Jump to content

  • You are not alone. Join Celiac.com for trusted gluten-free answers and forum support.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

Great Experience On Celebrity Cruises..

LauraB0927

Recommended Posts

LauraB0927 Apprentice
LauraB0927
Posted

Hello everyone!

    I haven't been active in a while - very busy with my wedding plans, school, etc.  Now that it's all done I wanted to share my surprisingly fantastic experience on a Celebrity Cruise.  For our honeymoon, we booked a cruise through Celebrity for 12 nights in the Mediterranean (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Malta, Spain, etc).  Needless to say, I was absolutely terrified about eating and getting sick.  I dreaded the thought of being stuck in the bathroom for days when I should be enjoying my honeymoon with my new husband.  After calling the customer service line multiple times to confirm over and over again that the cruise line was aware that I had Celiac and needed to be on a very strict diet, I took a deep breath, boarded the ship, and waited to see what happened.  I couldn't be more surprised...

    Every single staff member new what "Celiac" and "gluten free" meant, even the ones that had some difficulty speaking English.  I never had a single problem finding food, even at the buffet where I thought I would have mini heart attacks every time I passed through there.  I was able to go to the Pizza Station in the all-day buffet and request a gluten free pizza.  A staff member would call for a gluten free crust to be brought up to the kitchen, staff changed their gloves, and they would make me any kind of pizza I wanted on a separate section of the oven reserved for gluten free items.  Same with the Pasta Station - they actually knew to boil new water for me and my gluten free pasta in a separate pot (trust me, I watched).  Every staff member was able to help me pick out gluten free items at the buffet (I know, we all cringe when we hear buffet, but it was a cruise with mostly adults and people were really good about keeping the spoons separate)   

    At dinner in the main dining hall, there was always warm toasted gluten free bread waiting for me each night.  Again, the staff were extremely knowledgeable about gluten-free food.  They had each item on the menu labeled to tell if you if it was gluten free, dairy free, nut free, or "no extra sugar added."  Regardless, they knew I had Celiac and made sure that my food was not cross contaminated.  I got to order my meal in advance to make sure that it was able to be prepared gluten free.  The food supervisor would come to my table each night with the next day's menu and would directly take my order.  

   I was even surprised that the specialty restaurants were able to accommodate me - the Asian restaurant was able to provide me with gluten free Pad Thai food with Asian fried rice with gluten free soy sauce.  The Italian restaurant made me fresh gluten free bread - it was so good that I actually had to ask the waiter to check to make sure it was gluten free.  They even had gluten free croutons for my salad.

   By day 2 I was incredibly comfortable and actually ate better on the cruise than I ever did at home (the extra 5 pounds I put on is proof of that!).  I WILL be sailing with Celebrity again because of this experience.  I wanted to share to let everyone know that you can have a good experience on a cruise!     

 

Laura

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


notme Experienced
notme
Posted

that's awesome, laura!   my kids were looking at cruises - something we could all do together, as they are grown and live hither and yon lolz - and i was a little wigged at the thought of depending on Other People to keep me eating safely.  that is great news that celebrity can do it right :)  they were looking at the disney cruise, too, because of the grandkids.  so, that is something in celebrity's favor when they finally make up their minds!

 

congratulations!   and i hope the wedding was awesome but i hope the marriage is even better ;)

cyclinglady Grand Master
cyclinglady
Posted

Best wishes to you!  

 

Have not cruised yet since my dx, but I'm glad to hear that Celebrity was so accommodating!

MinnesotaCeliac Rookie
MinnesotaCeliac
Posted

Hello Laura,

 

I'm glad you had a positive experience. May I ask what ship you were you on? The staff and knowledge make all the difference in how comfortable one is on a cruise.

 

My wife loves cruises (and now so do I).  I  feel I can travel again knowing I'll have safe (and even hot) food. My first cruise I brought a full suitcase of food, now it is mostly just snacks.  I've had mostly positive experiences on all the cruise lines I've been on (Celebrity, RC, Princess and NCL).  I believe Celebrity was one of the first cruises after my DX.  I had a headwaiter/ Asst Maitre'd (I think his name was Marcel) he was pretty amazing. I was even able to take a galley tour to see where my (and others with special diets) were made (made me feel more comfortible). I just wish all meals were available including lunch. I still can't get past the Buffet hang-up, but good on you ( I hope I get there one of these days)!!!  I'm taking another cruise most likely on Celebrity this coming winter.

