Review of Disney Cruise Line

Having had such fantastic experiences dining GF in the Disney Parks, I expected that the Disney Cruise Line would be the same level of awesome or even a notch better. Sadly, that was not the case. Although I informed DCL that I and my 7 year old need to eat GF and DF, when we arrived at dinner the first night our servers had no idea of our needs. He kept asking what I wanted to have and I kept asking what the options are and he couldn't answer me. At the end of dinner he said that I should have pre-ordered my dinner selections ahead of time to make it easier. Nobody ever told me that even when I talked to DCL on the phone prior to the cruise, so I'm not sure how I would have known to do that. From that night on, I would always place our dinner orders for the next day the night before and then we didn't have any problems. They have GF rolls and many GF menu selections. For dessert, just say you want the Chef's Choice for GF and they will make up something for you and it will probably be good.

For breakfast we ate at Cabana's and for lunch we ate at the grill area, both up on Deck 11. At both of these places, you just tell the host you need to place an allergy order and they'll send a supervisor out to take your order. Again, though, it's hard to know what is available! On the last day of the cruise I learned that they had some GF cereals and almond milk back there. They will do pancakes and Mickey waffles GF, but be forewarned that they're not that great (rubbery).

I did have a lunch incident. I eat DF as well as GF. Ordered pizza at the grill. They have a great GF crust and Daiya vegan cheese available. However, the first time I ordered pizza, it came and I started eating it and thought I'd gone to heaven because it was so good. I went to ask what kind of DF cheese they use because it is AMAZING. Yeah turned out they screwed up and put real cheese on my pizza. So you need to be really aware and suspicious with anything you order at the grills. Double and triple check what you are getting. The pizza crust, hot dogs with bun, and chicken tenders are all pretty tasty up there though.

Overall, it ended up OK. We did not starve. I did get a bit ill from the cheese incident but recovered quickly. I do think DCL needs a much better process for handling all this though. Give a list of what products they have, make the process clear from the start.