Carnival Cruise Line has put in a lot of effort to cater to special diets.
Over the past two years, it has added increased gluten-free, vegan, and vegetarian choices everywhere on its ships. It also added gluten-free and vegan menus in its main dining room (MDR).
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“Carnival can provide our guests with meals suited to the following special dietary needs: vegetarian, low-cholesterol, low-fat, low-carbohydrate, low-sugar, and gluten-free. Our chefs will make every effort to fulfill your requests and will gladly prepare freshly made options that meet your dietary needs,” the cruise line shared on its website.
In addition, Carnival (CCL)  has added Menu Mate, a technology designed to help people with food allergies stay safe.
“Our ships are equipped with Menu Mate food ingredient program fleetwide to accommodate guests with food allergies. Easily operated on touch-screen tablets at food venues, the Menu Mate food ingredient program is powered by award-winning CertiStar software to mitigate the risks of allergic reactions,” Carnival posted.
No other major cruise line has similar technology, according to Carnival.
“Our staff will ask guests about food allergies and enter any restrictions into the program. The software will then sort through all available options and display which items are allergen-free, which options can be modified to exclude the specified allergen, and which selections should be avoided,” it added.
Passengers can also use Menu Mate tablets on their own. There is a Menu Mate available for use near the Lido buffet.Â
Despite those efforts, some passengers still have complaints.
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Image source: Carnival Corp.
Carnival passenger worried about food safety
A cruise line can have the right menus to meet people’s dietary needs and top-tier technology to share allergy information, but passenger safety still comes down to people.
Sara White shared her experience with Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald.
“The rest of the time it was the main dining room, occasionally Lido buffet, and I was happy to be able to have gluten-free pizza at Miami Slice and sandwiches at The Deco deli. The gluten-free Quattro Fromaggi was so good that I could watch them being very careful with my gluten-free items,” she wrote.
Not every restaurant was as careful.Â
“I had no problem at Pig and Anchor or Guy’s Burger getting gluten-free food and feeling safe about eating it. On Lido deck, I had many concerns about the gluten contamination. Many people don’t realize how dangerous it is for people that cannot have gluten, and will carelessly use the gluten-free tongs to pick up other items, contaminating the food,” she shared.
White was also concerned about how another food station was handled.
“The other concerning section was the ice cream, where the spoons are placed underneath where the cones are, so when anybody pulled out a cone all the crumbs went into the spoons. Not a big deal, I just went and found a coffee station and got a spoon. I did feel sick after eating at times,” she added.
Carnival takes food issues seriously
Heald made it clear that Carnival takes food allergies seriously.
“Thank you so much for this very valuable feedback. I know we have been trying so hard this past year, especially as introducing the gluten-free menu and the other things we have such as the extra assistance we have on the Lido deck for those guests who have allergies or indeed are needing to eat gluten-free,” he wrote.
The Brand Ambassador promised to share White’s concerns with the proper people.
“I will share this with the executive chef and I promise you that moving forward we will continue to work very hard to make sure there is no cross contamination and that we take the wonderful care that we need to and for the most part I already doing for our gluten-free guests. So I do hope that overall you had a brilliant time, please leave this with me and I will be here for you if you need anything else. Wishing you a happy new year,” he added.
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White also noted that she did not know about Menu Mate until the second half of her cruise.
“On about our fifth day on the cruise I discovered the desk at Lido, Menu Mate. I talked with the woman there, and she even had a chef come talk to me. I’m not sure how I didn’t know that that desk was there, to talk about allergies. We had the BEST time,” she shared.
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