Gluten Free Dining

[Mimiya11]

Just now, bjahil47 said:

Looks delicious!  Here is our gf anniversary cake.

YUMMY 

[suefrankw]

Been GF for 15+ years now and LOVE cruising... and it certainly can be hit or miss. Just off a Disney Fantasy cruise last week and had VERY high hopes not only due to cost $$$ but live 1 hr from Orlando and have never had an issue when visiting (about 10 x a yr)- they go out of their way to get GF right ... MDR was a miss as I am not sure our waiter really understood the whole GF thing and seemed overwhelmed...... however made friends with the Pool Grill Manager (and their dedicated allergy chef) and he made sure I got anything I wanted (even if not on the grill menu) GF with no issues....

Same happened on RCCL several yrs ago with a buffet manager/chef. Princess has been ok. Regent was fantastic.. they had GF food before I even asked.

I do usually bring onboard certain items- rolls (SCHAR ciabatta/breads/hazelnut wafer packs are great travel well), gf crackers, gf soy sauce packets,and some other snacks so I don't feel left out.

 

New to Celebrity. Have 2 upcoming Cel cruises (9/2022 and 2/2024) with high hopes as well. Glad to hear they have canyon bakehouse bread... I prefer that than the Udi's from the other cruises.

[Gimpy McFarlan]

Is it still a thing to notify Celebrity that someone is gluten free prior to boarding?  I vaguely remember doing so when we first started cruising w/ Celebrity 5+ years ago.  Looking around their web site I don’t see any instructions about doing so.  Perhaps they has eliminated the need to since GF items seem to be more integrated throughout their operations now.  We have have always talked to the restaurant manager, hostess or server on the first night and received excellent service as a result.

[bjahil47]

3 hours ago, Gimpy McFarlan said:

Is it still a thing to notify Celebrity that someone is gluten free prior to boarding?  I vaguely remember doing so when we first started cruising w/ Celebrity 5+ years ago.  Looking around their web site I don’t see any instructions about doing so.  Perhaps they has eliminated the need to since GF items seem to be more integrated throughout their operations now.  We have have always talked to the restaurant manager, hostess or server on the first night and received excellent service as a result.

I notified them 30 days before my cruise.  Not sure if it makes a difference.  I sent email to celebritydining@celebrity.com.  They did reply to me.

Bonnie

[Bstein493]

We traveled with our daughter on Celebrity a few years ago and the first thing we did when we got onboard was to go directly to the main dining room and introduce her to the maitre 'd and hostess.  They were very accomodating and in fact every day at the lunch buffet, a covered salad would be waiting for her,,,,behind the food area and totally covered....she had mentioned everything she likes and the salad included all of her desires and enough there to feed an army!!  Very accommodating and concerned about her.

[Ladyshopper23]

19 hours ago, suefrankw said:

Been GF for 15+ years now and LOVE cruising... and it certainly can be hit or miss. Just off a Disney Fantasy cruise last week and had VERY high hopes not only due to cost $$$ but live 1 hr from Orlando and have never had an issue when visiting (about 10 x a yr)- they go out of their way to get GF right ... MDR was a miss as I am not sure our waiter really understood the whole GF thing and seemed overwhelmed...... however made friends with the Pool Grill Manager (and their dedicated allergy chef) and he made sure I got anything I wanted (even if not on the grill menu) GF with no issues....

Same happened on RCCL several yrs ago with a buffet manager/chef. Princess has been ok. Regent was fantastic.. they had GF food before I even asked.

I do usually bring onboard certain items- rolls (SCHAR ciabatta/breads/hazelnut wafer packs are great travel well), gf crackers, gf soy sauce packets,and some other snacks so I don't feel left out.

 

New to Celebrity. Have 2 upcoming Cel cruises (9/2022 and 2/2024) with high hopes as well. Glad to hear they have canyon bakehouse bread... I prefer that than the Udi's from the other cruises.

That's a real shame about your Disney cruise last week. We did one of the UK staycation cruises in September, and our experience was incredible. Our MDR team couldn't do enough for us, including cooking our breakfast separately for us on the last day, then getting our Head Waiter to bring it up to us in the buffet (we'd told him we were going to eat in the buffet on the last morning, as didn't fancy the early breakfast time in the MDR).

I'm also vegetarian, and none of the vegetarian items on the MDR menus are marked as GF. They cooked me whatever I wanted (including gluten-free mozzarella sticks!), and really went the extra mile. By far the best experience of any cruise line we've done.

Unfortunately, Disney prices have risen ridiculously from when I started cruising with them, so unlikely to do another one (shame, as I'm one cruise away from being platinum!).

This year we're trying out Virgin Voyages, Celebrity, NCL, and another Princess cruise (know what to expect with Princess from a GF perspective, as sailed with them twice last year). Looking forward to comparing them all and writing them up for my blog.

[KKB]

MDR menus always label GF choices.

Yeah, the bread choices not great...tried them all. 

 

 

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

On 3/3/2022 at 3:29 PM, suefrankw said:

MDR was a miss as I am not sure our waiter really understood the whole GF thing and seemed overwhelmed...... however made friends with the Pool Grill Manager (and their dedicated allergy chef) and he made sure I got anything I wanted (even if not on the grill menu) GF with no issues....

 

That's a shame. You could have asked to speak with a chef or the head server if you felt that your server didn't understand what you were asking about. They are more than willing to speak with you. I've always had the same experience in the MDRs that you did at the Pool Grill (which is where I've had issues).

[cgolf1]

On 3/3/2022 at 2:29 PM, suefrankw said:

Been GF for 15+ years now and LOVE cruising... and it certainly can be hit or miss. Just off a Disney Fantasy cruise last week and had VERY high hopes not only due to cost $$$ but live 1 hr from Orlando and have never had an issue when visiting (about 10 x a yr)- they go out of their way to get GF right ... MDR was a miss as I am not sure our waiter really understood the whole GF thing and seemed overwhelmed...... however made friends with the Pool Grill Manager (and their dedicated allergy chef) and he made sure I got anything I wanted (even if not on the grill menu) GF with no issues....

Same happened on RCCL several yrs ago with a buffet manager/chef. Princess has been ok. Regent was fantastic.. they had GF food before I even asked.

I do usually bring onboard certain items- rolls (SCHAR ciabatta/breads/hazelnut wafer packs are great travel well), gf crackers, gf soy sauce packets,and some other snacks so I don't feel left out.

 

New to Celebrity. Have 2 upcoming Cel cruises (9/2022 and 2/2024) with high hopes as well. Glad to hear they have canyon bakehouse bread... I prefer that than the Udi's from the other cruises.

 

Sorry to hear about Disney, they were my benchmark cruise line for GF until Celebrity that is. My most recent cruise on the Connie I ordered the night before and every dish I asked for that wasn't gluten free was modified to be gluten free. Our travel agent didn't get my reservation tagged as GF, but Celebrity still handled it well. To be fair I didn't order the beef wellington, but I know that will never happen, I tried on Disney and they never made it. The game changer for me with Celebrity has been the labels in the buffet and no more waiting for a chef to walk me through. Hope that you have as good of an experience as I have on Celebrity, the food and their GF options are part of why we have found a new cruise line home with Celebrity.

 

I didn't try the bread this past cruise, as I always found I just ate too much of it and wouldn't be able to eat as much of the main meal. It was marginal bread anyways. Have yet to see a cruise line provide good GF bread.