Dairy Allergies aboard Epic

[cantw8togo]

How well does Epic deal with dairy allergies? Our 7 yr old DS is allergic to dairy protein. He is not anaphylactic so cross contamination is not a big issue, but we certainly avoid consumption. We have contacted the Special Needs Dept. and will be in touch with the restaurant staff once onboard, but are there certain key staff that make the whole process easier? On our previous RCI cruise it took a while to figure out their system (which was frustrating since some of their staff didn't know the system either); and that you needed to speak to a Sous Chef in the buffet and the Head Waiter, not the Manager in the Dining Room. Are there similar key people to be in touch with once onboard Epic?

 

When dining in the MDR do you need to preorder daily and make reservations the day before? Can you be more spontaneous? Did you dine in other restaurants?

 

Is there much in the way of food that is already dairy free in the MDR and the buffet? Do they serve dairy free fruit sorbets or other desserts? Any recommendations?

 

We just booked a couple of days ago and we sail at the end of January and we can't wait to go! Thanks for any insights and tips.

 

N.

[FamilyMiracle]

We sailed in December, and we have an anaphylactic coconut reaction in one of our kids. We dealt with special needs ahead of time, and once we boarded, we recieved a call from someone, asking us to meet at 4 pm at a certain lounge. We did and discussed the food allergy again (alot of NCL foods contain coconut). Some items they needed to go check, some things we had cross contamination questions about... they were very prompt in getting more info to us. We had to inform wait staff in dining areas of the food allergy. We also had to inform the kids camp about it as well.

[cantw8togo]

Thanks for the info. Every little bit helps.

 

N.

[ks&ks]

We have a gluten allergy and we found Epic to be extremely helpful! We've also sailed RCCL with allergies but have chosen NCL for our next cruise. :) After you board you can go to the main desk/reception area and let them know you contacted the Special Needs Department about a dairy allergy. The will give you the name/names of the maitre'd or asst. matire'D that can assist you. They will also tell you where to meet them. We were instructed to go the one of the main dinning rooms to speak with him. After we checked in to our cabin we had a phone message and a letter in our cabin giving us the phone number of our contact person for our special diet etc. but we had already met him. You could do what ever is most convenient for you.

 

We were able to have lunch in Taste right after we embarked, which we've never be able to do on any cruise. We're not huge buffet people so we pre-ordered breakfast, lunch and dinner and chose from Taste and The Manhattan Room to eat in. We always had dinner in The Manhattan Room. Each meal, after we were seated, we would give our server our cabin number and they would precede in preparing our food. We would pre-order food for the next day, after dinner each night. We had two two people that were both asst. maitre'd's that we worked with all week. I'm sure they would help coordinate dinning in the other restaurants as well. We had so much food and we were never hungry. We also enjoyed sushi on several occasions. We didn't pre-order there, but we were able to speak with the staff to help us with our selections.

 

If your child participates in the kids club, you will have an opportunity to register them and list their allergies. We decided just to put, no food on her forms, because our dd is very allergic. We just picked her up before meals and skipped the events that included food such as pizza making and ice cream.

 

We had a wonderful time and the staff on Epic were incredible! Hope this helps and you have a great trip!!!

[russianmom]

I can't speak specifically to Epic but have been on Jewel and Dawn.

I have numerous food allergies. I just email the special needs dept ahead of time and when I get on board meet with the maitre'd.

 

They have always been very helpful. I pre-order my meals the day prior and everything is prepared in a seperate kitchen when I arrive and give my cabin #.

They also walked me thru the buffet and showed me what was ok to eat. I usually avoid that though because of cross contamination- I've witnessed some pretty crazy stuff!

I have also had dinner twice in Cagney's and once in LeBistro. The maitre'd from both were also very accomodating.

 

My son has no allergies but I did notice that in the kids club they are not allowed to have/bring food and they had a large sign where they noted each child's allergies/medical issues etc.

