Ladyshopper23

They had it on our recent 15th February cruise on Crown Princess. Didn't even know it was a thing, just happened to walk past it!

If you have a look on my profile, there is a link to my travel blog, which is about gluten free cruising (I don't think I'm allowed to put the link directly in posts, as I've had it removed before).

We've done 2 cruises on Princess, and have a 3rd next month.

The blog has photos of menus, what to do to order your meals ahead of time, and what our general experience was like. We rated Princess fairly highly, although their baked gluten-free goods like cakes/muffins taste awful!

I can't help with the fluids thing unfortunately, but I'm sure Princess will be able to answer all your questions.

Also, for anyone interested, I've just put the link to my gluten-free travel blog on my profile page. It's focussed on cruising.

I don't have our NCL cruise written up yet, but it should hopefully be done in the next 2-3 weeks.

11 hours ago, Mistizoom said:

Thanks for this thread, my husband was just diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago so we have not cruised with him being gluten-free before. I just submitted the special access form and will also contact our suite concierge ahead of the cruise if possible. Does anyone know if Moderno is mostly gluten-free? We love eating at Moderno on every cruise.

Yes it is. There are a couple of items on the buffet that aren't, including the soups, but the waiter should go through all of that with you. We were quite lucky, as our waiter had just come off rotation from being the special diets waiter for the whole ship, so he knew everything inside out.

There were also a couple of meats that weren't - again, the waiter going through everything with you should be able to tell you, and also the people who bring each meat round should know as well if you say you're gluten free.

The cheese bread is gluten-free, and you can ask for more if you like it (which we did!).

3 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

I would not trust Uber booked ahead of time-- I would only trust a private taxi company booked ahead of time on Kauai. 

Ok, thank you. Appreciate the advice. Will have a look and see what I can find.

1 minute ago, princeton123211 said:

That would be odd since Avis always checks your name when boarding the bus. 

Fingers crossed then!

I have just had a quick look at Uber, it does seem as if you can request a ride 30 days in advance. Do you think that would be reliable enough for Kauai, or would you not trust Uber at all there even booked ahead of time?

55 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

For Hilo, there is no issue with the Avis/Budget shuttle. The shuttles that are mobbed are the Walmart shuttle and the free shuttle to "downtown" Hilo.

 

I have no idea what to tell you about Kauai, other than to pre-book a driver to get you to the airport and back. When we were at Nawiliwili in Oct (Sapphire), the taxi line was probably an hour long, maybe a bit more and Uber was impossible. There are only around 70 Uber for the entire island and Lihue has less than half of them.

That's what I'd read about Kauai. I don't suppose you have any you can recommend at all? If not I'll google as the poster above has suggested.

I think the problem I read on a recent post about Hilo is that there were limited shuttle buses for the hire car companies to the airport, and some people who had booked hire cars with other companies that didn't send shuttles jumped on the Avis/Budget ones. 

We're cruising next month on Crown Princess. I've booked a hire car in Hilo from the airport, and specifically booked with Budget as everything I read suggested that Budget (and I believe Avis) are the only company to still have shuttle buses running to get to the airport for hire cars, and also that Hilo is the only Island that has re-introduced them after Covid.

However, I've read some recent reviews saying that there are shuttle buses but they're mobbed, there aren't shuttle buses (so no idea which one is actually true), plus apparently it's completely manic when getting off the ship as everyone is trying to get the shuttles or get a taxi, and it is quite problematic. I've seen that there is a public bus in Hilo, called Hele-on bus, I just wondered if anyone had any direct experience of it and could offer any tips?

Walking to the airport isn't an option for me, as I have some mobility issue.

Similar thing in Kauai, we have a helicopter ride booked, and need to be at the airport for 10am (dock at 8am), and I naively thought that this would be plenty of time and taxis would be readily available, but it seems not. Again, does anyone have any tips? I've struggled to find a bus service here.

