Cruising with food allergies

I'm decently well versed in cruising but our new little one has multiple food allergies (wheat, corn, dairy, eggs, peanuts, and fish) and wondering how cruising would be with her. Anyone have similar situation?

We cruised with my 15 month old in January and he has a dairy and hazelnut allergy. We were with friends and their 13 month old is allergic to all nuts including coconut. Contact special needs to make a note of the allergies. The day you board the ship meet with the matrie de (they will have the time listed in the fun times) tell them about the allergies and they will give you that nights menus to order dinner for that night. After that you will just order the night before while at dinner. I believe you can also place orders for breakfast and brunch at the same time. The buffet will be hard, you can try and get someone to direct you to someone that can tell you what items are safe.

Bring lots of safe prepackaged snacks for on board and in Port. It will be more difficult then you are used to and dinner sometimes took a bit longer (the food will be prepared in a different area). For some items on the menu they can make substitutes to make it allergen free. One night they subbed soy milk and something else in the pasta dish, unfortunately it was not good but they will do everything they can to accommodate. My friends daughter was not a big eater and liked to share her dinner so she would just order like she was the one with the allergy. Good luck and of course bring extra allergy meds and Benadryl for any surprise reactions. I also brought lots of extra diapers, wipes, and clothes in case of tummy troubles if he did end up having something with milk in it from the buffet (even things cooked with milk (baked goods) would upset his tummy).

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My grandson has peanut allergies. My daughter just discuss his condition with the Maitre ‘d on embarkation and his needs are taken cared of. He still has his Epipen with him all the time

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We travel with a group that combined has allergies to peanuts, treenuts, shellfish, egg whites, chocolate, MSG and liquid dairy. Only had issues with 'user' error, no issues with Carnival. If you have a nut allergy, know that Carnival classifies seeds as nuts.

If you have an odd allergy contact Special Needs before your cruise. If you have a 'normal' allergy no need to do so.

https://www.carnival.com/about-carnival/special-needs/dietary-needs.aspx

See the Hostess at embarkation when the Maitre 'd has hours. Hours will be in the FunTmes, usually starting around 1pm. The hostess will take that night's order. Each night the hostess or your waiter will bring you the next day's MDR menu-breakfast, brunch/lunch and dinner. If deciding between two entrees, order both. For brunch don't hesitate to order a breakfast and lunch if you want to eat both meals in the MDR. At ATD, an order slip will be generated and given to your waitstaff when seated. They will confirm the order with you.

Only issue we've ever had was one cruise DD's food arrived before mine.

For room service, they cannot make special for you but they can tell you the ingredients. No special area so there is always the possibility of contamination

Buffet is a minefield. Ask the Hostess or the Head Lido Chef or the Food and Beverage crew in the officer whites. DO NOT ask the line cooks or those serving desserts. They mean well but do not know the full recipes. Cross contamination is always a possibility.

Onshore--- we bring allergy cards. I made our own but you can buy some at selectwisely.com.

You can only bring off commercially prepared food. We bring cereal bars, boxes of cereal, bottled water, hard candy etc.

Many ports will check. Some will do a physical search, others use dogs. You do not want the cute Labrador to sit next to you. I've had them alert on my Lemonheads.

Kids clubs have a form to fill out. There are some snacks served at times. The younger kids meet up at the dinner buffet certain nights. Ask the counselors what's on the menu.

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Ty everyone, the corn one is the one that's so difficult. I guess I won't let it stop us from cruising.

There's an app for that. I just installed on my phone. I have shellfish allergy and cauliflower and DH to strawberries. I will try this out for our up coming cruise.

There's an app for that. I just installed on my phone. I have shellfish allergy and cauliflower and DH to strawberries. I will try this out for our up coming cruise.

What’s the name of the app?

There's an app for that. I just installed on my phone. I have shellfish allergy and cauliflower and DH to strawberries. I will try this out for our up coming cruise.

What's the app?

DD is gluten-free. Ever since she was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, any Carnival ship we've sailed on, she's received excellent care from the dining staff. As described previously, she ordered her dinner ahead of time. Some dishes that weren't gluten free, she was able to order specially made to be gluten free. As for breakfast, I was able to call ahead to ask for gluten-free toast to be prepared. If I didn't call ahead, she could still get it, but it took a long time to get.

The wait staff is vigilant. DD wanted the pad thai, which she knows has rice noodles, but they wouldn't let her order it because they weren't personally sure the noodles were rice-bases and that it was okay for her.

Here is a website with some of the apps. I didn't care for the one I downloaded. I did end up making myself some cards to give to the waiters.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319733.php

Here is one I made, feel free to copy or change (shellfish)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kFYMT3EuyyCF8OglboCPY_sAzFF5Awry/view?usp=sharing (front)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vOe0NCXsXvTs1o6gz9Yo1-w5bL-XtdiG/view?usp=sharing (back in Spanish)

strawberry https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ud9w0Z21jFX7n420ZN-YFUS7Grkwm_h/view?usp=sharing

Thank you!

I’ve made up allergy cards in the past. Last year we bought some from Select Wisely when DD went to a country whose language uses a different alphabet. The food people, medics and the hospital were impressed by them. She never had a food related issue when using these cards.

