CruiseVacationQueen

Thanks for taking the time to post your review! My family will soon sail on the Sunshine in a cabin for 3 (also on Deck 7) and I am wondering about the sofa-bed sleeping configuration. Does it "pull out" like a sleeper-sofa, or do the cushions simply "flip over" for sleeping? Did you happen to take pictures of your sofa-bed? Thank you!

Great GF review.

 

Just wanted to say that most ports do not want food brought ashore. Commercially prepackaged food is usually OK. But not produce or meats. It's is to protect the ecosystems of their countries. Some countries (New Zealand) even level huge fines.

Thanks for reading! We did see signs in a couple of the ports with pictures of banned food items. We travelers must definitley be considerate of the agriculture laws of other countries. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

Gluten-free is usually not a problem. Now, "glutton-free" -- that's another problem. :p

You're exactly right!!! At dinner most evenings they brought us extra plates of food above & beyond what we had ordered... we felt like "gluten-free gluttons" by the end of the week! :p

Thank you so much for your g/f review. My first g/f cruise was on the Miracle and g/f was still fairly unheard of. They still did an amazing job and helped me feel very comfortable since I was scared out of my wits that I would be glutened. I have cruised on Carnival several times since then and every year it gets better. I LOVE that they take such good care of us. We went to the Steak House twice on the Conquest last year and I had the most amazing g/f Lobster Bisque and chocolate dessert. I can't wait to see what this year's cruise brings. Thanks again for your review and I'm so happy that you were all able to follow your diet and enjoy yourselves. :)

Hi! Thanks for reading! We too can hardly wait to see what the next cruise brings... will have to request the GF Lobster Bisque and chocolate dessert next time! :)

CruiseVacationQueen,

Thanks for updating us on your gluten free experience. This was such a wonderful gf review! :)

You are very welcome... thanks for your kind reply! :)

Our next cruise on July 3rd is our 10th cruise - platinum! My husband has celiac disease. We go to the dining room on embarkation day to talk to the maitre'd and hostess. Who do I contact about the surprise treats in our cabin?

Hi! Congrats on the Platinum status!!!

Yes, speak with the Hostess ASAP on Embarkation Day. Don't be surprised if the MD doesn't come out to meet you, as the Hostess pretty much takes care of everything. And you may also want to contact SpecialNeeds@Carnival.com a couple of weeks before sailing. Our hostess Milana said she appreciated the advanced notice and our detailed e-mail explaining exactly what we could and could not eat.

As far as the canapés and petits-fours, they come from the Room Service kitchen. Your Hostess will need to send in a special order for those to be made GF, so be sure to request that on your first meeting. When Room Service calls to arrange a delivery time of your treats (each comes on different evenings) be sure to let them know that you requested a special GF order through the Hostess.

Be sure to come back here and report your GF cruise experience, if you have time! Happy Sailing!!!

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I'll have you know, that I was perfectly content eating my "vanilla soft-serve" until you just had to go and ruin it for me...first, with your contagious enthusiasm, and then.... (gasp!) with the obscene picture above! :eek: That was the last straw, buddy!!!! :mad: Thanks to you, I am now setting my Platinum spoon aside (which I just earned, btw!) in search of some pistachio & coconut ice cream!!!! Thanks. A lot. If I "happen" to log onto NCL-dot-com and book a cruise on the Epic, it will be all your fault. I hope you can live with yourself!!!!

LOL! :p Your review has consumed every one of my free moments for the past 3 days. :o I have thoroughly enjoyed your commentary & pictures! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience on the Epic!!! I am literally signing on to NCL right now to have a look-see! :D

Recently returned from sailing GF on the Carnival Miracle... entire cruise was a huge food success!

The hostess Milana received the e-mail I sent to the special needs dept... everything was very organized and we were made to feel like Rock Stars the entire cruise!

We also ate at the Steakhouse and at the Chef's Table... cannot say enough about those venues! Yummm!

Highly recommend Carnival for gluten-free cruising! No problems at all, including the buffet and Room Service! Plenty of whole fruit available all week for snacks. Also carried on a bag of apples, several bags of nuts and a jar of peanut butter for "just in case" and to eat when going ashore. Plenty of food onboard. Never felt deprived!

