Food Allergies ?

[marypopfan]

I was wondering if there are options on the Fantasy for people with food allergies at Tow Mater's Grill?

 

[Starwind]

I will begin by noting that it is generally safer to eat in the MDRs if one has food allergies. Also, depending on the allergy it may not be possible to accommodate at all at the QS locations; and, if they can make safe food the options may be very limited.

That said. I am anaphylactic to milk, tree nuts, peanuts, and seafood.

On the Fantasy I was able to get the following safe foods after speaking with a chef/manager at the location:
- Luigi's Pizza: pepperoni pizza (they used a Udi's pizza crust, normal sauce, normal pepperoni, and Tofutti "American" cheese slices after showing me the label on the package to make sure I was ok with them)
- Tow Mater's Grill: chicken fingers and french fries

Note: I let the CM who normally helped guests at the location know I had food allergies and would like to place an order. They let the chef/manager know. I waited off to the side for the chef/manager to come talk with me and we had a discussion about what my allergies were and what they could make for me (well, with the pizza, I expalined the allergies and that I wondered if they could make me a safe peperoni pizza...). That person is the one who then made my food and brought it to me (either at the counter for the pizza or out to me at a table for the chicken fingers and fries). IT TOOK A WHILE since the meal had to be prepared from the start and the work area made safe, etc. Other than sliced fruit, you probably won't just quickly walk away with food.

In the QS area they also have sliced fruit and bags of potato chips (same kind served at Castaway Cay).

The pizza for me was a special treat because, as you can imagine, I pretty much do not get to eat pizza from a restaurant at home.

The chicken fingers were because I accidently slept through the MDR lunch time slot and needed food when I woke up mid-afternoon.

After the Fantasy our next two cruises were on the Dream (B2B) and the system we used there worked much better for me:

Each night at the end of dinner, not only did I order dinner for the next night, but I also ordered my breakfast and lunch for the next day, specifying which restaurant we would go to for breakfast and for lunch. Our server let us know where they would be for those meals, and most of the time we went to the same ones, but not always. For example, one night my sister really wanted cabanas for breakfast, so we did breakfast at Cabanas -- I pre-ordered the night before so when I arrived there in the morning I just let one of the head servers know I had food allergies and had pre-ordered; he took my name and stateroom and was the one who brought out my food to my table.

While this took some spontaneity out of each day, it also made things a lot easier: I knew where to be and what I would be having. Pre-ordering breakfast meant I could have Mickey waffles each morning

I did have a pizza from the pool deck pizza place, because I could, but it was basically a snack for me one day

I've posted elsewhere on these boards about my experiences with how they handle food allergies on DCL and lessons learned from that, if you are interested.

SW

 

[cmph]

Each night at the end of dinner, not only did I order dinner for the next night, but I also ordered my breakfast and lunch for the next day, specifying which restaurant we would go to for breakfast and for lunch. Our server let us know where they would be for those meals, and most of the time we went to the same ones, but not always. For example, one night my sister really wanted cabanas for breakfast, so we did breakfast at Cabanas -- I pre-ordered the night before so when I arrived there in the morning I just let one of the head servers know I had food allergies and had pre-ordered; he took my name and stateroom and was the one who brought out my food to my table.


SW

Did you tell them exactly when you would arrive for breakfast and/or lunch? TIA! (Please feel free to link to a separate thread if you answered this lengthily elsewhere! )

 

[Dug720]

Each night at the end of dinner, not only did I order dinner for the next night, but I also ordered my breakfast and lunch for the next day, specifying which restaurant we would go to for breakfast and for lunch. Our server let us know where they would be for those meals, and most of the time we went to the same ones, but not always. For example, one night my sister really wanted cabanas for breakfast, so we did breakfast at Cabanas -- I pre-ordered the night before so when I arrived there in the morning I just let one of the head servers know I had food allergies and had pre-ordered; he took my name and stateroom and was the one who brought out my food to my table.

While this took some spontaneity out of each day, it also made things a lot easier: I knew where to be and what I would be having. Pre-ordering breakfast meant I could have Mickey waffles each morning


SW

I know about pre-ordering dinner the night before (did that for my gluten-free on RCCL this summer), but the breakfast and lunch is new.

Just to clarify... You could pre-order AND eat in Cabanas?? For breakfast AND lunch or just breakfast?

 

[marypopfan]

Thanks I would love to hear more about setting up your meals for the next day. I heard that the chicken tenders are top 8 free and so are the fries. I was wondering if that was true. Don't think I will be able to do the pizza. I'm allergic to dairy, soy, egg.

