Gluten Free dining/Tea Bag brand/Sweet n Low?

[MaisonRose]

I haven’t sailed Princess in five years, so I’ve forgotten. I’m at an age that regards such things as tea and sweetener important, and of Course Gluten sensitivity something I must regard carefully. If you’ve experience with GF yourself, please describe the drill.

 

As for tea bag and sweetener brands, let me know what to expect. No complaints here as I’m willing to bring my own choices!

Thanks: we’re on the 23 day Emerald TA from FLL on 16 April

                  . ❤️ Bigelow Earl Gray & Sweet n Low.

Susan.

[VibeGuy]

The pink stuff is definitely available in the MDR.

[geoherb]

I believe they had Bigelow in the dining rooms and buffet on my last cruise. I think they may have had a knock-off of the artificial sweeteners. The packets are the same colors as Sweet and Low, Splenda, and Equal and have the same artificial ingredients corresponding to the name brands. Thus, the pink has saccharin just like Sweet and Low.

 

Mighty Leaf teas are available at the International Cafe. They're included if you're on Princess Plus or have a coffee package. On our last transatlantic cruise, I bought the coffee package so I could pick up tea bags for free from there to take to the dining room. DH got to enjoy having a cappuccino after dinner each night.

[donaldsc]

My daughter has celiac disease.  She had no problems cruising.

 

DON

[pedirn]

I have always marked my reservation with the fact I am gluten free.  There is a section where you can submit the information.   I usually receive a confirmation of this fact.  Once on board at the first dinner I notify the waiter who puts me in touch with a head waiter.  For the rest of the cruise that is my contact person and they review the next day’s menus with me and I order what I can eat for the next day.  They also review what can be adapted such as alfredo made with GF pasta instead of fettuccine.  This is more difficult in the buffet but staff generally are very helpful.

 

The big downfall is with the bread products.  They will serve you the same GF toast at every meal.   I have gotten used to bringing some of my own things.   We cruise in two weeks and I will be carrying on board a bag with a couple of hamburger buns, ciabatta rolls and some cookies/snacks.   This is the one area where I wish they would improve.  They do have a GF mystery dessert every night and they vary in taste    But there are a lot of puddings and jellos   As with toast…not much variety.    
 

But I do fine and have no problem finding choices to eat.   I can say I have never been glutened on a Princess ship.  I can’t say the same for RCCL.

As for tea….I drink a lot of green tea.  I do know they had Bigelow in the past but there again I will be bringing my some of my own as last couple of times their green tea was green tea with mint and I am not a fan of flavored teas (nor flavored coffees).

[beg3yrs]

DW is celiac and pedirn's post is spot-on, it matches our experiences perfectly.

 

On the Emerald Princess last month she found the french fries on the Lido Deck grill are GF as the fryer there is only for fries, nothing else - no cross-contamination. She was very happy!

[moodyb1]

Schar brand has wonderful breadsticks, if you can find them in your area, or you can order them on Amazon. They do get a bit broken up when traveling, but are yummy. I always bring a baggy of them to dinner. They have a wonderful line of products that you might consider when traveling.

 

Arlene

[MaisonRose]

Thanks for everyone giving your helpful advice. I was on the QM2 in Dec and was served white bread, GF, at dinner. Yuk..as we know, gf Bread is the pits except maybe UDIs.

 

On the Queen Mary there was only one soup, one lunch, that was gluten free. That was sad since potato flakes can be a decent thickener. I digress.

 

People with Celiacs know very well that there are thousands of wonderful recipes: my husband doesn’t know that he’s been eating GF for years! I wish the Chef would make an effort. It probably is driven by numbers: perhaps there’s not enough of us to make it worth their while. 🥴

 

Thanks again!

Susan

 

[MustangGT]

On our recent cruises on Regal - 12/29 - 1/14, they had only Splenda at first and then that was replaced with another brand.  Hopefully supplies are getting better.

[MJC]

We are on CB and my mint tea was Bigelow but DH had chamomile that was Lipton. Waiter said they are changing over to Lipton products. Dont know if that applies to all ships and sailings, just this one? Supply chains are so unstable.

[palolake]

I had Twinnings English Breakfast in the dining room every morning.  Sweetners are name brand.

 

[Vexorg]

My sister in law has Celiac, and has had no trouble with cruising.  Just make sure the dining room staff is aware of it, and what they typically do is bring the next day's menu to your table at the MDR and review it with you to advise on which items can be made gluten free.  If there's something that requires special preparation, you can pre-order it there so it's ready for you tomorrow.

 

On our most recent cruise on the Caribbean Princess in December, the tea served at Afternoon Tea was Bigelow.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Vexorg

[MaisonRose]

Thanks: I’m following everyone’s information.

[Rick&Jeannie]

As far as the artificial sweetener goes...I think they just use whatever they can get for a good price.  I've seen several different brands.

[rj59]

On the Majestic now. They have Twinings breakfast and green teas, and a wide selection of Bigelow, including herbal and decaf. I have a large Zohirushi thermos that I fill with hot water, so I can have tea wherever I’m at. There’s also a high tea in the dining room daily at 3.

[brisalta]

Regarding gluten free diet:

 

In the Medallion app go 'My Preferences'

Select 'Dining'

Click on 'Next' button at the bottom of the page and it will go to Diet page.

