1st Time Disney Cruiser looking for advice (food allergy ? too)

[Delbs75]

Hello all,
I'm very happy to be looking through this board and have found some information that was helpful when we visited Disney back in 2014. We're now going to be doing our first Disney cruise in March (it's getting sooo close!!!) and was looking for some advice on a few things.
1- Is it cheaper to book an excursion now or while your on the ship or does it even matter?
2- Our son is 7 and since we've been to Disney a few years ago, developed even more food allergies and intolerances. I'm EXTREMELY petrified being out to sea with him having these allergies. His allergies are Egg, all dairy, peanuts, and shellfish. I've brought it to our agent's attention and she has put it on our booking, but I'm wondering if there are any tips that you folks can give me for what to do prior to our cruise, or anything that I should do once we're on the ship when it comes to his allergies. I'm hoping they have his chocolate almond milk that he drinks in the morning and at night before bed, but I'm thinking they will prob just have the reg almond milk. Can I bring some on the ship with me? Am I able to bring any of his snacks that he eats knowing that they probably won't have any for him? I know Disney caters to food allergies, but was wonderinf what the assortment was...big minimal?
3-We're flying into Orlando the night before. Any recommendation on a reasonable hotel and does anyone know of a cheap shuttle service to bring us to Port Canaveral? Do you recommend staying close to the airport or close to the port? I'm trying to avoid multiple taxi costs.
4- Just in general, any tips for first timers is welcomed... going with our 2 boys ages 10 & 7.

Thanks in advance!

 

[schmass]

1. I would book the excursions now just so that you can guarantee it won't be sold out. If you wait until you're on the ship, it could be too late. I'm pretty sure the price will be the same regardless.

2. Both of my kids have food allergies. My daughter was only 9 months when we sailed with her, and she was allergic to dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, sesame, flax, and we thought soy (turned out not to be!). My son is allergic to dairy, peanuts, treenuts, and shellfish. We have never felt so well taken care of as we did on the ship. You will order the night before for all meals the next day. I don't think they will have the chocolate almond milk, so I wouldn't count on that. You can bring it on the ship with you, though. And yes, you can bring snacks, although I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how DCL can accommodate allergies!

Have a great cruise!

 

[Delbs75]

Thank you! I know, everyone tells us that they accommodate very well, but I'm expecting the worst and hoping the be surprised for the best If that makes sense. I just feel so bad that he never feels like everyone else when we go out to eat, it's either we bring our own stuff for him or he just gets a grilled chicken breast with fries. I'm really hoping that they exceed our expectations with this. I read somewhere that someone mentioned asking for a "chef card" Does anyone know anything about that?

Any recommendations on what to do about hotel the night before? Also the day of getting off ship, our flight isn't until 8:30pm... ugh!!!

 

[MunFam]

Unfortunately, we did not have great experiences with DCL and food allergies. All I will say is do not just assume that they have taken care of your allergy. Ask and ask again. We were served unsafe food multiple times despite noting it on our reservation and taking with our servers. You are also more limited to the MDRs for meals. Quick service and the buffets are not set up to accommodate allergies, so it takes 45 mins-1 hour to get a chef up to QS to properly place an order.

As far as traveling with a kid with food allergies, we ALWAYS buy trip insurance, and I carry about 6-8 Epi Pens with us and Benadryl tabs and liquid. We travel quite a bit because I work in the travel industry and food allergies have never stopped us.

Do note that any food you take on and off the ship (boarding or from a port) must be in a factory sealed container. We brought individual beef jerkys, tuna kits, potato chips, pretzels, fruit snacks, etc all in individual packaging. If you open it in port, you cannot return to the ship with it, so individual servings work best. They did not have much food prepackaged to take off the ship, so we were glad we packed it. We also brought popcorn for the theater.

 

[DIS_Ag]

I can't help with allergies but good luck....

