Celiac Disease and eating safely ashore and/or on excursions

Our son will be 10 when we sail and has celiac disease. He must eat gluten free. We are sailing on Radiance of the Seas, northbound Alaska from Vancouver to Seward. Our ports are Ketchikan, Icy Strait/Hoonah, Juneau and Skagway. Other than packing lunch/snacks in the form of pre-packaged foods, do any of the ports have safe gluten free options for him?

Our son will be 10 when we sail and has celiac disease. He must eat gluten free. We are sailing on Radiance of the Seas, northbound Alaska from Vancouver to Seward. Our ports are Ketchikan, Icy Strait/Hoonah, Juneau and Skagway. Other than packing lunch/snacks in the form of pre-packaged foods, do any of the ports have safe gluten free options for him?

Don't know for certain. However being that all the ports are either in the USA and Canada a gluten free diet is nothing new to these areas. You could always do an internet search to check out restaurants in port and their menus.

Here in Vancouver you'll have no difficulties as we cater to all sorts of trendy diets which has the fortunate side effect of making life super-easy for sufferers of celiac disease (a childhood buddy I grew up with in rural Scotland literally had everything that wasn't grown in their own garden or a piece of meat/fish supplied by the NHS on a monthly basis - his life is SO much easier now that it's trendy to avoid gluten!)

Personally I'd stick to eating on the ship if at all possible in the smaller ports, or taking packaged snacks (you did mention this, but for 100% clarity food that's prepped fresh onboard and wrapped up wouldn't be allowed to leave the ship in US ports - must be commercially-sealed packages). You could try Yelp, Zomato etc. for Gluten Free dining lists, but especially in the small ports (everything but Juneau on your list) I think you'll be out of luck - or at best get 'GF by choice' dining menus where they might offer a GF burger bun but also acknowledge that they use wheat etc. in the prep area too - i.e. no use to folks actually sensitive to traces of gluten.

I agree entirely with martincath: the safest way is to take prepackaged snacks on the cruise with you and eat all main meals on board. The hassle of trying to find safe places to eat ashore will drive you mad and cut into your shore time. If there are no customs issues I take larger packs of cookies and nuts etc and put them into small containers for the shore excursions. We generally lunch after our excursion in the buffet.

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I agree entirely with martincath: the safest way is to take prepackaged snacks on the cruise with you and eat all main meals on board. The hassle of trying to find safe places to eat ashore will drive you mad and cut into your shore time. If there are no customs issues I take larger packs of cookies and nuts etc and put them into small containers for the shore excursions. We generally lunch after our excursion in the buffet.

 

 

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Thanks to you and martincath! I figured that might be the case. I am happy to hear of the safe and friendly options in Vancouver and maybe in Juneau. You are right that cross contamination is a huge concern and I appreciate you mentioning it. Prepackaged Go Picinic type meals for lunch, along with some prepackaged and healthy snacks are do-able.