Ladyshopper23

On 5/21/2024 at 1:03 AM, notamermaid said:

Catering for a health problem - here is a special gluten-free cruise offer from Amawaterways: https://www.travelweekly.com/River-Cruising/AmaWaterways-partner-celiac-cruise-gluten-free-cruises?ct=river

 

notamermaid

 

I've looked at these before, as someone who needs to be gluten free. The river cruises seem so expensive though, especially compared to offers we can get on them here in the UK. 

The ocean cruises seem a bit better priced, but then I've got to factor flights in, plus ones I've seen that I'm interested in have always clashed with something I've already got booked! Maybe one day I'll make one.

I have to say that our gluten-free experience on Avalon last month was absolutely amazing (first ever river cruise, and the food was so much better than ocean cruises!). Loved river cruising as a whole, so much so we've booked another next month!

2 hours ago, reeves35 said:

Select are extra cost. The sample is from a day where there were no included excursions which was unusual. 

Great, thanks for the confirmation. 

That's fab, thanks so much for the menu photos.

The select excursion - is that something that's included, or an extra charge?

@reeves35, thanks so much for pointing me to your review. It's really in-depth, and very helpful. You also did the cruise that we're doing, albeit we're doing it the other way round to you (Nuremberg to Amsterdam).

If you happen to have any photos of any dinner menus that would be fantastic, along with any photos of the breakfast and lunch buffet set up.

We have some special dietary requirements (both need to be gluten free for medical reasons, plus I'm also vegetarian), so would love to get some ideas of what the food is going to be like, and how much I should be prepared to place special orders! I'll be packing plenty of gluten-free snacks, as I always do when we go on a cruise line (whether ocean or river) that we haven't travelled on before.

10 hours ago, reeves35 said:

Travelmarvel does not use AMA Waterways ships though APT still does until the end of 2024 when it receives 2 bespoke ships of its own.  

 

Travelmarvel has 3 identical bespoke ships all launched in 2021.  I sailed on both Vega and Polaris last year from Amsterdam to Budapest.  We were originally on Vega but had a ship swap in Nuremberg due to water levels on the Danube.

 

I did put up a review Travelmarvel Review but feel free to ask me any other questions you may have.

Awesome, thank you. Will have a read then get back to you!

It's Vega that we're sailing on.

3 hours ago, allatsea97531 said:

We booked a 10 night cruise on the NCL Epic for November 2025. Booked it on 30th April and it sounded a good offer, drinks package and 2 speciality restaurant meals included. We paid £200 each deposit, with a balance if £4800 left over.

 

However, on browsing online, it seems that not only will we have to pay $20 per person per day for gratuities ( travel agent didn’t mention this!) but also extra gratuities on our drinks packages and speciality meal packages. If we cancel now, do we automatically lose the full £400 deposit and as we also booked cruise travel insurance is that all lost too or if we book with MSC for example on a similar cruise on similar dates, can our travel insurance company amend our existing policy for a fee?

 

Many thanks

If you're in the UK and booked the Free at Sea package, then you don't pay any extra gratuities for your drinks or meals. That is something you pay if you booked in the USA.

 

Sailing on the Travelmarvel Vega next month (Rhine cruise).

We said with Avalon on the Danube in April, and absolutely loved it. Fell in love with river cruising, and decided we wanted to do a Rhine cruise.

Found a really good deal with APT Travelmarvel, but there doesn't seem to be as many reviews about as for the other river cruising companies. Just wondered if anyone had sailed with them, and how did they find it? 

We did this cruise with Avalon recently (early April). The excursion lasted all morning, and was coach based to start with, driving round both sides of the river and pointing out points of interest. We stopped in Hero's Square for a walk around, and the guide from the bus did a talk (but obviously you could just walk round and look yourself).

Our tour ended at the Basilica, where we got out on foot and we were given some brief history about that (if you wanted to go in it's an extra cost), then had free time, but that could be because we were on a wine lovers themed cruise, and we had a wine tasting experience booked at a wine cellar 5 minutes walk away from there. Our free time only ended up being about 45 minutes.