Feel free to point me in the right direction if I've missed anything, I'm from the UK so having to rely on what I find via Google! 

I don't believe they do the separate vegetarian menu any more. They didn't on our trip on Iona in September, or on Britannia in 2021.

I'm vegetarian (and also gluten-free) and Sindhu on both those ships was great for veggies. I have to pre-order all my meals 24 hours before due to being coeliac, this includes speciality restaurants. We were advised to visit those restaurants and speak to the restaurant hosts, so nothing to stop your friend doing that as well, You can check out the menu, then if there is nothing suitable, ask what they can do for you. With 24 hours notice they can amend pretty much anything, or come up with an alternative.

All in all, I would say P&O even without the separate menu has a much better choice for veggies than other cruise lines do.

I had this last time the offer was on. I wanted to pay the balance of our cruise, which was around £300 at the time, then also purchase some excursions to make it up to £500 (the previous offer was get £100 back on £500 spend).

I phoned up, as thought I'd be able to pay for them together, but the person I spoke to said their systems don't work like that, and excursion payments go through a different system to balance payments. I didn't risk it, as didn't want to miss out (I'm aware some Amex work cumulatively, but didn't want to take the chance on whether this one would or not).

As it happens, our cabin had been moved, which I wasn't happy with at all. They weren't able to move me back, but I did end up upgrading from an inside to a balcony for £200, which meant that my balance left to pay went over £500, so was able to use the offer again (used it 5 times on that cruise in the end, as the offer actually came around twice and we had all different cards at those times).

Fingers crossed it works out for you.

Ask at any eating place for the special diets co-ordinator when you board. They'll take note of all your allergies/celiac etc. They should then be the person to take all your food orders for main dining rooms.

We were on the Star in November. This poor waiter who's job it was was run ragged! Basically, every evening he will be called to take your order for the next day. You can order breakfast, lunch and dinner in the main dining room if you want to. You can also make orders for the speciality restaurants. Also, if eating in the speciality one evening, they will call the co-ordinator for you so you can place your orders for the next day (just ask when you're ready for this).

We managed ok in the buffet, but you need to have your wits about you a little bit. There are no allergen markings on anything, so you need to ask what is suitable. You can then ask to get some fresh from the kitchen to avoid any cross contamination. They do gluten-free pizza in the buffet - again just ask for it to be prepared safely out back and it will be. Same with gluten-free pasta.

At breakfast time in the buffet you can get gluten-free bagels or toast. Just ask a member of staff. On the Star, we found where the toaster was after a few days. However, it's placed so that only staff can access it easily (a good thing so people don't decide to put normal bread etc in it). They also have some packaged sweet muffins which you can ask for, as well as GF cookies.

In the main dining room at breakfast you can get gluten free pancakes, waffles and french toast, as well as GF english muffins for things like the eggs benedict. The french toast was amazing, and the pancakes were pretty good too. Also loved the shakshuka.

If you haven't been sent the form for NCL already, here is the link:

https://ncl.secure.force.com/AccessDeskForm/

It's a good idea to fill it out, as it gives NCL some idea of how many gluten-free people to cater for onboard. We had the english muffins run out on our 2nd week.

There is also gluten-free lager onboard. which is called Redbridge. We could get it in most bars, including the buffet, and if they didn't have it, the waiters would generally go and find it (they were very helpful). Some staff hadn't heard of it, so it was good education for them as well that there is a gluten-free beer available.

The soft serve ice-cream in the machine in the buffet was GF (they actually bought us the packaging out on the first day so we could check), but obviously you should check for yourself. Beware the sachets of Nestle hot chocolate sachets in the buffet, there are not suitable for celiacs as they are a may contain for wheat.

We managed to get safe food in O'Sheehans, a head waiter came over and dealt with us and a chef in there was fantastic and actually made me a veggie burger from scratch (I'm also vegetarian as well as celiac) as well as safe french fries.