Please do not advise people not to contact Special Needs and to wait until they are onboard. It can mess up their planning. We were on a cruise where a large group of Gluten Free people sailed without notifying Special Needs in advance. As a result, they were not prepared and did not have enough GF supplies onboard. They ran out of of Gluten Free pasta and Gluten Free flour midway through the cruise. They were very apologetic that they could not make any GF chocolate melting cake, nor provide any gluten free pasta, nor provide the GF birthday cake that we ordered for our grandson on the first night.

Please do not advise people not to contact Special Needs and to wait until they are onboard. It can mess up their planning.

In my opinion, this is the MOST important statement on this post (so far). Contact the special needs desk and be as detailed as to what you can and cannot eat as possible. Once on board, then do the same with the maitre d AND your wait staff.

I have a soy and legume allergy and my son is dairy free. We contacted ahead, met with management on board, and talked with our servers. The first night was a little long as we all figured each other out, but after that dinner worked out well. We ordered the night before and that made it much easier.

We did have a major problem at breakfast our first morning when my son was served regular dairy pancakes. We knew something was wrong immediately (even though our server insisted they were dairy feee—they were not) and went to get a manager. The manager apologized profusely, corrected the situation, and then assigned us our own waiter for breakfast. Thankfully, my son is not anaphylactic, but if he was Carnival would have had a medical issue on their hands. After that encounter, we never had another problem the entire cruise [emoji4].

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Our daughter has a life threatening allergy to nuts and we've found that Carnival has been by far the best cruise line for those suffering from allergies. On RCCL, we actually -TWICE- had our waiter bring my daughter meals with nuts, and when we spotted them he's like.. "oh, sorry". RCCL is best at the buffets as they'll have the ingredients listed, although all buffets are inherently risky. One note-- we did go with friends who had a child with an egg allergy, and it seems almost everything (bread, etc.) on RCCL contains eggs, where he was allowed to have a lot more on Carnival. NCL was a bit better than RCCL (they took orders, etc-- so the sit down was good), but at a dessert buffet when we asked what was nut free, she pointed at a pie and cut us a piece.....then we waited. Sure enough, she put the cake cutter in the same water with all the other cutters-- pie in garbage. When cruising Carnival, we meet with someone every night who takes our order for the next night and they've been flawless wherever we dine (anytime dining) as they have her info and bring what she ordered. They'll even make things that normally have nuts, nut free, for her. Our daughter is the one now who asks that we only cruise Carnival as her comfort level is high. Overall I think they all do a good job and I wouldn't hesitate traveling with an allergy over the concern of contamination, but more based on what is actually available to eat as a result.

Good luck!

DW has unusual food allergies. Carnival used to be great with this but lately they are making mistakes.

For example green vegetables give her migraines. On a recent cruise after going thru all appropriate steps they served her a chicken dish with a heaping mound of spinach on top. Headwaiter just shrugged his shoulders.

We complained strongly to the MD and they did better after that but not sure I would trust them with allergies that could be life threatening.

We do find Princess to be better at catering to her needs.

Please do not advise people not to contact Special Needs and to wait until they are onboard..

Where did anyone say to not contact special needs? --even if special needs is contacted, it is the responsibility of the guest to be vigilant and look our for their own interest. Emails may never get to the kitchen or on the correct sailing. You as the person eating the food or parent of the child who will eat the food, this is your job. Don't depend on someone else. Balls get dropped.

Here is a website with some of the apps. I didn't care for the one I downloaded. I did end up making myself some cards to give to the waiters.

 

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319733.php

 

Here is one I made, feel free to copy or change (shellfish)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kFYMT3EuyyCF8OglboCPY_sAzFF5Awry/view?usp=sharing (front)

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vOe0NCXsXvTs1o6gz9Yo1-w5bL-XtdiG/view?usp=sharing (back in Spanish)

 

strawberry https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ud9w0Z21jFX7n420ZN-YFUS7Grkwm_h/view?usp=sharing

Thanks, I should figure out how to make these.

Our daughter has a life threatening allergy to nuts and we've found that Carnival has been by far the best cruise line for those suffering from allergies. On RCCL, we actually -TWICE- had our waiter bring my daughter meals with nuts, and when we spotted them he's like.. "oh, sorry". RCCL is best at the buffets as they'll have the ingredients listed, although all buffets are inherently risky. One note-- we did go with friends who had a child with an egg allergy, and it seems almost everything (bread, etc.) on RCCL contains eggs, where he was allowed to have a lot more on Carnival. NCL was a bit better than RCCL (they took orders, etc-- so the sit down was good), but at a dessert buffet when we asked what was nut free, she pointed at a pie and cut us a piece.....then we waited. Sure enough, she put the cake cutter in the same water with all the other cutters-- pie in garbage. When cruising Carnival, we meet with someone every night who takes our order for the next night and they've been flawless wherever we dine (anytime dining) as they have her info and bring what she ordered. They'll even make things that normally have nuts, nut free, for her. Our daughter is the one now who asks that we only cruise Carnival as her comfort level is high. Overall I think they all do a good job and I wouldn't hesitate traveling with an allergy over the concern of contamination, but more based on what is actually available to eat as a result.

 

Good luck!

ty, good to hear. We know for sure she's ana to eggs and fish but can have baked eggs above 350 degrees for 20 mins in small doses. Corn is the hardest one to avoid for us.