knachman

It really depends on what kind of food you like. Although I agree the butternut squash soup is awesome, the rest of the Animator's Palette menu wasn't much to my taste. I would still visit all of them next time when we go on our 7 night cruise. But if you are going on a short cruise, just check the app for the menus and see which one looks the least appealing, if you want to miss a night to go to Remy or Palo.

We did a 3-night bahamas Disney cruise with our kids (4,7, 9) and it was too short! I booked a 7-night for next time so we can be more relaxed and still do everything we want to do.

They really just want you to be happy and have whatever you want! When I was there they had two sets of four-course meals you could choose from. They also had a whole list of other menu items (elk, kobe beef, etc) that you could choose or substitute for anything you want.

When I mentioned my husband and I wanted to switch desserts (we each got a different four-course meal) they said NO PROBLEM and if you don't like the choices please let us know and we'll substitute for something you do like!

My husband is very picky about weird things too, he doesn't like fish or pork. One of his four courses was fish and he just went with it (to my surprise) and loved it. So either way I don't think you'll have a problem.

Okay so here's the situation. My husband and I want to book a cruise for just the two of us, Europe summer 2017. I've 99% decided on the France/Spain/Italy 7 night cruise on the Equinox in July 2017, so I'm hoping to put my deposit down and reserve in the next week or two.

My question is, as far as dining options go, is it worth the extra price of an aqua class cabin to dine at Blu? I have several food allergies, the most annoying one is corn. I can't have anything with corn starch or syrup, I've been getting more sensitive to it over time even. So fresh foods that are not highly processed and don't tons of filler ingredients are a definite must. And in general we enjoy eating really nice, quality meals. So I'm not necessarily opposed to paying for aqua class. But would it be better to do that, or just to plan on dining at some of the other restaurants on board to get a variety? And maybe pay for a specialty dining package or something?

Thanks in advance.

My husband, two of our kids got new passports, I renewed my expired one, and we got them back in less than four weeks. I got regular service with overnight delivery.

My other daughter we had to expedite because of annoying paperwork complications (long story) and I was shocked to get it back in about a week!

Knachman, based on your food allergy and wanting fresh and unprocessed foods, I would suggest you think about a European river cruise such as Uniworld. The food is sourced locally by the chef from farmer's markets and regional suppliers along the river. It's drastically different from ocean cruise ships in terms of quality. Much more like a Michelin 2 star experience. The other thing is that the food actually reflects the area in which you are cruising. The river ships are small and very boutique - the cabins are decorated in a way that might remind you of an upscale B&B and you will see the chef every day - possibly multiple times per day should you have any questions about the food. BTW, if you should wind up taking the kids, Disney subcontracts river ships, so there are Disney River Cruises as a possibility and Disney has a way of sleeping more than 2 per cabin, otherwise typical river cruises don't really work for kids since most cabins only sleep 2. Don't let anyone tell you river cruises are for the elderly. On ours on the SS. Antoinette, the ages ranged from 28 to 93 with most somewhere in the middle. It's a great experience as most tours are included (all but 3 on our cruise) and they even give you money to buy lunch off the ship if there is no planned group lunch and you won't be back at the ship for lunch that day. It is really a very carefree way to see quite a lot of Europe in a very upscale and refined way with outstanding food and nice travelers.

I have actually considered a river cruise, but I looked on the Viking site, and it seemed like most of the cruises were much longer than the 7 nights we would plan for. Maybe I need to look at some other lines? I definitely want to eat a lot of local food, since that is the best part of Europe for me :)

If it is just the two of you splurge and go on the luxury lines, either Sea Dream or Seaborn. They will both accommodate your dietary needs and serve the best food you will find.

Thanks, I will check them out!

Kosher food is manufactured the same as regular food. Except for cruises where a tour company will kasher a kitchen and prepare fresh, the kosher meals are TV dinners with special handling instructions. There might not be corn kernels but there is, more likely than not, high fructose corn syrup.

Many grocery store items are kosher. Many have HFCS.

Carnival uses Weberman's. Need to contact them about specific ingredients

There are certain types of kosher foods that are required to be corn free, but looking at the info again, I understand now that it's just for Passover. Usually around Passover time I load up on cheaper Coke (sucrose instead of corn syrup) and other things that I can't usually get. But I didn't realize that was for Passover only until now.

I might be mistaken but I think the OP is more concerned with how the lines handle her food allergies

 

Having processed food with ingredients that are hidden & that will make you sick is NOT a good way to spend your cruise

 

Sounds like she is looking for lines that have more fresh ingredients than packaged processed foods

 

Most cruise line will do their best to accommodate special diets you have to call the Special Services dept ahead of time & see if they can provide you with foods you need

Yes, this is it in a nutshell.

