Anthem Sailing + child with food allergies

[LRISR]

Hi! 

 

Sailing on Anthem with a 4 year old who has food allergies. I’ve already contacted the special needs department and we have our set dining time. Are we allowed to bring our own snacks on board? I have specific pre-packaged allergy friendly snacks that I buy that I’d love to bring with me. We’re driving to NJ so it’s not a problem to pack if allowed. Any feedback on how well Royal handles food allergies? This is the part of the trip causing me the most anxiety.

 

My husband and I have cruised before, this will be #10 for me and #3 for him but never with a child. Last cruise was 2013! We were thinking of doing the Space Center excursion in FL, Atlantis Aquarium in Nassau and just hang on the beach in Cococay. Any advice for cruising with kids in general?

 

Thanks!

[andrew2346]

Hi!  We cruised a couple of years ago and will again this year with a child that has a peanut allergy.  He has anaphylaxed and also can't eat anything potentially processed with.  We called special needs and that didn't do anything.  Nobody was aware but that is ok!  We brought snacks and his favorite desserts/candy.  Those always tend to be the worst for us to navigate.  

 

We let the head waiter and our servers in the main dining room know and they were very good about making sure my son was safe.  They always made ice cream available to him for dessert.  The windjammer was not as good as I had hoped.  Even when the pastry chef came out to speak to us about the desserts I didn't get a sense that he was really confident.  He ate waffles, pancakes, cereal, bacon, yogurt, fruit etc.  I didn't trust the muffins or donuts.  

 

He was able to eat PLENTY of soft serve that is self service by the pool and he ate his way thru an entire jar of Udi's cookies that they keep behind the counter of the Park Cafe next to Sorrento's. He ate plenty of sorrento's pizza also.

 

We had a great cruise and there was plenty to eat.  What is your child allergic to?

[Twin Dad]

In my experience, they handle food allergies very well.  Our twin girls both have peanut and tree nut allergies and each cruise the head waiter and chef make an appearance at the table to confirm the allergies, ask us questions. etc.  We will be taking them on their third cruise in April and never had a problem.  Windjammer food items are segregated enough for us that there isn't a risk of cross-contamination.

 

We brought some of our own pre-packaged (store) snacks without issue.

 

Not sure what allergies you are dealing with, but I am confident that you won't have to worry.

 

Dan

[LRISR]

Thank you! Allergies are eggs, sesame and tree nuts. Great to hear about being able to bring snacks, every grocery store run I’ve made since we booked, I’ve been grabbing some to start the stockpile. We also just planned on eating all of our meals in the MDR if possible.

[katiel53]

5 hours ago, LRISR said:

Thank you! Allergies are eggs, sesame and tree nuts. Great to hear about being able to bring snacks, every grocery store run I’ve made since we booked, I’ve been grabbing some to start the stockpile. We also just planned on eating all of our meals in the MDR if possible.

The dining room is only open for lunch on sea days.  It is closed for lunch on port days.

[crookedhalo]

When you first go to the windjammer have a server get a higher up for you.  I have a friend who is gluten intolerant, and they would walk with her and when she wanted something they would get it from a tray under the open server (one in the warmer beneath) to avoid cross contamination. In the MDR they would bring the menu to her the night before so that she could choose what she wanted to eat and they would make sure it was prepared in a clean kitchen and modify the recipe if possible of something that she liked but was not GF.

[NewSalt]

Allergies are the main reasons we take family cruises. We took our first family cruise a few months after we found out our DGS at ten months had multiple food allergies (peanuts, tree nuts, dairy, eggs, fish, shellfish).  I think it was the first time our DD had taken an easy breath in all those months. We’ve taken five more cruises since then, two on Anthem.

 

The waiters and maitre d’s are exceedingly knowledgeable and, in our experience, very, very kind. One waiter felt it was cruel that DGS couldn’t eat the bread in the table that the rest of us were enjoying and so HE had the chef make some safe rolls.   I heard a woman in the WJ ask one of the wait staff if a dish contained an allergen and he said that it didn’t but because it was a buffet, there was always the possibility of cross-contamination so he would get her a serving from the kitchen. 

 

We’ve taken kitchen tours on Royal ships, and there is a special section where they prepare food for those with allergies. 

 

Eating in in the MDR is a wise decision. We stopped taking DGS to the WJ when he was around you little one’s age. It just seemed so mean to show him all this delicious-looking food he couldn’t eat. Yeah, that’s his life, but we don’t have to remind him of it every day on his vacation. 

 

If we stayed on the ship on port days, we asked the WJ captain for a simple meal for DGS that he ate at the pool or on our balcony. DD brings a full bag of safe snacks  for the times we’re off the ship; it’s easier and safer than trying to find things to eat in a strange place. 

 

I hope you have a great cruise. 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by NewSalt

[hallux]

4 hours ago, crookedhalo said:

I have a friend who is gluten intolerant, and they would walk with her and when she wanted something they would get it from a tray under the open server (one in the warmer beneath) to avoid cross contamination.

 

I seem to recall there also be a gluten-free section all the way aft in the WJ, near the doors to the open deck.  I don't need it but I was on a trip with someone who did and all the food they ate there came from that section and they never had an issue.

 

We also found the MDR folks VERY attentive to this need.  We "reserved" the same table with the same head waiter/staff for the entire trip.  Each night they would bring the next night's menu so those that needed special diet considerations could select what they wanted so it could be prepared as needed for them.  There were 9 of us, that crew got a VERY generous additional cash tip as there were no side-effects of having contaminated food the entire trip.