Egg allergy question

[brookness]

My 16 year old daughter just recently found out she has a decent egg allergy by skin testing. She's currently avoiding them, and will do the food challenge in a couple of weeks to see if they really do make her sick. Of course, our Dream cruise is in a week. :-( I know the food allergy process, that's not my concern, but I'm wondering if anyone here has had experience with egg free food on the ship. Is there much variety? Did it taste decent? I'm hoping their pasta and pizza dough is egg free (the kind we use at home is). I hate for her to be stuck eating the same thing all the time. She's quite picky as it is. I also hate for her to miss out on good desserts.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I can't speak for the ship, but we have a bakery near us that does a fantastic egg-free, dairy-free cake that the schools use, so it is very possible to eliminate eggs from things. My guess is professional chefs on the ship will be able to handle this very easily. Your daughter probably won't even be the only egg allergy on the ship.

 

[brookness]

Oh, no I'm sure she won't, but she might be the only picky teenage one that would rather starve than eat "that"! It's a common allergy, actually, but since this is new to her, she's missing pastries, and things. And the first thing she said was "Oh no I love the eggs on the cruise!".

 

[Bella29]

My son is allergic to eggs (actually just eggwhites) and has been on the Magic and the Fantasy. There are varying levels of egg allergy, some people just avoid plain eggs but are fine with a cake baked with egg. So you'll need to go with whatever your allergist advises. My son has to completely avoid any food with eggs as an ingredient. DCL usually handles his allergies well. Assuming the allergy is confirmed, send in a note to special services before you cruise and then speak to your head waiter when you board (in the dining changes area). My son is also allergic to peanuts and we found it works best when we pre-order his dinners 24 hours in advance. One cruise we didn't and his meal was served 20-30 minutes after everyone else, which was very upsetting to me. He hates to have it be a spectacle, he would rather not eat than have someone notice he has to ask for special treatment. You'll definitely need to confirm these items with the chef as recipes and suppliers do change, but as of our last cruise on the Magic in January, I believe these items contained egg:

mac and cheese
tortellini
Mickey shaped pasta
soft serve ice cream on the island when it contains flavor additions like cookie dough
most desserts in the MDRs, like chocolate mousse or cake stuff and some of the ice creams.
most of the breads in the MDRs.
chicken strips - MDR and pool deck quick service restaurant
donuts
Beef Wellington
truffle pasta pursette thing that is served in Animators.
all salad dressings

The good news! These items he has eaten safely on our most recent cruise (again confirm with the chef as things change):
soft serve ice cream on board
Mickey Bars
Plutos pizza (on pool deck. This was not egg-free when we started cruising DCL in 2005 but the last several years it has been. I hope it says that way!!)
Palos pizza
pot stickers on the Pirate Night menu
the white rolls served at some dinners - this was new this cruise. They brought him a special basket each night
spaghetti - but you have to ask the chef for egg-free pasta.
obviously, most meat entrees - steak, prime rib, chicken, lobster.
some ice cream sundaes in the MDR, and on our last cruise, a special ordered chocolate mousse. The chef seemed to delight in seeing how much of this my son could put away (usually on top of one or two steaks)

This is a teen boy who is quite happy with meat and veggies and Mickey Bar for dessert so dinners are pretty easy for us. If you have questions about a specific food item let me know and I'll ask him as his memory is better than mine.

 

[brookness]

Wow, thank you! I almost want her to bump her food challenge up to this week. She's allergic to whole egg, according to the poke test. But he said avoid it, then add it and see how you feel. She's a very picky eater and would not be happy about meat and veggies. Of course the chicken fingers and Mac n cheese would be staples. And breads. She definitely will have a hard time.

 

[Starwind]

I will start of by saying that while I have multiple food allergies (including milk), egg is not one of them.

On both the Dream and the Fantasy the chefs have made me a very nice chocolate cake thing (usually with some fruit or chocolate sauce as a topping) multiple times for dessert in the MDR, using Namaste chocolate cake mix (http://www.namastefoods.com/products/cgi-bin/products.cgi?Function=show&Id=20), which is egg free. Although the instructions say to use eggs, an egg replacer may be a viable option and Namaste even has suggestions for that ( http://www.namastefoods.com/docs/EggReplacerSuggestions.pdf ). The chefs should have a good idea of what can/cant be done and it still turn out ok. I know one of the baked goods they made for me they used apple sauce as an egg relacement (I assume they were making a batch that was also safe for some other cruisers).