I don't know if our tour differed to what is usually offered by Avalon due to the wine tasting. We found it really interesting though, having never been to Budapest before (and have decided we definitely want to go back to spend a long weekend there).

We were docked overnight for the first night of our cruise, and our Captain did take us on a 2 hour evening cruise showing the buildings and bridges all lit up. We were told it was because it was such beautiful weather (we were extremely lucky the week we sailed, the weather was really good, especially for early April!). It was an absolutely fantastic experience. the parliament building especially looks stunning lit up.

We were on Getaway in October last year. They had a veggie/vegan menu in the main dining room, which you definitely needed to ask for. It wasn't all that thrilling, there was a lot of repetition, plus only about 3 days worth of meals before they went back to the first menu, but it was nice to see, and great to have some additional choices.

I've been veggie for 40 years, and also have to be gluten-free, so always contact the access desk for NCL cruises, and always ask for all menus to be able to pre-order for the next day. Having the extra veggie/vegan menu gave me a little bit more choice (they're generally able to adapt a lot of meals to make them gluten free).

They definitely weren't forthcoming in offering these menus out though, was something you had to ask for.

13 hours ago, jsn55 said:

I've still got all the flights, but I agree with you that no point in worrying.  Only when I saw my own name on one of the itineraries did I get a little skitzy.  I did not book air through Avalon.  I'm sailing out of Arles on 4/2 ... which cruise are you on?

Sailing out of Budapest on 9th April.

My app has been updated today (or possibly yesterday) and all flights have been removed from it except for our flights. I wasn't too worried, and was pretty sure it would be sorted, but glad it has been.

Two weeks to go!

14 minutes ago, Camberley said:

She looked ahead, discussed with MDR and made a preorder, as she is used to doing on other lines. Which you would think would be good enough!
 

It was clearly not good enough.

 

And with so many elements of cruising we all get varying experiences. It was just a shame for her that first time, and to a lesser extent that second time

Yep, you would think so. That is really bad.

Wonder what is going on with P&O then? It seems surprising that they've gone from dealing with allergies/special diets so well to doing it so poorly.

6 hours ago, Camberley said:

A dear friend of mine who is coeliac sailed with us on Iona last year: her first time with P&O. Being used to cruising with other companies and potential food issues, she gave very clear notification in advance - and checked each night for the following day just in case. She actually loved the selection on offer and each night had, in theory, a varied selection of some nice looking and what she felt was delicious food. Sadly she spent most of the cruise sick because of cross-contamination from non GF foods. And it wasn’t because of any seasickness: she assured me she knows her body if she is ill because of ingesting gluten etc. P&O had a kind of “sorry but we try our best” response, which was really poor.

 

However, she still went with P&O again earlier this year and apart from one meal she most of the cruise without being sick from cross contamination. For me even one meal messed up is bad - and there could be very severe implications for some people.

It wasn't too clear what your friend did in relation to their meals Camberley - you said they looked at the menu for the next night? Did they actually make a pre-order, or did they just look and see there were some meals marked as GF, so decided that would be fine and then ordered at the time?

P&O are very good for marking up their menus, and a lot of their menu options are marked up as gluten free - far more than any other cruise line I've sailed on. However, unless you pre-order your meal in advance, then the meals will just come out with everyone else's and will have been made in the main galley, where not as much care will have been taken to avoid cross contamination (obviously not everyone that is gluten free has coeliac disease, so for some people this won't be a problem and it's fine for them to just order at the time). By pre-ordering, you should (in theory) ensure that your meal is made in the separate area of the galley that is specifically for allergy/special order meals, and so it should be a lot safer. Just like in a land based restaurant though, there is always that slight chance of cross contamination unless the kitchen is 100% gluten free, which if course it isn't.

I'm so sad to read about these bad experiences on here. If you see my signature you'll see I've sailed on a number of cruise lines being gluten free, and P&O has been the best of the lot (closely followed by Disney, but I don't have the budget to sail with them as often as I'd like to cruise, and would rather do 2 or 3 P&O cruises than one Disney cruise!).

