Gluten free meals...

[Host Anne]

Good evening, RedSox... just got an email from our friend who eats gluten-free. Here are the salad dressings that were gluten-free on Infinity this year: French, Russian, Vinegrette hazelnut, Italian, & Honey Mustard. He suggested that you still let your wait staff know you need a gluten-free dressing so they can ensure what they serve you is definitely gluten-free. You never know if all the ships are provisioned the same. Infinity was sailing a South American itinerary when he sailed. The good news is it sounds like there was options!!! But be sure to ask to make sure as well. :)

 

ENJOY!

[RedSox5]

Good evening, RedSox... just got an email from our friend who eats gluten-free. Here are the salad dressings that were gluten-free on Infinity this year: French, Russian, Vinegrette hazelnut, Italian, & Honey Mustard. He suggested that you still let your wait staff know you need a gluten-free dressing so they can ensure what they serve you is definitely gluten-free. You never know if all the ships are provisioned the same. Infinity was sailing a South American itinerary when he sailed. The good news is it sounds like there was options!!! But be sure to ask to make sure as well. :)

 

ENJOY!

 

Thank you, Anne. I'm getting used to oil and vinegar but I'm assuming I might get sick of it since I eat so much salad. After all, you're not supposed to eat on a cruise the same way you'd eat at home... that's the whole point of going! :p

 

I'm also learning that I'm going to have to deal with feeling like I'm a pain in the neck. I'm the last person in the world to have a special request for a waitress or send something back, but I'm realizing that I don't really have a choice. I'm getting there... it's a slow, slow process to learn everything and adapt. Also, I'm a little apprehensive about the language barrier that exists sometimes between cruisers and waitstaff. I hope that isn't an issue when I try to explain the modifications I need :confused:

 

I'm sure you're all shocked, but I have another question (sorry! :() I know that if you eat at the buffet, the cruise line cannot guarantee that anything is gluten-free. Has anyone that has to eat gluten-free ever ate at the buffet anyhow and just been smart with what you take, or is it still too risky since so much is unknown? I wouldn't take anything in a sauce or marinade, or anything with seasoning, which maybe doesn't leave me with much, but my favorite part of a cruise is the breakfast and lunch buffets- especially the lunch buffet the day you board the ship. Anyone have any tips? :confused:

 

Thank you SO much, Anne and everyone else for your help. I never dreamed this would be so overwhelming and life-changing. Your advice and assistance is very much appreciated! :D

[Host Anne]

RedSox ~ what will happen in the main dining room is that the headwaiter will come to your table the first night and chat with you (I'd recommend stopping to see the Maitre D when you board to ensure they have your gluten free info on hand and ask for the headwaiter to stop at your dinner table that evening). From them on, each night as you are finishing your meal, the headwaiter will come to your table and review the menu for the next night. You should also discuss the items in the buffet and specialty restaurants that are OK for you to eat.

 

I don't think you'll have any problem with the staff understanding your needs. I've found Celebrity to take food allergies very serious and the staff to be very accommodating. Be sure to come back and tell us how it goes!

[barb in ga]

We've made several cruises since DH was diagnosed with Celiac disease; we'll share a few tips:

 

1. Breakfast is pretty easy--DH prefers the buffet here, since he can get plenty of fruit. He then has grits and egg or an omelette made for him.

If gluten free bread is available, he will have toast.

 

2. Lunch is usually grilled or roasted meat or poultry, served with potato or rice and veggies.

3. Dinner is like lunch, with salad/soup if they are gluten free.

Ice cream with fruit or chocolate sauce makes a great dessert!

Just be sure to talk to the Maitre d' in advance so he can be aware of the special need.

Thanks,

Barb

[D4]

...I'm sure you're all shocked, but I have another question (sorry! :() I know that if you eat at the buffet, the cruise line cannot guarantee that anything is gluten-free. Has anyone that has to eat gluten-free ever ate at the buffet anyhow and just been smart with what you take, or is it still too risky since so much is unknown? I wouldn't take anything in a sauce or marinade, or anything with seasoning, which maybe doesn't leave me with much, but my favorite part of a cruise is the breakfast and lunch buffets- especially the lunch buffet the day you board the ship. Anyone have any tips? :confused:...:D

 

I've been gluten free for 2 years and have only cruised on Princess and Carnival during that time. This will be my first g-free Celebrity cruise.

 

I do eat from the buffets, but I'm just very careful with what I take. On Princess, there was always a sous chef in the buffet area and I was welcome to ask him ingredient questions. They emphasized he was the only person I should ask in the buffet area about g-free items. I confirmed with him the items I was considering several days and I was always correct that they were g-free. It is a pretty boring way to eat.

 

If you ever cruise on Carnival, they can prepare their warm chocolate melting cake g-free every night (except the first night.) It is fabulous!

[RedSox5]

Thanks for your help, D4. I appreciate it!

[AWorldCruise4Me]

Hi,

 

Thought I would provide some more info. I just got off 28 days on the Equinox. Toward the very end I was wandering by the Bistro which makes the crepes and just for the heck of it decided to ask if they had anything gluten free as their menu is almost all crepes and sandwiches. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather. They can make gluten free crepes. My mom and I proceeded to eat crepes several times before leaving. The first time they had to get rice flour from the kitchen but after that (and I told them we would be back) they had it on hand. I also explained about the surface being clean and using clean utensils. I didn't get sick and had about 8 crepes in the last few days. They have breakfast crepes, lunch crepes and desert crepes (see attached pics). The $5 cover charge allows you to order as many as you can eat so we would get a meal crepe and a desert crepe each time.

