Thanks for sharing your experience! For sure, this is what we most appreciate about Disney in general and why we go to the parks - because of the care they take with food allergies. It's the only place my daughter has ever been able to eat in a restaurant and we're incredibly grateful. We'd heard the same about
DCL, which is why we decided to give it a try (after a very bad experience on NCL resulting in a full blown anaphylactic reaction).
My concern is for the availability of options post-pandemic based on a few videos we've watched. It seems they are having supply chain issues which has left them with fewer allergy-safe ingredients. My daughter is happy to eat meat, veggies, and rice for lunch and dinner, so that's not my concern. But due to her dairy, egg, nut, and wheat allergies, breakfast is really tricky, which is why I specifically mentioned the allergy safe waffles that are typically a Disney staple. They apparently do have frozen waffles, but with back to back cruises in Concierge, those will be some very expensive frozen waffles! lol
I do absolutely appreciate the care Disney takes with allergies and that is indeed why we are giving cruising another try at all. I'm just curious about whether what you describe and what we're used to at the parks -- the ability to improvise and make allergy safe foods to suit needs and taste -- has been compromised post-pandemic with the apparent supply issues they are having.
I am happy to hear that you have been able to speak directly with a chef. A recent video I watched seemed to indicate that wasn't' the case and I was a bit concerned. We have been expecting an allergy experience similar to what we get in the parks and I just want to adjust my expectations and what food I will bring on board for her if that's not possible right now.
I cannot speak to the pandemic version of DCL as we have not sailed since December 2019, but I will offer a few comments about the pre-pandemic DCL.
If you search my previous posts you will see a number about sailing on DCL with food allergies. One of the main reasons we sail exclusively with DCL {aside form liking Disney!] is because of how well they deal with food allergies - they set the gold standard. I have anaphylaxsis allergies to milk, peanuts, tree nuts, and seafood. I also have sensitivities to a number of other foods.
We contact DCL special services well in advance of our cruise and make sure they are aware of our allergies [see
https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/...ties/?int_cmp=INS-intDCLtoDCL-SpecialServices and
https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/special-dietary-requests/ ]. We also request a private table for our party [we can't have anyone having seafood at our table due to airborne allergy, so sharing a table is not an option // during the pandemic they give private tables anyway, but I would still make the request if that is what you want].
Once we board the ship, we follow the instructions in the Navigator/
MDE app for dining changes and go to that location to meet with a Head Server from the Dining Services team. We ensure they have our allergies noted properly. Usually, they will have us pre-order dinner that night, but sometimes they ask us to do that when we have lunch that day in the MDR.
That first day, we have lunch in the MDR that is open for lunch. If we have not already done it, we tell our server we need to pre-order dinner for that night - they will get a Head Server to help us do that.
At dinner, you will meet your dining team. Your Server and Head Server will be instrumental in dealing with the food allergies and food allergy/special diet orders. Depending on how the team works it, either the Server or the Head Server will take the order, but regardless of who does, the Head Server is the one who approves it.
I don't know if they are using the same forms or if they have gone electronic, but pre-pandemic they ere using a carbonless multipart form for placing the allergy orders. The form is filled out by the server or head server when they take your order. It has space for your name, room number, allergies, the order, and other info. The head server has to sign off on it - so there is a "check" process. One of the pink copies goes to the kitchen for the chef who will prepare the meal; not sure where the rest of the copies end up ;-) All special dietary need meal orders go on these forms, whether places in an MDR, at cabanas, or out on the pool deck quick service restaurants. I have had them read me the form to check it is correct, and I have had them show it to me to have me read it and check before the order is considered "placed".
So, at dinner, at the end of the meal you will go over the menu for the next night's dinner. When they had paper menus, they woudl bring you the menu. Now with electronic menus you can look it up in the app. For our December 2019 B2B2B cruise we actually found it a great time saver to check the menu during the day and decide what we were pretty sure we wanted, then at the dinner it was a matter of talking with our server/head server and confirming our choices, vs having to read and decide and then discuss and confirm -- saved a good chunk of time having done the reading and deciding already
So you have a conversation with you server or head server about what you woudl like for dinner the next night. How things can be adapted to be safe, preferences, mixing and matching things, etc. Then order.
We were also strongly encouraged to pre-order breakfast and lunch for the next day. Our servers told us where they would be working but we did not have to choose the same restaurants (although we usually did - it is much easier/smoother when you do, IME, especially if there ends up being any issue, like the pre-order form going missing...).
We have had many great meals and always been happy with our food. Except for Wafflegate - a sad cruise on the Fantasy when for some reason the allergy waffles just... well, the batter would not cook properly no matter how hard they tried, and let me tell you, they tried and tried and tried... it became quite a thing , with our Head Server and a senior chef involved and everything. But that was a weird anomoly among the 8 cruises we have taken. All the other times, great Mickey Waffles and great other food
Hope this helps. Feel free to ask questions !
SW
). I called the special diets line but it wasn't much help. 
| Day One - Embarkation