Just returned from a 8-day Southern Caribbean sailing on the Carnival Miracle. This was our first gluten-free cruise as we only recently determined that our DS's chronic tummy aches are due to grain intolerance. We switched to a completely grain-free Paleo diet about 2 months before sailing. Needless to say, we were "more than anxious" about our upcoming cruise, as we are still adjusting to the dietary changes. DH, my DF and I are all eating grain-free in support of our DS, so that he doesn't feel left-out or "different". After everything I've read about cereal grains, I don't feel tempted to ever eat them again... yuk!!!

So, it was about 2 weeks before sailing that I started reading up on GF cruising, here on CC. We knew it would be too difficult to eat strictly Paleo onboard, so decided to expand our variety to GF. Thank you to everyone who posted tips and tricks online. I e-mailed the Special Needs Dept a very detailed letter outlining all the foods we could and could not eat, and also requested a table for 4 so that we didn't have to answer a whole bunch of questions to puzzled table-mates. I copied that e-mail to the Steakhouse Hostess, as we also had pre-arranged reservations for Nick & Nora's and the Chef's Table.

To make a long story short, we weren't sure what to expect... except the few tidbits I read here on CC. Well, let me tell you that the Carnival Miracle dining team really delivered!!! We were treated like Rock Stars from start to finish.

I cannot say enough about the Dining room Hostess Milana, who went above-and-beyond in not only providing us GF safe meals, but she also made us feel like we were the most important guests on the ship! She ordered a ton of food for us at each meal, and came up with creative suggestions to increase the overall variety. The pizza she had specially made for us one afternoon was so yummy! She was very picky about them keeping the crust very thin and they really loaded on the cheese and pepperoni... not very healthy, mind you, but absolutley delicious! They kept special loaves of GF bread for sandwiches at the Deli just for us. We also had pancakes and french toast in the Main Dining room. Mind you, the bread mix that Carnival uses is corn-based and quite heavy. We were "up to our eyeballs in corn" by about the 4th day (and felt like we had a ton of bricks in our gut! LOL!), so we tapered away from the bread items about mid-week. But we really appreciated their effort! Basically, the entire dinner meal can be customized to GF, so we had a wide variety of evening meals. And our servers Rudolpho and Andras spoiled us rotten with cheese plates for appetizers (yum!) as well as all the food we ordered thru Milana. And the desserts... oh, my! Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, cheesecake, tiramisu, flan and creme brulee. Yummmmy!!!!

The same high recognition goes for the Steakhouse. They were already aware of our needs, and Chef Roberto (oh, I hope I got his name right!) specially cooked all our meals to exact specification... he even went out of his way to purchase and cook sweet potatoes for us, which I had mentioned were our favorite "cheat". We felt like we were already eating at the Chef's Table, as Roberto came out with each course and told us how he prepared everything and explained the next course coming up. He had specially bread baked for us as well as specially-prepared cheesecake, that was to die for!!!

And then, there is Executive Chef Vivek who really wined and dined us at the Chef's Table. Wow!!! The food. The service. The ambiance. Again we were treated like Rock Stars. Each course, he adjusted our meal just slightly to remove the gluten. On several courses our items looked even more delicious than the "regular" fare! Cannot say enough about how much we enjoyed that experience!

We had the same great service and attention at just about all the other dining venues. Room service gladly prepared our sandwiches with no bread and salads with no croutons. There were plenty of fruit and salad choices at the lunch buffet. We also ate carefully from the warm items, sticking with the carved meats and plain veggies. Breakfast in the buffet was no problem, as we ordered omlets and eggs cooked to order. The ham and bacon may be GF... at least we tried it and had no problems. Same with the breakfast potatoes most mornings, only once did they look like they had been coated with a batter. The ship maintained an adequate supply of apples and bananas throught the cruise, so we had no problem getting afternoon snacks. We also splurged on the ice cream quite frequently!

We also ate sushi on two occasions, with no problems. We just chose carefully. The only time we got a tummy ache was when we ate the VIP dessert plate that was delivered to our stateroom one evening. The canape tray that was delivered earlier in the week was prepared GF, and we "assumed" the desserts were also prepared GF. Oops! Luckily it was only a few bites and pain was short-lived. (BTW, ever since DH & I started eating grain-free, we now get bloating and pain if we eat gluten... go figure!) The only time we felt like a "bother" to anyone was one afternoon in the Deli, when the cook made it obvious he was less-than-thrilled to use the GF bread to make our sanwiches. Oh well! On another occassion, when asking about the hot dogs and fries, we had a bit of a language barrier with the cooks. I was trying to ask what else was fried in the oil with the fries and my question was clearly not understood. No problem, though... we decided to skip the fries to be safe and went and ate ice cream instead! LOL!