We avoided the outside pool grill area as the people serving didn't always have quite good enough English to understand what we were asking. We also didn't manage to get any ice-cream from there either, as when we asked to see the packaging so we could check the ingredients and any many contain warnings, the guy didn't understand (we simply wanted him to spin the container round so we could read it, but we gave up). However, we could get it in the main dining room and were assured it was safe.

Overall we had a great experience. They could do things better - allergen warnings would be a massive help, but we ate lots of really nice food. If there is nothing suitable on the main dining room menus the special diets co-ordinator will work with you to find something, whether this is amending a dish or cooking something entirely different.

Hopefully this helps a little bit.

Edited to add: if cross contamination isn't a problem for you (intolerance rather than celiac for example) then it would be quite possible to manage without the special diets co-ordinator, as your food wouldn't need to be cooked in the allergy kitchen.

Still fill out the form I linked to though, so they get enough supplies onboard to cater for everyone that's gluten free.

We were on the Norwegian Star in November, also sailed out of Lisbon for a transatlantic to Rio. We're also from the UK and had the free at sea drinks package.

At our stop in Cadiz, we had to pay 10% tax on ALL drinks (including soft drinks) even though we had the drinks package. Was a little bit surprised, had never heard of the taxes on drinks in Spanish ports thing up until this cruise (and we did a med cruise on Princess in October 2021 which included Spanish ports and paid no extra charges with our drinks package). We then had stops in Lanzarote and Tenerife, both Spanish (but I don't know if the Canary Islands have different rules?) and no extra tax to pay for anyone.

Once we got into Brazilian waters there was 25% charges on everything bought, including in the shops, but if you had a drinks package this didn't count on drinks included in your package (thank goodness!).

All in all, very unexpected. From reading other posts on this thread I have no idea if we should have been paying the 10% charge in Cadiz on our drinks package drinks as we live and booked in the UK. Would love to know, as we've recently booked a transatlantic for October on Getaway from Southampton to New York, and this includes 2 mainland Spain ports.

On 1/10/2023 at 2:37 AM, Itried4498 said:

 

Sorry to hear about your poor experience.  Car rental agencies discontinued their shuttles to/from cruise ports during the pandemic.  Avis very recently restored their shuttles, which is why we choose to rent with them.  If no shuttle is offered, you could take the city bus -- it takes about 30-45 minutes each way to get from the cruise terminal -> bus stop -> car rental facility and cost $2pp each way at Kauai and Kahului, $3 at Honolulu and no charge at Hilo.  Or if somebody in your group is able-bodied and wants to brave the weather, they can walk from Lihue (about two miles / 40 minutes), Hilo and Kahului (about three miles / 1 hour).  

 

FWIW, Uber was showing rates of $40-$70 at Lihue, Hilo and Kahului.  We didn't check Honolulu (we ended up walking into Waikiki instead, since we've rented a car on Oahu numerous times before).  I definitely wouldn't rely on Uber/Lyft...

This is really helpful, thank you. We've booked a car at Hilo through Budget, as everything I'd read suggests that the shuttle was still on there.

At Kauai we need to get to the airport by 10am as we have a helicopter ride round the island booked. I'd assumed we'd easily be able to get a taxi/uber/lyft, but it sounds like not.

You've mentioned the city bus, do you happen to have a link or can point me in the right direction for the above two islands please (I've already managed to figure out the bus we need for Oahu). We're from the UK, so Google doesn't always bring up the best one! I have mobility issues, so wouldn't be able to walk 2-3 miles from the port to the airports.

Just trying to get another option in case the rental company shuttle that's supposed to come to Hilo port doesn't turn up or is mobbed!

Thanks so much. 

I'm in the UK and used the contact us thing on the website, which directly sends your message in. I had a response within a few days, and they dealt with our complaint well.

Well, we've taken the plunge and booked a cruise!

Used husband's card to pay £1000 online, he's already had the email from Amex to say the offer has been used.