6 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

That is very worrying, my OH is coeliac and we haven’t had problems previously as we were assured that gluten free meals were prepared in a separate kitchen in order to avoid cross contamination. From what you have said that no longer appears to be the case and I am afraid a “sorry but we try our best” response is not acceptable.

It's not a separate kitchen as such, but it is a separate part of the galley which is specifically used for preparing allergy/special order meals. I'd be very surprised if they've got rid of this, but if they have then that's not good news.

19 hours ago, Kopchadder8 said:

On a 5 week cruise, 3 weeks in, and as a coeliac my choice of food is pathetic. Every day in the buffet there is one gf choice from 10 hot meals. Never a hot pudding, one cereal choice for breakfast, the list goes on. Numbers of us gluten freers have complained but nothing gets done. I have complained to 6 up the chain but all you get is platitudes and indifference, everyone saying they will sort it but nothing gets changed. In the sit down restaurants we have to order the day before and all that does is give the cook chance to remove anything that is gluten, although invariably ,as all the p and o food is pre prepared and the cooks ( not chefs as they have no culinary input) just warm it up they cannot change the dish which means I can't have it , further reducing my choice. Don't come on p and o. There are lots of cruise lines to choose from.

I'm really sorry you're experiencing such a bad time. I'm actually staggered that this is happening, as P&O are normally amazing for gluten-free.

Who is it you've actually complained to onboard? And what have they said, and then presumably not carried through what they said they would? I'm shocked, and would definitely be trying to email the executive office shoreside to try and get some assistance.

P&O are the cruise line I recommend the most for gluten-free when others ask about gluten-free cruising, so it's really disappointing to hear how much they're failing you and others on this cruise. Which ship are you on?

On our cruises, when ordering the night before, there has been no issue in adapting dishes that haven't been already marked as gluten free, or cooking something entirely different (I'm also vegetarian, so sometimes the marked GF dishes are meat and fish so I have to order something else). 

I don't think the buffets are amazing, although they do tend to allergen mark, and on both the ships I've been on (Britannia and Iona) they had a special diets counter where you could get all the GF bread, crackers, cakes etc. There has also been the people in yellow aprons who have been happy to go into the kitchen to get fresh food to make sure it hasn't been contaminated on the buffet. However, outside of the buffet I've always been able to get safe GF pizza at Taste, and on Iona there is the fish and chips at They Quays (you can ask for GF), so these always make a good alternative to buffet stuff.

Have you been to any of the paid for restaurants, and are they any different? 



 

On 3/20/2024 at 2:17 PM, jsn55 said:

Yes of course I'll reinstall the app once it's 'fixed'.  My cruise starts April 2.  Hopefully just the glitch and not a hack.  I think it's hilarious that cruiseline 'dailies' disappeared the minute apps became readily available.  Always enjoyed them every evening.  I don't see much enjoyment out of reading a daily on a tiny phone screen.  Did anyone ask the pax what they'd prefer?

My cruise starts the week after yours. Still have a long list of just about every single flight combination on my app!

Was prompted to download this a week or so ago for our forthcoming river cruise in April. All was fine on there, showed everything correctly including flights.

Yesterday it showed that there had been an update to it. It now shows what I imagine is the whole boats flights! I can see flights from various USA airports on various dates before the cruise, as well as our own flights and other UK flights. Same for the return home.

There is no identifying information - if I click on the flight it doesn't give me passenger names or anything. But this is still a bit odd. Same has happened on my husband's app.

Today even more flights have appeared.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this before? Seems like it's some kind of glitch, and I'm not too concerned about it (our flights are still showing fine on the airline website). Hopefully in a few days it will sort itself out and go back to normal. Bit weird though seeing all those flights listed!

If you want to see some recent ish menus, I've just written up our cruise on Norwegian Dawn from August last year (see my signature for how to access it). It has photos of all the menus from that cruise.

There wasn't a separate veggie/vegan menu on there, but it will give you an idea of menus in the main dining room, and there are also photos of the speciality restaurants too.

At some point I'll be writing up our Getaway cruise from October, which did have the additional veggie/vegan menus. I am quite behind in write ups though for various reasons, so might be a while!