So our first GF cruise was a huge success! We ate a ton of food and we felt great the whole week! I highly recommend Carnival for GF cruising! Oh, and in the ports, we just made safe choices. We brought green apples and bags of nuts onboard, which we kept in our back-pack for going ashore. We ate Ben & Jerry's ice cream in Curacao. We had a lobster, pork chop and salad for lunch in DR. In GT and Aruba we just stuck to the snacks we brought. Happy sailing to all!

Thanks Mike, for once again taking the time to past another fabulous review! Best of wishes to your entire family while Tracy is away, and Godspeed her journey and return!

BTW ~ the Pride is a gorgeous ship! Your pictures make me even more excited to sail the Miracle next month, which will be our first trip on a Spirit class ship. We'll be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary, and... oh yeah!... that reminds me! DH still needs to read your proposal review so he can get the "hint"! LOL!

Take care! Leah

As a first time cruiser, are there any major etiquette breaches that one could unintentially commit? (other than the obvious like being outride rude/obnoxious etc.)

 

Was there ever anything you saw a "cruise newbie" do that was a major faux pas?

Just the fact that you are asking this question tells me that you are a courteous person. I can't think of any rule of etiquette that applies only to cruise ships, just use your every-day manners and you will be just fine! :) But I can think of a great tip: ignore the other passengers who may not be as courteous as you... and have a great cruise! Wish I could be there to see all your "oohs and ahhs" as you explore the ship! I love cruising with newbies... then again, I just love cruising!!! Happy sailing!

I need some help, I have the Destiny Fun Times on Adobe Reader but I can't seem to insert them in my post.

Any suggestion on how I can have them available to CC readers. As promised I will post the Imagination, Valor and Freedom Fun Times as soon as possible. Mike

Hi, Mike and Tracy!

I feel your pain with getting those Fun Times uploaded to PhotoBucket... I had "issues", too when I was uploading them to my Destiny review a couple of months back.

I am no computer wizard, but I can tell you that on my computer, my Fun Times are saved as JPEG (.jpg) files in My Pictures folder. I scanned each page as a separate file (in other words, each Fun Times is 6 pictures). If I remember correctly, I had to limit my upload to PhotoBucket to only a couple of pages at a time. Hope this helps!!!!

BTW ~ I loved the "grand finale" photos of the Freedom in port from the plane!!!

Kind Regards, Leah

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I found your review this morning & have been reading from the beginning for the past 3 hours straight... laundry and housework will just have to wait! Sadly, I must log-off now and take my dad to his doctor's appointment! Can't wait to get home and finish this wonderful read! :D

BTW ~ You have a gorgeous family (and friends, too)! I too feel inspired to "lose a few" before the next cruise! And... to ask my DH about renewing our vows next March (we're sailing the Miracle for our 15th anniversary)! Nice to see that Carnival added "sunshades" to the round loungers... that's a new addition since we sailed her in April.

Kind regards ~ Leah

Hi! The Maire D in the Carnivale Dining Room on the 8/5/10 sailing of Inspiration was Jusuf, from Turkey. He was the best MD we've ever had! Jusuf always made time to stop by our table and chat with us, and then transformed into different "charcters" each night... singing, dancing, leading conga lines, etc. Way over the top, but very fun! We hope we're in his dining room again in January!

:D It sure is a great hobby to have... I will gladly add you-just let me know when you are booked. I am not sure how the pictures will work out in the winter with the sun going down earlier, but we will see. :)

Bummer! Our school district made some last-minute changes to the Calendar, so we won't be sailing the Fascination in January. :( We will be sailing the Inspiration, instead.

BUT, maybe in April... hee! hee! Keep up the good work! :)

APDMOM, thanks so much for starting this thread! After reading all the posts (and getting caught up in all the excitement!), I've decided to book a January cruise on the Fascination for DH, DS & me! :D

May I add our date to your ever-expanding list, once I decide and book it? :)

Thanks again! You have inspired me to take pictures from the Port of Tampa, which is only 20 minutes from our home. Need to get the Legend and Inspiration schedules and go check out some good photo-taking locations! :rolleyes:

My DH may get "mad" at you... for helping me find another cruise and a new "hobby"! LOL!!! :o