Gluten AND Dairy Free...can it be done?

[Born4Travel]

We want to go on a cruise with my nephew who is 7 and is gluten and dairy free. He won't eat "adult" meals, so steak with broccoli won't work.

 

He likes things like bagels and dairy free cream cheese, gluten free diary free grilled cheese, dairy free ice cream, gluten free pizza with dairy free cheese, etc.

 

Anyone have experience with this kind of food restrictions on DCL?

 

TIA!

[Loonbeam]

Disney is pretty good about these sorts of things, but you may be asking a bit much of them here in terms of limited flexibility. I would consult with the line before booking.

 

It's also important to understand the sensitivity level. Is this life threatening, discomfort, or preference, if so that greatly affects available options.

 

We want to go on a cruise with my nephew who is 7 and is gluten and dairy free. He won't eat "adult" meals, so steak with broccoli won't work.

 

He likes things like bagels and dairy free cream cheese, gluten free diary free grilled cheese, dairy free ice cream, gluten free pizza with dairy free cheese, etc.

 

Anyone have experience with this kind of food restrictions on DCL?

 

TIA!

[Born4Travel]

Is there an option for just below life threatening? :o

His condition is NOT life threatening, but does significantly effect his health. To the point if DCL can't do it, he won't travel. I will have my SIL call the cruise line directly, however, for her WDW trip they were not to helpful with specifics. WDW kept trying to feed him adult meals with not gluten.:confused:

 

So I was trying to see if anyone had this particular allergy combo.

 

Thanks for the input. :)

 

 

It's also important to understand the sensitivity level. Is this life threatening, discomfort, or preference, if so that greatly affects available options.

[GatorMomInNC]

On another Disney cruise board someone posted all of the menus from their recent Magic Med cruise and the menus had marked on the dishes GF or DF. I don't recall if there were many with both, but those would have been adult meals anyway. I think if you do do this you might be better on Fantasy because they seemed to have a better allergy free selection than th Magic o Wonder.

[Loonbeam]

That would be discomfort.

 

The issue here is the lack of ability to eat adult meals, which REALLY limits what the kitchen staff can do. The reason I asked about level was cross contamination.

 

The kitchen will have an area in the bakery for GF and probably a DF area somewhere else, but they may not have one for both. So the question becomes, if GF pizza gets a tiny bit of dairy on it is that an issue?

 

Also, I don't think Dairy free cheeses are standard stocks. DF milk, yes. That's why I suggest contacting them, to see what they can special order if anything (you cannot bring your own products, everything has to be sourced by them for sanitation reasons)

 

Is there an option for just below life threatening? :o

His condition is NOT life threatening, but does significantly effect his health. To the point if DCL can't do it, he won't travel. I will have my SIL call the cruise line directly, however, for her WDW trip they were not to helpful with specifics. WDW kept trying to feed him adult meals with not gluten.:confused:

 

So I was trying to see if anyone had this particular allergy combo.

 

Thanks for the input. :)

[Born4Travel]

Good question to ask. I don't know how big of an issue dairy cross contamination is. I will follow up on that.

 

Thanks so much for the guidance. :)

 

The issue here is the lack of ability to eat adult meals, which REALLY limits what the kitchen staff can do.

 

So the question becomes, if GF pizza gets a tiny bit of dairy on it is that an issue?

 

Also, I don't think Dairy free cheeses are standard stocks. DF milk, yes. That's why I suggest contacting them, to see what they can special order if anything (you cannot bring your own products, everything has to be sourced by them for sanitation reasons)

[tikilover]

I'll be traveling on the Aug. 23rd Fantasy cruise with my family. My MIL eats gluten and dairy free. Her allergies are not life threatening, but she eat very sick, so she avoids gluten and dairy. I'll check back in in this post after our trip to let you know how it goes for gluten and dairy free.

[Born4Travel]

Thank you SO much!

:D

 

I'll be traveling on the Aug. 23rd Fantasy cruise with my family. My MIL eats gluten and dairy free. Her allergies are not life threatening, but she eat very sick, so she avoids gluten and dairy. I'll check back in in this post after our trip to let you know how it goes for gluten and dairy free.

[chamima]

We're taking all of our children and grandchildren on a cruise next year and chose Disney over Princess (where we usually cruise - and LOVE) specifically because our 10 year old granddaughter has Celiac's disease and an egg allergy.

This isn't life threatening but she gets very, very sick if there is even cross contamination in her food.

She was also allergic to dairy but seems to have outgrown that this last year.

Our daughter researched how each cruise line accommodates allergies and felt that Disney was the best.

I think if you communicate with their special needs department prior to your cruise you should be ok. They might actually ask for ideas for things your nephew can eat.

Also, maybe you can bring some daiya cheese for him.