1.) prices will not change, but if saving money is your main goal, use these boards or trip advisor to book outside of DCL. You will have some risk of being left in port vs a Disney excursion waiting for you, but if you are smart it's very minimal.
3/4.) It really depends on your priorities. If it's saving money, renting a car and driving to port Canavarel is probably your best bet. However you have to deal with the logicstics of dropping the car off and getting to port and getting a car back at the end.

In my opinion, staying at the Hyatt MCO and using DCL transfers is the easiest option but will cost you a bit. The Hyatt is around $250/nt and transfers are $70/person round trip.

 

[bbel]

I can give you some advice for the allergies from the kids club side of things (if you're gonna use them)...

When you register give information about everything, too much information (and if you register in the terminal with someone not in yellow, there may be a chance some questions may be repeated once onboard, I'm sorry in advance if this happens, but it's all for safety at the end of the day...). Be very specific on what he can/ cannot eat or touch. Are these allergies through touch, ingestion, inhalation? Can he take part in cooking school, meals, science? Does he need to wear gloves or avoid them completely.

If he is going to eat in our spaces, you're probably going to have to order a special meal, this can be done through your head server the day before, just let the kids club know to expect it and everything will be done for you, he'll be sat at a separate table so there's no cross contamination (you could probably arrange it that both your sons can sit together tho if this happens)

Are you going to be dropping off an epi-pen? Then there's one more form to fill in. Epi-pen (and inhalers and diabetic kits) are the only medication allowed in the kids club (sorry no Benadryl), and will be dropped off and picked up along with the child, and will be kept at the front desk.

Finally PLEASE carry at least one wave phone with you. I know people on here feel very strongly about how much of an inconvenience they feel they are, but we wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. Even if your kids are gonna use the app, if anything does happen and they're unable to contact you, we're gonna use the WP. Especially with such complex allergies, we might just want to ask you a quick question, to double check that he can participate in something, if we can't get a hold of you then it might be that they aren't allowed to take part (again, safety).

I can't really help with any of your other questions, but have a great cruise!

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

1. Personally, it wouldn't hurt to do it now just incase on the ship, they run out.

2. As long as it's pre-packaged, you should be ok getting the almond milk. On the first night, your serving team will ask if anyone has allergies and stuff like that. They may bring him a menu for the next night too


3. Depending on your priorites, you can stay at the Hyatt at the airport and take the bus, take a shuttle, rental car or stay close to the port.


Have a great cruise! Feel free to PM me if you have questions

 

[Delbs75]

Unfortunately, we did not have great experiences with DCL and food allergies. All I will say is do not just assume that they have taken care of your allergy. Ask and ask again. We were served unsafe food multiple times despite noting it on our reservation and taking with our servers. You are also more limited to the MDRs for meals. Quick service and the buffets are not set up to accommodate allergies, so it takes 45 mins-1 hour to get a chef up to QS to properly place an order.

As far as traveling with a kid with food allergies, we ALWAYS buy trip insurance, and I carry about 6-8 Epi Pens with us and Benadryl tabs and liquid. We travel quite a bit because I work in the travel industry and food allergies have never stopped us.

Do note that any food you take on and off the ship (boarding or from a port) must be in a factory sealed container. We brought individual beef jerkys, tuna kits, potato chips, pretzels, fruit snacks, etc all in individual packaging. If you open it in port, you cannot return to the ship with it, so individual servings work best. They did not have much food prepackaged to take off the ship, so we were glad we packed it. We also brought popcorn for the theater.

Oh boy, I'm so nervous now!!!! This is my biggest fear and the main reason why it took me so long to book this cruise!!!! Was it that you just didn't ask many questions about the ingredients or did they flat out lie and say something wasn't in the food when there was? Just curious, what are the allergies you were dealing with at the time?

 

[MunFam]

Oh boy, I'm so nervous now!!!! This is my biggest fear and the main reason why it took me so long to book this cruise!!!! Was it that you just didn't ask many questions about the ingredients or did they flat out lie and say something wasn't in the food when there was? Just curious, what are the allergies you were dealing with at the time?

