Allergies & Taking Food On Board.

[rainbowredpanda]

Hi all,
We have several allergies which are already noted with DCL but we were wondering does anyone know if we can bring flavour syrup on board for coffees/ice cream? One person in our cabin enjoys flavoured lattes and we're not sure if the syrup on board will be safe with the allergens. We would take a closed bottle, we can carry it on and are happy to add the syrup ourselves in our stateroom after the coffee has been made. We will be taking wine on board so we can carry it on in the same bag so it can be examined and we're happy to throw away the bottle before disembarking so customs won't be a problem at the end of the cruise.

Thank you.

 

[Geomom]

That should be fine. You can bring factory sealed food onto the ship, and by throwing it out there, you're not bringing anything open off the ship later. If you can find a small bottle of syrup, I'd bring that so you're not wasting too much.

 

[tvguy]

My concern with allergies is with cross contamination during the preparation of the coffee.

 

[1lilspark]

As long as it’s sealed you can bring it on the ship
You can’t take it off

 

[anricat]

Definitely as long as it's sealed. We always bring on real maple syrup because I can't stand the fake stuff. I just bring a little sealed bottle and whatever is left at the end, we give to our servers on disembarkation morning. On our Fantasy cruise in July, our assistant server was completely fascinated with it. He had never had real maple syrup. He was pretty excited.

 

[rainbowredpanda]

That should be fine. You can bring factory sealed food onto the ship, and by throwing it out there, you're not bringing anything open off the ship later. If you can find a small bottle of syrup, I'd bring that so you're not wasting too much.

As long as it’s sealed you can bring it on the ship
You can’t take it off

Definitely as long as it's sealed. We always bring on real maple syrup because I can't stand the fake stuff. I just bring a little sealed bottle and whatever is left at the end, we give to our servers on disembarkation morning. On our Fantasy cruise in July, our assistant server was completely fascinated with it. He had never had real maple syrup. He was pretty excited.

Thank you all! Yes, we bring a small sealed bottle and then just leave it in the room to be disposed of, unless the room attendants want the rest.

My concern with allergies is with cross contamination during the preparation of the coffee.

Thank you. Yes, that's a great point. We will check when boarding what the risk of cross contamination is before ordering anything.

 

[Disturbia]

We just came back from the eastern Carribean on the Fantasy. On our last night our DD14 reacted to something in a chef approved cake (she was getting fed up of eating the same namaste cake or chocolate flavored whip cream). She’s allergic to peanuts, treenuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. They couldn’t find any ingredients that had nuts/seeds so I’m thinking it’s cross contamination from other dishes that had nuts and were being served that day.

Fortunately she did recover quickly after Benadryl (did have some mild stomach cramps later). The head server and manager came by to examine her and ask if we needed medical assistance (someone saw us in the room and despite us saying she was doing fine they apparently screamed for water and summoned the manager). They stayed and waited for us until DD14 came out of the restroom and said her throat stopped burning.

Our DS6 has even more allergies (milk, eggs, cashews, kiwi and sesame). He got a namaste chocolate cake (and some vegan ice cream; 1 pint silk coconut milk vanilla ice cream at castaway cay) and didn’t react to anything. I did bring 2 ripple milk original boxes. I should have packed more as he doesn’t drink soy milk but did end up drinking a bit in cereal. He was offered pancakes, grilled chicken, pasta, steak, steamed veggies and a vegan chocolate chip muffin (once). The popcorn is vegan at the movie theater but not room service (room service had nothing for him other than dry cereal).

One tip: either have a Benadryl 4oz bottle or some refillable medicine tubes ready (it’s hard to measure with shaky hands). I do carry the Dr Kids pre measured doses as well.

https://shop.allergysuperheroes.com/products/single-dose-liquid-medicine-bottles
https://drkids.com/allergies

 

[kiford]

They couldn’t find any ingredients that had nuts/seeds so I’m thinking it’s cross contamination from other dishes that had nuts and were being served that day.

Were they also able to confirm it had no sunflower oil, sunflower lecithin, vitamin E (often made from sunflower oil), tocopherols (aka vitamin E) or anything coated with sunflower oil (dried cranberries in particular are usually coated with sunflower oil as can many other dried fruits)? Also, "vegetable oil" can sometimes actually be sunflower oil or partially sunflower oil or contaminated with sunflower oil. I'm allergic to sunflower and you wouldn't believe the places one or more of those items pops up (plus you always have to be on the lookout for its latin name). Most of the time I also have to be very specific and say ALL sunflower products as often people assume when you say sunflower you're just meaning the seeds. I'm also allergic to marigold and camomile which are in the same family (as is ragweed which I'm very allergic to). They don't cause as severe a reaction for me as seafood for example which I'm also allergic to, but it's a very unpleasant few hours afterwards. I do find with sunflower that taking large doses of an antihistamine (like Benadryl but I'm ironically allergic to that) will help with the symptoms and will shorten the reaction.

On our last cruise, my server had to keep telling me I couldn't have a bunch of things on the menu either because it HAD sunflower in it or it had something which may or may not contain sunflower oil, but they didn't know for sure so recommended that I avoid it.