 

 

Thanks again for sharing!

 

~Erik

LauraB0927 Apprentice
LauraB0927
Posted
  • Author

Hello Laura,

 

I'm glad you had a positive experience. May I ask what ship you were you on? The staff and knowledge make all the difference in how comfortable one is on a cruise.

 

My wife loves cruises (and now so do I).  I  feel I can travel again knowing I'll have safe (and even hot) food. My first cruise I brought a full suitcase of food, now it is mostly just snacks.  I've had mostly positive experiences on all the cruise lines I've been on (Celebrity, RC, Princess and NCL).  I believe Celebrity was one of the first cruises after my DX.  I had a headwaiter/ Asst Maitre'd (I think his name was Marcel) he was pretty amazing. I was even able to take a galley tour to see where my (and others with special diets) were made (made me feel more comfortible). I just wish all meals were available including lunch. I still can't get past the Buffet hang-up, but good on you ( I hope I get there one of these days)!!!  I'm taking another cruise most likely on Celebrity this coming winter.

 

 

Thanks again for sharing!

 

~Erik

Hi Erik!  The ship we were on was the Celebrity Equinox - it stays mostly in Europe but it does some Caribbean tours too.  What did you mean when you said that you wished all meals were available, including lunch?  They didn't have lunch for you on your cruise???  I didn't have a problem with any meal and they always had gluten free bread and options available anywhere I went on the ship.  Sorry to hear that you may have had a problem!!  I too brought a whole bunch of snacks and didnt end up needing most of them - I would just take a few in my bag for the all day excursions off of the ship.  Glad to hear you had good experiences on other cruise lines!! 

MinnesotaCeliac Rookie
MinnesotaCeliac
Posted

Hi Erik!  The ship we were on was the Celebrity Equinox - it stays mostly in Europe but it does some Caribbean tours too.  What did you mean when you said that you wished all meals were available, including lunch?  They didn't have lunch for you on your cruise???  I didn't have a problem with any meal and they always had gluten free bread and options available anywhere I went on the ship.  Sorry to hear that you may have had a problem!!  I too brought a whole bunch of snacks and didnt end up needing most of them - I would just take a few in my bag for the all day excursions off of the ship.  Glad to hear you had good experiences on other cruise lines!!

It wasnt a bad experience, just wishing that since i can always pre-order my breakfest and dinner in the main dinning room they would also do it for lunch (these are made in a designated area of the galley to mitigate cc risk) On some ships only the buffet is open for lunch and since I'm not comfortable with eating at the buffet I just skip lunch and eat a protien bar. I'll be on the Celebrity Reflection this coming winter and expect to have an awesome time. This will be cruise #5 since dx and the cruise lines are getting better and better regarding accomidating a celiac diet/safety each time. Cheers!

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Donate
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):



    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):



  • Recent Activity

    1. CC90
      - CC90 replied to CC90's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      10

      Coeliac or not coeliac

      Hi Cristiana Yes I've had the biopsy results showing normal villi and intestinal mucosa. The repeat endoscopy (requested by the gastro doc) would be to take samples from further into the intestine than the previous endoscopy reached.
    2. Wheatwacked
      - Wheatwacked replied to CC90's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      10

      Coeliac or not coeliac

      Transglutaminase IgA is the gold-standard blood test for celiac disease. Sensitivity of over 90% and specificity of 95–99%. It rarely produces false positives. An elevated level means your immune system is reacting to gluten. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) does not typically cause high levels of tTG-IgA. Unfortunately the protocols for a diagnosis o...
    3. Wheatwacked
      - Wheatwacked commented on Scott Adams's article in Origins of Celiac Disease
      19

      Do Antibiotics in Babies Increase Celiac Disease Risk Later in Life? (+Video)

      In Addison’s disease, autoimmmune adrenal cortex disease adrenal glands don't make enough cortisol. At 12, it is usually caused by an autoimmune attack. It has a strong genetic link to the HLA-DQ8 gene. After 12 gluten free and 14 years on prednisone for adrenal insufficiency (symptoms like you describe from 1984 until 2014) I recently removed all c...
    4. trents
      - trents replied to CC90's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      10

