Gluten free Alaska

[michelleryan]

Hi All, has anyone with Celiac traveled on the Disney Wonder to Alaska? I was specifically wondering if the bbq on the Tracy Arm day would have any gluten free items. Any other feedback regarding handling of gluten free dining would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Mousesmom]

Get in contact with Guest Services BEFORE you sail. They can, and celiac. Once on board you will meet with staff from the allergy kitchen to go over what you can and cannot eat.

Enjoy your cruise!

 

[MunFam]

Well, I just got off the Wonder with PTA dining rotation and the chef on that rotation was AWFUL!! Mehmet was the head server, I think he got off in San Diego though. If you can avoid that rotation, you will have better luck. I found myself seeking "Chef Sean" a lot for all of our allergy needs, but he was not on that rotation.

There was no creativity or variety at all, yet other people on other dining rotations were offered a lot more options and specialty things.

 

[MunFam]

There were GF rolls, GF pasta and the most awful GF pizza on earth available. I ate a lot of peel and eat shrimp and steak.

 

[clten]

The Wonder doesn't have a separate allergy kitchen like the Dream & Fantasy do. We send an e-mail to Disney special services before we board to alert them to allergies and dietary needs. We just sailed the Magic with one of our group being a celiac. For any dining outside of your dinner I'd suggest you talk to your head server at dinner the night before. They can make sure that you have what you need/want at the other dining venues for breakfast and lunch the next day. Ours always let us know who we should find/speak to when we went to breakfast at the buffet or lunch somewhere else. I'm sure they could make sure there was something for you at the BBQ if that is where you are planning on eating on Tracy Arm day.

As far as GF pizza, if you happen to be going to Palo for brunch, they can do GF pizza and my friend said it was fabulous (hers was actually gluten and dairy free). She was not a fan of the GF rolls they brought to the table every night.

 

[michelleryan]

Well, I just got off the Wonder with PTA dining rotation and the chef on that rotation was AWFUL!! Mehmet was the head server, I think he got off in San Diego though. If you can avoid that rotation, you will have better luck. I found myself seeking "Chef Sean" a lot for all of our allergy needs, but he was not on that rotation.

There was no creativity or variety at all, yet other people on other dining rotations were offered a lot more options and specialty things.

I'm sorry to hear that you weren't happy with the chef! Thank you for the specific feedback - if we end up with the PTA rotation I will make a request to change it, hopefully to the rotation where Chef Sean will be!

 

[michelleryan]

The Wonder doesn't have a separate allergy kitchen like the Dream & Fantasy do. We send an e-mail to Disney special services before we board to alert them to allergies and dietary needs. We just sailed the Magic with one of our group being a celiac. For any dining outside of your dinner I'd suggest you talk to your head server at dinner the night before. They can make sure that you have what you need/want at the other dining venues for breakfast and lunch the next day. Ours always let us know who we should find/speak to when we went to breakfast at the buffet or lunch somewhere else. I'm sure they could make sure there was something for you at the BBQ if that is where you are planning on eating on Tracy Arm day.

As far as GF pizza, if you happen to be going to Palo for brunch, they can do GF pizza and my friend said it was fabulous (hers was actually gluten and dairy free). She was not a fan of the GF rolls they brought to the table every night.

Thanks for this info too. It's too bad that the Wonder doesn't have a separate kitchen, but good to know. Thanks for the tip on the Palo pizza, I'm hoping to get a reservation!

 

[cgncga]

Well, I just got off the Wonder with PTA dining rotation and the chef on that rotation was AWFUL!! Mehmet was the head server, I think he got off in San Diego though. If you can avoid that rotation, you will have better luck. I found myself seeking "Chef Sean" a lot for all of our allergy needs, but he was not on that rotation.

There was no creativity or variety at all, yet other people on other dining rotations were offered a lot more options and specialty things.

My family was on the Wonder to Alaska last August. Both my daughters are gluten free, and while they always had something to eat, our servers in the main dining room didn't really seem to understand their dietary needs. Even ordering their dinners the night before, they were usually the last people served at our table, and even then, they didn't always get what they had ordered.

We had better service at the buffet for breakfast and at the sit down (Royal Palace?) for lunch, but we had to organize that assistance ourselves. I think it may have been "Chef Sean" who took us under his wing at breakfast, and after a couple of days knew to put in 2 orders go gluten free chocolate chip pancakes as soon as he saw us coming. That was appreciated.

 

[MunFam]

My family was on the Wonder to Alaska last August. Both my daughters are gluten free, and while they always had something to eat, our servers in the main dining room didn't really seem to understand their dietary needs. Even ordering their dinners the night before, they were usually the last people served at our table, and even then, they didn't always get what they had ordered.

We had better service at the buffet for breakfast and at the sit down (Royal Palace?) for lunch, but we had to organize that assistance ourselves. I think it may have been "Chef Sean" who took us under his wing at breakfast, and after a couple of days knew to put in 2 orders go gluten free chocolate chip pancakes as soon as he saw us coming. That was appreciated.