[cruisewmn]

I have a non-anaphylactic dairy allergy and sailed on the Epic in November. It is not severe enough for me to worry about cross contamination, but I avoid foods with dairy protein so that I don't have GI issues. I simply told the waiters that I was allergic to dairy and could not have anything with cheese, butter, cream, etc. We only ate in specialty restaurants, but had no problems and they took it very seriously. They cooked my meals to order and just left off problem items or ingredients. Admittedly, I ordered what i considered the safest dishes (grilled chicken, steak, etc). It might be more difficult with "kid food." I didn't get sick the entire cruise.

[cantw8togo]

I have a non-anaphylactic dairy allergy and sailed on the Epic in November. It is not severe enough for me to worry about cross contamination, but I avoid foods with dairy protein so that I don't have GI issues. I simply told the waiters that I was allergic to dairy and could not have anything with cheese, butter, cream, etc. We only ate in specialty restaurants, but had no problems and they took it very seriously. They cooked my meals to order and just left off problem items or ingredients. Admittedly, I ordered what i considered the safest dishes (grilled chicken, steak, etc). It might be more difficult with "kid food." I didn't get sick the entire cruise.

 

Thankfully my son isn't picky and he doesn't limit himself to "kid food" with the exception of french fries which often contain dairy. He does enjoy desserts and other treats on board (then again who doesn't! :D) but it's always a challenge to find dairy free ones. Has anyone had any experience with the availablity of dairy free desserts? Are there any true fruit sorbets?

 

TIA.

 

N.

[cantw8togo]

I have a non-anaphylactic dairy allergy and sailed on the Epic in November. It is not severe enough for me to worry about cross contamination, but I avoid foods with dairy protein so that I don't have GI issues. I simply told the waiters that I was allergic to dairy and could not have anything with cheese, butter, cream, etc. We only ate in specialty restaurants, but had no problems and they took it very seriously. They cooked my meals to order and just left off problem items or ingredients. Admittedly, I ordered what i considered the safest dishes (grilled chicken, steak, etc). It might be more difficult with "kid food." I didn't get sick the entire cruise.

 

Cruisewmn, did you have any problems with the standard margarine on board, as many brands of margarine have dairy in them, or was that something that they ordered specially for you? Did they have a variety of desserts that were dairy free?

 

We have booked after the 60 day special order cut off date and have to rely on what they have on board.

 

Thanks,

 

N.

[cruisewmn]

Unfortunately, NCL offers sherbert, not sorbet. I just ordered fresh fruit for dessert (boring, I know).

 

No luck with a dairy free margarine. Since most contain trace amounts of dairy protein, I just ask for olive oil and add some salt and pepper to make a dip for bread.

 

I haven't found a cruiseline that offers dairy free items as substitutions (like they do for gluten-free), but NCL and Disney are good at preparing a meal without dairy.

[cantw8togo]

Unfortunately, NCL offers sherbert, not sorbet. I just ordered fresh fruit for dessert (boring, I know).

 

No luck with a dairy free margarine. Since most contain trace amounts of dairy protein, I just ask for olive oil and add some salt and pepper to make a dip for bread.

 

I haven't found a cruiseline that offers dairy free items as substitutions (like they do for gluten-free), but NCL and Disney are good at preparing a meal without dairy.

 

Thanks for the reply. It's nice to know what to expect before boarding.

 

I had forgotten about the option of using olive oil instead of margarine for bread. A local restaurant in our old neighborhood used to do that and would serve it with dried oregano as well as S & P. It was very yummy. I'll have to show my 7 yr old the finer points of using olive oil so that he doesn't have huge drips down his shirt. :D

 

We found that the margarine on Royal Caribbean last year didn't contain dairy, (although it it may have had traces) and on HAL they make their own sorbets (and ice creams) on board so we were kind of spoiled on that one. Both lines were quite accommodating about preparing dairy free dishes. The Sous Chef in RCI's buffet offered to have a batch of dairy free cookies made for us that they would keep in the back and we could then request them over the week. I regret that I didn't take them up on the offer as by the end of the week, my then 6yr old was pretty tired of jello which was the only dairy free dessert they had.