 

[CM Dad]

Did you tell them exactly when you would arrive for breakfast and/or lunch? TIA! (Please feel free to link to a separate thread if you answered this lengthily elsewhere! )

My wife has a gluten and dairy free diet. She would pre-order breakfast and lunch and specify where she would eat, but not what time. Meals weren't prepared in advance, but allowed the restaurant to make sure they had what they needed. Most of the time we ate in the MDR for breakfast and lunch, but also did do Cabanas as well.

We did a 12 night Mediterranean cruise this summer, and it seemed like there fewer options. We suspect that they did not have access to the same special food supplies that they have in the states. GF/DF Mickey waffles on the Dream looked and tasted great. On the Magic in Europe not so much.

 

[CM Dad]

Thanks I would love to hear more about setting up your meals for the next day. I heard that the chicken tenders are top 8 free and so are the fries. I was wondering if that was true. Don't think I will be able to do the pizza. I'm allergic to dairy, soy, egg.

My wife is gluten and dairy free. When we went to Palo's, the chef did fix a flatbread for her the she thought was very good. She asked about how it was made. Our server gave her the secret recipe before we left (a wrapper from Udi's brand pizza crust).

 

[Starwind]

Did you tell them exactly when you would arrive for breakfast and/or lunch? TIA! (Please feel free to link to a separate thread if you answered this lengthily elsewhere! )

I think we did a couple times, when we knew, but not every time. Keep in mind the MDRs in particular have limited breakfast and lunch hours, so it is not a huge window anyway.

This is a posting I made April 2015 about my experience with food allergies and DCL. It was before our most recent cruise, so a couple updates to it:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/special-dietary-requests.3398539/#post-53417650 (the thread itself is very good too!!)

- we DID pre-order breakfasts and lunches; I highly recommend it as it makes thing much easier -- Mickey Waffles !
- I also got safe pizza on the Dream at the pizza QS

SW

 

[Starwind]

I know about pre-ordering dinner the night before (did that for my gluten-free on RCCL this summer), but the breakfast and lunch is new.

Just to clarify... You could pre-order AND eat in Cabanas?? For breakfast AND lunch or just breakfast?

On our first two cruises they always asked if I wanted to pre-order breakfast but I didn't. It seemed like it might be preferred that one does. The third and fourth *B2B) cruises we did pre-order and I highly recommend it.

At least once we pre-ordered breakfast and told them we would eat it in Cabanas. We didn't do this for lunch because Cabanas at lunch is not safe for my sister to eat in so we would not be going there. It was not a problem for us, but I don't know if it is the norm or not that Cabanas would be an option: my suggestion would be, if you are pre-ordering breakfast or lunch and really want the meal at Cabanas so the others in your party can eat there, ASK. Worst case they will tell you they can't and you have to be in an MDR (so prepare for that possibility). My sister and I did not always eat lunch together because sometimes one or the other of us was off doing an activity when the other wanted to eat.

To be honest, we were pretty flexible and for breakfast and lunch did not have a preference for where we ate since we'd be eating the same food regardless. Most days we just chose wherever our servers would be (they let us know where they would be which meals).

SW

 

[Starwind]

Thanks I would love to hear more about setting up your meals for the next day. I heard that the chicken tenders are top 8 free and so are the fries. I was wondering if that was true. Don't think I will be able to do the pizza. I'm allergic to dairy, soy, egg.

I was told they could (and they did) make allergy-friendly chicken fingers and french fries. I did not ask further what allergy-friendly meant as I was satisfied that they would be safe for me since I had explained my allergies as part of the discussion.

For the pizza, yeah, the Udi's pizza shells have egg in them. The cheese they used for mine is Tofutti (http://www.tofutti.com/dairy-free-cheeses/slices/american-slices/) and it has soy.

When I asked the first time on each ship, I honestly thought my chances were pretty much nil they would make me one. So I was prepared to be told no. I was SOOOOOOOOOOO happy when the chef said he could !

So my recommendation, if you really want pizza, is to ASK. Worst case the answer is they cannot make a safe one. Best case, they can and you get a special treat !

Note: the QS area is REALLY LOUD (between lots of guests talking/yelling and the music overhead) and it is very hard to hear the staff. I think next time I am going to bring a food allergy card (I use 4x6 index cards that I print on one side) and write my question to reduce the risk of an error.