They flat out lied. We were dealing with one allergy...an egg allergy. They sent a special "safe meal" up to the club one afternoon for her and it had COLESLAW on the plate. Intuition kicked in and I went to check on this "safe meal" and freaked out. Thankfully, she didn't want to eat. After double checking, the coleslaw did indeed have a mayo/egg based dressing.

I had read about how great DCL was about making "special treats" for people with allergies and that just never happened on our cruise. The first couple of days I hinted at it...and then I finally asked straight up if there were dessert options other than a mickey bar...nope. Not available.

They sent DD a mac n cheese to dinner. She refused to eat it after one bite. We forced to her eat it and she put up a huge stink, so I tried it to show her "it was fine" and nearly threw up at the table. It was moldy and sour. They said it was "packaged and frozen"...well, it must have sat on a loading dock somewhere for too long because it was BAD. Not even fancy, stinky cheese bad...curdled milk and mold bad.

I have always been outspoken about food allergies. My sister had severe peanut/tree nut/soy/beef/coconut allergies before people knew what allergies were, so I learned at a young age how to ask questions, educate others and be a solid advocate. I now serve on the FAAN board...so yeah, it definitely wasn't an over site on my part.

Two passengers on our cruise had anaphylactic reactions to cross contaminated meals. This was in 2015 on the Wonder. We will never sail DCL again. I started doing more research when we got back and it appears the Dream ships are better set up for food allergies where the Magic ships are not. Most people with bad experiences have been on the Wonder.

Would I retake our cruise again, yes. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to sail through the Panama Canal with Mickey (and a 4 year old that thought everything was real)...but we have had much better luck on other cruise lines that cost way less.

My advice would be to watch carefully, bring epi-pens and pack your own snacks for those times you want a snack but don't want to fight the "special meal request" wait. It was a challenge to pick what DD would want for breakfast, lunch and dinner a day in advance. ANd for breakfast and lunch we had to tell them what time we would be there...so it just got annoying to be stuck to such a meal schedule and half the time, she didn't even want what we ordered for her. She has a broad palette (she was eating sashimi, rare filet, asparagus, brussels, etc before the trip so she is not picky at all).

BUT...it was still a great time and great memories were made. It just wasnt the special food allergy service that I had read about and expected.

 

[MunFam]

Also, DCL called us in advance (which was so wonderful) to let us know they received our allergy note and wanted to go over it with us in depth. They asked if we had any special requests. I rattled off some ideas (like rice krispie treats). The wonderful lady on the phone also went over excursion food and what we could or could not take off the ship in each port (as different ports have different regulations) so that was super helpful and we were excited about the awesome DCL allergy service.

Definitely plan to eat BEFORE you arrive to the terminal. Its a bit chaotic that first day and finding someone to talk to in the buffet is almost impossible (this is not DCL specific. Its happened on every cruise we have ever been on). I'm sure its because they are busy dealing with all of the new food coming on board...but the kiddo did not have her first meal until dinner.

Also, when you get on board, head to the dining services area and go over your allergies again with the team that is there. They alert your head waiter...although, Im not sure much was done or maybe our head waiter just sucked.

 

[lanejudy]

I read somewhere that someone mentioned asking for a "chef card" Does anyone know anything about that?

The recommendations I have read about a "chef card" is something that you make to give to the chef. On DCL it will more than likely be the Head Server, though possibly you'll speak directly with the chef. The card gives them a reference, in writing and of your own words, what is or is not safe. Depending on the extent of the allergies, it may be easier to indicate what ingredients are safe rather than all possible unsafe ingredients, but you know your child's allergies best for that.

You may bring onboard pre-packaged/unopened snacks as well as unopened shelf-stable chocolate almond milk. I would guarantee they will have exactly what you want if he's picky enough to only drink the chocolate; they may have it but I'd be prepared with my own just in case. Beverages must be carried onboard in your carry-on bags at embarkation, not in your checked luggage.

