Cruising with Food Reactions and Other Dietary Issues

In February, I went on a five-night cruise with Carnival Cruise Lines. It was my first time going on a cruise since I developed my food reactions and other dietary issues. I was extremely anxious about the trip, but everything seemed to go well. I contacted the cruise line about my food reactions well before our trip. I also made sure to go over my food reactions with the food staff, and having my card listing my food reactions made this much easier. I also packed a cooler with snack foods.

We booked our cruise in July. At that time, I located the contact information for Carnival’s Special Needs department and contacted them with my booking number and list of food reactions. However, I’m not sure if the staff actually did anything with that information because when I went to the dining room for my first meal, they still used my card to input my allergy information. It ended up not causing a problem. In the weeks leading up to the trip, I made a list of snacks that I thought would help in case finding safe food options was a problem or if I needed a snack to correct a nutrient imbalance caused by a meal. I ended up packing into a cooler a six-pack of V8 juice, peanut butter and chocolate chip Larabars, 100-calorie packs of almonds, a package of small Hershey bars, boxes of Craisins, a box of beef sticks, and some Pressed by Kind bars.

The day of the cruise, the ship had a delay coming in to port due to intense fog that morning. We ended up boarding the ship a few hours after our appointment time, and it was nearly 8:30 before I was able to get to the dining room to eat dinner. I had split from the rest of my party, and my cell phone was in the stateroom charging. I didn’t have a way to get in contact with them. Before then, I tried to go to guest services to see if I could talk to someone about my dietary issues. The line was extremely long. I decided not to deal with guest services and go on to the dining room. I had a hard time getting to the entrance to the dining room. It took some doing, but depending on what elevator you used, you might have to go up a flight of stairs, walk across the upper floor, and then go back down a flight of stairs to get to the dining room entrance. After ending up in the wrong spot several times and trying to talk to the staff to get to where I needed to be, I finally found the right dining room entrance. I spoke with the server about my food reactions and gave her my card. She entered the information in their system. I was seated and given a menu. The server helped me pick out safe menu items. They gave me a plate of fresh fruit for dessert. They said that was the best they could do since they did not have advanced notice of my food reactions. I said that was perfectly fine, and I enjoyed the plate of fruit. After eating, I was given the opportunity to go over the menu for the next evening and pick out what I wanted. Ordering a day ahead would give the food staff the time they needed to prepare the meal in a way that would be safe for me to eat. I had started getting a cold the day before we left, and it had gotten quite a bit worse that evening. I decided I would just go back to the room, use my phone to get in touch with the others if they were not there, and get ready for bed. It turned out they were in the room when I got back there, and they had eaten dinner elsewhere. We all had a good meal that night.

The next day was a full day at sea. At breakfast, I winged it by picking out safe-looking menu items and asking questions when needed. Breakfast went fine. However, lunch was another story. I used the cruise ship’s mobile app to find out what was going on for lunch. Everything looked like buffet options. I went to the Guest Services desk to inquire about safe options for lunch. She didn’t really answer my question but said she would send out alerts to the dining staff about my food allergies. People were lined up all over the place waiting to get lunch, and the food service workers were extremely busy serving them and keeping the food coming. I ended up just going back to my room and raiding my cooler for snacks to eat for lunch. I just didn’t want to take a risk at any of the buffet stations. Later, I tried to get some sushi at a sushi station. I’d never eaten sushi and never cared to try it before, but I was desperate for some real food. I had to talk to the food servers about what ingredients I needed to avoid and about cross-contamination. At least there were no long lines there. What I got ended up being safe. Dinner that night went well. I got a gluten-free version of the Carnival melting chocolate cake, and it was delicious! I ended up having it for dessert every night for the rest of the cruise.

The second full day of the cruise, we stopped at Half Moon Cay. I pretty much resigned myself to eating the snacks out of my cooler again for lunch since all that was available to eat at lunchtime was buffet-style fare. Since I wanted to go back to the ship anyway to get my digital camera fitted into its underwater casing, I went back to the ship to eat lunch in my room and then fix up my camera while I was there. After doing those things, I took the ferry back to the island. I didn’t really get any good pictures underwater with it. We had a snorkeling excursion that was cancelled that day because of the choppy waters. We just enjoyed hanging out at the beach. Dinner went well as usual, and I thoroughly enjoyed my melting chocolate cake again for dessert. That night was our elegant dinner, and we enjoyed dressing up and having our pictures made. The servers in the dining room put on a little show for us, and some of the diners got up and danced along with them.

We stopped at Nassau the next day. I did some searching on Find Me Gluten Free before the trip to see if there would be any restaurants in the area that had gluten-free options available. We found a restaurant called Lukka Kairi that was right near the dock. I was hopeful that I’d be able to eat on the ship since we’d already paid for those meals, but with the buffets being the only areas open, I would have to eat at a restaurant in Nassau. I was so thankful I’d done that research ahead of time. We went to Lukka Kairi and had a good but expensive lunch there. I ordered the whole steamed snapper. It was delicious. That night, I went to the dining room by myself. I decided to take the chance to ask the server about food options at lunchtime so I wouldn’t have to eat snacks in my room again. He said that on days at sea, the brunch in the dining room runs until 1:00. I didn’t notice that when I looked through the app on the first sea day. I decided for the next day, which would be a day at sea, that I would just eat the brunch for both breakfast and lunch.

Breakfast and lunch on that next day at sea went fine. Like other times at breakfast, I just ordered safe-looking options from the menu and asked the server questions when needed. Actually, this worked very well for me at each breakfast and lunch that last day at sea. However, one morning at breakfast, I had ordered a hot chocolate and felt off the rest of the day. When I started having stomach problems that evening, I pulled out my Benadryl and Zantac to see if those would help. My symptoms subsided. I had hot chocolate a couple of other times in one of the other dining areas, and it never bothered me then, so I wonder if somehow things were mishandled when that particular mug of hot chocolate was made. That was the only time on the trip I noticed having a reaction. That night was our last dinner on the ship. My serving of melting chocolate cake that night had two scoops of ice cream instead of one. Everything was delicious. The servers gave us a wonderful performance for our last night on the ship. For our final meal on the ship, breakfast the next day, I ordered off the menu as usual and got to sit with a woman who was trying to go gluten-free for joint problems and with another couple whose niece has celiac disease. I had a great conversation with them.

Dining on a cruise ship wasn’t as bad as I thought it might end up being. While I was disappointed that there were not better options for lunch, breakfast (and lunch on the last sea day) as well as dinner on the ship went well. The servers were attentive and were able to answer my questions. The only complaint I had about having to eat in the dining room is that it took a long time to get food.  If I could have eaten in the buffet areas, I certainly would have done so to get food quickly.  It was also good to have a list of restaurants in Nassau with gluten-free options, and it was terrific that we were able to find one of those and eat there. Other than the one mishap with the hot chocolate, I never noticed any issues or had any other reactions. I really enjoyed my first cruise vacation since developing all my food issues and am looking forward to my next cruise vacation!

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