Explorer of the Seas - Food allergies

Hi People,

This is our first cruise and my first post here.

Our 14yo son has severe food allergies. He is anaphylactic to Nuts, Eggs, Dairy and Kiwi fruit, he has an Epipen.

We have called the Royal Caribbean and they said make sure we talk to the chefs......etc

Has anybody had experiences with life threatening food allergies on these ships?

cheers,

Jay

No but my understanding is that they will work with you. Did you email special needs at rccl? They may be able to help.

While not anaphylactic, I have Celiac and am VERY sensitive to cross contamination with gluten (like in pain with sharp cramps for 12 hours, and 3+ days of cog fog after). I was so worried, but they were really aware and careful (plus I am a vegetarian on top of all of that). Your first day, go talk to the Maitre D' at the restaurant and more important, to your server and the head waiter that night. For me, I found it helpful to write down a detailed list of what gluten was ("includes barley, wheat, rye, malt vinegar, soy sauce, etc.") so that my head waiter could take it back to the chef. Each night, they would bring out a menu for the next night, and I would order a night in advance so they could prepare it separately in an area without cross contamination. Ditto for lunch on sea days. Lunch on port days was a bit more difficult, but they would call the my order up to Windjammer, and I just needed to find someone up there to talk to, and they would make it (approx 20 minute wait) and bring it out to me. I don't really eat breakfast, and days I wanted it, I brought my own GF granola, and ordered soy milk from room service.

Definitely emails the special_needs@RCCL.com (especially to request they stock lots of extra soy milk for you), but most of the magic will be done by your head waiter. Of course, bring the epi-pen, but know that they work really hard to manage things the best possible.

Oh! And obviously, you can bring lots of non-perishable/shelf stable snacks on board. We usually swing by a Whole Foods on the way to port. That way, he can have safe snacks whenever he wants.

While not anaphylactic, I have Celiac and am VERY sensitive to cross contamination with gluten (like in pain with sharp cramps for 12 hours, and 3+ days of cog fog after). I was so worried, but they were really aware and careful (plus I am a vegetarian on top of all of that). Your first day, go talk to the Maitre D' at the restaurant and more important, to your server and the head waiter that night. For me, I found it helpful to write down a detailed list of what gluten was ("includes barley, wheat, rye, malt vinegar, soy sauce, etc.") so that my head waiter could take it back to the chef. Each night, they would bring out a menu for the next night, and I would order a night in advance so they could prepare it separately in an area without cross contamination. Ditto for lunch on sea days. Lunch on port days was a bit more difficult, but they would call the my order up to Windjammer, and I just needed to find someone up there to talk to, and they would make it (approx 20 minute wait) and bring it out to me. I don't really eat breakfast, and days I wanted it, I brought my own GF granola, and ordered soy milk from room service.

 

Definitely emails the special_needs@RCCL.com (especially to request they stock lots of extra soy milk for you), but most of the magic will be done by your head waiter. Of course, bring the epi-pen, but know that they work really hard to manage things the best possible.

We were on Explorer 5 years ago, & my DD, who has celiac, never had an issue. On sea days, we always ate lunch in MDR, & port days, we usually were able to find a restaurant she could eat at. Concerned about Windjammer on our upcoming cruise (Adventure in May). When you say "They would call up my order to Windjammer" -- who is "they"? How did you choose something for them to make?

I have somewhat severe dietary restrictions and have successfully eaten in the Windjammer. The Windjammer chef will walk me around the various serving stations and indicate what I can and cannot eat. It can be a bit time consuming, but there are always many choices. The chef has ordered specially prepared items on more than one occasion. I usually find there is a better variety of menu options in the Windjammer than in the dining room.

Yes, notify special needs and complete the online form.

Yes, bring snacks and prepackaged foods onboard.

Bring patience and try for less busy mealtimes.

My wife has a nut allergy. She was asked to order her meal a day ahead which allowed RCCL to prepare the meal alone to ensure that there would be not cross contamination from another meal that may have nuts or nut product on it. They could also prepare the same item without the nuts. Make sure your issue is noted on your reservation.

When you say "They would call up my order to Windjammer" -- who is "they"? How did you choose something for them to make?