This was our recent experience on the Wonder too. We sent in the form ahead of time. We spoke with the allergy team on the phone prior to sailing. We met with the team on embarkation day. We preordered meals each day the night before...and STILL found that we would go to the buffets and search for Chef Sean for help...and it was still super slow...(obviously, because they had to hunt down the safe foods and prepare them)...but atleast we could get it.) Dinners often came out with allergens on them, even though they were pre ordered the night before, AND they were the last of the meals to arrive between our servers' tables. Sometimes, dinner took 2.5 hours and we had a 4 year old...on late dining.

One night, they made our DD GF mac n cheese and it was ROTTEN. Like spoiled, sour, moldy, rotten. She refused to eat it. I tried to force her to eat it, then I tried it, then my husband tried it...then our server tried it. We all wanted to puke. It was BAD. The head server came out and argued with me that it was a frozen dinner that they microwaved it and it had not expired, so there was no way it was spoiled. I was furious that night. A microwaved frozen dinner on a Disney Ship...and it was rotten?!

Basically, all of those WONDERful reviews about how magical DCL is with allergies...Im still trying to figure out where the magic was because we lived on steak, peel and eat shrimp, fries and hot dogs with no buns for 15 days. It was not cool.

 

[cgncga]

This was our recent experience on the Wonder too. We sent in the form ahead of time. We spoke with the allergy team on the phone prior to sailing. We met with the team on embarkation day. We preordered meals each day the night before...and STILL found that we would go to the buffets and search for Chef Sean for help...and it was still super slow...(obviously, because they had to hunt down the safe foods and prepare them)...but atleast we could get it.) Dinners often came out with allergens on them, even though they were pre ordered the night before, AND they were the last of the meals to arrive between our servers' tables. Sometimes, dinner took 2.5 hours and we had a 4 year old...on late dining.

One night, they made our DD GF mac n cheese and it was ROTTEN. Like spoiled, sour, moldy, rotten. She refused to eat it. I tried to force her to eat it, then I tried it, then my husband tried it...then our server tried it. We all wanted to puke. It was BAD. The head server came out and argued with me that it was a frozen dinner that they microwaved it and it had not expired, so there was no way it was spoiled. I was furious that night. A microwaved frozen dinner on a Disney Ship...and it was rotten?!

Basically, all of those WONDERful reviews about how magical DCL is with allergies...Im still trying to figure out where the magic was because we lived on steak, peel and eat shrimp, fries and hot dogs with no buns for 15 days. It was not cool.

Our experience on the Wonder last summer was very surprising to us, because we had had fantastic service the year before on the Dream. Then, my daughter (only one was gluten free at the time) was always the first one served, and they always brought her more than one gluten free, kid friendly option. When we asked for some of those same meals on the Wonder (like mac and cheese) they couldn't make it--although after hearing about you experience with mac and cheese maybe that was a good thing. . We are hoping to have a much better experience with gluten free foods this summer on the Fantasy.

 

[Notso]

Can they do GF French Fries anywhere on the Wonder? This is all very discouraging. We will be in Alaska in August and now I'm worried my 5 year old with celiac will have trouble. We had great experiences on the Dream and Fantasy. Are there any GF room service options?

 

[michelleryan]

This was our recent experience on the Wonder too. We sent in the form ahead of time. We spoke with the allergy team on the phone prior to sailing. We met with the team on embarkation day. We preordered meals each day the night before...and STILL found that we would go to the buffets and search for Chef Sean for help...and it was still super slow...(obviously, because they had to hunt down the safe foods and prepare them)...but atleast we could get it.) Dinners often came out with allergens on them, even though they were pre ordered the night before, AND they were the last of the meals to arrive between our servers' tables. Sometimes, dinner took 2.5 hours and we had a 4 year old...on late dining.

One night, they made our DD GF mac n cheese and it was ROTTEN. Like spoiled, sour, moldy, rotten. She refused to eat it. I tried to force her to eat it, then I tried it, then my husband tried it...then our server tried it. We all wanted to puke. It was BAD. The head server came out and argued with me that it was a frozen dinner that they microwaved it and it had not expired, so there was no way it was spoiled. I was furious that night. A microwaved frozen dinner on a Disney Ship...and it was rotten?!

Basically, all of those WONDERful reviews about how magical DCL is with allergies...Im still trying to figure out where the magic was because we lived on steak, peel and eat shrimp, fries and hot dogs with no buns for 15 days. It was not cool.

Ugh, thank you so much for this honest feedback. This is our first cruise and I had assumed that because we've had such great experiences eating gluten free at the Disney parks that the cruise would be just as easy for us. I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with the spoiled frozen macaroni - your poor DD. I guess I'll be bringing lots of packaged snacks just in case.