 

[Disturbia]

Were they also able to confirm it had no sunflower oil, sunflower lecithin, vitamin E (often made from sunflower oil), tocopherols (aka vitamin E) or anything coated with sunflower oil (dried cranberries in particular are usually coated with sunflower oil as can many other dried fruits)? Also, "vegetable oil" can sometimes actually be sunflower oil or partially sunflower oil or contaminated with sunflower oil. I'm allergic to sunflower and you wouldn't believe the places one or more of those items pops up (plus you always have to be on the lookout for its latin name). Most of the time I also have to be very specific and say ALL sunflower products as often people assume when you say sunflower you're just meaning the seeds. I'm also allergic to marigold and camomile which are in the same family (as is ragweed which I'm very allergic to). They don't cause as severe a reaction for me as seafood for example which I'm also allergic to, but it's a very unpleasant few hours afterwards. I do find with sunflower that taking large doses of an antihistamine (like Benadryl but I'm ironically allergic to that) will help with the symptoms and will shorten the reaction.

On our last cruise, my server had to keep telling me I couldn't have a bunch of things on the menu either because it HAD sunflower in it or it had something which may or may not contain sunflower oil, but they didn't know for sure so recommended that I avoid it.

They didn’t mention sunflower oil. Maybe something we should ask about in the future. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[kiford]

They didn’t mention sunflower oil. Maybe something we should ask about in the future. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Few places seem to have yet recognized sunflower (and marigold and camomile) as common allergies. From my research, it seems that 30% of those people who are allergic to ragweed are also allergic to sunflower/marigold/camomile. Given that sunflower has only recently (last 3-5 years) been used in place of soy or canola or other vegetable oils, it may not be commonly considered as an allergen and you have to effectively diagnose yourself. It took me almost 2 years to figure out that my reactions were due to sunflower and associated items (it's in a lot of topical/facial treatments too). Once I figured it out, it made my life so much better. For a few years, I'd had so many rashes, itchiness, dry/cracked skin, vomiting, nausea, etc. Once I realized what was causing it and was able to avoid it, it was like night and day. So much better. It's so ubiquitous, found particularly in processed snacks, cakes, candies, chocolates and breads that knowing what to avoid improves your life so much.

 

[rainbowredpanda]

We just came back from the eastern Carribean on the Fantasy. On our last night our DD14 reacted to something in a chef approved cake (she was getting fed up of eating the same namaste cake or chocolate flavored whip cream). She’s allergic to peanuts, treenuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. They couldn’t find any ingredients that had nuts/seeds so I’m thinking it’s cross contamination from other dishes that had nuts and were being served that day.

Fortunately she did recover quickly after Benadryl (did have some mild stomach cramps later). The head server and manager came by to examine her and ask if we needed medical assistance (someone saw us in the room and despite us saying she was doing fine they apparently screamed for water and summoned the manager). They stayed and waited for us until DD14 came out of the restroom and said her throat stopped burning.

Our DS6 has even more allergies (milk, eggs, cashews, kiwi and sesame). He got a namaste chocolate cake (and some vegan ice cream; 1 pint silk coconut milk vanilla ice cream at castaway cay) and didn’t react to anything. I did bring 2 ripple milk original boxes. I should have packed more as he doesn’t drink soy milk but did end up drinking a bit in cereal. He was offered pancakes, grilled chicken, pasta, steak, steamed veggies and a vegan chocolate chip muffin (once). The popcorn is vegan at the movie theater but not room service (room service had nothing for him other than dry cereal).

One tip: either have a Benadryl 4oz bottle or some refillable medicine tubes ready (it’s hard to measure with shaky hands). I do carry the Dr Kids pre measured doses as well.

https://shop.allergysuperheroes.com/products/single-dose-liquid-medicine-bottles
https://drkids.com/allergies

Thank you. Yes, we will take all medications on board and carry them around at meal times or when we will be snacking. Cross contamination is such a concern. Thankfully there are no allergies that result in anaphylactic shock but there are plenty of other reactions that aren't great. Thank you again for sharing.

 

[Disturbia]

Few places seem to have yet recognized sunflower (and marigold and camomile) as common allergies. From my research, it seems that 30% of those people who are allergic to ragweed are also allergic to sunflower/marigold/camomile. Given that sunflower has only recently (last 3-5 years) been used in place of soy or canola or other vegetable oils, it may not be commonly considered as an allergen and you have to effectively diagnose yourself. It took me almost 2 years to figure out that my reactions were due to sunflower and associated items (it's in a lot of topical/facial treatments too). Once I figured it out, it made my life so much better. For a few years, I'd had so many rashes, itchiness, dry/cracked skin, vomiting, nausea, etc. Once I realized what was causing it and was able to avoid it, it was like night and day. So much better. It's so ubiquitous, found particularly in processed snacks, cakes, candies, chocolates and breads that knowing what to avoid improves your life so much.

Some hotel lotions contain sesame oil (neutrogena! completely unnecessary); we do check ingredients at spas.

Yes our DD14 (allergic to nuts/seeds) is allergic to ragweed (one eye closed shut swollen while sitting at a Home Depot parking lot in a car) and outdoor mold (touched a pine cone that had fallen and had hives on hands only). She is allergic to sunflower seeds (vomiting at school from a mix that had them; we only knew about sesame at that point). She has outgrown eggs (started at an 4-5) and is about to outgrow sesame (started at level 8?); Pecans are mild and possibly can be outgrown; but everything else is in the 70-80 range and she will never outgrow.