Then select 'Gluten Free'

Select 'Next' then select 'Save'

You will receive an email in a few days regarding diet.

Make sure to do this well before the cruise embarkation date.

 

This used to be in the Web based cruise personalizer some time back and was easier to use then.

Edited February 4, 2022 by brisalta

[MaisonRose]

On 2/3/2022 at 11:37 PM, brisalta said:

Regarding gluten free diet:

 

In the Medallion app go 'My Preferences'

Select 'Dining'

Click on 'Next' button at the bottom of the page and it will go to Diet page.

Then select 'Gluten Free'

Select 'Next' then select 'Save'

You will receive an email in a few days regarding diet.

Make sure to do this well before the cruise embarkation date.

 

This used to be in the Web based cruise personalizer some time back and was easier to use then.

Thank you. Now it’s done.

crazy ????  Must all of this be done in the Medallion app?

I downloaded and started doing the profiles, etc, at least two weeks ago but nothing has arrived in the mail. Perhaps they have a ( Sailing date) chronological order. I refuse to 🤓worry about it.

Susan

[peachykiehn]

We traveled recently with my DD who is GF. She enjoyed the GF pizza both at Alfredo’s (if the ship you are on has one) and the pizza place on the Lido deck. We were also celebrating her graduation from nursing school and the special order GF celebration cake was very good even the nonGF family members ate some. 

[Ladyshopper23]

We did 2 cruises on Sky Princess last year, and we are both coeliac. I actually wrote blog posts about them which are quite detailed, so if you want to have a look to get some ideas, you can find it here:

glutenfreetravelwithme.com

 

Our experience was pretty good in general. As another poster said, the bread situation is pretty dire, they really need to improve this! Also, the muffins and cakes are really dry. We actually took some gluten free flour, xanathan gum and recipes on board with us, and the chefs were kind enough to make them. It really made all the difference! If only they could make baked goods with proper flour and ingredients it would make them so much better.

[pedirn]

1 hour ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

We did 2 cruises on Sky Princess last year, and we are both coeliac. I actually wrote blog posts about them which are quite detailed, so if you want to have a look to get some ideas, you can find it here:

glutenfreetravelwithme.com

 

Our experience was pretty good in general. As another poster said, the bread situation is pretty dire, they really need to improve this! Also, the muffins and cakes are really dry. We actually took some gluten free flour, xanathan gum and recipes on board with us, and the chefs were kind enough to make them. It really made all the difference! If only they could make baked goods with proper flour and ingredients it would make them so much better.

Just read your blog.   Very informative.   I have never seen signage like that marking gluten free in buffet.   We sail on the Regal in a week and I hope they have upgraded signage and offerings to reflect what you experience on the sky.

[Ladyshopper23]

Just now, pedirn said:

Just read your blog.   Very informative.   I have never seen signage like that marking gluten free in buffet.   We sail on the Regal in a week and I hope they have upgraded signage and offerings to reflect what you experience on the sky.

I'd love it if you were to come back on here and let me know! We've booked a cruise on the Regal Princess in August, so will be interesting to see how much our experience differs to the Sky.

[pedirn]

27 minutes ago, Ladyshopper23 said:

I'd love it if you were to come back on here and let me know! We've booked a cruise on the Regal Princess in August, so will be interesting to see how much our experience differs to the Sky.

I will definitely let you know how it is.   This will be our third time on the Regal and I was treated well the past two times.  The only thing different is we have Club Class dining this time.   I never thought of taking baking supplies and recipes.   As stated before I am packing hamburger/hotdog rolls , Tates cookies,   Schar ciabatta rolls.   Also have a couple of homemade cookies I might bring.    Do you think they would toast my own bread/english muffins if I were to bring a couple?

[Ladyshopper23]

Just now, pedirn said:

I will definitely let you know how it is.   This will be our third time on the Regal and I was treated well the past two times.  The only thing different is we have Club Class dining this time.   I never thought of taking baking supplies and recipes.   As stated before I am packing hamburger/hotdog rolls , Tates cookies,   Schar ciabatta rolls.   Also have a couple of homemade cookies I might bring.    Do you think they would toast my own bread/english muffins if I were to bring a couple?

I'm sure they would. I debated taking the stuff with me that I did, but I figured the worst they could say was no. But luckily, they said yes, and it was fantastic. I think as long as you have a decent head waiter in the main dining room, they'll be happy to facilitate pretty much anything.

As I said in the blog, I also found the chefs in the buffet really helpful. It can be a bit tricky being vegetarian as well as gluten free, but they were so happy to whip something up for me if there was nothing suitable, and their stir fries were absolutely delicious. They were really knowledgeable about not using soy sauce etc, and used a completely clean pan. They also made fresh french fries for us a few times when the ones on the buffet weren't suitable because they'd been cooked in contaminated oil.

We were lucky enough to do 4 different cruise last year, and we figured out that you really have to ask for things, as no cruise line was particularly forthcoming about all the different things they could do, but if you did ask, they were more than happy to assist.

[qqwer123]

I’m allergic to gluten. Every sailing I talk my waiter the first day and he takes care of everything for the future. They have snacks and gf stuff at the Buffett..I’m pretty vigilant about asking because even a little will ruin my trip. I bring my own stevia too. On your info for your cruise when you fill it in for your medallion there’s an allergy page. Make sure to fill it in.