Ok friends, I try not to write too much about GF dining on here anymore, but I do occasionally. There is an app, Find Me Gluten Free that I highly recommend & post regularly on there, especially when we travel. It is so helpful to help find safe places to eat, review a menu before we go & see pictures. I keep saying they should hire me because I love it so much!
However, since this was our first cruise since our family has gone gluten free, I thought I would write a blog about it because I didn't find too much information before we went.
Let me start by saying, that I was pleasantly surprised at how accommodating they were! I don't think Sadie or I felt restricted at all during the entire trip. Let me start with the buffet. We didn't eat here much, except for breakfast. We never got up early enough to eat in the main dining room, so we ate breakfast here every day. Every single item did have a little sign that noted what the item was & what allergens were present. They also had a GF bread area that always had miscellaneous bread options & the same thing for dessert. However, I went to the omelet station every morning & had fresh eggs made:
They also had a french toast, pancake & waffle station where we could request gf pancakes & waffles at any time. We both got one or the other every day & enjoyed every bite:
For lunch & dinner, they had a pizza stand where anyone could walk up & get a slice anytime. When we asked about pizza for us, they said they had gf personal pan pizzas in the back they could make for us at any time, it just took about 10 minutes. I believe they had cheese & pepperoni:
On the other side, they had a burger stand. They did have gf buns so we could have a burger or BBQ sandwich anytime. They also had a dedicated fryer that was used for french fries only so we could have fries any time, which Sadie loved:
Of course, we got the girls the drink package so they had soda anytime they wanted, but they could also safely have virgin daiquiris anytime because they were also gf. Sadie even went to a mocktail class at the kids' club & she safely made her own drink as well:
For dessert they had Swirls, the ice cream shop which had soft serve vanilla & chocolate ice cream which was safe to eat. I don't believe they had a gf cone, but I know Sadie had a lot of cups of ice cream with various toppings. I personally do not like soft serve, so I went to the gelato shop upstairs & ordered the fluffer nutter, which was worth every bite!
But where I was the most surprised was the dining room, where we ate every night for dinner. They would give us the menu for the next night every night & we would pre-order our meal for the next day. And you know what? There wasn't much we couldn't have! As long as we ordered ahead of time, they could make almost anything we asked for. I took lots of pictures because it was so good. For appetizers I had brie, a chilled strawberry smoothie, a watermelon salad, a caesar salad & even fried calamari:
For dinner, I mostly ordered pasta or beef. Ha! That pretty much sums up my life since I don't really like seafood. My absolute favorite meal of the week was their fettuccini alfredo. They had to sub the pasta for gf spaghetti, but the sauce was delicious!
Same for the spaghetti carbonara:
and the risotto:
They even impressed me with their chicken parmigiana:
For beef dishes I had the beef tenderloin, beef wellington & bacon wrapped meatloaf:
Dessert was the only item we never ordered. The chef surprised us & sent out a new dessert every single night. Some I don't know what it was, but it tasted good?! But my favorite was the baked Alaska:
I am actually lactose intolerant also, so I try to eat dairy free most of the time & at home, that is very easy. Eating out is another story because not only is it harder, but I also want it! On occasions like this, I take a lactose pill when I wanted to indulge in something, however, I still limit my dairy as much as possible, even if I take the pill. For instance, when I would order one of the creamy pasta dishes, I would order the vegan ice cream to end the night. Instead of having regular ice cream, I would have the dairy free to ease my stomach. They had chocolate & vanilla & I thought they were delicious! So, I am not ashamed that I would order a scoop every single night, even though the chef sent a dessert out too:
So that's it! Like I said, we ate like queens on the ship & I never once felt restricted. In fact, I probably I gained about 5 pounds because I enjoyed eating so much! But that's what a cruise is for, right?! Thank you Princess for being so welcoming & accommodating for those with food allergies. I hope other cruisers read this & have as good of an experience as we did!
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