Help me feel confident with Garlic allergy concern with anytime dining.

[cruisefamilyforever]

My daughter has a garlic allergy and we have sailed on Disney, Carnival and RCI. We have always done traditional dining so we are able to work with the same servers and preview the menus the night prior. That way my daughter can safely have her food prepared with the possibility of more choices.

 

I currently have a Ruby Princess Alaskan cruise scheduled for May 2019, but I just found out I can do the exact same itinerary on the Bliss with an equal room for $2,000 less for my family of four. However, I need to know that we can get the same support using the regular "not for fee" dining rooms of which I understand there are three on the Bliss. We are used to eating around 5:30 and I'm hoping some of you can tell me it won't be an issue.

 

Also, we always go to all of the shows, so how does that work with Norwegian with anytime dining? There are 4,000 people on the Bliss, so how do I ensure we are always able to attend the nightly shows?

[poohdreaming]

From NCL site:

What about special dietary needs?

If you have any food allergy or a dietary requirement that requires Kosher meals or gluten-free food product, please advise a Norwegian Reservations Agent, or your Travel Agent at the time of booking. Obtaining the product for many of these requests requires 30-days notice prior to sailing, and we want to ensure that we are able to fulfill your request. We cannot guarantee Kosher Meal requests made within 30 days of sail date. For the protection of all of our guests, it is not permissible to bring aboard any food items that would require preparation by the ship’s staff, or food items that would require cold storage in our kitchen facilities.

In order to make your cruise experience as enjoyable as possible and so that we can try to meet your specific needs, call 1-866-584-9756 (voice), fax (305) 468 - 2171, send an email to accessdesk@ncl.com or have your travel agent contact us.

When you email them, they would get back to you. Then you would have to fill out a form & email it back to them about any food allergies. Once on board, you would meet with the person in charge. S/he would bring the MDR menu the night before for you to preview the next day dinner menu. If you are going to book at a specialty restaurant, just let him or her know & would bring that specialty restaurant menu. There are no reservations for the main dining room, but if you choose to get there early & wait in line, it should not be a problem.

For shows, some of them you can reserve ahead of time on NCL or once on board, you can do so through the TV or go directly to the box office. Check to see if you can do it online first. I am not so sure about the show time on the Bliss, but on the Breakaway & the Gem, the show was listed at 7pm and then the 9 pm show. The 9pm show is the repeated show of the 7pm, same topic/show. It will be listed on the freestyle daily newsletter.

[GeezerCouple]

We have found the AccessDesk folks to be very helpful.

 

For a diet/allergy situation, we were given a name upon boarding, and asked to plan ahead for meals so that they could specially prepare the selections desired, without the "bad" ingredient.

They also did that for the Specialties.

 

GC

[cruisefamilyforever]

We have found the AccessDesk folks to be very helpful.

 

For a diet/allergy situation, we were given a name upon boarding, and asked to plan ahead for meals so that they could specially prepare the selections desired, without the "bad" ingredient.

They also did that for the Specialties.

 

GC

We won't be doing any specialty dining, just the three free dining rooms. Do you get to look at all three dining room menus no matter which dining room you are in the night before and then decide what to eat and where to dine the next night? Also, do you think they will be able to prepare most of the entrees without garlic or will she have to select something like a baked fish every night?:(

[DarkJedi]

DW has an allergy as well:

 

Go to where you are dining the day before, they will give her the next day's menu for her to pick her meal. They will have everything set so that when you come it can be prepared without the garlic.

 

Of the cruise lines we have gone on NCL has been the absolute best about dealing with DW's allergy.

[GeezerCouple]

We won't be doing any specialty dining, just the three free dining rooms. Do you get to look at all three dining room menus no matter which dining room you are in the night before and then decide what to eat and where to dine the next night? Also, do you think they will be able to prepare most of the entrees without garlic or will she have to select something like a baked fish every night?:(

 

As I wrote above, "For a diet/allergy situation, we were given a name upon boarding, and asked to plan ahead for meals so that they could specially prepare the selections desired, without the "bad" ingredient."

 

I suppose there could be some recipes that could not possibly be cooked without garlic, but those are unlikely to be on offer, and if they were, there would definitely be other choices. (Garlic soup comes to mind...)

 

But they need *time* to cook the special batch of <whatever>, which makes sense.

 

GC

[Mistizoom]

We won't be doing any specialty dining, just the three free dining rooms. Do you get to look at all three dining room menus no matter which dining room you are in the night before and then decide what to eat and where to dine the next night? Also, do you think they will be able to prepare most of the entrees without garlic or will she have to select something like a baked fish every night?:(

The three main dining rooms will have all the same menus. You in fact will be able to make reservations for the MDR ahead of time for 5:30 pm if you wish, and can even request the same sever if you like when you get on board (if you stick to the same MDR each night). The shows likely will be at 7 or 7:30 pm and some of those will be able to be reserved as well. As PP stated contact the access desk ahead of time and once on board you will meet with an appropriate person to discuss the menus. NCL only does Freestyle dining and they do it right, they will have no problem accommodating your daughter's dietary needs.

[cruisefamilyforever]

The three main dining rooms will have all the same menus. You in fact will be able to make reservations for the MDR ahead of time for 5:30 pm if you wish, and can even request the same sever if you like when you get on board (if you stick to the same MDR each night). The shows likely will be at 7 or 7:30 pm and some of those will be able to be reserved as well. As PP stated contact the access desk ahead of time and once on board you will meet with an appropriate person to discuss the menus. NCL only does Freestyle dining and they do it right, they will have no problem accommodating your daughter's dietary needs.

That's good to here, thank you!

[txagfan]

We have had good experiences with NCL with peanut and tree nut allergy. Sometimes a restaurant will restrict their menu more than they did earlier in the cruise or on previous cruise, but never felt they did not take it seriously in 5 cruises.

 

I have no idea how a garlic allergy would go. They are used to gluten, nuts, shellfish, etc though I imagine they have heard it all.

 

 

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[Juvesgirl]

Don't have any experience with food allergies (although I frequently read posts praising how NCL handles), but wanted to point out that, in my experience, on the larger NCL ships, they don't have the traditional different show every night in the theater that you may find on smaller NCL ships or different lines. For example, on Bliss, they will have Jersey Boys - this will be offered 2-3 nights of the cruise at an earlier and later time. If you see it the first time it is offered, the other nights it is in the theater, there wouldn't be another traditional show option. There will be plenty of other entertainment options (live music, trivia, etc.). But in my experience, there are two big shows (each on 2-3 nights) and 1-2 smaller shows (each one night, like a juggler magician or a singer). Hope that helps.