 

I didn't try the sandwiches as they only had one type of gluten free bread on board and I had eaten it quite often when I ordered the turkey club sandwich (gluten free) from room service.

 

The little cafe across from the Bistro has one desert in the cabinet that is gluten free. It is a chocolate mouse with some type of fruit type gelatin on the top. These are free. You can ask the attendant there about gluten free but he didn't seem to understand me. I just lucked out and asked when one of the kitchen people was restocking it and he knew right away that one desert was OK. When we returned we got the attendant who didn't seem to know, but we knew, so pointed to the one we wanted.

 

The gluten free bread is served at dinner. Ask them to warm it up. It is terrible cold and terrific warmed up. For some reason our wait staff could hardly ever remember to do this so we always had to ask.

 

If someone tells you something can't be made gluten free or they don't have something gluten free, ask someone else. More than once a server or person behind the counter said something wasn't gluten free or couldn't be done and then if I asked someone higher up in the food chain the answer was yes it was or could be made. For instance when the Bistro told me they could do gluten free it was a manager who said so. One of the times we went a server said it couldn't be done. We said we had some yesterday so go check with the chef. But if that had been our first time there we wouldn't have known. Same thing with the buffet. Sometimes a person behind the counter would say it wasn't gluten free. I would ask one of the roving managers who would call the kitchen and often come back with yes it was.

 

Another instance was when we missed our pre-order we would go the next day to the dining room during lunch to put the pre-order for dinner in. Sometimes the person taking the order would say something isn't gluten free when we tried to order it. We would say to just make it gluten free as best they could and they almost always could. If you got a lead person they almost never said this, just let you know it may be modified. Later on when I did the galley tour they showed the area where the special orders are made. It is isolated from the rest and helps explain why we had such an incredibly successful gluten free cruise. I think I only got sick once or twice (hard to remember since the cruise was so long).

 

The Equinox has a pretty good buffet for gluten free diners. The station concept works in our favor as the bread products can be isolated on separate sides from non-bread products. This breaks down during the off hours where things are packed a little more tightly and some times you have dried fruit and cheese (for example) next to some bread products. The close proximity (on the same side of the island) increases the cross contamination chance immensely because people use one set of tongs for everything they want on a side.

 

My tip is to go early to try to use the tongs before they have been cross contaminated for the items with high risk. For example the corn shells for tacos and all the taco/fajita meat was gluten free along with all the toppings. However the flour tortillas were two items down from the taco shells. I tried to get the shells first (before any one else used the tongs) if I wanted them. One time I decided to take a chance and get them in the middle of the lunch serving. However, as I walked up there were no tongs in the tray. Sure enough a guy was serving himself flour tortillas with them and put them back in the taco shell tray. I mentioned that I was bummed that I could now not have the taco shells due to an allergy to wheat and the guy was quite nice about my asking him to next time use the flour tongs for the flour tortillas and the taco shell tongs for the corn tortillas but you can bet that it happens alot. So I didn't get the taco shells with the risk the cross contamination. However if you really wanted them I bet you could get a buffet server to get some fresh ones. Sometimes when I wanted something that had a sauce on it at the buffet and they checked and it wasn't gluten free they said, hold on a second I can get you one without sauce. That was really nice!

 

Also if you want the super healthy (and not particularly tasty) food at the aqua spa cafe they tend to plate the food so you can pick them up without the cross contamination issue. They didn't seem to have much gluten free for breakfast but did have several choices for lunch.

 

Pic. 1 is a breakfast crepe with scrambled eggs and some veggies. It came with potatoes and fruit.

 

Pic. 2. is a lunch crepe. I think it was the Cajun chicken.

 

Pic. 3 is a desert crepe with bananas and chocolate filling with chocolate and orange sauce on the top.

Have fun on your cruise!

Michelle

[friendlyfifer]

I was on Equinox late Sept, my first cruise and having warned the celebrity that I was coeliac, I was expecting great food.

I had opted for a large table in 'Blu' and by chance another of the 8 was also coeliac.

Gluten free bread was always provided and was good and not crumbly as usual.Other areas, however, were not so good. Afternoon tea had nothing that I could eat, till I contacted the chief chef not once but twice to get something suitable to have with my tea. Each day from then on something would be put aside for me but it was always creme brulee or cheese cake, minus the base, rather than a cake or biscuit.

Dinner was hit or a miss and pre ordering the night before made no diference. Starters and entree seemed to have to default to salad followed by a salad because it was the only thing I could eat. Main course was, if lucky, a choise of two, allbeit with parts missing. The sweet course was the biggest dissapointment usually being frozen yoghurt. By the second week the other coeliac was pleading for something of a change for desert and they offered us baked alaska and suggested that we could eat the top and leave the sponge base!

I wrote to celebrity on return and thay said they were sorry that I had felt the catering had not been as good as I would have liked but did not admit that it was less than celebrity would normaly provide.

Apart form that I loved the cruise.