      Coeliac or not coeliac

      Cristiana asks a very relevant question. What looks normal to the naked eye may not look normal under the microscope.
    5. cristiana
      - cristiana replied to CC90's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      10

      Coeliac or not coeliac

      Hello @CC90 Can I just ask a question: have you actually been told that your biopsy were normal, or just that your stomach, duodenum and small intestine looked normal? The reason I ask is that when I had my endoscopy, I was told everything looked normal. My TTG score was completely through the roof at the time, greater than 100 which was then the cut...
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):

  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      134,187
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      10,442
    Dennis E. Schertz
    Newest Member
    Dennis E. Schertz
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.7k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):

  • Who's Online (See full list)

    • There are no registered users currently online

  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • CC90
      Coeliac or not coeliac

      By CC90 · Posted

      Hi Cristiana   Yes I've had the biopsy results showing normal villi and intestinal mucosa.  The repeat endoscopy (requested by the gastro doc) would be to take samples from further into the intestine than the previous endoscopy reached.      
    • Wheatwacked
      Coeliac or not coeliac

      By Wheatwacked · Posted

      Transglutaminase IgA is the gold-standard blood test for celiac disease. Sensitivity of over 90% and specificity of 95–99%. It rarely produces false positives.  An elevated level means your immune system is reacting to gluten.  Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity (NCGS) does not typically cause high levels of tTG-IgA. Unfortunately the protocols for a diagnosis of Celiac Disease are aimed at proving you don't have it, leaving you twisting in the wind. Genetic testing and improvement on a trial gluten free diet, also avoiding milk protein, will likely show improvement in short order if it is Celiac; but will that satisfy the medical system for a diagnosis? If you do end up scheduling a repeat endoscopy, be sure to eat up to 10 grams of gluten for 8 - 12 weeks.  You want  to create maximum damage. Not a medical opinion, but my vote is yes.
    • trents
      Coeliac or not coeliac

      By trents · Posted

      Cristiana asks a very relevant question. What looks normal to the naked eye may not look normal under the microscope.
    • cristiana
      Coeliac or not coeliac

      By cristiana · Posted

      Hello @CC90 Can I just ask a question: have you actually been told that your biopsy were normal, or just that your stomach, duodenum and small intestine looked normal? The reason I ask is that when I had my endoscopy, I was told everything looked normal.  My TTG score was completely through the roof at the time, greater than 100 which was then the cut off max. for my local lab.  Yet when my biopsy results came back, I was told I was stage 3 on the Marsh scale.  I've come across the same thing with at least one other person on this forum who was told everything looked normal, but the report was not talking about the actual biopsy samples, which had to be looked at through a microscope and came back abnormal.
    • trents
      Coeliac or not coeliac

      By trents · Posted

      My bad. I should have reread your first post as for some reason I was thinking your TTG was within normal range. While we are talking about celiac antibody blood work, you might not realize that there is not yet an industry standard rating scale in use for those blood tests so just having a raw number with out the reference scale can be less than helpful, especially when the test results are marginal. But a result of 87.4 is probably out of the normal range and into the positive range for any lab's scale. But back to the question of why your endoscopy/biopsy didn't show damage despite significantly positive TTG. Because they took the trouble to take seven samples, it is not likely they missed damage because of it being patchy. The other possibility is that there hasn't been time for the damage to show up. How long have you been experiencing the symptoms you describe in your first post? Having said all that, there are other medical conditions that can cause elevated TTG-IGA values and sometimes they are transient issues. I think it would be wise to ask for another TTG-IGA before the repeat endoscopy to see if it is still high.  Knitty kitty's suggestion of getting genetic testing done is also something to think about. About 35% of the general population will have one or both genes that are markers for the potential to develop active celiac disease but only about 1% of the population actually develop celiac disease. So, having a celiac potential gene cannot be used to definitively diagnose celiac disease but it can be realistically used to rule it out if you don't have either of the genes. If your symptoms persist, and all testing is complete and the follow-up endoscopy/biopsy still shows no damage, you should consider trialing a gluten free diet for a few months to see if symptoms improve. If not celiac disease, you could have NCGS (Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity). 
×
×
  • Create New...