 

I'll be interested to hear your experience but expect that it will be great.

[Ex techie]

Here are couple of posts, back in 2012, but I'm sure they are still relevant:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=35986517&postcount=14

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=36031722&postcount=17

 

HTH's

 

ex techie

[bsddsc]

we cruised with a friend who has extreme allergy to onion and garlic. Its is extremely important to tell them when you book AND when you arrive in the dining room . Our servers found out where we were dining the next night and got a menu to my friend. He was able to pre order the next day's dinner based on what the chef said they could accommodate.

 

Also, even on Castaway Cay, special items can be ordered the day before. Your head server will ask you what you want and tell you exactly where the "special" items can be picked up at Cookie's. I was surprised to see there was a list of at least 3 pages of special dining people, even on shore.

[jbrecalde]

My dd is gluten free and casein free (dairy included). We have been on three Disney cruises. Our experiences on the magic and wonder were amazing. We had a personal chef hand making and delivering all of her meals. It was great, he made whatever she wanted for all of her meals. Then we went on the Fantasy. It was way less than we ever expected. I never met a chef. I was told that my server was in charge of all her meals. He gave her way less options. It was frustrating to say the least. We are going back on the fantasy in a few months. When I sent in my special services from I mentioned all this, and that I hoped for a better experience this next time. My point in saying all this is that clearly it can be done. They can make wonderful GF/DF meals. I'm just not sure what their standards are since I have experienced two ends of the spectrum. I will say, my daughter didn't got hungry... She still ate no problem. She just wasn't given many options, and the quality wasn't as good.

 

 

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[jbrecalde]

Ha ha! I just noticed someone linked my review of our first DCL vacation above.

 

And yes, they do send orders to castaway. Make sure you confirm it at least a day in advance with your server. On the fantasy, mine forgot. My dd had to wait 20 min for them to get it all worked out. Meanwhile, everyone else in our group had finished eating. Clearly my experience on the fantasy was less than stellar. I'm all about giving them a second chance in November though! Hopefully they make it up this time!

 

 

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[chamima]

Ha ha! I just noticed someone linked my review of our first DCL vacation above.

 

And yes, they do send orders to castaway. Make sure you confirm it at least a day in advance with your server. On the fantasy, mine forgot. My dd had to wait 20 min for them to get it all worked out. Meanwhile, everyone else in our group had finished eating. Clearly my experience on the fantasy was less than stellar. I'm all about giving them a second chance in November though! Hopefully they make it up this time!

 

 

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PLEASE come back to this thread after your cruise and let us know your experiences.

 

We are spending a fortune to take our kids and grandkids on a New Years cruise on the Fantasy next year

and one of the main reasons we chose Disney is because two of our grandchildren have Celiac and we were told they would be catered to on Disney.

[jbrecalde]

PLEASE come back to this thread after your cruise and let us know your experiences.

 

We are spending a fortune to take our kids and grandkids on a New Years cruise on the Fantasy next year

and one of the main reasons we chose Disney is because two of our grandchildren have Celiac and we were told they would be catered to on Disney.

 

 

Will do Karen!

 

We cruise the end of NOV and first of Dec, so I'll get back in about the second week of December. :) Wish me luck! :D

[jbrecalde]

PLEASE come back to this thread after your cruise and let us know your experiences.

 

We are spending a fortune to take our kids and grandkids on a New Years cruise on the Fantasy next year

and one of the main reasons we chose Disney is because two of our grandchildren have Celiac and we were told they would be catered to on Disney.

 

 

And Karen,

I will say that we took the same daughter on a Norwegian Cruise a long time ago. They totally dropped the ball. I ended up getting a free cruise out of it. The Fantasy was still way better than my experience on Norwegian. So, you will be catered to. I just don't know what exactly their standard is. I really enjoyed having the personal chef.... but maybe that was just a fluke, and he was just a super nice guy.

[chamima]

Will do Karen!

 

We cruise the end of NOV and first of Dec, so I'll get back in about the second week of December. :) Wish me luck! :D

 

And Karen,

I will say that we took the same daughter on a Norwegian Cruise a long time ago. They totally dropped the ball. I ended up getting a free cruise out of it. The Fantasy was still way better than my experience on Norwegian. So, you will be catered to. I just don't know what exactly their standard is. I really enjoyed having the personal chef.... but maybe that was just a fluke, and he was just a super nice guy.

 

Thanks!

Here's wishing you a great experience!

 

 

The main thing is that the kids feel well and get to enjoy the week.

They get really, really sick from even cross-contamination of gluten so we're trying to ensure they have a healthy, happy experience.

The personal chef would be nice but the main thing is the care taken in the preparation of their food.

Edited September 30, 2014 by chamima