cpecen

On 10/9/2019 at 9:52 PM, AtA said:

Like the time we were having afternoon tea on Marina and I asked what the sandwich was. I was told it was egg salad and I took one. Then I bit into the sandwich and bit into a shrimp. I have a food sensitivity to shellfish. I went to the head of the afternoon tea to complain and he barely acknowledged my concern. Thankfully mine's not a full blown allergy but if it was, it could have killed me.

I do have a full blown allergy to shellfish and even though my Epi-Pen never left my side it could have had grave consequences for me. Your story reinforces my belief that there is a serious problem with how the kitchen is run on the Marina and hopefully those with food allergies who are contemplating travelling on the ship will take note.

8 hours ago, LHT28 said:

If the Head Chef does not know there is  a problem with his staff  then he cannot fix the problem

JMO

By the time that I realized what was happening it was clear that it wasn't an isolated issue that could be easily corrected by escalating to the head chef but a systemic problem: hence my earlier statement that there are issues within the kitchen. For my own health and safety I intentionally chose an approach of risk mitigation. Please believe me when I tell you that this was a decision that was not taken lightly or without a good understanding of operational and management issues; after returning from my trip I have attempted to work through my travel agent to reflect my experiences back to Oceania.

At this point my perception is that Oceania is a process-based operation that does not deal well with situations that fall outside of the norm and that their processes are constructed in such a way that there is very little latitude for individuals to correct the process once a problem is discovered. I believe that is why some people enjoy Oceania very much, as long as their expectations fit within the processes that Oceania uses. For those of us who fall outside of the norm we have a much different experience as reflected by some of the comments on this thread.

2 minutes ago, clo said:

How did you handle this please?

I politely pointed out to my waiter that the dish was covered in cheese and that was a dairy product and as I had indicated at the beginning of my meal I needed it to be dairy free. He took the plate away and returned with a new plate containing the dish without the cheese.

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

You are correct  that should not happen

Did you ask to to speak to the head Chef  at any time ?

Or the GM ?

Usually  food allergies are taken very seriously

At one dinner I was asked if I would mind a little gluten in my meal as the kitchen apparently felt that they could not make it otherwise. That quickly led to an escalation where I explained my priorities of my constraints starting with life-threatening allergies (including a reassurance that I had an EpiPen in my purse) followed by an ordered list of priorities in terms of the consequences of a reaction to me based on how long it would take to recover. I was taken seriously at that meal and they insured that was properly prepared after I reassured them that I valued my health more than the taste of my dinner.

I did not bother to talk to the head chef because I knew that in a properly run kitchen the head chef would have immediately appeared at my table to insure that he understood my constraints. That he didn't suggested that there were significant problems in that area and that I couldn't trust the kitchen.

I should mention that I preordered every meal. I made certain that I explicitly stated all of my food constraints to the waiter at the beginning of each meal and we verified that my preorder was consistent with my food constraints.

The most concerning thing to me was when the kitchen staff prepared a dish that obviously contained dairy. This tells me that there is something seriously wrong with the way in which the kitchen is being run as I saw the preprinted order that was sent to the kitchen and it explicitly said dairy free. This shouldn't have happened in a well-run kitchen with the proper controls.

I would have to agree with you that Marina did not live up to my expectations.  While my problem had to do with my special diet, I think that it speaks to an underlying problem with how the kitchen is being run. Given that Oceania positions itself as the foodie cruise line, I think that this shortcoming is inexplicable.

I was on the Marina on the cruise just before yours and I was extremely disappointed by the lack of care shown by the kitchen staff to the issues of my medically-required special diet. I have celiac disease requiring a gluten-free diet and also have allergies to dairy, egg, and shellfish, which my travel agent noted ahead of time and I discussed the first day with an individual from the main dining room who assured me that my food would be prepared without those items.

After a the first few days I discovered from a chance remark that the gluten free bread that I was assured that I could eat had egg in it; I'm still dealing with the consequences of the exposure to that allergen. Nonetheless the wait staff continued to offer me the bread even though I kept telling them that I couldn't have it because of my food allergy to egg which tells me that they had no process in place to correct their mistakes. After I was served a dish with cheese on top I found myself altering my food choices to minimize the risk of receiving food that contained an ingredient that I couldn't have which led me to have an extremely stressful cruise trying to second guess my meals.

Once again - a properly run kitchen should not be making these kind of mistakes.