Child with Peanut/Nut Allergy

[ljcofy]

Do I need to do anything (or does the ship do anything) with a child with a nut allergy? She has her EpiPen, of course, but should I let the ship know?

 

Thanks

 

LJC

[Ourusualbeach]

E mail special_needs@rccl.com

 

Note the underscore between special and needs.

[maureencruiser]

And, be aware that at the buffet, people might use the spoon from something with nuts, like pesto and put it in something without nuts like tomato sauce. Be very cautious at the buffet. Have a great cruise.

[maureencruiser]

Also, since you'll be at sea for a week, stock up on Epipens before you leave. Find out how often your insurance will pay for a two-pack and order it that often before the cruise. Hopefully, you won't need it, but, what if something did happen?

[ljcofy]

Thanks for the great advice! I hadn't thought about the inadvertent mixing at the buffet, which has me very concerned. Will be getting extra Epipens for sure.

[prekteacher]

Our head waiter met with us every night to pick the menu for the next night. He even met us in chops to plan the next evening. The wait staff went out of their way to bring us special bread for our 2 kids with the tree nut and peanut allergies and were excellent in making sure we knew the night before what the kids could not eat. We did have their epipens and benadryl with us but have never had to use them. We did contact the above email and went into the dining room early the first day to remind the staff we had the children with allergies. We have had 2 great experiences with no issues so far.

 

Good luck and hope you have a worry free cruise like we have had.

 

Barb

[Dinkachu]

WE have sailed on Royal many times and have 2 family members with serious shellfish allergies.

 

Royal's main dining room and specialty restaurants are very good about dealing with allergies. When they had Rita's aboard Allure they made us our own chips.

 

We do NOT do buffets. Once saw shrimp in the beef stir fry.

 

Also, ask if they use peanut oil to fry in places like Johnny Rockets. Better safe than sorry, but you should be able to enjoy your cruise.

[clawmachine]

following...I have a severe shellfish allergy and my son is peanut and tree nut. On DCL they were extremely careful but this is his first time on Royal. I'm mainly concerned about lunch the first day; hopefully after that it will be less hectic and we can have time to ask about safe options. It's hard to find many allergy threads about RCI here on cruise critic.

 

does anyone happen to know if Oasis provides any sort of safe cookie for nut allergies? Perhaps a pre-wrapped variety? It's always so hard to have to tell my son that he can't have any cookies, because most places fresh-baked cookies are never safe.

[reallyitsmema]

following...I have a severe shellfish allergy and my son is peanut and tree nut. On DCL they were extremely careful but this is his first time on Royal. I'm mainly concerned about lunch the first day; hopefully after that it will be less hectic and we can have time to ask about safe options. It's hard to find many allergy threads about RCI here on cruise critic.

 

does anyone happen to know if Oasis provides any sort of safe cookie for nut allergies? Perhaps a pre-wrapped variety? It's always so hard to have to tell my son that he can't have any cookies, because most places fresh-baked cookies are never safe.

 

I know I have read about prepackaged gluten free cookies in Cafe Promenade, you just have to ask for them. I am not sure if those are also nut free but might be a good place to start.

[mommyloves2cruise]

We leave next week for our fourth cruise with our milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, shellfish allergic son. Last year was our first cruise with Royal and loved how they handled the allergies (we have also been happy with Celebrity).

Definitely email special needs before you leave. They will most likely advise you to avoid the Windjammer.

When you board,head to the MDR to make sure that they know about your allergies. The first night at dinner, talk with your head waiter. We ordered each meal the night before and a head waiter would bring us the pre ordered food for each meal.

We usually bring lunch for our son for the embarkation day since the Windjammer is so busy and we can't be sure that we can get safe food.

We bring factory sealed snacks for when we are in ports. I am always a little nervous about eating in ports and find it easier to just bring our own so that we don't have to worry about language barriers.

For this year's cruise, I will be bringing some special desserts for my boys. Since we also have a milk and egg allergy, we were pretty much limited to Jell-O for dessert. I am hoping to have enough time to bake a batch of our chocolate chip cookies to bring to dinner for the first few night.

They really went above and beyond for our son last year. Our head waiter even sent a fruit basket to our room so that our boys could have safe snacks throughout the day.

[CaptData]

Also inform the Kid's Club as they sometimes take the kid's for lunch. They can order ahead and ensure he has a meal that is prepared for him.

 

I have food restrictions. Do talk to the Head Waiter/Maître'd, he will be available from 1-4 pm in one of the Dining Rooms. When you sit down for your first meal have the Waiter call the Maître'd over and discuss the meal. After this you will be give the next days meal the night before.

 

If you go the a Specialty Restaurant go the day before and pick out the meal. When you go tell the waiter it was pre-ordered.

 

Cooked meals for those of us with special diets/considerations are done in a separate area of the kitchen so that cross contamination is very, very small.

 

Do bring something sealed for him the first meal or eat before you board. Do ask for a fruit basket with his restrictions in mind for your room.

[clawmachine]

I know I have read about prepackaged gluten free cookies in Cafe Promenade, you just have to ask for them. I am not sure if those are also nut free but might be a good place to start.

 

 

Thanks, I will do that! We definitely plan to bring some pre-packaged snacks with us as well, although we will see how well they travel. Like a previous poster mentioned, it's just too much stress while in port to try to determine what is safe to eat.