 

[MunFam]

Can they do GF French Fries anywhere on the Wonder? This is all very discouraging. We will be in Alaska in August and now I'm worried my 5 year old with celiac will have trouble. We had great experiences on the Dream and Fantasy. Are there any GF room service options?

The cheese plate without crackers (we packed our own) and the soggy, gritty pizza were GF, but I am not certain it was a non cross contaminated kitchen.

The also had GF frozen donuts on board and GF frozen waffles. They would bring me out the frozen boxes to read ingredients because DD has a lot of allergies. The donuts were quite good, although, they were usually half frozen when they served them to me

 

[MunFam]

Ugh, thank you so much for this honest feedback. This is our first cruise and I had assumed that because we've had such great experiences eating gluten free at the Disney parks that the cruise would be just as easy for us. I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with the spoiled frozen macaroni - your poor DD. I guess I'll be bringing lots of packaged snacks just in case.

FWIW, we brought on a pack of string cheese and a few lunchables from our pretrip and they did not catch it at inspection. I meant to throw it away because it was not allowed, but it made it, and we refrigerated it all and were thankful we had it. We found that we were thankful for the large bag of Costco Skinny Pop popcorn, jerky, fruit cups, GF pretzels, potato chips (which were like...non existent on the ship!) when we were hungry! I also packed a pepperoni stick and a salami stick and they came in handy!!! Along with some GF crackers that we packed and the all hands on deck cheese plate w/o crackers from room service.

 

[MelSpees]

FWIW, we brought on a pack of string cheese and a few lunchables from our pretrip and they did not catch it at inspection. I meant to throw it away because it was not allowed, but it made it, and we refrigerated it all and were thankful we had it. We found that we were thankful for the large bag of Costco Skinny Pop popcorn, jerky, fruit cups, GF pretzels, potato chips (which were like...non existent on the ship!) when we were hungry! I also packed a pepperoni stick and a salami stick and they came in handy!!! Along with some GF crackers that we packed and the all hands on deck cheese plate w/o crackers from room service.

Why do you say the string cheese and lunchables weren't allowed. As long as they are packaged foods they're allowed, aren't they?

 

[MunFam]

Why do you say the string cheese and lunchables weren't allowed. As long as they are packaged foods they're allowed, aren't they?

Things that require refrigeration ("perishable") are not allowed.

 

[K8T]

Reading this, I am horrified! My 10 year old is Coeliac and we are on the 12 night Baltic.

I was under the impression this would be a stress free holiday with regards to food and they would be organised, especially with the number of children on board.

Can anyone tell me if the fries are GF? Or are they cooked in the same fryers as breaded products?

We nearly went with Celebrity, because they are good for Coeliacs, but stuck with DCL as we thought they were better!

My daughter is sensitive too!

 

[MunFam]

I think they had a dedicated fryer at the quick service restaurants. We are gluten intolerant and did okay. We had to worry about cross contamination with egg-battered chicken patties and egg-battered chicken tenders in the same fryer and they assured us they fries were safe.

 

[MunFam]

Reading this, I am horrified! My 10 year old is Coeliac and we are on the 12 night Baltic.

I was under the impression this would be a stress free holiday with regards to food and they would be organised, especially with the number of children on board.

Can anyone tell me if the fries are GF? Or are they cooked in the same fryers as breaded products?

We nearly went with Celebrity, because they are good for Coeliacs, but stuck with DCL as we thought they were better!

My daughter is sensitive too!

Honestly, I think that DIS ruins us allergy parents in to thinking that Disney is this magical cruise line that knows food allergies super well. We went in assuming that they would take great care of us and they did not...like most restaurants, we should not have and then did not let our guard down again. We had to stay on alert and make sure everything WAS safe. I am thankful I packed foods for our daughter, because sometimes waiting 45 minutes at quick service or the buffet was just too long for her when she was starving. It was our fault for assuming that Disney was going to be awesome and amazing and my expectations were high based on reviews. I read a few reviews of horror stories about parents with food allergy kids on the ships just having awful times, cross-contamination issues, etc. and in my head I chalked them up to "oh, they were not prepared, or oh they did not communicate their allergies properly" but we did EVERYTHING we were supposed to do and then some...and there were still multiple slips and issues in addition to the lack of going above and beyond like we had read about. Now that I think about it, I know of two people that had allergic reactions while on board and received epinephrine. One guy, I spoke to him personally, and he felt there was a cross-contamination issue, but was going to follow up with his doctor to make sure he had not developed a new allergy.

On a positive note, the health center treated both patients AMAZINGLY well! We packed a lot of Benadryl and a lot of Epi-Pens. We used the Benadryl twice for small reactions, but it stopped with the Benadryl. (The soft serve would sometimes give her a reaction, and sometimes not...almost like they did not clean out the machine well and another flavor had an allergen?)

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

My wife is GF are we just sailed Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Sea and she had some really good meals. Their menus are marked very well with what is GF and options. Just throwing that out there, not Disney but better than moldy microwave Mac and cheese.