 

Thanks again for the reply.

 

N.

[cruisewmn]

I bet NCL would make those cookies, too. I never thought to ask (trying not to gain weight on the cruise -- lucky 7 year olds don't need to worry about that).

 

One other thing, I'm sure there's some dairy in the dinner rolls/bread, but that's normally not enough to make me sick. I didn't want you to assume it was dairy free.

[thewolffs]

We just got back from the Jewel. My 2.5 year old has a dairy allergy. I never met with the restaurant manager and I wish I did. She and her sister drink soy milk and I found it to be a pain to have to ask for it and only get 2 cups at a time. They had quarts and didn't want to give us a whole quart. Not sure why. At one point they had run out of it and we had to wait til the next day to get more. I'm sure if I had met with the restaurant manager at the beginning of the cruise, I could have had it delivered to my cabin daily. I also ordered her pasta with sauce and they assured me it was dairy free. She broke out in hives. She lived on chicken fingers and french fries the whole 10 days. If I did it again, I would have ordered her food the night before, like the waiter informed me towards the end of the cruise. Although, we never knew where we'd eat the night before. We ate at the Blue Lagoon and room service a lot. I'm sure feeding a 7-year old is much easier than a 2 year old. She is pretty picky about trying new things.

[mcginniscruisers]

Thankyou for supplying this post. My family usually travels through Carnival but we are looking at booking the Epic instead for our next. My fmaily has numerous allergies too. Apple, Bananas, Gluten, Tea, and Tomatoes. On Carnival since I have traveled with them many times I do not have to contact the Special Needs Department. Does Nowweigan have that too. Also they had a special needs person come visit me every night at dinner and allow me to select my meals a day in advance so they can prepare them the way I needed. If it had what my family was allergic then they would try to prepare it allergen free. I surely hope the chefs on the Epic do this. This would be awesome. Oh yeah if you decide to eat in one of the decks or buffets other than the dining room will they do this too? I mean if it is like sandwiches, pizza, or just a sauce on meat?

[cantw8togo]

We're back from our adventures on the Epic and I thought that others might benefit from our experiences. Our 7 yr DS is allergic to dairy protein and cross contamination is not an issue for us. We ate in the Manhattan Room (MDR), Taste and the Garden Cafe (buffet).

 

The staff was very accommodating and we got to know several of the maitre'd's quite well. They rotate between the three restaurants and we would often see them in the various restaurants which was helpful when we had a special request.

 

We preordered dinner and some lunches the day before and we had a standing order for some chocolate cookies that the kitchen staff made especially for our son. They also had fruit sorbet that they make in small batches for those with special diets. Over the course of the week they had kiwi, lemon and mango flavours. Not all of the wait staff knows about this and the request was usually made through the maitre'd. The maitre'd in the Garden Cafe will even send someone to get a serving of the sorbet from the MDR kitchen as all of the ice creams in the buffet's display case do contain dairy. (If you can eat dairy, don't miss the dulche d'leche ice cream; it was so good that it was out of stock by the end of the week.)

 

Regarding the regular foods that don't contain dairy, the french fries and hash browns are both dairy free and the only safe bread was the french baguette which was delicious. Soymilk is available, but you have to ask for it. In the Garden Cafe, they can make various forms of eggs for you at the omlette station in the morning, and at lunch, the pizza station will make pizza without cheese. There was never a lineup for the pizza so it wasn't a big deal to get a custom version. (This was a issue on other cruiselines.)

 

Our ds's newest favourite food is calamari which he ordered almost every night. The dairy free version that they prepared was even better than the regular version.

 

Overall, dealing with a food allergy on the Epic was much easier than on some other cruiselines. It wasn't perfect, but it was one of the best ones yet.

 

Hope this helps.

 

N.