I would also plan to have safe snacks to take off the ship if you plan to get off in port. Availability of allergy-safe foods could be low and I'd rather have something ready to feed a hungry kid than scramble trying to find something in port. Pre-packaged, unopened foods are generally OK to take off the ship. Skip yogurts or fruit (definitely not fresh fruit). Granola bars, dry cereal, etc. is good.

Speaking of ports... if you really want to do a particular excursion, I definitely recommend signing-up in advance as it could fill up before you are onboard. If you are on the fence about it, you can cancel without penalty up until 3 days prior to your sail date. Once onboard, you are subject to availability for port excursions. You can also look into non-DCL excursions if you wish to make private arrangements.

If you are arriving at MCO in the late afternoon or evening, I recommend staying near the airport. The Hyatt MCO is right IN the airport. Or there are other hotels nearby with a 5 minute free shuttle ride. With a party of 4, private limo is likely to cost in the same range as the DCL transfers ($35 per person each way) once you factor in a tip. But it might be less expensive. Car rental will be your cheapest option if you are willing to drive to the port yourselves.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[tivo4me1]

Also the day of getting off ship, our flight isn't until 8:30pm... ugh!!!

Although I'm a fan of the Hyatt MCO for the night before a cruise, it's definitely not an inexpensive option. [I've usually gotten rooms there in the $175 range, for the EBTA cruise in May, it's almost $340 for a single room night!]

What I can STRONGLY recommend, though, is getting a "day room" at the Hyatt MCO for your day of departure, particularly if your outgoing flight isn't until 8:30 pm. For around $99 (booked in advance), you can check into the hotel in the morning (I believe after 9:00 am, but it might be 10:00 am), and you'll have a nice room to stay in, access to the pool, etc., until 6:00 pm. While most of the folks on my last DCL cruise were sitting at the airport on the floor (it was so crowded that they were keeping people from going through security until 2 hours before their flight departure), I was taking a nap and my wife was playing with my little one by the pool. Best hundred bucks I spent on the whole vacation...!

Best of luck!!

Rich from California

 

[Starwind]

I have posted previously on the Dis about out experiences with DCL and multiple food allergies (ana to milk, tree nut, peanut, and seafood). We sail only with DCL in part because of how good they have been for us. We have now sailed 4 times: Dream x 3 and Fantasy x 1. We have our next cruise on the Fantasy booked.

One of my previous posts, and I recommend other posts in that same thread: http://www.disboards.com/threads/special-dietary-requests.3398539/#post-53417650

I will add that we have cruised since that post and I have a few additional points:

(1) we pre0ordered all three meals at dinner the night before and this made it MUCH easier. our serving team told us where they would be for brreakfast and lunch the next day and most days we ate in those same restaurants (not required though). When preordering breakfast and lunch we told them which restauratn we would have it in (Cabanas was even an option) and about what time, as well as the order. Preordering meant I could have Mickey Waffles for breakfast every morning

(2) BE VIGILANT. I was served the wrong salad once. Fortunately, it had obvious cheese on it. I and our server realized it at the same time and he grabbed it away from the table and apologized. They got me the right plate. So, always do a visual inspection -- does the food "look right" ? Is it what you are expecting ? If in doubt ASK FIRST.

(3) the buffets are a haven of potential cross-contamination. On one of our cruises my sister reacted to food she got off the buffet, even though she chose items she is not allergic to (and steered far far away from anything she was). We had a nice little visit to the medical center as a result. I have eaten in Cabanas, but I either pre-ordered my food, in which case they brought it out to my table, or for lunch on our first cruise we spoke with a chef who made me food in the back and brought it out to me. The only exception I make is for the sealed cereal bowls, sliced fruit and drinks, nothing else off the buffet itself. Others may have had other experiences and trust the buffet more.