For setting up meals for the next day, see my April 2015 post here (the whole thread is good): http://www.disboards.com/threads/special-dietary-requests.3398539/#post-53417650 Note it was before my most recent B2B so I had only pre-ordered dinners and the CC lunch. On the B2B I pre-ordered all my next day meals at the same time: at the end of each dinner.


SW

 

[Starwind]

My wife has a gluten and dairy free diet. She would pre-order breakfast and lunch and specify where she would eat, but not what time. Meals weren't prepared in advance, but allowed the restaurant to make sure they had what they needed. Most of the time we ate in the MDR for breakfast and lunch, but also did do Cabanas as well.

We did a 12 night Mediterranean cruise this summer, and it seemed like there fewer options. We suspect that they did not have access to the same special food supplies that they have in the states. GF/DF Mickey waffles on the Dream looked and tasted great. On the Magic in Europe not so much.

My meals were also prepared fresh.

I really enjoyed by Mickey Waffles on the Dream. I know they were DF and if I had to guess they were also GF (I have discovered many commercial bakery-type things from waffles to cakes that are certified DF are also often GF, eg. Enjoy Life products and Namaste mixes).

FWIW, occasionaly I was shown the containers of what they wanted to use because they wanted me to make sure it was safe/ok for me. Namaste chocolate cake mix. Rice Dream "ice cream". Tofutti cheese slices and Udi pizza crust. I can imagine that some products may be more difficult to obtain in certain countries where they may be provisioning. Also, they can change suppliers at any time. So just because they used a specific product last month doesn't mean they are using it now -- WDW for example does this with some regularity and even has differences between resorts and parks in which products are used for things.

SW

 

[Dug720]

On our first two cruises they always asked if I wanted to pre-order breakfast but I didn't. It seemed like it might be preferred that one does. The third and fourth *B2B) cruises we did pre-order and I highly recommend it.

At least once we pre-ordered breakfast and told them we would eat it in Cabanas. We didn't do this for lunch because Cabanas at lunch is not safe for my sister to eat in so we would not be going there. It was not a problem for us, but I don't know if it is the norm or not that Cabanas would be an option: my suggestion would be, if you are pre-ordering breakfast or lunch and really want the meal at Cabanas so the others in your party can eat there, ASK. Worst case they will tell you they can't and you have to be in an MDR (so prepare for that possibility). My sister and I did not always eat lunch together because sometimes one or the other of us was off doing an activity when the other wanted to eat.

To be honest, we were pretty flexible and for breakfast and lunch did not have a preference for where we ate since we'd be eating the same food regardless. Most days we just chose wherever our servers would be (they let us know where they would be which meals).

SW

Thanks. Luckily my issue is "only" a sensitivity - I'm not celiac. I really don't like the MDR for breakfast based on my experience on the Fantasy a couple of years ago - very stuffy and the server I had ignored me at the expense of doting on people who were hers at night. I get that a bond develops, but at breakfast and lunch you are NOT always going to get just "your" people to serve. You can talk to "your people" - that's fine. But when you're talking to them and ignoring people trying to get your attention for more coffee or juice (I was not the only one)? That's not right. It really turned me off. I never bothered with it at lunch because I figured it would be more of the same.

Maybe I'll just pack a couple of extra Luna bars for lunch just in case - I'm already bringing one for Castaway day as my parents and I are adults and will be at Serenity Bay and I refuse to schlep all the way back to the family beach for my meal.

 

[Starwind]

Beth:

I pack allergy-safe foods for snacks and "I just slept through lunch" situations, as well as to have something at (most - not all allow food to be taken off the ship) port adventures.

I am sorry to hear you had a disappointing experience in the MDR for breakfast I would encourage you to give the MDRs another try for breakfast and lunch. I had a problem once where the lunch server i was assigned to basically just disappeared: i had not been given beverage or food yet and sat and sat for a while. I eventually flagged down another server and asked for their assistance, explaining I didn't know where my server was, but wanted X to drink and was wondering where my allergy meal was. THAT server then helped me. The head server is the one who brought my food out, and apologized for it taking so long. I encourage speaking up or flagging down someone else when you are being outright ignored: they shouldn't be doing it and it is a situation that needs rectifying.

Also, our dinner servers would let us know where they would be for breakfast and lunch and most days we would eat in the same restuarant. We may not always get assigned to them, but they would always see us and stop by to say hello and ask how our day was going. Likewise our head server and the head server from our first day MDR lunch, if they were in the restaurant we were eating in, would always come by and often be the one who brought my allergy meal out. to my understanding we get a LOT more interaction with the head server than "normal" and we increase their gratuity accordingly.

SW