Oy - this was a challenge! They would say "what would you like for lunch tomorrow" (or ask about dinner when there was nothing on the menu adaptable for a vegetarian Celiac) and I would go "Um..." It's hard when there are no clear guidelines. However, some things I got once I started to figure out what I could ask for:

*Gluten free pasta with a variety of veggies

*A marco style plate with tofu, steamed veggies, and GF soy sauce

*A fresh set of salads that were taken out behind the scenes before they were put on the line (therefore free of XC issues)

Other folks who eat meat/fish suggest asking for roasted or sauteed chicken, grilled salmon, etc. I don't eat those, so that was hard of me. Mashed potatoes, a burger on a GF bun, etc., are options. You just need to think about what you/he like to eat, and ask for something similar. Just remember that NONE of the ships currently have a dedicate fryer on board, so if someone is sensitive to XC, you can't have anything fried anywhere, including tots, tortilla chips in Sabor, and so on. However, I didn't realize I could ask for a grilled cheese anywhere. It might take a while, because they have to go make it in the safe space, but it is do-able.

Similarly, once I ask the Cafe Promenade folks for some Udi's cookies (again, it took a while as someone had to run down to the GF fridge in the depths of the ship), they brought me like 5, so I stored some in my in room fridge/cooler. Most folks were super happy to help, even if there was occasional issues in understanding the GF PLUS vegetarian issue (I got offered fish and steak a lot).

We travelled on Anthem in 2016 with a friend who is very gluten intolerant and the MDR worked as previous posters have indicated, but when in the WJ she would work with a chef and they would go behind the station and take her food out of an untouched tray to make sure there was no cross contamination possibility. It was a 12 night trip and she had no issues whatsoever on the ship. HTH.

We took our first cruise on Oasis last year with our 11 year old son who is anaphylactic to peanuts. I was a nervous wreck to start with as it was out of my comfort zone.

I emailed special needs prior to our sailing who told me to contact the maitre’d on the first night. He was excellent and came to see us every night at dinner to advise us what was on the menu and safe to eat. My son ordered his own meal the night before and it was prepared in a separate area of the kitchen.

We ate in the MDR every evening and requested our own table for our family of four. Places like the wipeout cafe we visited to find out what was safe or not. I also brought packaged snacks from home for the days we were away from the ship.

All in all it was a very positive experience and I feel they handle food allergies very well.

Jay,

I have a 11 year old son with severe food too to all nuts and diary. We carry an Epi pen with us all the time. We sailed on the Allure of the Seas last July and had no problems. We are book in 3 months on the Oasis of the Seas.

I have a few suggestions for you. We also stopped at a Whole Foods before we sailed. First, Royal Caribbean does not offer diary free butter/margarine. I talked to special needs department and they advised me we could bring dairy free options onboard with us, such as Country Crock. We also took our own snacks for him. We kept the Country Crock in our cabin refrigerator. We would put some in a small glass and take it with us for his food.

As soon as we boarded, we visited the dining room because we had my time dining and made reservations at the same time every night. After the first night we felt comfortable with the waiter and head waiter. So, we requested the same staff every night because of my son’s food allergies and they were happy to meet our request. The head waiter brought my son the next day’s menu every night and modified as many items as he could to make his food safe. He would also take his breakfast and lunch orders if we wanted. If my son change his mind for lunch or breakfast and not want to eat at the MDR, they did not care. They even made diary and nut free deserts every night for him. The deserts were average and did not compare to our Princess cruise, but it was something special for him each night.

Anytime we went to the Windjammer, we advised them of his food allergies and asked for one of the chefs. They made sure he did not get cross contaminated food and advised us what was diary and nut free.

This summer will be our 4th cruise with him and the cruise lines have always taken his food allergies seriously. I believe they do a very good job accommodating people with food allergies. We feel very safe sailing with him.

I hope this helps,

Scott

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If my friend Mislav is working as the Maitre D on the Explorer then by all means talk with him on the first night . We had him on two different sailings. On the second sailing he was promoted and he checked on us at every meal. What a nice man from Croatia. Our server made us Chai Tea specially for us as we love it And please tell him that Daniel and Charles from California end their regards!

It helps to contact the Special Needs dept too.

We were on Explorer 5 years ago, & my DD, who has celiac, never had an issue. On sea days, we always ate lunch in MDR, & port days, we usually were able to find a restaurant she could eat at. Concerned about Windjammer on our upcoming cruise (Adventure in May). When you say "They would call up my order to Windjammer" -- who is "they"? How did you choose something for them to make?

we were on Liberty a few weeks ago with 2 celiac children-

we just asked one of the servers to send out a chef for food allergies, the chef would come and they would discuss what was available/possible let the kids decide and them lake it and bring it out-

Interestingly for us, it was always the same chef that brought the food out, so there was no confusion as to what type of allergies was being avoided or how the food was for.

At dinner the kids always got to choose the next nights dinner and desert,