Food Allergies & Royal Caribbean

[catgirl8]

Hello - Has anyone sailed on Oasis of the Seas with food allergies, or sailed on any other RC cruise with food allergies? We are thinking about cruising April 2016, but I cannot find any recent reviews. One child is ana to PN, TN, SF, EG (including baked), and has an intolerance to raw fruits & veggies. How has RC handled allergies? Do they go above and beyond like Disney? Do all of the restaurants know the food ingredients (i.e. will the Dog House be able to tell me what's in the bread?) Also, will the kids zone hold & USE the Epi-Pen, if needed? I'm sure everything will be fine, but I'd like to get feedback before booking. I appreciate any info you all can provide. Thank you!!

[Ken at the beach]

My DW is allergic to dairy. Our experiences have varied greatly depending on the ship and more importantly the Headwaiter. We have found that in the DR they will find out what is in the food but in other food venues they really can't say for sure. Even the chef are unsure about pre prepared food that is brought on as some is not labelled. In the Windjammer buffet make sure you talk to a chef and not one of the servers.

[Anita Latte]

Hello. I can share my experience from my April 19 sailing on the Allure of the Seas (sister ship to Oasis). This was a 12-night Transatlantic cruise, so I had the opportunity to learn quite a bit regarding the food situation on the ship. I have a wheat/gluten intolerance. This is largely a digestive issue...can be a very painful digestive issue...but it isn't life threatening. Still...in my effort to have a pain free vacation...I did my part to avoid wheat/gluten on my vacation.

 

I do not have experience with Disney...so I cannot compare the "above and beyond." Royal makes an effort...but it is all within a certain boundary which is limited by the resources available within the ship's system.

 

There is a lot of pre-prepared food on board Allure. I have no knowledge of HOW it is pre-prepared. I think SF means shellfish? So this example isn't the best...BUT...the crab cakes served are pre-prepared. There is no adjustment to a crab cake to make one without a breaded crust...or make one/several with a binder other than eggs (if eggs were used), etc. When it comes to crab cakes, if there is ANYTHING in it that is an allergy, it isn't a choice for a diner with the allergy.

 

If there is any question about the ingredients or the possibility of cross contamination (like this product was produced in a facility that also produces the allergen), you will not be served that food...and there will not be an equivalent substitute available, but a sub of some sort will be made. For instance, mashed potatoes...these must have been pre-prepared somehow (and contained flour or carried the risk of cross contamination) because whenever I ordered a menu item that included mashed potatoes...I was served a baked potato.

 

The menu in the Main Dining Room (MDR) will have some symbols on it that will let you know what common allergies are within the different dishes. Eggs are not one of the ones identified. This identification system does NOT mean that the dish provided will be free from cross contamination...it is more about the ingredients of the dish and whether or not there was a possible preparation that could remove the allergen.

 

When I say possible preparation...I am talking about PREORDERING your food.

 

The relationship with your Head Waiter in the MDR is of GREAT importance. This is the person that will preorder your food for the following day. If you want your food prepared in the ALLERGEN FREE GALLEY, then it MUST be preordered. What happens is that you will tell your Head Waiter what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He has a system to communicate this to the chef in the MDR every night for the following day.

 

So, at dinner, you will be able to see the dinner menu for the next day. And at dinner, you will have to be prepared to tell the Head Waiter what you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner the following day. Your order is communicated to the kitchen. It is linked to your cabin number first and then your name. They come out on little pieces of paper for the different Head Waiters on the different shifts to carry. When you go into the MDR for breakfast and for lunch, the Head Waiter will need to be found (not just a normal server) and they will verify your order and have it placed in the Allergen Free Galley. Usually, the server will be the one to bring the actual food to you.

 

I must share...it was very difficult for me to figure out what I wanted to eat for all the next day each night at dinner.

 

When you deal with this process in the MDR, it can take time. Meals tend to last longer than you think they should. Not always...but usually.

 

For the buffet, you need to get a chef out from the galley to walk with you to discuss the buffet items. There are no label on the buffet items...and not everything is logical. For instance, somehow bread is involved in the process of cooking the bacon. I don't recall how exactly, but something about soaking up the grease? So I couldn't eat any bacon from the buffet; if I wanted bacon, it needed to be brought out to me special from the galley so that the whole bread thing wasn't involved. The only person that can give you the information that you need/want is the chef.

 

The same holds true for the other complementary dining options. It might take time to track down the information that you need...to get access to the person that can give you that information...and also that person may need to go access his information to answer your questions. It isn't information that is readily available.

 

I'm not sure HOW you might be able to contact someone ON Oasis before you sailed to see if you could try to get some of this information in advance?

 

Mom has an egg allergy. I sailed with her. It was very difficult to deal with the egg allergy. For instance, for dessert, they do not have a ready assortment of egg-free alternatives. They do NOT do things like make product with non-egg binders to create options that resemble "normal" versions of the same. So you get choices that are usually egg free...sorbet, fresh fruit, etc. This is what I mean by Royal doing their best to provide you with safe food within the means they have to do so.