[swales]

Hopefully you get a good waiter otherwise it's going to become a pain. My wife is deadly allergic to shellfish and on our last cruise we gave the advance notice and told the head waiter yet when our waiter came around he had no idea. He also seemed to hit reset at the end of every day as each evening he had to be reminded of the allergy, he even once brought us a special dish from the kitchen that he said was vegetarian and hidden in the sauce was shrimp. The kitchen is all set-up for preparing the allergy meals but at the end of the day it all comes down to the waiters competence.

[clawmachine]

I've frequently seen posts here referring to emailing the special needs rccl address, but just a few minutes ago I noticed this page buried in our cruise documents online:

 

SPECIAL DIETARY NEEDS?

Send us an email at least 45 days in advance with your name, reservation number, ship name and sailing date to the email adress below.

 

KOSHER kosher@rccl.com

FOOD ALLERGIES foodallergies@rccl.com

GLUTEN-FREE glutenfree@rccl.com

Edited July 23, 2015 by clawmachine

[clawmachine]

I received an immediate automated reply from the food allergies address above, and they said it would be forwarded to the dining room. It's annotated on our reservation as well but double coverage can't hurt. The response said to avoid the Windjammer, which we were already planning on doing..

[Queen of Oakville]

Our head waiter met with us every night to pick the menu for the next night. He even met us in chops to plan the next evening. The wait staff went out of their way to bring us special bread for our 2 kids with the tree nut and peanut allergies and were excellent in making sure we knew the night before what the kids could not eat. We did have their epipens and benadryl with us but have never had to use them. We did contact the above email and went into the dining room early the first day to remind the staff we had the children with allergies. We have had 2 great experiences with no issues so far.

 

Good luck and hope you have a worry free cruise like we have had.

 

Barb

 

This is good to know.

 

This has been my experience on Celebrity - very pleased; I recommend Celebrity to anyone who has allergies to contend with.

 

This was NOT my experience on Royal. So perhaps things have changed.

 

 

 

 

To the OP - beware of the chocolate breakfast. ALL of the chocolate on royal "may contain" nuts; so be forewarned that your child will be denied anything chocolate - include all ice cream. Royal adopts the "better not to take a chance" approach. While I agree with this (to some extent); it's not easy to explain to a child.

 

It was a big issue for us on Royal; Celebrity on the other hand made son feel extremely special and he enjoyed all the extra care and attention he got because of his allergies.

[Summerknight]

Our friend has a tree nut allergy and the dining room is very attentive and mindful.they were fabulous on the Liberty.

[windex]

my sister is highly allergic to all nuts . we mentioned it to our waiter and he made sure what she ordered was nut free. windjammer make sure you stay away from salade bar they may have nuts or just asked them to give you fresh lettuce from the back .. They were great with my sis and took it very seriously .

[LBeeE]

YES YES YES YES YES - ABSOLUTELY let the ship know in advance!!!!!!! I have just returned from Grandeur yesterday. I have a child with severe nut allergies (she did NOT cruise with us this time). I also have food allergies (not to nuts).

 

#1 most important thing is to fill out the special food allergy form and submit it ASAP!

 

2- Call the "access" department immediately (First thing Monday, they are closed on the weekends) and discuss this with them. I talked to them yesterday about some concerns I had regarding the way things were handled with respect to my food allergies during my cruise. I asked about nuts specifically since this will be a factor for us in the future when our children cruise with us. They said if you let them know in advance, the AO staff and teen club etc will be notified in advance of your cruise there is a child with nut allergies and will put nut safety protocols into place the week of your cruise. SO this is VERY important!!! Call the access dept!! Their phone number is 866-592-7225 and they answer M-F 9am-7pm EST.

 

3- They said to avoid the WJ buffet there are NO signs or anything notifying you if something contains nuts and they told me the serving platters and utensils are swapped around a lot during buffet hours and there are lots of potential cross-contamination issues. Do not rely on the WJ for this reason is what they said.

 

4- When you arrive in the MDR on the 1st night - immediately tell your waiter, assistant waiter, and ask to speak with your head waiter, notifying ALL of them on the very first night. You can also go to the MDR when you board and ask to speak to someone about food allergies.

 

5- ASK ASK ASK ASK and ASK AGAIN on everything you order for your child for the wait staff to RE-verify there are not any nuts, nut products, or possibilities of cross-contamination. EVERY NIGHT. DO THIS EVERY NIGHT!! This is imperative! My gluten issue was handled poorly. I had to remind all 3 waiters every single night. Otherwise I was brought the same food as everyone else. And I was never EVER told there was supposed to be a separate kitchen for gluten free passenger food prep until yesterday when I called the Access department, and I reported that I wasn't entirely sure whether Grandeur was adhering to this policy, since my chicken came out covered in gravy every night.

 

6- As for the comment on GF cookies above, I would say it depends on the ship. We went in search of GF cookies and Grandeur had NONE the entire week. I also have other allergies, I had no desserts at all the entire week, and I ate GF crackers in my room every AM for breakfast. I did NOT feel "safe enough" with regards to my food allergies to risk it.

 

7- Pack a tote bag, carry-on or backpack of SAFE foods for your child in case you end up in this same situation.

 

Edited to include:

#8 - If necessary, carry a doctors letter. The cruise terminal people gave me a hard time about bringing some of my safe foods on board and I had 2 letters from 2 doctors, I had to give them a crash-course regarding my medical issues and food restrictions and why I needed to bring my own foods on board. They they thought I was crazy but eventually decided to allow it.

Edited July 25, 2015 by LBeeE