork issue was more limited than I expected as it limited some of the desserts - very odd I know.

I think good communication with your serving team is crucial and if you are not getting what you want, talk to your head server. I really didn't understand the role of the head server until I was diagnosed with Celiac over 7 years ago. They have been able to get things done for me that I didn't think were possible.

 

[DenverDis]

These are all great suggestions folks and very much appreciated. We did preorder the next evening’s meal, to no avail this time. Maybe it’s just the fact that the 10/8 cruise we were on was pretty full (relatively speaking), causing some kitchen slowdown and food delivery issues. Per several recommendations above I will seek out our head server first day on our upcoming Halloween cruise to try to get better ahead of this. And while they like to “synch” the courses for all guests at a table, I think we will tell them to bring my wife’s food as soon as it is ready, even if that means she is served as soon as we sit down. I also visited with shoreside on this and they suggested also seeking out the chef/a chef (don’t know how many there are) day one, and we will do that as well. And as someone noted, it’s not just a DCL thing. No matter how emphatically my wife says “no onions, no garlic” at any restaurant, I’d say 50% of the time her food is served with one or the other. It can be a challenge, so I do appreciate everyone’s good thoughts here. Happy cruising all!!