Celiac / GF foodies — How’s your experience dining aboard NCL?

[globetrotterjay]

What better time than a month before sail date I’m on an elimination diet to figure out chronic skin inflammation? Already know about an almond allergy and sensitivity to dairy (my body and my brain do NOT get along and I have spent years trying to convince myself I can eat all these things that are actually making me sick) Heh…

 

So far I have reached out to the Haven’s pre concierge email and they told me they’ll send out a special dietary form to fill out and submit for the restaurants, but it has been noted in my file. Has anyone had any difficulties once aboard?

For those who have cruised with dietary restrictions: Any advice for staying smart while still enjoying myself? 

 

Particularly wondering which cocktails are no-go or unsuspecting snacks to avoid? 

 

I’ve dug up most menus and will come prepared what I plan to order. On port days I think I might just not eat unless on the ship. 

 

This might be the first cruise I come back not heavier 😂 

[cruiseny4life]

Yikes! I'd just throw all that work out the window if I were cruising and eat what I want...but that's me. 🙂

 

Anyway, you'll also have an opportunity to let your server know at each meal if you have any allergies/dietary restrictions. They will then help you figure out what you should stay away from. This is in all restaurants, but the Haven Restaurant also does this. You could also meet with the maître d to discuss your diet on embarkation day (maybe do so after the lunch rush). 

 

Have fun and hope you feel great during the cruise!

[BirdTravels]

11 hours ago, globetrotterjay said:

What better time than a month before sail date I’m on an elimination diet to figure out chronic skin inflammation? Already know about an almond allergy and sensitivity to dairy (my body and my brain do NOT get along and I have spent years trying to convince myself I can eat all these things that are actually making me sick) Heh…

So, every waiter is supposed to ask about dietary restrictions for every guest. So you can go down your list of requirements. 

 

In general, main dining room menu items are marked. Specialty restaurants, not so much. 

 

Every menu item has a dietary sheet available in the galley. They are predominantly displayed in some galleys and available for review in others. If you have a severe food allergy or specific religious dietary requirements, your food will be prepared in a separate galley under tightly controlled conditions. That requires advance coordination with the ship on everywhere you will be dining on the next day and what they will prepare. 

 

[Ladyshopper23]

Ask at any eating place for the special diets co-ordinator when you board. They'll take note of all your allergies/celiac etc. They should then be the person to take all your food orders for main dining rooms.

We were on the Star in November. This poor waiter who's job it was was run ragged! Basically, every evening he will be called to take your order for the next day. You can order breakfast, lunch and dinner in the main dining room if you want to. You can also make orders for the speciality restaurants. Also, if eating in the speciality one evening, they will call the co-ordinator for you so you can place your orders for the next day (just ask when you're ready for this).

 

We managed ok in the buffet, but you need to have your wits about you a little bit. There are no allergen markings on anything, so you need to ask what is suitable. You can then ask to get some fresh from the kitchen to avoid any cross contamination. They do gluten-free pizza in the buffet - again just ask for it to be prepared safely out back and it will be. Same with gluten-free pasta.

 

At breakfast time in the buffet you can get gluten-free bagels or toast. Just ask a member of staff. On the Star, we found where the toaster was after a few days. However, it's placed so that only staff can access it easily (a good thing so people don't decide to put normal bread etc in it). They also have some packaged sweet muffins which you can ask for, as well as GF cookies.

In the main dining room at breakfast you can get gluten free pancakes, waffles and french toast, as well as GF english muffins for things like the eggs benedict. The french toast was amazing, and the pancakes were pretty good too. Also loved the shakshuka.

 

If you haven't been sent the form for NCL already, here is the link:

https://ncl.secure.force.com/AccessDeskForm/

It's a good idea to fill it out, as it gives NCL some idea of how many gluten-free people to cater for onboard. We had the english muffins run out on our 2nd week.

There is also gluten-free lager onboard. which is called Redbridge. We could get it in most bars, including the buffet, and if they didn't have it, the waiters would generally go and find it (they were very helpful). Some staff hadn't heard of it, so it was good education for them as well that there is a gluten-free beer available.

The soft serve ice-cream in the machine in the buffet was GF (they actually bought us the packaging out on the first day so we could check), but obviously you should check for yourself. Beware the sachets of Nestle hot chocolate sachets in the buffet, there are not suitable for celiacs as they are a may contain for wheat.

We managed to get safe food in O'Sheehans, a head waiter came over and dealt with us and a chef in there was fantastic and actually made me a veggie burger from scratch (I'm also vegetarian as well as celiac) as well as safe french fries.

 

We avoided the outside pool grill area as the people serving didn't always have quite good enough English to understand what we were asking. We also didn't manage to get any ice-cream from there either, as when we asked to see the packaging so we could check the ingredients and any many contain warnings, the guy didn't understand (we simply wanted him to spin the container round so we could read it, but we gave up). However, we could get it in the main dining room and were assured it was safe.

Overall we had a great experience. They could do things better - allergen warnings would be a massive help, but we ate lots of really nice food. If there is nothing suitable on the main dining room menus the special diets co-ordinator will work with you to find something, whether this is amending a dish or cooking something entirely different.

Hopefully this helps a little bit.

 

Edited to add: if cross contamination isn't a problem for you (intolerance rather than celiac for example) then it would be quite possible to manage without the special diets co-ordinator, as your food wouldn't need to be cooked in the allergy kitchen.

Still fill out the form I linked to though, so they get enough supplies onboard to cater for everyone that's gluten free.

Edited January 13, 2023 by Ladyshopper23
More info

[BirdTravels]

11 hours ago, globetrotterjay said:

So far I have reached out to the Haven’s pre concierge email and they told me they’ll send out a special dietary form to fill out and submit for the restaurants, but it has been noted in my file. Has anyone had any difficulties once aboard?