On both ships I had a safe-for-me pizza made in the QS pizza area. However, the crust they used for mine was an Udi's crust, and those contain eggs. If you talk with your dining staff and explain she would e.g. like pizza for lunch the next day, they may have suggestions on how to accomplish that, either in an MDR or at the QS. I recently saw a picture of a kiddo who had a safe pizza made for them in the MDR -- ordering the day in advance might make that doable as it gives them ample time to create safe ingredients and crust. You can also ask at the QS and they may or may not be able to do it -- it will depend largely on the ingredients they have on hand.

At the burgers QS area I was able to get allergy friendly chicken fingers and safe french fries, but I don't know if the allergy chicken fingers have egg or not (they are battered, so it is possible they do; again, ASKING is the only way to find out).

One thing I found helpful: I carry "chef cards" with me whereever I go. For one allergu you could fit it on a business card. Mine are printed on 4x6 index cards. When I eat out I give one to the waiter and they are free to share it with the chef. I have a bunch so if I don't get it back that is fine. it helps with communicating my food allergies, especially in noisy environments. On ship, I use them at the dining changes time, the first night in the MDR, and when I order from the QS on the pool deck (which is VERY VERY noisy). I have some on hand for the MDRs at breakfast and lunch but since the last 2 cruises we just preordered those meals I did not need them there. Consider making some. There are lots of sites online that have info you can use and some have free templates.

Pre-ordering dinners the night before makes things really easy. I also now pre-order breakfast and lunch. Yes, it means we are a little less spontaneous, but it means I can get the food I want. Like safe Mickey Waffles every breakfast (the one day I forgot near the end of the cruise our server reminded me and asked if I wanted them! ). For breakfast and lunch we could choose any of the dining rooms that was open for that meal, including Cabanas, in whichto eat, so we shifted around to get some variety, though usually we went with the dining room our servers would be in for the meal.

One thing that was also helpful is with the DCL app I could look at ALL the menus for EVERY day. This meant that each night at dinner I had already looked at the next night's menu and knew what I wanted; so when it came time to pre-order all I was doing was doublechecking the menu and ordering (a quick process) instead of reading the menu, deciding, and ordering (a long process). Also, if there was something I really wanted from another MDRs menu (eg Butternut Squash soup), I would ask if it was possible to have it (it always was).

As for bread: On our last 3 cruises they have made us the most delicious sourdough rolls for dinner each night, and quickly learned we loved them an ate a lot so kept us in good supply. I was quite content to have this as my bread for the entire cruise, as was my sister.

For salad dressings I used oil and vinegar as the salad dressings all had something I was allergic to in them (milk or a fishy like anchovies). I am tempted to bring my own small container of safe salad dressing on board and keep it in the room fridge and just bring a small amount to dinner each night...

SW

 

[Bella29]

7 DCL cruises and my son has never eaten cake on the ship, including on his birthday. They have never mentioned that they are able to bake with an egg replacer. Other dessert options (ice cream and specially ordered chocolate mousse), yes, but not cake or cookies.

They did once make him a safe Mickey waffle, specially ordered, but he had a little friend eating with us at the same time who was allergic to milk and something else (wheat? I forget) as well so they made the same batch for both boys and oh those waffles were BAD. Maybe they would be better if eggs was the only thing they had to avoid. I know that in many (but not all) hotels the self-serve waffles are egg-free.

One year they insisted on bringing at least 4 gluten free rolls to him every night, which were absolutely disgusting. We couldn't seem to convince the asst. server that gluten was not related to egg and that these rolls were barely edible. However in Jan 2016 on the Magic they brought him the white rolls I mentioned, they were delicious! He's not that into bread but the rest of the table helped him finish his basket every night. They were the plain french rolls that are served on the buffets.

Wow, thank you! I almost want her to bump her food challenge up to this week. She's allergic to whole egg, according to the poke test. But he said avoid it, then add it and see how you feel. She's a very picky eater and would not be happy about meat and veggies. Of course the chicken fingers and Mac n cheese would be staples. And breads. She definitely will have a hard time.

