Special diet - was this normal?

[Koali]

My 16 mon daughter has a peanut allergy which I declared at booking and checkin. There was a letter in our stateroom to call the special diet number. I had previously read that it was recommended to stop by the dining room to talk to the manager if there were special diets. My husband went and they said to call the number. The person answered and said that he would meet us in the dining room the first night, we let him know what time we were going to be there. The first night he never showed up. Luckily I had packed food for my daughter otherwise she would have had nothing to eat. The next day we went to guest services to ask and they said same thing- contact the number. After we told her that we did that and my daughter had no dinner, did she call the person who came and took our order for lunch and dinner. 
 

every lunch and dinner food always took around 30-45 mins which for an adult is borderline acceptable considering my husband and I finished our meals while waiting for my daughters food. Toddlers do not understand patience. Eventually we decided to call early from the buffet and then I would show up with my daughter 45 mins later. The last 2 days we just gave up and got her food from the buffet. It was much less stressful and much less food wasteful too. 
 

This is my first time cruising with my daughter, with allergies and on NCL, so everything with her food is new to me. Is this typical for NCL? Does anyone know how other cruise lines deal with special diets? Overall this was pretty ridiculous and stressful/annoying to deal with on our cruise. 

[Roger88]

To be honest I didnt see any mentioning of it on the website. Most of the time its the places on board at the time of travel that have special menus. You have to ask for it inside or you can request this information beforehand from the manager or the tour agency before the cruise. Luckily for me, my wife and daughter we dont have any allergies or special diets. But I mean there should be vegetarians on board for sure. Its a thing nowadays. Anyway, contact them to know for sure 

[FLcruisergrl]

I’ve always had really good experiences with how NCL accommodates my daughter’s Celiac. Sometimes there is a bit of a wait, but that is to be expected because the food is prepared in a completely separate kitchen.  NCL has always bent over backwards to make her what she wanted and always made it very easy. I would say most of what you experienced was not typical.

[poohdreaming]

What you and your whole family experienced was not the norm. I myself had food allergies and filled out a form ahead of time to let them know what allergies I had. Once on board, there was a letter saying to meet with the maitre d' at the dining room to prepare for any food (dinners) after the first day. Each time, the service provided was excellent.

 

Food shouldnt take that long if it was prepared ahead of time unless if they need to preheat it or something else.

Buffet food arent recommend for people with food allergies.

 

If you do cruise with NCL again, hope the second time on another cruise would be better.

[Koali]

Thanks for the replies. Glad to hear that our experience was not normal. 

 

 Every time a server called down, they said the food was never ready. We had even asked if we could pick up the food from the dining room ourselves at a set time every night arranged in advance so we didn’t have to wait. The special diet person was a very nice person but it just seemed very disorganized/ lack of communication and a lot to do for just one person to manage. 
 

 

[BirdTravels]

This is something that should be addressed directly to the ship's General Manager on Day 1 when no one showed up. Not with the working staff. 

[MaryZ]

Wow.  Sorry that happened to you.  Just know other cruise lines are excellent when it comes to peanut allergies.
I think NCL is probably the least efficient when it comes to this. 

[eileeshb]

 It’s not something I’ve experienced myself but the system on the 3 ships I’ve been on was pretty well established.. 

on embarkation go meet with the maitre’d of the main dining rooms, then each day you pick a meal for the *following* day’s dinner to be prepared in the special area of the kitchen. 
I did the behind the scenes tour and the head chef told us there’s a whole area within the kitchen which is used to prepare meals for anyone on special diets or with allergies. He did warn that the other restaurants don’t have a dedicated allergies area in their kitchens and the MDR kitchen does all the pastries for every restaurant on the ship.  That was on getaway and breakaway. To try and keep up with service they kitchen pre-prep hundreds of meals long before meal times, that’s why “special” diet selections are identified a full day early.