New to gluten free - Does anyone have experience getting dishes modified to be gluten free?

[cmph]

FYI to the PP who didn't get menus handed to them nightly - the menus for the entire length of the cruise are on the app as soon as you arrive. Gluten-free is marked, so you will know what's available without pre-ordering the first day, for every night of your cruise. Possibly they assume everyone accesses the menu on the app now so they don't bother to provide printed menus? DH didn't bother to pre-order. I guess he is not that picky, b/c he is happy with all the options. Or he's had celiac for long enough to know how much better his options are these days! He was diagnosed 8 years ago.

The only issue he had (and we've only been on 7nt DCLs, not the shorter ones) are that a couple nights, there are no marked gf desserts. A couple of times he didn't care b/c he was stuffed already and just asked for fruit. Another night our server told him he'd take care of him, no worries, and he got a really nice off-menu creme brulee. But that was on the spot, not pre-ordered.

 

[ludari]

I cruised with my friend and I made sure that when we booked that it was noted she required the GF menu. During our first dinner in the MDR the dinning staff confirmed that she required GF menu and they explained her dinner options. Before we left for the evening they showed her the menu for tomorrows dinner and she made her meal selection (this occurred every evening for the next days dinner). We also had brunch at Palo and the chef came out to explain what items she could select from the buffet and what he could prepare for her. Overall my friend said that the dinning staff went above and beyond her special dietary needs.

 

[aliceinvunderland]

DCL is the easiest vacation to be GF! I would say that it was a little overwhelming to walk into Cabanas the first day, find a manager to determine what I could eat, and be asked “What do you want to eat? We will make anything!” I’m so used to being shown a very small selection of food that is “safe,” that I was caught off guard by the possibility of having just about anything on the menu! Everyone was so accommodating to my dietary needs, and I loved being able to eat things I don’t normally get to eat—chicken fingers, Mickey waffles, etc. Unfortunately, my servers in the MDR weren’t as GF savvy as I had hoped, but I knew enough to ask for a menu each night to pre-order for the following night.

One of my favorite items was the Crunchy Walnut Cake in Animators Palate. I’m not a huge fan of nuts in desserts, but this was delicious! (I believe the nuts just made up the crust.) Don’t miss it!

 

[Dug720]

DCL is the easiest vacation to be GF! I would say that it was a little overwhelming to walk into Cabanas the first day, find a manager to determine what I could eat, and be asked “What do you want to eat? We will make anything!” I’m so used to being shown a very small selection of food that is “safe,” that I was caught off guard by the possibility of having just about anything on the menu! Everyone was so accommodating to my dietary needs, and I loved being able to eat things I don’t normally get to eat—chicken fingers, Mickey waffles, etc. Unfortunately, my servers in the MDR weren’t as GF savvy as I had hoped, but I knew enough to ask for a menu each night to pre-order for the following night.

One of my favorite items was the Crunchy Walnut Cake in Animators Palate. I’m not a huge fan of nuts in desserts, but this was delicious! (I believe the nuts just made up the crust.) Don’t miss it!

In terms of “finding a manager” just speak with any CM (even the one with wipes) and they will get the manager for you. No need to walk around and try to find one on your own.

 

[stout]

I am sitting in the Miami airport after disembarking our B2B on the Magic. My DD6 was diagnosed with celiac just this past May. This vacation was the first time that I have left the cooking to someone else...and she was absolutely happy and healthy for all 9 days on board. Even my husband and I chose to eat GF on this cruise as eating GF just makes us feel better. Our head server was Ramsey and our server was Anakit...they were phenomenal—they were truly in tune to what GF means and were willing to have ANYthing made to her/our taste. From the first lunch at Lumiere’s to the last breakfast from Cananas this morning, the meals were tasty and healthy. Our only complaint was that there was a different head server who we occasionally encountered in Cabanas, and he could never seem to find the preorder ticket or get the order right (this happened three times)...but he was truly the exception. One thing that we felt worked best is that we wrote down our requests for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as the restaurant we would visit and the approximate time we would be there, for our whole family of 4, including our DD12 who has an unrestricted diet...we would hand it to our server at dinner, our head server would come over during dinner and review the list with us, the server would make up the “pink tickets” that evening, and absent the issues mentioned above, everything was perfect. As others have mentioned, for Castaway Cay, we found eating onboard with pick up at Cabanas was the best option...we got shrimp fried rice and roasted veggies on one of our Castaway Cay days...so good! Palo brunch and dinner were awesome (Sasha was our server for all three times we dined there and knew we were eating GF before we even say down for our first brunch), as...GF flatbread, scallops, risotto, lava cake...so much on the menu can be made GF. We did not like the GF bread/buns nor the rice noodles anywhere onboard, but just avoided those as much as possible. Please feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.

 

[shellymo]

My daughter has a gluten allergy and we will be going on her third cruise next month. She is looking forward to the food most of all! They prepare many things gluten free and had her look at the menus a day ahead of time. At Palo brunch the server will point out all the options on the buffet that are gluten free and then the main entree can be made gluten free in a lot of cases. She has the best food she says anywhere when she is on a Disney cruise.

 

[DisneyNoob13]

I've had CD since 2009 and all of our cruises have been on Disney since. I've never had an issue...I will say that on the shorter cruises you have a chance of getting lost in the shuffle sometimes, but like others have said, you have to advocate for yourself in those situations. I've probably had upwards of 300 meals on DCL now and have NEVER had a medical reaction. I personally prefer to pre-order dinner if possible, and we always go for a sit down breakfast/lunch (don't like the chaos of Cabanas, and sometimes it can be a challenge to get someone to talk to...just my experience anyway).

The best cruise we had was the 11 day southern this past summer...our servers were awesome and I ended up eating so many off menu things because of their recommendations (our main server was from India, and I think I ate more Indian food on that trip than I had in my whole life prior). The comfort level I have with Disney (both for service and allergy concerns) and therefore that's why even though they are making it tougher with the pricing, all our trips are still on DCL.

 

[disneyholic family]

be sure to try the GF pizza at the fast food pizza place ..
just go up and say you want to order GF pizza..
the person in charge will take your order..
it takes a little while as it has to be prepared in the GF kitchen that's in another part of the ship...
but it was the yummiest pizza i've ever had!!!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Thanks for continuing to share your experiences. It's making me feel a whole lot more at ease. My booking window opens tonight and I'm definitely going to try to book the Palo brunch. I was feeling very iffy about that but you've all helped me feel more confident I'll enjoy it.

 

[Dug720]

Thanks for continuing to share your experiences. It's making me feel a whole lot more at ease. My booking window opens tonight and I'm definitely going to try to book the Palo brunch. I was feeling very iffy about that but you've all helped me feel more confident I'll enjoy it.

I can tell you this (though it was RCCL in this case - DCL was just as good 7 months later)... I had a 12-night Med cruise TWO WEEKS after my doctor had me go gluten-free to see if my low airflow was actually my body’s expression of the wheat allergy a blood test showed but I did not believe (this is a couple of years after the test...done by an allergist). I was so nervous that it meant I would be eating chicken or steak, veggies, and rice or a potato every day. But I was very pampered and made to feel that there was very little I could not have. (Most recent RCCL experience was different...not in a good way.)

And yes, do not worry about Palo brunch!! There was plenty - including flatbreads and chicken parmesan. I don’t know if the pancakes and waffles can be as I did not ask, but my guess is they should be able to at least do plain ones.