Ladyshopper23

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).

Is dinner a set time - as in, if it's at 7pm, you have to turn up at 7pm? Or is it starting from 7pm and you turn up when you want?

As you can probably tell I'm completely new to river cruising, but well versed on ocean cruising!

We're doing our first cruise with Avalon next month (Danube), and have been wondering specifically about dinner.

How much luggage will you have? BA is the most generous with hand luggage, as it's a really decent size case you can have and up to 23kg (although good luck lifting something that heavy into the overhead locker!).

Ryanair and Wizzair are both low cost airlines, and charge for pretty much everything as extra. I don't know too much about Wizzair, but Ryanair you must print out your boarding card (or there is possibly an app, you'd need to check) or you will be charged an absolute fortune at the airport.

Luton is a relatively small airport, and in general always packed. If you want lounge access you absolutely need to book ahead or you've got no chance of getting in! Special Assistance is good if that's a service you require (I have used it there often).

Yes, I used to book all our Disney cruises through a US travel agent. Same price as direct through Disney but also got obc. Better terms in terms of price drops, cancellation etc.

Haven't done it for any other cruise line though.

1 hour ago, Harters said:

Certainly been something of an issue with us with All Clear. It is already expensive for both of us (at around a total of £1300) and the addition of a couple of small new "existing conditions" have added a few quid each time we've phoned. The big surprise was just how much the addition of six days cover for the USA and Caribbean, for a transatlantic cruise, would add. We knew there would be a significant increase but never thought it would double the £1300. 

Have you considered one of the banks? We bank with Barclays anyway, hence why we got the travel pack, but I phoned up the insurance company first to get a quote of how much extra it would be (at the time, Barclays didn't charge for pre-existing conditions, but unfortunately this has now changed. Still very reasonable though).
 

I've read of other people phoning up Nationwide for the same reason, then on finding it very reasonable opening an account to get the insurance.

It would certainly be worth considering given how much your annual policy is costing you. It's worldwide insurance and covers cruising, so at £14.50 a month (Barclays) plus the £110 we paid on top for pre-existing conditions, it's extremely reasonable.

Just another positive to Barclays Travel Pack. I phoned today to update my pre-existing conditions as per my illness that required surgery in December. However, because I'd already done a pre-existing conditions certificate in August and paid the extra for these, that lasts for a year. Anything else you're diagnosed with during that year is automatically covered by that certificate, so I don't need to declare it until I renew in August.

The lady I spoke to offered to put a note on my file that I'd called in to disclose it (probably because I double checked as couldn't quite believe it!), but reassured me that I'm covered. I actually think that's really good, as I know people with annual policies who've had problems with this, when something crops up during the year, they've phoned to declare it, and been charged extra, or been told it can't be covered.

On 1/30/2024 at 10:04 PM, kruzseeka said:

And there's always the possibility that something could occur (accident, illness, family emergency etc) which prevent you from travelling at all.  P&O won't refund your cruise cost so insurance is essential.  Friends have twice had to claim on their travel insurance when at the minute they were unable to travel. 

I had to claim on our insurance for our New Years cruise, which we sadly missed. I spent Christmas in hospital following emergency surgery. Insurance (Barclays Travel Pack) very easy to claim and quick to pay out.

2 hours ago, mhurley142 said:

Thank You for your comments. I avoided the Horizon buffet after looking and seeing the opportunities for cross-contamination on the first day.

 

Labelling on all of the menus and food venues was non-existent. This meant relying upon the managers, waiters, and kitchen staff to provide you with food that contained no allergens.

 

In my personal experience, the staff were one or all of the following insufficiently trained, did not understand your requirements, were not following procedures, working practices equated to ignoring requests or were too busy to pay attention to special dietary requests. I also heard people regularly selecting gluten-free menu options are asking for the sealed pack gluten-free cakes; I suspect this leads to complacency among staff who see special diet customers as another person wanting something different or special.

 

At home I avoid restaurants unless I know that the chef or cook has Coeliac Disease so follows procedures to ensure a safe gluten-free meal. I have also found the local chef's training college teaches students to prepare gluten-free and allergen-free foods to meet my medical diet, their restaurant is open to the public andfor  advance booking only; might be worth you investigating to see if a college in your area does the same.

 

I'm shocked you had such a bad experience on Iona. Especially in saying that menus weren't labelled up. We cruised the Norwegian Fjords in September 2022, and every single menu was labelled up - main dining room and speciality restaurants. As you will see from my signature, I'm also gluten free, and write a blog. There are photos of all the menus on my blog, all with great labelling. I have never seen a photo of a menu on a P&O cruise that hasn't had GF allergen marking on it, so am not sure what went wrong when you cruised. Your experience doesn't seem to be standard at all.

Our gluten free experience on Iona was so good that we immediately booked another cruise on her, this time for two weeks. It was supposed to be over New Year just gone, but unfortunately I had a serious medical problem and emergency surgery so had to cancel.

Did you pre-order your food in the main dining room for the next day the evening before? I didn't see that mentioned in your posts (apologies if I missed it, I quickly scanned through). Whilst the labelling on the menu is great, it's only if you pre-order the night before that your meal is specially made in the allergy section of the galley. If you simply order from the menu at the time a meal that is marked as gluten free, then although it won't have any gluten containing ingredients, the same care won't be taken when making it, so there could potentially be issues with cross contamination.

We also went to other paid for restaurants the night before our booking and had a chat with them about what we could have, and any amendments that would need to be made to the dishes to make them safely gluten free. We then pre-ordered our meals just as we would in the main dining room.

The buffet is something you definitely have to risk assess. There is labelling, but others have said they've seen mistakes with this ( I haven't, but doesn't mean it doesn't happen). Again though, if you ask, they are always happy to get fresh from the kitchen to avoid the obvious cross contamination that happens on buffets with people using the wrong utensils etc.

The special diets counters on Iona are great, and very safe. We always asked for the pre-packaged gluten free cakes, and never had a problem with any member of staff treating us as if we were wanting something special. After all, they're there for passengers who are gluten free to eat!

We also ate very safely the gluten free fish and chips at The Quays (and GF pancakes there in the morning), plus GF pizza at the pizza counter, which is made separately and safely.

I'm not saying P&O are perfect, they're not (I did actually have one bad experience on Britannia where they tried to give me vegan quorn pieces, which are not gluten free, I think they got a bit confused because I'm also vegetarian. Fortunately I picked this up before eating them), but no cruise line is. Just like any restaurants on land, unless somewhere is 100% gluten free, then it's a risk you have to take that there is full understanding of the dangers of cross contamination etc. However, our experience is that P&O are probably one of the best out there for catering for gluten free, and they're top of my list of cruise lines to recommend when it comes up as a query about how easy it is to be gluten free on cruises.