This post is a few months old, but I posted some photos of the Haven menu. The Haven Restaurant galley will prepare your menu items to meet your dietary requirements. (e.g., Mozzarella and Prosciutto,,, hold the mozzarella, extra prosciutto, and throw in a lobster tail without butter) 

 

 

[mjkacmom]

Note allergies on reservation, on embarkment go to the open MDR for lunch, the dietary manager should come over to discuss meals. My daughter has celiac and would order her dinner and breakfast for the following day each night (they would make whatever she wanted). She would just call when we were headed to the restaurant (ate every breakfast in the buffet, they would find her with an enormous tray of gf food). Three cruises, worked perfectly each time. 

[GeezerCouple]

We've found all food prep to be pretty good about recognizing allergies, compared with years ago.

 

However, especially if this is a severe allergy, I'd strongly recommend that you remind the waitstaff every time, when ordering AND double check when served, something like, "This is the GLUTEN-FREE bread, correct?"

 

Better safe than sorry!

 

GC

[TheyMegan]

I'll let you know how my experience is once I get back. I'm sailing in March and gluten is a migraine trigger for me (also likely Celiac). I've already noted it on the form, and they told me that they would forward the info to the dining staff on board and advised me to talk to the restaurant manager the first day. They also advised to avoid eating at the buffet. 🙂 

[CruzinMel]

I just got off Escape last week, and I have Celiac - I spent a marvelous week eating wonderful food that was safe for me, and delicious.  (I glutened my own dang self once I got home, though.  I miss Siva.  Siva would never have let me eat a Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell.) 

 

I filled out a pre cruise Guest Special Needs form, so it was noted all over my reservation.  Eerywhere we ate, the server asked about allergies, and made sure I had gluten free bread, etc. 

 

The biggest thing, though, was finding an advocate and for me that was Siva Kamatchi, who manages the Haven Restaurant.  (I feel.confident that had I not been in the Haven, I'd have been taken care of in the MDR, but Siva was amazing.)

 

Each evening at dinner, I pre-ordered the meal for wherever we were eating the next evening.  If I wasn't sure about an option, Siva helped me choose one.  The biggest change was that we ate less at the buffet because I wasn't sure about my fellow guests- I was sure about french fries being GF for example, but not sure whether a fellow guest might have used a bread tong to grab French fries, as vigilant as the buffet crew are.  So, there was that.  We ate in 3 specialty restaurants, and I pre ordered there, too.  (Good thing, too - my lamb at Le Bistro was better than everybody else's food.)

 

The only thing I ate off the ship was a piece of corn, because I was NOT going to get stuck on St Thomas because I got trapped in a bathroom.

 

So, it's doable. It's a tiny bit less spontaneous,  but that is worth it to be safe and enjoy your cruise.  

 

 

[globetrotterjay]

Thank you so much for the replies!!! 

 

So much helpful advice; I feel reassured it will be a great vacation.

 

I‘ve cut out gluten from my diet and added intense supplements/vitamins/probiotics — I feel like a new person. My joints are aching less and my skin hasn’t felt on fire (I’m 30 and have no other health problems so this undiagnosed issue has been life alternating). If this flair up didn’t happen I would totally agree with you and I’ll envy all those eating normal pizzas and bagels haha @cruiseny4life

 

That link is exactly what I needed thank you @Ladyshopper23

 

Thank you @BirdTravelsfor the pictures 

[Mistizoom]

Thanks for this thread, my husband was just diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago so we have not cruised with him being gluten-free before. I just submitted the special access form and will also contact our suite concierge ahead of the cruise if possible. Does anyone know if Moderno is mostly gluten-free? We love eating at Moderno on every cruise.

Edited January 19, 2023 by Mistizoom

[GeezerCouple]

2 hours ago, Mistizoom said:

Thanks for this thread, my husband was just diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago so we have not cruised with him being gluten-free before. I just submitted the special access form and will also contact our suite concierge ahead of the cruise if possible. Does anyone know if Moderno is mostly gluten-free? We love eating at Moderno on every cruise.

 

Your husband will be fine.

Just make sure that he reminds every waitstaff person that he is "gluten-free celiac", and then double check when served.

 

Moderno's is meat, meat, and more meat. 🙂

But if you have a reservation, remind them IN ADVANCE (the day before or that morning).  Sometimes food pref has surprising ways of introducing gluten, like flour dusting/etc., of french fries.  So give them a chance to make sure they have gluten free prep meats available... on the off chance that any food prep would introduce some small amount.

 

In other restaurants, if one item isn't "gluten free", one can choose something else.  OR ask them IN ADVANCE if they can have a gluten free version when you will dine there.

 

GC

[Ladyshopper23]

11 hours ago, Mistizoom said:

Thanks for this thread, my husband was just diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago so we have not cruised with him being gluten-free before. I just submitted the special access form and will also contact our suite concierge ahead of the cruise if possible. Does anyone know if Moderno is mostly gluten-free? We love eating at Moderno on every cruise.

Yes it is. There are a couple of items on the buffet that aren't, including the soups, but the waiter should go through all of that with you. We were quite lucky, as our waiter had just come off rotation from being the special diets waiter for the whole ship, so he knew everything inside out.

There were also a couple of meats that weren't - again, the waiter going through everything with you should be able to tell you, and also the people who bring each meat round should know as well if you say you're gluten free.

The cheese bread is gluten-free, and you can ask for more if you like it (which we did!).

[Ladyshopper23]

Also, for anyone interested, I've just put the link to my gluten-free travel blog on my profile page. It's focussed on cruising.

I don't have our NCL cruise written up yet, but it should hopefully be done in the next 2-3 weeks.