Experience with Food Allergies on Mariner

[keesu89]

Hi:

We will be sailing the Mexican Riviera soon with a member of our party who has several food allergies,some of which are potentially life threatening, including nuts, peanuts and shellfish. Royal Caribbean has been notified, and seem to have a protocol in place. I am wondering if there are any of you out there who have experienced this before, and if you could tell me how you found it was handled. We have cruised before, but never with this line. Thanks in advance for any info anyone might have.

[foxesden1]

Hi:

We will be sailing the Mexican Riviera soon with a member of our party who has several food allergies,some of which are potentially life threatening, including nuts, peanuts and shellfish. Royal Caribbean has been notified, and seem to have a protocol in place. I am wondering if there are any of you out there who have experienced this before, and if you could tell me how you found it was handled. We have cruised before, but never with this line. Thanks in advance for any info anyone might have.

 

we did Disney at the time we booked my daughter had 3 ANA food allergies, dairy, egg and mustard seed. thankfully she had outgrown them by the time we cruised. (we booked like 2 years out or less).

 

I still ordered dairy free food for her - because she reacts to lactose.

 

in the dining room i was told I would pre order her meal the night before. it never happened. they always pre ordered something for me, i never got a choice.

 

i do recall thinking it would have been a nightmear with ANA reactions, and I would have felt very ill at ease on the ship.

 

Which I did not when we went to Disneyland.

 

I do know many people avoid the MDR on shellfish nights.

 

Not sure if I helped at all, but please make sure they have their epipen with them AT ALL TIMES. a ANA reaction can happen up to four hours after eating. (my daughter has had two, the first was in Jamaica).

[FamCruz2012]

Hi:

We will be sailing the Mexican Riviera soon with a member of our party who has several food allergies,some of which are potentially life threatening, including nuts, peanuts and shellfish. Royal Caribbean has been notified, and seem to have a protocol in place. I am wondering if there are any of you out there who have experienced this before, and if you could tell me how you found it was handled. We have cruised before, but never with this line. Thanks in advance for any info anyone might have.

Hello! Just wondering how your Mexican Riviera cruise went -- how did they accomodate food allergies? I can't eat gluten or dairy so have similar concerns about our upcoming trip with RC. Thanks!

Sue

[Avidcruiser]

We have been on quite a few Royal Caribbean cruises with my son who has a severe allergy to nuts. Bottom line is that I think RCCL could do a better job with food allergies. Although we have never had a problem, our experiences ranged from a very diligent head waiter who would come over every night and check on us as well as bring us special bread (sometimes the bread contains nuts and we didn't want it touching any of my son's bread) to another waiter who would actually suggest desserts that clearly had nuts to my son ?! Overall, we are highly cautious so I think that helps...we tend towards children's menu items and items such as spaghetti and meatballs which would have a low risk. He usually gets vanilla ice cream for dessert. I would not trust any of the other desserts. There are no guarantees in the Windjammer although we find that we can find theoretically "safe" food for him there. We always carry his epi pen everywhere. BTW we always list that he has food allergies in our reservation but I don't think that really makes a difference.

 

We have not been on a disney cruise but my friend whose daughter has food allergies raved about their experience regarding food allergies on a disney ship. Having been to Disney World several times I know they are very good there as well.

[Geldhart]

Unlike the other posters, the servers and kitchen staff were much more paranoid about my allergy than I was (and I found out later, for good reason). My allergy is alcohol, not in the Friend of Bill sense, but 1 drink for me would be roughly equivalent to most people having 10 - 12.

 

Not normally an issue, except in higher end places where alcohol is used. Normally in the kind of restaurants I eat at, they either don't use alcohol at all, or the amount used cooks off and is OK. (Beer battered fish is ok for example as the hot cooking oil gets rid of any alcohol in the batter).

 

RCCL never let ANY alcohol into the food that went on my plate. No matter what I said about it being cooked out, they simply would not budge. The waiters did suggest desserts like "Banana Cream Pie with Kahlua", but they emphasized time and time again that my version would come without the special sauce. And it was very clear, especially on nights when my wife ordered the same things I did, that my dish was altered. The duck had a different sauce, once I had double of one side dish, and none of the other, my Banana Cream Pie was a different shape and used different chocolate, etc.

 

As for why they were so paranoid - in Chops, my wife ordered mushrooms in wine sauce, and ended up drunk. They were strong, and the combination of the sauce and mushrooms being very absorbent meant a lot of wine was still in there. We joke of the magic mushrooms today - BUT the Chops server was very clear to me that the mushrooms were definitely "NO TOUCHEE" to me.

 

We've discovered my daughter has the same sensitivity to alcohol that I do, and we have no fears of her having any problems with the food.

 

One thing that should be made very clear, is that the Main Dining Room is the only location that is capable of handling all food allergies. If you have any concerns - all your meals should be eaten there, especially if cross contamination is a big deal. You can choose all the right foods at the buffet, but if another passenger used the same tongs to grab a piece of grilled fish that he used to get something in a peanut sauce, a peanut allergy sufferer would be in big trouble having some "safe" fish.

 

As explained to us, the Main Dining Room has a special kitchen for allergies to ensure there is no cross contamination.