Once he's had the credit, we'll look at paying the other £1000 on my card.

Then, if we're really really lucky, another offer might come around before we have to pay the balance in August!

16 hours ago, steel1203 said:

I am based in UK, got 2 cruises to be paid in June and not an Amex customer.  But from reading this thread I can apply for card plus companion card and then pay £1k each towards my cruise before the cut off date and save £700 in total??  I have to get better at looking for deals as that is a big saving!!  Can someone confirm I am right please thanks 

In theory yes. However, in practice, it tends to be a month or so before any offers are added to your card (I never used to find this, but over the last couple of years this has definitely been the case). So, you'll need to apply for the card, keep an eye on your card, and then hope that in 3-4 weeks that it is one of the offers that will be added.

I also don't know if the offer has been made available on all the Amex cards. Mine is an Amex gold preferred rewards card, and it's on there. Previously (last year) when they ran offers, we also had it on our BA Premium Amex card (this is a paid for card, which we do in order to earn a companion voucher). I have no idea whether it's been made available on other types of Amex cards or not.

Anyone found any bargain cruises to use this on? We've both got the offer saved to our cards, so that would be £700 back on a £2k spend, which isn't to be sniffed at!

Interesting that they've bettered the offer (albeit you have to spend more in one go). We did very well with the previous offers of £100 back on £500 spend, it came about twice during the payment cycle of our last cruise and we ended up saving £500 in total.

Be a fun time for all of us on cruises when this actually comes in (our 15 night cruise starts on 15th Feb). If drink prices are going up, that's going to mean new menus etc for every single bar. Also be interesting for anyone paying for drinks as they go on cruises such as ours if the drink prices do suddenly go up overnight.

2 hours ago, majortom10 said:

But you would have the same issue if the roads out of the docks and along main road were gridlocked even if you used P4C.

I know, that's why I said in my post that the gridlock was nothing to do with CPS! It was simply an additional problem that we had when collecting the car, and would have been the same with any of the parking places.

However, the first part of my post was relevant to the question, I simply added additional information on (that possibly was confusing, but I thought I had clarified that in my post).

We've used CPS a couple of times at Southampton. Last time was in September, probably the first cruise after schools had gone back.

Wasn't particularly impressed, we had a wait of around half an hour in a queue of cars before we got to hand our car over (compared to the first time we used them, which was pretty much no wait).

Getting the car back was easy, most people were already off (we'd had to wait for special assistance which took a while) so no queue to get keys back. However, traffic was gridlocked getting out of the port and the main road along the dock. Took us a good 45 minutes just to get out of it all and be on our way properly.

Obviously the gridlock was nothing to do with CPS, I have no idea what caused it. But our experience dropping the car off has put me off using them again.

We did use Parking4Cruises last year too, and had no issue, so will probably go back to them.

16 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

Your best bet is to meet with the special diets coordinator on the first day.  You tell them where you want to eat and they will tell you what they can make that is gluten free and vegetarian.  You would do this instead of going to each restaurant.  It takes a little bit of planning but it’s totally worth it.

 

Yes, they have gluten free pasta at La Cucina.

 

I did an NCL cruise where I needed to eat gluten free vegetarian and it was easy and fine.

 

NCL even has gluten free English muffins and they are sooooo good.

That's great to know, thank you. I've had a google about and found mixed information about NCL in general, but had picked up on there being a special diets co-ordinator, so will definitely make sure I look out for them. Do they tend to be based somewhere, or do I need to go to a dining room and ask to speak to them?

I've packed a lot of snacks just in case (it's a 2 week transatlantic with a lot of sea days) as I'd rather be prepared just in case! Hopefully I won't need them though. 
 

I've got the same dilemma, as I'm also vegetarian. However, I have the added complication of having to be gluten-free as well. My husband is also gluten-free, but eats meat and fish, so not anticipating so much of a problem for him.

