Yes, you can eat Gluten Free on the Disney Magic!

[superrach]

I just wanted to post about my recent experience on the Disney Magic. I just got off the ship Wednesday from a 5-night cruise. I've not taken a cruise since I was doctor ordered to go gluten free last January. I knew I'd have no problems with food selection on the ship but I was blown away by how easy it was to choose! Every menu was clearly marked with GF and also DF items. My server took the extra effort to give me a menu for whatever restaurant we would eat at the next night so he could go ahead and take my order the night prior to be sure that my dietary needs were properly handled. He also told me what kinds of foods I could special request at the counter service places and at Cabana's. At the end of dinner the first night, the head server even brought me a container of Udi's chocolate muffins and a bag of GF chocolate chip cookies to take back to my room for snacks during my cruise! Has anyone else experienced this kind of care for dietary needs on other cruise lines? I've only cruised Disney and am so impressed. I should've known as the parks are trying their best to label and help out anyone during their stay. Now I can say it's the same on the cruise line!

 

[bethy]

Thank you for sharing! My DH is deathly allergic to cow's milk and this is music to my ears! We sail in two weeks! This is one big reason we choose to vacation with Disney.

 

[superrach]

I haven't seen much talk of this on the cruise forum so I had to share hoping it would help anyone with concerns like I had to know they take the same care as the parks!

 

[Tink1010]

We had a similar experience on the Dream this summer. It was amazing!!!

 

[ashley0139]

I haven't been on Disney, but I have had the same experience on other cruise lines. Some better than others, of course. I can't ever remember a bad experience though and I've been on about 20 cruises since 1999, all of them while gluten free. Most people go out of their way to help.

 

[MunFam]

We had horrible, horrible experiences on the Wonder in May. I think it has a TON to do with your dining team, the chefs and the head server. Not only were they unaccomodating, they almost killed our DD twice (put things on the plate she was allergic to even though it was noted on the ticket and sent it to the kids club as her "safe meal") and they sent two other people to medical for anaphylaxis for cross contamination on our cruise. It was really bad.

I think it is important to remember that Disney is still run by humans. I had this messed up fantasy going in that they were just going to be magical with our allergies and they were way worse than any restaurant we have ever dined at any where in the world. It was not just because I had built it up in my head either. My daughter ate the same 4 things every night for 14 days. Im sorry, that sucks...and serving her sour, moldy mac and cheese is not okay either. I tasted it, my husband tasted it and our server tasted and we each almost puked. Our head server denied, denied, denied.

We do not have weird allergies either, all are top 8. So all I am saying is be prepared, don't let your guard down because its Disney, and be pleasantly surprised if they have something special they can offer you. Definitely don't expect it!

 

[Sir William]

I just wanted to post about my recent experience on the Disney Magic. I just got off the ship Wednesday from a 5-night cruise. I've not taken a cruise since I was doctor ordered to go gluten free last January. I knew I'd have no problems with food selection on the ship but I was blown away by how easy it was to choose! Every menu was clearly marked with GF and also DF items. My server took the extra effort to give me a menu for whatever restaurant we would eat at the next night so he could go ahead and take my order the night prior to be sure that my dietary needs were properly handled. He also told me what kinds of foods I could special request at the counter service places and at Cabana's. At the end of dinner the first night, the head server even brought me a container of Udi's chocolate muffins and a bag of GF chocolate chip cookies to take back to my room for snacks during my cruise! Has anyone else experienced this kind of care for dietary needs on other cruise lines? I've only cruised Disney and am so impressed. I should've known as the parks are trying their best to label and help out anyone during their stay. Now I can say it's the same on the cruise line!

DW is GF and this has been our experience on DCL, as well as at WDW and Aulani. Our experience on RCL and Viking was disappointing, and just acceptable on Celebrity. American Cruise Line is on par with DCL. This is why DW prefers to cruise on Disney. She could even order a GF breakfast to be served at the MDR the next morning. When I took a galley tour I saw her dinner request for that evening posted at one of the preparation tables.

 

[DahliaRW]

I found GF dining on the Magic to be better than it was on the Fantasy 18 months prior. Mostly they had greatly improved the gf desserts! I've never had an issue with DCL and gluten. I have had issues in the parks, and was glutened at Tokyo Disneyland (though that was possibly a translation error). DCL is really the most relaxing vacation, food wise, I can take! And I love that they'll try to make anything you want gf, even if it's not gf to begin with. The pre-ordering makes that possible.

