Food Allerges on HAL

How do they handle people w/ food allergies in the MDR?

I'm almost afraid to tell them about them, because they force you to order something the night before. And on Royal Caribbean, they often kept me waiting for a long time after dinner before bringing the menu.

Do they let you have dessert or make something "especially for you" that isn't very good? Or do they let you choose?

Do you mind telling us about the allergy?There's a really good chance someone has experience with a similar situation.

My husband has food allergies also. He gets the menu usually right after he is finished dinner and waiting for coffee.

There are some nights that we don't eat in the MDR and find the menu in our cabin that evening. We fill it out and return it to the MDR at breakfast.

We have been cruising since 2006, and he has never had a problem.

I have a severe dairy allergy (no butter etc.). Does anyone have experience with how they handle that?

Mine started out pecans, then the allergy PA told me no tree nuts either. I'm going to get them to test for almonds and . A few others.

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One of the people in our party cant have dairy. Meals were pre-ordered the night before and as stated above sometimes the menus were delivered to our room. We try to make sure we have early or late seating so we are at the same table with the same servers every night so we don't have to explain everything all over again. You just have to be careful as sometimes butter or something is offered out of habit. The deserts were the most challenging some times just a boring fruit plate. Check then ask for the sorbets. Almost never soy ice cream. Often other tablemates will want to see the next nights menu also. We always reminded them about the menu as the deserts were being served. Be extra careful of the buffets and check. Eggs don't cause us problems so meringue cookies worked for us. The first night is hard since things aren't pre-ordered.

We have the most problems on shore excursions and not trusting dining off the ship especially if we don't speak the language of the town we are in. We have been known to bring sealed prepackaged tuna with us to take ashore. One of the biggest surprises we got was an HAL Alaska tour back in the deep woods when the guide pulled out a lactose free hotdog to cook on a stick over the fire. High Tea in Victoria didn't work as well but the gardens and tea were nice.

My allergy is mushroom powder or mushrooms. HAL has always taken good care of me, even preparing dishes that normally contained mushrooms without them. Yes, I order the night before, but I request that the menu be brought prior to my being served. It arrives before the first course is finished.

The few times we've been forced into open seating, the maître d' made sure we had the same table every night with the same wait staff. If we weren't eating in the main dining room that evening, I'd inform the maître d', usually by nine in the morning, and he'd arrange for me to select from the menu for the next evening.

I try to stay away from the Lido, as cross contamination is just as dangerous as eating a mushroom. HAL takes no responsibility in the Lido as I've been told on numerous occasions. Eat there at your own risk.

Make certain you fill in a medical form prior to leaving, at least a month in advance of departure. Have a safe cruise.

We took our (then) teenaged grand daughter on Volendam to Alaska. She had severe allergies to peanut and any peanut derivative (including oil) plus tree nuts; also no red meats, no fish, no legumes, no dairy, no soy, no wheat and no eggs! She ate any type of poultry, potatoes and rice, most fruit and most vegetables.

We had Open Dining and they dealt with it well - there was a flag on our room number so any server we had knew there were issues and checked with us. She pre-ordered dinners by circling her choices on the menu copy the night before, and she marked special needs in the margins such as No Gravy, No Butter, No Dressing, No Stuffing, etc. Sometimes we turned in the menu before lunch the next day. It always worked well. She enjoyed many forms of poultry - quail, pheasant, turkey and chicken with potatoes, or rice and steamed vegetables.

In the Lido we made contact with the Lido Chef immediately upon boarding. He took us around the Lido and showed us what was safe. The carvary on one side always had chicken or turkey; the oil for French fries had no peanut oil and she could get a freshly make turkey burger or chicken breast at the grill - the cook would get a clean pan to cook it for her.

They did not make special dishes for her, she had to make her choices but they willingly brought out packages for us to read ingredients and made themselves available - the Lido Chef is always on duty whenever the Lido is open.

For dessert she had sorbet and fruit.

We did bring a small carry-on of special foods for her and requested a refrigerator ($2 per day) for our room. We took a tote bag to meals so she had her safe salad dressings in addition to oil and vinegar, safe butter substitute for her baked potatoes or other condiments. And we had snacks for shore excursions.

She had a grand trip because she was well prepared and had a good attitude. Hope it all works for you too! m--

PS The Lido has many types of "milk" now and you can ask for what you want if it's not out.

Thank you sooo much for your info and suggestions! They are so helpful! I'm making notes! Again, thank you.

Is the MDR open on Port Days?

On our last Royal Caribbean cruise, their MDR wasn't open, and the Lido didn't label the allergies.