You're very welcome. It really depends on her symptoms/test results/allergy action plan how seriously you need to take the allergy. It is different for everyone. I hope for your daughter's sake that she will end up being able to safely have the small amount of cooked egg on things like the chicken fingers and just skip the scrambled eggs. (If not I am sure she will still find enough to eat! My son always eats enough for 2 or 3 people!)

It wouldn't hurt to tell your allergist about the cruise and ask if you can do a challenge now, even if you end up having to start over and do the avoidance period again later to be sure. I would also want to know the allergist's advice for the cruise - should you have medication and an action plan with you? My son carries liquid benadryl and 2 epipens with him at all times along with a written allergy action plan from his dr. When we travel I carry backups as well. If he accidentally ingests egg, or gets THE feeling in his stomach that tells him he has had egg, he immediately takes liquid benadryl. That helps him avoid his primary egg reaction - which is vomiting. Maybe benadryl would be something to talk to your dr about carrying with you on the trip as an extra safeguard. (the liquid kind, not pills or tablets which don't act fast enough). However my son has never had a low enough skin test that he was cleared to try a food challenge so it could be you don't even need to take the precautions we take. He always lights up like a stoplight on the skin test.

 

[brookness]

On a scale of 1-4 I think eggs were a 2. Environmental things, she lit up like a stoplight, but even at that, she doesn't have to worry about an epipen. The food challenge time was up to us. She's been eating things with eggs almost every day of her life, so we knew it wasn't a life threatening allergy, just maybe caused stomach upset and generalized inflammation, but she added eggs back in yesterday, and she's been fine. Hoping she stays that way and she can add strawberries back in soon! Thanks again! Very helpful!

 

[mcross923]

As previous posters have said, talk to your head waiter on the first night. My wife is also allergic to eggs and our head waiter would bring the next night's menu to her after dinner and she would order whatever she wanted for the next night. For dessert, it was always the same chocolate ice cream of some sort, I didn't taste it, but my wife wasn't too fond of it.

 

[StlJoe]

I'm an egg allergy sufferer myself. If I break an egg and touch it, I'll break out in hives. If I eat something with raw eggs, I'd go into full blown anaphylactic shock. If she was only a 2 on the allergy test then she's right where I was. And if she's eaten cakes, etc. with baked eggs she should be fine. I've just learned to stay away from custard and anything else with a high concentration of uncooked eggs or products that are rich and don't get cooked down.

 

[Dug720]

I will start of by saying that while I have multiple food allergies (including milk), egg is not one of them.

On both the Dream and the Fantasy the chefs have made me a very nice chocolate cake thing (usually with some fruit or chocolate sauce as a topping) multiple times for dessert in the MDR, using Namaste chocolate cake mix (http://www.namastefoods.com/products/cgi-bin/products.cgi?Function=show&Id=20), which is egg free. Although the instructions say to use eggs, an egg replacer may be a viable option and Namaste even has suggestions for that ( http://www.namastefoods.com/docs/EggReplacerSuggestions.pdf ). The chefs should have a good idea of what can/cant be done and it still turn out ok. I know one of the baked goods they made for me they used apple sauce as an egg relacement (I assume they were making a batch that was also safe for some other cruisers).

OMG thank you for posting this!!! I got diagnosed with a gluten sensitivity three weeks before my RCCL cruise to the Med and Venice, so I was having to eat gluten-free on the ship. Things were mostly fine - but I got so tired of puddings and mousses as those seemed to be the only GF desserts they were capable of making. I did little dances for joy with the Pavlova and the Baked Alaska because I could eat those and they weren't mousse or pudding. I'm glad to know that DCL actually has the capacity to make GF cake!!!

 

[Laine Anderson]

My 16 year old daughter just recently found out she has a decent egg allergy by skin testing. She's currently avoiding them, and will do the food challenge in a couple of weeks to see if they really do make her sick. Of course, our Dream cruise is in a week. :-( I know the food allergy process, that's not my concern, but I'm wondering if anyone here has had experience with egg free food on the ship. Is there much variety? Did it taste decent? I'm hoping their pasta and pizza dough is egg free (the kind we use at home is). I hate for her to be stuck eating the same thing all the time. She's quite picky as it is. I also hate for her to miss out on good desserts.

I'm allergic to gluten, dairy, soy and eggs and I never felt like I was stuck with the same foods all the time and asked for pretty much whatever I wanted within the guildlines of my allergies and had no problems. Make sure she orders all 3 meals the day before, the waitstaff are really great at helping you choose.