Regarding chef cards. I used Microsoft Word to create a 4x6 document. For the wording I used wording that FARE and other organizations suggest for chef cards, creating a hybrid that works best for me. I have tweaked it over the years. I print these out on 4x6 pale yellow index cards I buy by the 100's at staples (they are inexpensive) (print on the unlined side). The 4x6 size fits perfectly in the photo paper section of my inkjet printer. I made mine colour. I carry several with me in my purse at all times whether at home or traveling. When travelling I carry even more and have a bunch in my carryon bag that I then replenish from. At home I use them at restaurants and have gotten positive feedback on them. I use th eindex cards so that if i don't get it back fro the kitchen that is not a problem at all.

Regarding the Hyatt at MCO. Our last cruise we stayed at the Hyatt inside MCO the night before our cruise and we will do this again for future cruises. It was really nice to get up, have a leisurely breakfast at the Hyatt Hemisphere restaurant, go back to the room and wait for our checked luggage to be taken away, then head down to the DCL transfer area (there was already a line !). We ended up being the second family on the second bus that left. We got to the port nice and early, which is what we wanted. It let us check in then sit and relax, visit the washroom, take pictures, etc, until boarding. Once on board we accomplished everything we wanted to do before muster drill, including a leisurely lunch in the MDR, getting length of cruise rainforest passes at the spa, signing up for some activities, visiting our room, and more.

SW

 

[dektolia]

I've cruised on both the Dream and the Fantasy with my daughter allergic to dairy, egg, peanut and some but not all tree nuts and had very good experiences. On the cruises, we didn't know she was allergic to any nuts other than peanut as it's challenging to find anything other than almonds without cross contamination. My daughter drinks almond milk at home, but on the boat the peanut allergy was treated as a "nut allergy" so expect all nuts to be off limits, not just peanuts. Given that we were out at sea, I was totally fine with the cautious approach. They gave her soy milk and chocolate soy milk to drink if she wanted milk, but she prefers to drink water and juice anyway.

I think you'd be able to bring his normal drink on if you carried it on in your luggage (not checked). We bring pre-packaged (sealed) snacks for port days and the plane trips back and forth, but even though we usually snack at home, we barely snacked at all on the boat. The meals are huge, and we usually kept something leftover from the meal to have later. For example, every night at dinner, they gave us the remainder of the safe rolls to take back to the room with us (bring a plastic container from home to put them in, or those rolls will be rock hard by morning. i fill the plastic container with applesauce pouches when I leave home, then move the applesauce and use the container for rolls while on the ship). They also sent safe milk back with us every night after dinner (on the Dream it was an individual box, on the Fantasy it was a glass with a cover. not sure if that's due to the ship or if it was the timing of the cruise). If my daughter woke up before breakfast was open at 6-something (which she did all the time even despite the time change), she could snack on a roll and milk while waiting. If you pre-order breakfast you can't get it until like 7:15 or 7:30, but when you show up and put in an order when it opens, you actually get it sooner. They also had prepackaged single serve cereals, and while not a very healthy option, we kept a couple in the room for her to have as snacks if needed.

My daughter was 3 and 4 at the time of the cruises, and I went with the recommendation of our dinner server as far as whether to do breakfast and lunch in the MDR. The Dream server said Cabanas (I was pretty surprised) and the Fantasy server said MDR. I'm going on another cruise in 2 weeks, and I'm not sure which I'll do for this cruise. MDR sounds safer in theory, but in practice I felt like I was constantly telling people about the allergies. One guy seated us, another took orders, another brought bread, another drinks, another brought out the food. I had to verify allergies with everyone and they didn't usually know about it. With Cabanas, I gave one person my order, someone cleaned a table for us, and that same person that took the order came to find me maybe 20-ish minutes later with the tray of food, and that person always repeated what the allergies were when he gave me the tray. I felt like the food was more controlled at the buffet, which is the total opposite of what I would expect.

For snacks, other than the packaged cereal, we really just ordered extra food at meals and kept them in the room. We were able to get ice cream from Cabanas (not soft serve) but I don't remember if it was rice dream or soy something. Our server from dinner actually saw us in the middle of the day and brought us over for it. I never would have asked for it otherwise.