We have 3 free speciality meals to use up on NCL Star later this month, and the menus aren't really that helpful, as there are no allergen markings on them. I've booked Moderno based on the salad bar alone, and also La Cucina (am assuming they can do some veggie GF pasta or similar), but am struggling to know where to book for the 3rd (plus it now won't seem to let me online, so will sort it when I get onboard).

I'm planning on visiting the restaurants when we're onboard and having a chat, and seeing what they can do.

1 hour ago, Analog187 said:

 

Dining room mentions gluten free items, items that contain nuts and items that contain alcohol.  Nothing like that in the buffet from what I saw.

Thanks very much for your reply, really appreciate you taking the time on your holiday to report back.

13 hours ago, robins11 said:

Hi  Just on the subject of Gluten free options. We were on Star from Southampton October 16th-26th this year. My wife has a Gluten free diet. We had advised NCL in advance as requested when booking so at least her particular diet needs were recognised in advance.  Just from her experience onboard if this helps, there were no allergen markers at all in the buffet with the occasional one marked vegetarian or dairy free. She needed to ask a senior chef each time to highlight what dishes might be available. With the main dining rooms some dishes on the menu were marked Gluten free. However she was advised to speak to a chef/senior server after each meal and choose a selection for the following day. In this way the choices were greater as then some dishes could be specially prepared in advance. Desserts were always very limited which was disappointing. This also applied to some of the speciality restaurants where again the advice was to seek assistance in advance. Interesting in O'Sheehans  although again allergen markings were very limited, the staff there were so helpful and could advise on selections for the various menus throughout the day including breakfast. Overall most of the staff were very helpful, and my wife enjoyed a decent selection of options, with the odd delay in service. However the lack of allergen indication in the buffet was poor and across the ship Gluten free dessert options were very limited. 

Hope that helps

 

John

Hi John.

This is massively helpful, thank you. I have let NCL know of our dietary requirements. I'm also vegetarian as well as having to be gluten-free, so I guess I'm one of those super awkward people! Am well used to having to order meals the night before, hopefully NCL will be as accommodating as other cruise lines in being able to make something for me that suits my requirements if there is nothing on the menu that does.

Did you wife find that they were helpful in the buffet in terms of getting food fresh from the kitchen to avoid cross contamination? Are things like gluten-free bread readily available?

Am well used to gluten-free desserts being terrible (and in general not vegetarian friendly either, as they tend to use gelatine). I've already got a stash of goodies ready to take on board with us, and we've also hired a car for our port stop in Lanzarote so can go to the supermarket if necessary to stock up on some sweet treats!

I don't suppose you happen to know if there is any gluten-free lager on board like bottled Daura Damm do you? I can't find any information at all about this.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it.

One other thing - I don't know if you've ever sailed with them, but P&O are amazing for gluten free. It's so easy, everything marked up, loads of choices, decent desserts (they make a lot of their cakes gluten free as standard, plus have a range of pre-packaged cakes you can pick up), and you can even get gluten-free biscuits in your cabin if you ask your cabin host. We've recently got back from a week on Iona and the GF eating experience was amazing. Just thought I'd mention it!

Anyway, sorry to derail the original post, so will leave it there. Thanks again.

I'm really enjoying your posts, thank you. We're getting on the Star in a couple of weeks, first time on her and only our 2nd ever NCL cruise (1st one was on Getaway back on 2017).

I've got a couple of questions if you have time to check them out and get back to me? No worries at all if you can't, obviously I'll find out in a couple of weeks anyway. I just liked to be prepared! They're along the same theme, as we're strictly gluten-free, so it's to do with that (neither of us were gluten-free last time we sailed, so it's a big change).

Do the menus in the main dining room have allergen markers on them at all for gluten?

In the buffet, are dishes marked up with any allergen markers? Or any markers of any kind, such as vegetarian etc?

If you do get chance to have a look and report back that would be great, but as I said, no problem at all if you can't.

The final question is were is the slightly hot hot tub located please?!