Cruising with kid with food allergies

[Sparkygirl]

We are booking a "last minute" cruise in about 2 months on royal carribean with my daughter. She will be 10 months old and is eating solids and her formula. RCCL says no food or beverage can be brought on board. She is on an elemental formula (milk and soy allergy), as well as allergic to latex and avocado. She has a med kit with epi pens and benadryl. Any ideas on what and how to request accommodations? We are brand new dx about a week ago.

[SadieN]

Call RCCL's Special Needs department.

[cb at sea]

Shouldn't be a problem at all. The special needs dept. can help you, and you ARE allowed to bring formula/food for your child. No worries.

[gagirl789]

My son was allergic to milk soy and dill. He did slowly outgrow his milk and soy allergies. My son was allergic to casein specifically. It was in all sorts of things that we never thought of such as deli meat as a filler, some fast food as a filler (in beef and chicken), and apple juice! What a pain it was. In any event he lived on oat milk and almond milk. By the time he was 3.5 he could handle about a cup of milk without a problem. Just wanted to share our story. HTH

[crusinmama06]

You have to request it upon booking so since you are "last minute" as you say, get ahold of them as soon as you can.

 

There is a phone number on this paper for the Special Access Department. You might want to try this.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/pdf/Accessibility_Fact_Sheet.pdf

[cantw8togo]

If your DD is anaphylactic, then your safest bet is to dine in the MDR where her food can be prepared in a separate allergy kitchen. You can dine in the Windjammer buffet restaurant but they can't guarantee that there hasn't been any cross contamination. Due to her young age and limited diet, you may have success there anyways. You will want to speak to a sous chef (assistant chef), not the Restaurant Manager nor the head Waiter to help guide you in what is safe for her to eat. When we traveled with our DS who is allergic to dairy a couple of years ago, it took the staff 20 minutes and 3 different tries before they figured out that we needed to speak to a sous chef in the buffet.

 

If you decide to use the My Time Dining in the MDR, you can request the same table each night so that you don't have to explain your situation each time. As well, some waiters appreciate the severity of allergies and others do not. If you don't feel that your waiter takes your concerns seriously, then request to be moved next time. There are many nationalities that work on board, and not all of them have had to deal with food allergies as a regular part of their culture, and therefore may not appreciate how severe they can be.

 

Some people with multiple allergies like to carry a business card which lists all of the allergies in their various forms (dairy allergy, cassien, whey, lactose, hydrolyzed cassienate etc.) so that staff have something to refer to if they need to check packaging stored elsewhere on the ship. Include your names, your sailing date and your cabin # since they use that number to keep track of passengers with special needs to make it easier for them to report back to you.

 

Since your DD is so young, I would bring along your go to baby book and good book about dealing with children's allergies in addition to your regular first aid kit.

 

Two months is still plenty of time to notify the special needs dept. We have booked as little as two weeks before we sailed. You could try doing a search of the RCI forum for other posts about this issue as well. I'm sure that you will have a great time.

 

Hope this helps.

 

N.