Absolutely! While a lot of times this does depend on your waiter, Carnival does have a lot of good gluten-free food options. All you have to do is call Carnival 1-2 weeks before your cruise, let them know that a member of your party has a gluten allergy, and the cruise line will take care of you. Since preparing gluten-free food takes longer onboard (as they have to make sure that no cross contamination occurs), you will have to pre-order your meals each night at dinner. To do this, just remind your waiter that you or someone in your party needs to order for the next day, and they will bring you the breakfast/brunch and dinner menus. All you have to do is order, then ask for your pre-order at the next meal. I was surprised at some of the foods that could be made gluten-free for me on my last cruise. The best way to find out if it is possible to make the item allergy friendly is to ask your waiter or to place your order at the hostess station (they can call the chef and ask for you). Carnival does have some amazing food options for gluten free guests! Some of my favorites onboard the Vista were the four cheese pizza from Pizzaria del Capitano (the Lido pizza place which does not require a preorder, making it very convenient especially when coming back early from a port), the S'mores parfait and Carnival chocolate melting cake from the dining room, huevos rancheros and banana cream pie (without the crust) from the sea day brunch, and some gluten free cinnamon bread we found on the Lido buffet. At Farenheit 555, the only gluten-free dessert options were ice cream, so I had the fig and black pepper (which tastes SO much better than it sounds). Cucina del Capitano and JiJi's Asian Kitchen also offer allergy friendly options. There you are given a slip of paper to mark what you would like, rather than ordering off of a menu. Just write at the top that your order needs to be gluten-free, and fill out as normal. Your waiter will let you know if anything you checked is not an option.
There are only two major problems with this system; first that you cannot pre-order your meals for embarkation day. This leaves you and your party either waiting a very long time for your food or trying to guess what might be safe on the buffet. The second issue is that your waiter may not let you know what your options are. However, if you have a good general knowledge of gluten-free items/preparation, you should be able to choose pretty easily.
So, it is very possible and very easy to be gluten-free on a cruise! You can still take an amazing vacation without having to worry about having a bad reaction to the food. Aside from what I have listed, there are plenty of other choices to keep even picky eaters happy!
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