 

[MunFam]

I found GF dining on the Magic to be better than it was on the Fantasy 18 months prior. Mostly they had greatly improved the gf desserts! I've never had an issue with DCL and gluten. I have had issues in the parks, and was glutened at Tokyo Disneyland (though that was possibly a translation error). DCL is really the most relaxing vacation, food wise, I can take! And I love that they'll try to make anything you want gf, even if it's not gf to begin with. The pre-ordering makes that possible.

They absolutely refused to do that on the Wonder in 2015. I specifically asked and they said no. I asked, oh, I thought the chefs would sometimes get creative and make GF waffles or pancakes. NOPE. They brought me out a box of (still frozen) GF donuts and said they could defrost those for me for the next day...I wanted a mickey waffle dang it. They also offered a box of frozen GF waffles and said they could toast one of those, but it was soggy.

 

[DahliaRW]

They absolutely refused to do that on the Wonder in 2015. I specifically asked and they said no. I asked, oh, I thought the chefs would sometimes get creative and make GF waffles or pancakes. NOPE. They brought me out a box of (still frozen) GF donuts and said they could defrost those for me for the next day...I wanted a mickey waffle dang it. They also offered a box of frozen GF waffles and said they could toast one of those, but it was soggy.

That's crazy! I wonder if you had a lazy serving team. On the Fantasy in January 2014 they would make anything they could gf, and then again on the magic in June 2015. I had pancakes. I never did ask about mickey waffles, as I wasn't fond of them. I also had pasta and they did simple things like the escargot without breadcrumbs to make it gf.

 

[czmom]

I had a great experience on the Magic and sub-par on the Wonder. It came down to the head chef for me. They make a huge difference!!!!

 

[superrach]

Maybe why I felt it was so successful for me is I didn't really request anything special; mostly ordered things on the menu that were marked GF. I was given a basket of GF bread each night at dinner. When I ate at Cabanas or at counter service I just ordered things I knew would not contain gluten. Interesting to hear all of your experiences on each of the ships and other cruise lines.

 

[MunFam]

Maybe why I felt it was so successful for me is I didn't really request anything special; mostly ordered things on the menu that were marked GF. I was given a basket of GF bread each night at dinner. When I ate at Cabanas or at counter service I just ordered things I knew would not contain gluten. Interesting to hear all of your experiences on each of the ships and other cruise lines.

I was also on the ship for 15 days so the same few GF items got old day after day, so I started pushing for different options or work arounds...ya know, like a GF burger bun or lettuce wrap...NOPE. Not available. Seriously? I asked really nice too, and even asked if they could maybe make it available the following day. Nope. No head lettuce leafs available. I will tell you what, when it came time for gratuities, we saved a lot of money on our dining captain guy. He was worthless. He even told us once...when we asked if he thought maybe we could get this awesome GF cake again on the ship at some point..."the chef is sleeping now"...after clarifying that we didnt need it right away, just anytime, he just walked away. It was seriously annoying. We had better luck eating from the street vendors in Mexico and Columbia.

 

[cgolf]

I have had incredible luck eating GF on the ships. Since I started before they marked the menu with GF menu options I always give them a first and second choice. The only first choice I haven't gotten is a beef Wellington lol, I knew it would have been a huge stretch, but if a chef wanted a GF challenge who knows. I will say I do only ask for items I know can be made GF, soups for example that I know are made in huge quantities I don't ask for.

I also requested an got fried chicken at the sit down lunches, this was requested the night before. This was amazing and something I haven't had in many years. For the buffets I have a chef walk me around and let me know what is safe. Then I use my best judgement as to if it has been cross contaminated.

My reaction is slight to moderate cramping/pain if I get a little bit of gluten all the way to pretty severe if I get a massive dose of it. Because of this though I can chance a minor cross contamination at the buffet. I will say that when I am on the ship my gut feels really good, so for me they have done it right.

The gyro on the magic has been GF, but did learn that you can't get the chicken fingers at the fast serve spots on the smaller ships like you can the bigger ships because the don't have room for a dedicated GF fryer.

I do want to say that I am not bothered by not getting a wrap or bun for my burger, while it is DCL, I am so used to not getting stuff like this when eating out on land that it doesn't bother me. All the other options that are available easily make up for it. Living GF you learn to expect less when you eat out, with DCL that less has been pretty close to what everyone else gets