We ate pretty much the same things on the cruise as we eat at home (whole meats, vegetables, fruits, breads, soups, pancakes, oatmeal) except for noodles which the safe ones were gluten free and she didn't care for them. The things i can remember 2 years later that she saw other people eat but couldn't have were donuts, muffins, waffles, eggs and most of the desserts, though she was usually able to get something for dessert. Her favorite dessert was fruit sorbet and she'd probably eat that every night. It was a different flavor every night, not a choice of flavors (banana, raspberry, lemon, etc). One night they made her a chocolate brownie/cake thing complete with coconut whipped cream and strawberries which I thought looked really good but she preferred the sorbet.

We also travel with 3-4 epipens and benedryl, and the last 2 times we had prednisone along as well.

 

[dektolia]

Regarding where to stay the night before, the Hyatt MCO can do allergy friendly meals. We've eaten at McCoy's at least 5-6 times. With that combination of allergies you'll probably end up with just plain grilled chicken and fresh fruit (which will seem fine on the way out and will seem terrible on the way back after having Disney make full meals of normal-looking food all week). I was really impressed with the knowledge of cross contamination as our waiter told us that one of the people in the party (not the allergic one) had a plate that the chef that touched his plate had also touched nuts. I felt like if they warned us that that happened with a plate that didn't even belong to the allergic person, that they really understood the seriousness of allergies. They also will take your bags from the room at the Hyatt to your room on the ship AND the last time we stayed there, when I found a better price on another site than on their own site, they gave me like 20% the lower of the two rates. I don't think you can beat it for convenience if you're flying in later in the day the night before and don't want to actually "do" anything other than eat and sleep. That being said, we're traveling with a group of 10 this time, so we're now to the point that a car service is a fraction of the cost of Disney transportation plus it includes a stop to buy alcohol, so this will be the first time I'm staying in Cocoa Beach the night before instead of at the MCO Hyatt (but I'm still planning to eat there while waiting for our flight home).

 

[Shanti]

I'll go out on a limb and share my honest opinion that if your child has multiple severe food allergies, you're better off vacationing at Disney World than on a cruise ship. DCL does try to accomodate allergies, but most cruise-ship meals are pre-plated (in the MDR) or subject to cross-contamination (at the buffets).

Yes, they'll serve something different upon request, but don't expect the experience to be seamless or consistently tasty. Most of the cruise ship servers and cooks are not American, so don't expect them all to be familiar with the same terms and food types that we are. And when they do special-order an allergen meal, those meals are sometimes low in flavor, as they're often cooked without sauces or seasoning. My son isn't supposed to eat gluten, and we had the latter problem (bland and limited food options) a lot on our Magic cruise, but our experience on the Fantasy was better. Neither cruise was as easy as Disney World, though, where the table-service restaurants have allergy-accomodation down to a T. Don't expect that level of ease and variety of alternatives on a Disney cruise, or you'll likely be disappointed.

A lot can come down to your particular ship and your service team. I've read both glowingly happy reports and angry, disappointed reports on these boards about DCL's accomodation of food allergies. You might be able to make it work and have a blast, but be prepared in case things don't go so smoothly. As a mom, I'd bring Epi-Pens and a lot of packaged snacks for a highly-allergenic child just in case. And no, I doubt they will have any chocolate almond milk onboard- I don't recall seeing any almond milk at all on either ship.

 

[Starwind]

I have also never seen almond milk during our cruises. I've seen soy milk.

If there is a particular item like that that is important to have, you are probably better to bring it yourself. Note that beverages have to be brought on in your carry-on baggage, they can't be checked.

For snacks, you can bring on non-perishable commercially packaged factory sealed foods. No open containers. Depending on the port you may or may not be able to bring food off the ship into a port with you -- if you are allowed, you can't bring any opened containers back onto the ship. We bring a selection of individually packaged items with us onto the ship, from apple sauce pouches to granola bars. However, we found the food serving so large on the ship that in reality most of the time we didn't need snacks between meals.