 

The best places to eat with allergies are the specialty restaurants. This is because these are they only places where the food is prepared "a la minute"...that is prepared when ordered, not mass produced. Unfortunately, you have to pay for the privilege but it is possible to get discounts on board. They run deals. We had a server at breakfast offering 50% off at Chops and $10 lunches at Giovanni's. But, even there...some limitations DO apply. Some sauces and things ARE prepared earlier in the day...

 

I don't want to discourage you from your cruise vacation. I'm trying to share my actual experience. In my experience, it was something of a pain to deal with allergy dining on the cruise. I understand the difficulty from the cruise line's point of view in the logistics of it all...especially with such a large passenger population...but all the preordering was tedious...and working the system to deal with all the people in order to do my part so that they could help me and get me the info I needed was tedious and time consuming.

 

Let me know if there are any specifics I might be able to give more info on.

[catgirl8]

Thank you, Anita, for that very in depth reply. I was under the assumption that we would do better in the main dining room with the same waiter every night. I will definitely have to do more digging into the specialty restaurants. I have already contacted RC but received the typical responses. I know that nothing is a guarantee but I want to ensure my son will have food to eat, and that I can relax knowing that RC does their very best to keep people with food allergies safe.

[Anita Latte]

Dining in the MDR with the same wait staff every night IS an excellent plan. Please let me clarify what I was trying to express regarding the food.

 

The MDR should be a very safe place to eat. It could quickly become a very BORING place to eat. There are limitations to what the MDR can do. Your allergies that you are dealing with may not be as limiting as the gluten allergy...because flour is used sparingly everywhere in all kinds of seasonings, breadings, and sauces. So MY food was very, very plain. Because so much of what is prepared is pre-prepared, I don't know if egg is also a sneaky ingredient like flour...I know it is in baking and in soups (they add egg white to the consumme). And for whatever reason, they didn't substitute anything beyond salt and pepper for seasoning and added flavor for the majority of ALL the food that I was served in the MDR.

 

And it can be very tiresome to always have to PREORDER each and every meal in MDR. Especially because the methodology requires dealing with particular types of people in the MDR...and when you go their for breakfast and lunch, you are not dealing with your normal wait staff for your dinner seating.

 

NOW...it MIGHT be possible for you to do so with your normal server. They often work multiple shifts and if you can find out where they are working during the day...then you might be able to improve your experience over mine. The times that dining crossed paths with our server outside of dinner was really, really helpful. And honestly, I don't know why we didn't think to hunt her down more.

 

We did learn where our Head Waiter was for a different shift...and that became more helpful because he was working the buffet for breakfast.

 

When I said that your best dining experience will be in a specialty restaurant, this was taking into account the fact that the kitchen is run very differently from the MDR. The dishes there are prepared to order and not mass produced and so it is much easier for the specialty restaurants to adjust their menu items (if possible) to individual needs. You won't have to preorder...and with the size of the restaurant and the way that they are able to work with diners...you can feel safe that your meal will still be a safe meal to eat.

 

RC will do their very best and work very hard to provide safe food. It is just that the system in the MDR is quite a system and depending on how long your cruise is, it can feel like WORK to get food if you only eat in the MDR.

 

Also...with all the other dining venues on board...the atmosphere of the MDR can wear on you. It's large. It's loud. There's a lot of people. You can reach a point where you really, REALLY want to be somewhere else to eat...and with SOME MANY other places to eat on board...you can feel so very restricted if you only eat in the MDR.

[Emmysmomma9]

We sailed for our third time last month w 2 14 yo peanut/treenut allergic girls. Last trip our head waiter in the MDR was excellent re food allergies, this trip, she was not involved at all, which really was disappointing. The first couple of days, we had to keep reminding the waiters about the allergies, esp with the rolls. Pre-ordering is wonderful, and the kids actually seem to get excited about it. Usually the staff in the Windjammer (we asked for supervisors) knew everything about allergens, but one told us that everything in an area was safe and we noticed a dish had a sign above it stating that nuts were in it. Kids can probably manage with repeating meals throughout the cruise, so if you find something they like, keep going back for it. Keep asking questions- they are there to serve you and keep you happy. Our MDR waiters began to bring the girls extra plates of safe items and they got to try foods they had never eaten before. We avoided the Promenade food providers, which was very tempting, but the staffers there had no clue about allergens as the food was prepared elsewhere. Just keep your eyes open and try to get the chefs to help out. We did very well on excursions too- e-mailing ahead to restaurants to see who could handle the allergies. Good luck to you!

[stevea36]

Hello - Has anyone sailed on Oasis of the Seas with food allergies, or sailed on any other RC cruise with food allergies? We are thinking about cruising April 2016, but I cannot find any recent reviews. One child is ana to PN, TN, SF, EG (including baked), and has an intolerance to raw fruits & veggies. How has RC handled allergies? Do they go above and beyond like Disney? Do all of the restaurants know the food ingredients (i.e. will the Dog House be able to tell me what's in the bread?) Also, will the kids zone hold & USE the Epi-Pen, if needed? I'm sure everything will be fine, but I'd like to get feedback before booking. I appreciate any info you all can provide. Thank you!!

 

Since you are talking about many allergies and the use of emergency medication (epi-pen), I would recommend contacting the special needs department at RCI to get clarification as to what they can do for the specific dietetic needs and discuss it with them. You can reach them at 866-592-7225.

 

Steve