And I also sometimes forget that kosher food is often corn-free, so maybe that is something I should check into as well.

Well, I have a new offer from the in-laws to keep my children for over a week if we want to go on a cruise just the two of us, which I feel is too good to pass up lol.

I am liking the sound of Celebrity and they have an Italy/France/Spain sailing in July of 2017 that I am interested in. So maybe I need to go post over there and see what they think about dining options. I'm not sure if we should pay more for the Aqua class cabin so we can eat at Blu, or if we should just get a specialty dining package or something.

As far as Olive Garden goes- I don't mean to sound uppity, but we rarely eat at chain restaurants anymore. This is mostly due to my allergies, but I also prefer to patronize locally owned restaurants anyways. So if I want Italian food I would go to the small, local restaurant that serves Mediterranean cuisine. As a bonus they also make an amazing chocolate cake :cool:

As far as "good" food, when I say that I mean basically cooked with fresh ingredients, not highly processed, not a lot of fillers, not a lot of chemicals. That makes it easier to avoid corn starch/syrup, maltodextrin, modified food starch, etc.

Disney was great at accommodating me in the main dining rooms, and Remy of course. And I thought the meals in the main dining rooms were fairly good. Now the buffets and quick service meals were a different story, hard for me to find things to eat so I ended up eating a lot of salads and fruit. And lost weight...so it wasn't all bad I guess LOL!

We recently cruised DCL and we are looking for a different line to try out for a European cruise (summer 2017). So we need something kid friendly (three kids all under 10yo) and something with higher quality food that it will be easier for me to eat due to my food allergies. The main inconvenience is being allergic to corn, which is hidden in many things, especially lower quality, highly-processed foods. Things with fresh ingredients and very nice restaurants with good chefs are generally not a problem.

I don't mind paying extra for food either, especially if I know ahead of time that I will need to. I'd rather have a cheaper stateroom and awesome food actually, since we spend so little time in the room.

Any suggestions of major cruise lines to look at (or avoid) based on food quality? Princess and RCL have been suggested to me due to kid-friendliness.

Does Princess have any family staterooms that sleep five? It's so hard to figure this out when they never show them on the website!

We have three kids, ages currently 4yo, 7yo, and 9yo. We've cruised Disney before and we are doing another DCL Caribbean cruise in Jan '17.

I would like to do a week-long European cruise in mid to late June of 2017, so that we can go right after school gets out and still give my oldest daughter enough time to spend at her dad's house in the summer. I love DCL but since higher priced plane tickets have to be factored in for a European cruise, I would like to find a different line to try out.

Any suggestions for lines and/or ships that would be comparable to DCL in quality? My kids like to go to the kids clubs, and my husband and I like to have nice (fancy) dinners without kids that we normally wouldn't get at home.

Ideally I'd love to have a verandah/balcony, and we'd have to have either one cabin or two cabins that join together due to the ages of the kids.

That's not a very good discount. I'd get a Target card (or debit card) and buy Disney gift cards using that, then use the Disney gift cards to pay for your trip.

Yeah, same prices as shown on the website. Then you get 10% off.

No you won't lose any of the benefits. Unless you pick a cruise that is in the blackout dates. But you don't have to wait 'til you get home to transfer to your TA, unless you don't know who you want to use for it. If you already have a TA, just give the Disney agent your TA's name and info when you book.

It will probably take longer than 45 minutes to get to the port from Orlando, we thought it would be 45 min as well, but it ended up being over an hour because of traffic.

When I just did my onboard booking, they only had reduced deposits for 7+ night cruises.

I just did an onboard booking, they had my travel agent's name in their system already and the whole process was very easy.

I got a 10% discount on the cruise (not in blackout dates), a $200 onboard credit, and my deposit was reduced because I booked a 7 day. If you book less than a 7 day you only get $100 onboard credit and no reduction in deposit.

We just went on the Dream from 1/15-1/18 and it did rain at Castaway Cay for about an hour. The winds, unfortunately, were about 60mph the entire day. But that didn't keep us or our kids from enjoying the beach for a few hours before the rain.

When the weather is bad they do extra activities on the ship. In our case, they did an extra 3D showing of Star Wars in the Walt Disney theater, along with some other assorted activities for different age groups that I can't remember exactly. We opted for the non-3D showing of Star Wars at 12:45, then put our kids in the kids club at 4, enjoyed some adults-only hot tub time, dinner, and then the show. And like I said, we still got a few hours of ocean time in the morning. So I wouldn't say the day was ruined at all.