SW

 

[dektolia]

Quick update to my previous post as I just got off the Fantasy yesterday. With milk/egg/nut allergies, my daughter who prefers low flavor (not big on sauces or seasonings) had a much better experience on her 3 Disney cruises than her 2 visits to Disney World. Having the same wait staff every night is a huge benefit, and our head server this time - Witt - was the best of the three head servers we've had. We brought along snacks to have for port days and between meal emergencies and barely used any of them as he made sure she had safe food between meals as well as at meals. He even called ahead to the restaurant we were going to be at for breakfast/lunch to make sure that they were ready for us so it wouldn't take so long to get the preordered food.

I talked to Witt about Cabanas vs. seated service for breakfast and lunch and he said the important thing is to preorder the meal so that it can be made safely and we can "pick it up" at whichever place/time we specify. He even had fresh fruit delivered to the room in the afternoons and sent rice dream preorders to Cabanas so she could stop in and get "ice cream" after lunch. My daughter was thrilled to get "room service" as we've never done that before. We had called ahead and requested the safe waffles they have at Disney World and I was surprised she actually got to have mickey waffles on the ship (the other two times she hasn't been able to, or they just have Vans which she doesn't like). This time the only difference between what she eats at home vs on the ship was the donuts and muffins, and that she had to avoid almond milk as it's a nut. Otherwise she ate the same food she can at home (noodles, breads, buns, rolls, earth balance, pizza, chocolate cake with whipped "cream" and berries or ice cream for dessert). My daughter eats pizza without cheese, but they did have soy cheese for pizza and they offered a safe "mac and cheese" type dish which I meant to order so that she could try it and see if she liked it, but she didn't want to order it whichever day Witt mentioned it and I totally forgot about it after that.

Each night we were given menus to look at to put in pre-orders for the next day, but were able to order whatever she wanted. It didn't necessarily have to come off the menu. (This is like our cruise in 2014 but not like 2015 where they asked us to order off the menu, so that might vary by wait staff.)

We made it home safely with tons of happy memories and no reactions (which wasn't the case for the 2016 Disney World trip; accidents can happen anywhere).

 

[MunFam]

As I read through these...I am really convinced that food allergy people have the best luck on the Dream Class ships. The "horror stories" and bad experiences all seem to happen on the Wonder and Magic, and quite consistently over the years. If we ever take another DCL cruise...I think we will only consider Dream class itineraries.

 

[Laine Anderson]

Hello all,
2- Our son is 7 and since we've been to Disney a few years ago, developed even more food allergies and intolerances. I'm EXTREMELY petrified being out to sea with him having these allergies. His allergies are Egg, all dairy, peanuts, and shellfish. I've brought it to our agent's attention and she has put it on our booking, but I'm wondering if there are any tips that you folks can give me for what to do prior to our cruise, or anything that I should do once we're on the ship when it comes to his allergies. I'm hoping they have his chocolate almond milk that he drinks in the morning and at night before bed, but I'm thinking they will prob just have the reg almond milk. Can I bring some on the ship with me? Am I able to bring any of his snacks that he eats knowing that they probably won't have any for him? I know Disney caters to food allergies, but was wonderinf what the assortment was...big minimal?
Thanks in advance!

On our first cruise I was super worried about that. I'm allergic to gluten, dairy, soy and eggs. It was included in our reservation but I went straight to the dining room when we boarded and just confirmed everything. They had all my food allergies listed.

On our first night at dinner, the server went over the menu with me and helped me choose a safe meal. Then I ordered all 3 meals for the next day and continued that every day. You can order each meal the night before.

You will have problems at the fast serve places though. They can't do anything special so you'll have to rely on the main dining areas. And you'll want to chat with someone if you choose the buffet and just find safe foods.

One morning I ordered something that contained eggs and they refused to make it for me until they confirmed that I wanted it. My egg allergy was new at the time and I forgot. So they do look out for you.

I was pleasantly surprised and had no issues. GL