We sailed on Getaway in October last year, and they had a separate veggie/vegan menu you could ask for. They were quite samey, but it was nice to have some different options. Don't know if they're doing this across the fleet, but worth an ask.

They generally have at least one veggie option on the main menu, if not a couple. However, if you're struggling, you can always ask at dinner to see the menus for the next day to see if there is anything suitable. If there isn't, you can make a pre-order via the maitre d, and they will either adapt something to make it vegan or veggie, or you can ask for something else entirely.

The buffet always has veggie options, especially the section that has curries in it. 

You should be absolutely fine if you're able to eat veggie rather than vegan, and I suspect with my tips above you'll be able to eat a lot of vegan dishes too.

2 minutes ago, Kenster said:

The only thing that will be available for lunch on the ship is soup and sandwich in the lounge.  Maybe basic salad stuff.  I know a light lunch is available for early arrivals on boarding day. I assume it would be available to departing passengers who are lingering. 🙂

We'd be more than happy with that. Will definitely have a chat with them onboard to check we can come and go and grab some safe food (obviously will be chatting with the chef when we board to discuss the dietary stuff, so they'll know us well by the last day!).

6 minutes ago, Daisi said:

 

If you booked with Avalon, you can request if there is better timed flights. They are very good at meeting clients needs. My TA and I look at what flights / layovers / routes I want, and then she calls Avalon to see if they will match. So far, no problem and they have done so. 

 

Never hurts to try to get better flights....

It was booked by a TA, and I suspect the flights are a group travel agent booking so can't be changed.

I don't mind the evening flight, we can go off and explore Vilshofen a bit, and hopefully grab some lunch onboard (gluten free, so suspect it will be easier on the boat as I don't think there are many suitable places in Vilshofen from the quick look I've done). It's only a couple of hours flight back home, so be nice to make the most of the last day.

49 minutes ago, Kenster said:

Run it by the reception desk but you should be fine hanging around until early afternoon.  You’ll have to be out of your cabin by 9 AM.  You can sit with your bags in the lounge. Just stay out of the way of the staff and crew and incoming passengers. 
 

But, if I were you, I’d ask to leave the bags with reception and go out and explore a little bit.  Then, depart the ship in plenty of time to travel to the airport and check in. 
 

Curious why you booked a flight so late in the day if you’re just going to kill time on the ship until your transfer time? 

We didn't pick the time, it was a package deal we booked (very well priced) so the flights were included and there was no choice on time. The time isn't ideal, but hopefully if we can explore and use the lounge area, then that will be ideal.

 

On the last day, can you stay on the boat until your transfer to the airport comes? We've booked a package including airport transfers and flights. Our flight isn't until nearly 7pm on the last day, so hoping we can make use of the boat until transfer time.

1 hour ago, 9265359 said:

 

 

I suppose it depends on the definition of a "full-time wheelchair user" (the use in the cabin is an 'or' statement not an 'and' statement).

 

Do many people take a wheelchair onboard and only occasionally use it?

I took my wheelchair on one cruise to use it for port days. In general, I could manage round the ship with my walking stick and plenty of places to have a rest if necessary. However, my mobility was particularly bad at that point so used the wheelchair to be able to get off the ship and actually see something of the port we were stopped at.

3 hours ago, Ombud said:

Forwarded to me by someone booked on September 2024 Sun Princess:

 

That top menu looks amazing. And so many veggie dishes also marked gluten free! As a vegetarian coeliac, it can be a bit of a nightmare on cruises, as it's the meat/fish dishes they tend to make GF, so for me this would be fab. 

Thanks to everyone that answered about dinner, definitely helps.

Unfortunately we're one of those awkward couples, where we've both coeliac (gluten free) and I'm also vegetarian. We tend to like tables for 2 if possible - not because we don't want to speak to people, but just because it can feel a bit awkward having to talk about dietary restrictions when ordering food etc (I'm a lot more bothered about this than my husband is to be fair).

I know there is some kind of meeting on the first day for those with special dietary requirements, so will be making sure we attend that and find out what we need to do about food (on ocean cruises it's a pre-order the night before).