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Gluten Free On Carnival

DH Guy

By DH Guy
in Traveling with Celiac Disease

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DH Guy Newbie
DH Guy
Posted

Hello All. I am heading out on a Carnival Cruise this weekend. First one ever, but I am concerned about eating gluten-free. Anyone had any experience with this? What should I eat and avoid? Are they good about food allergies, or should I stick with salad and water?

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Sarahsmile416 Apprentice
Sarahsmile416
Posted

Hi! I just came back from a Carnival Cruise and I had a great experience. I told the hostess at the dining room right away about my food issues and they took care of me for the rest of the cruise. My husband and I even went out to eat at one of the restaurants on the cruise you have to pay to get into and they knew about my food issues before I came in and were ready to tell me which foods were okay and which weren't. Most of the food in the dining room can be made gluten free and will...the only issue is with some of the desserts - I rotated the creme br

Sarahsmile416 Apprentice
Sarahsmile416
Posted

Forgot to add, even in the buffet, if you ask, some foods can be made gluten free. For example, there was a pizza bar of sorts on our cruise and they can make a gluten free pizza if you ask. My husband said the regular pizza was not very good, so I'm hesitant to say the gluten free pizza would be, but opinions may vary

dbruno1602 Newbie
dbruno1602
Posted

Hello All. I am heading out on a Carnival Cruise this weekend. First one ever, but I am concerned about eating gluten-free. Anyone had any experience with this? What should I eat and avoid? Are they good about food allergies, or should I stick with salad and water?

I went on a Carnival Cruise last year and unfortunately did not have very good luck. I would make sure you contact customer service and let them know before you travel. I called 3 times before I went and that didn't even help. You will need to let the Maitre De know that you will be eating gluten-free and they will come to you every night and ask you what you want to eat the next day. Unfortunately, it is difficult to eat anywhere on the ship unless you eat in the Main Dining Room. If you do go to the Lido Deck, look at the buffet and if anything is on either side of the item that you are picking that has gluten in it, don't eat it. I picked everything that I could eat from the back of the trays that no one had touched yet. They will try to tell you that Soy Sauce is OK to eat and I don't know how long you have been eating gluten-free but we all know that is not correct. I would seriously take some Kind Bars with you just in case. I hope you have a wonderful trip, cruises are so much fun.
Sarahsmile416 Apprentice
Sarahsmile416
Posted

I went on a Carnival Cruise last year and unfortunately did not have very good luck. I would make sure you contact customer service and let them know before you travel. I called 3 times before I went and that didn't even help. You will need to let the Maitre De know that you will be eating gluten-free and they will come to you every night and ask you what you want to eat the next day. Unfortunately, it is difficult to eat anywhere on the ship unless you eat in the Main Dining Room. If you do go to the Lido Deck, look at the buffet and if anything is on either side of the item that you are picking that has gluten in it, don't eat it. I picked everything that I could eat from the back of the trays that no one had touched yet. They will try to tell you that Soy Sauce is OK to eat and I don't know how long you have been eating gluten-free but we all know that is not correct. I would seriously take some Kind Bars with you just in case. I hope you have a wonderful trip, cruises are so much fun.

Out of curiosity, which ship did you go on? I have heard some are certainly not as good as others. Like I said, I had good luck with the Dream and had read on Cruise Critic that others had as well, but have definitely heard other Carnival ships were not as good in terms of that.

Christine0125 Contributor
Christine0125
Posted

I had good luck on the Splendor and hav high hopes for my upcoming trip on the Pride. The main dining room is much easier than the buffet but salads, fruits and such suited me well when the dining room was closer. This time I plan to take some buns for hamburgers and hot dogs si ce my 9 year old is newly diagnosed.

  • 3 weeks later...
Tosca3 Newbie
Tosca3
Posted

I too would not recommend Carnival. We sailed on the Glory in 2010. My daughter has celiac disease. We advised Carnival of our gluten free needs and were promised up and down that there would be ample gluten free food from which to choose. We watched the pizza guy prepare a gluten free pizza only to place it on the same surface that he had just cut up a "regular" pizza and then hand it to me as gluten free. I can only imagine how sick my daughter would have gotten had I not been watching him...The next day we were told there was no more gluten free pizza dough available. After some pressuring, gluten free dough magically appeared! My daughter had ordered gluten free waffles for breakfast the next morning. When they arrived, the waffles looked TOO good to be gluten free (especially after the awful pancakes she was served the prior morning). I questioned them being gluten free and the waitress kept coming back and saying that the chef insists they are gluten free. At one point the chef sent back the ingredient list for the waffle mix - low and behold the 1st listed ingredient - WHEAT FLOUR!

So beware of what you are promised on Carnival - again, we were promised pizza, desserts, entrees, etc - and received subpar food, an occasional dessert and contaminated food.

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      almost a year in recovery - so many questions about to give up

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    • Rejoicephd
      Struggling to get into a good pattern

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      Thank you @cristiana.  Its really helpful to hear your experience, thanks for sharing.  8 years is a long time!  And its also good to know that others have experienced worsening before it gets better.  I've just started doing the food diary recently, and I'll keep that going. It's at least helping me try to get a handle on this, and also helps increase my overall awareness of what I'm putting in my body. I will also message my GI doc in the meantime too.  Thanks, it's really helpful to talk through this.  
    • trents
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    • junell
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    • cristiana
      Struggling to get into a good pattern

      By cristiana · Posted

      I think going back to your GI isn't a bad idea - my visits to the GI did not stop following my diagnosis as I had annoying issues on and off for some time.  Thankfully he is a fantastic GI, with  a great sense of humour, so it wasn't a chore to see him again although I'd rather not have had to, obviously!  But I needed my mind to be put at rest as my symptoms didn't seem to go away overnight as I'd hoped they would.  Initially I recall he recommended I went Dairy Free for three weeks, and he told me it would take that time to see an effect.  At that time, even lactose free milk went straight through me, so it is important, I would say, to even avoid that during a Dairy Free trial. My ongoing symptoms were bloating which did respond a bit to that trial.   However, within about 18 months there was a return to a very sore stomach, plus various aches and pains.   It turned out some gluten was sneaking in with my iron supplement (I was buying Floradix instead of Floravital), but I also think the dishwasher, the oven and eating out were contributors, too. Before my numbers normalised (from memory, about eight years!) I had several follow up appointments and a few more tests, but things gradually did get better.  Having read many accounts on this forum over the years, I don't think it is uncommon for symptoms to get a bit worse before getting better, that was certainly the case with me.  Your gut is damaged so you may well have issues digesting other food in the short term. But do try to be as scrupulously gluten free as you can possibly be as a first step, and I'd definitely try a three week Dairy Free trial.   Your villi because they are damaged are not able to create the lactase required to digest dairy at this time so you may well see some improvement if you come off dairy for a while.  Perhaps keeping a food diary of what you eat, where you eat it, whilst a bit onerous to do, will help identify foods that are causing issues.  For a while, apart from oats, I found peas, lentils and soya products hugely aggravating.  Things should calm down.
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