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Gluten Free on Regent


threeforthree
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I recently did a cruise on a Regent ship as a Celiac. Some good, some not so good.

 

The good. A menu for the next day's dinner was delivered to my suite at night. I could then make my choices and have them prepared specifically for me. On the first day, I met with a chef who told me all of the French Fries on the ship were Gluten Free. There were plenty of GF options at the breakfast buffet.

 

The not so good. All of the prepared 'sauteed' dishes on the lunch buffet were in a non GF sauce. They always offered to make a GF version, but I didn't really want to wait around 15 minutes for a safe version, so I avoided them.

 

The bad. On the last day, I ordered a GF hot dog (no bun needed) and French Fries while at the outdoor grill. My Hot Dog came, but no French Fries. I asked my waitress, she said the French Fries weren't GF! Oy, so I had been eating FF for 2 weeks, and who knows how many of them were cross contaminated?

 

At dinner the last night, I was eating in the Italian Restaurant. I ordered a GF pasta, from the menu the night before. When I got to the restaurant, I specifically mentioned 'fresh water' to both the Maitre' D and then again to my waitress. They assured me it would be fresh water. Out comes my pasta, with obviously GF pasta, but I looked at it carefully, and there was a piece of plain spaghetti. Hm, I guess it wasn't fresh water after all. I never would have known if it wasn't for the stray piece of Spaghetti.

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Sorry you didn't have a perfect experience with the food. I don't totally understand what it is like to be celiac, i have an intolerance but definitely but not a serious one. As i don't understand the full ramifications of being Celiac can you help me?

If you were eating FF for 2 weeks, wouldn't you have reacted to them in such a manner that you would have been alerted to them not being GF or is it a cumulative effect that you feel later on.

Thanks for your help understanding what you went through.

Hope that your cruise was good excluding the occassional food issue.

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  • 2 weeks later...

1982: As a Celiac, I strictly avoid any gluten. To give you an idea, I have not cheated knowingly even once in the last 25 years.

 

The effects of very low levels of cross contamination are hard to quantify. Sometimes I do have a full blown reaction. Other times, I just have some bloating/discomfort, and some other unmentionable symptoms.

 

One thing is sure, it does long term damage to my intestines and my overall health. I would greatly prefer to never ingest even microscopic levels of Gluten. But, that is not possible if I ever eat out or eat any processed foods.

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1982: As a Celiac, I strictly avoid any gluten. To give you an idea, I have not cheated knowingly even once in the last 25 years.

 

The effects of very low levels of cross contamination are hard to quantify. Sometimes I do have a full blown reaction. Other times, I just have some bloating/discomfort, and some other unmentionable symptoms.

 

One thing is sure, it does long term damage to my intestines and my overall health. I would greatly prefer to never ingest even microscopic levels of Gluten. But, that is not possible if I ever eat out or eat any processed foods.

 

Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me. It is awful that you went through this when you were so clear about your condition.

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  • 7 months later...

Update from my second Regent Cruise. I was once again told to ask a chef about GF items on the lunch buffet. Around the 3d or 4th day, I did that, and a chef came out, and sort of waved over the salad area and said everything except the pasta salad was GF. I noticed a Chicken Salad with Wasabi dressing that looked good. Luckily, I asked him to double check, and lo and behold, it had Soy Sauce. Basically, he was just guessing which items are GF, which is not acceptable.

 

Other than that issue, things went well. I preordered all of my dinners, and after the buffet incident, had most of my meals in the MDR, which was better anyway. The one time I went back to the buffet for lunch, they were more prepared.

 

They also made me special GF deserts, including a birthday 'cake' as my wife's birthday was celebrated on the ship. For the most part, the deserts were excellent, including fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that tasted like the real thing. A few nights the desert was Jello...not my favorite, but I didn't really need to gain 10 pounds on the cruise...

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DH needs to avoid gluten, but isn't a celiac. If his pasta is prepared in gluten contaminated water, it's not a big deal. He'll be able to tolerate it.

 

Because we don't make too big a deal about it, when food service encounters a true celiac, they don't get the deadly seriousness of the issue. I think those who practice avoidance must make it worse for the diagnosed celiac, just because we can shrug it off and treat the issue casually.

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