In a recent article, I wrote about the gluten free travel experience we had on the Celebrity Solstice. I purposely didn't talk much about the food because I thought the food served was so great, that it deserved its own blog post. I felt like I ate 5 meals a day, because I was always snacking on something from a mid-day salad to a gluten free grilled cheese sandwich for a snack.
Breakfast
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Gfree French Toast and an omlette |
Would you believe it they served up some gluten free French toast for breakfast! We essentially started our mornings with room service. Breakfast menu's were placed in your room the night before and all you had to do was fill out what you wanted before you want to bed, and stick it on the door and presto! Room service is waking you up in the morning with a fresh breakfast. Because they had gluten free bread on the ship, they whipped up their vanilla french toast gluten free style served with potatos, bacon and sausage. Also on the menu was a selection of omlettes, yogurt, and other breakfast standards.
Lunch
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The buffet area |
A buffet can be a risky place for any Celiac because of the high risk of cross contamination. Amanda did take her chances. She had the confidence in the staff to guide her to the right choices, but she was cautious around certain areas with spoons getting mixed up etc. Thankfully there was no effects eating at the lunch buffet that had many great tasting selections. One of Amanda's favourite areas was the taco's area that had corn tacos with a variety of fillers. The buffet also had sections like a carving station with meats, a cheese area, a great salad bar, Indian food and a pasta area (you could order gfree pasta, but you would have to give them notice ahead of time). Unfortunately the poolside BBQ was not gluten free friendly as their fries were coated with flour and hamburgers had filler.
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Gluten free grilled cheese and
ham sandwich with potato chips |
Snack Time
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Watermelon feta salad with
balsamic dressing |
Snack time ranged from gluten free grilled cheese sandwich from room service, to salads from the salad bar, or salads from the Aqua Spa Cafe. There was plenty to go around and we were sure to take advantage of the snacks on our vacation. There was even if sushi bar setup at 4pm for a mid-day snack. This really helped as we had the late dinner service at 8:30pm. (I know i'm just making excuses for eating as much as possible!)
Dinner Time
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Gfree focaccia bread with an
appetizer spread |
We never checked out the buffet at dinner time, we pretty much stuck to the gorgeous dining hall that had a two story glass wine cellar. We ate at the Tuscan Grille specialty restaurant for one evening where we got served the most delicious gluten free focaccia bread and steak meal. And believe it or not Celebrity Cruises sent us the recipe for the gluten focaccia bread as they make it on the ship! We didn't get any pictures of the meals in the dining room because we sat with other people, and I didn't feel like being the odd ball that took pictures of absolutely everything. But you can imagine eating some great tasting Cajun rub steaks, lobster gluten free alfredo pasta. As mentioned in the other article, there wasn't a selection of gluten free pastries for desert, but that doesn't mean there was desert. There was always ice cream, and creme brule to have. At the Tuscan Grille we even had some gelato made fresh on the ship.
Also read
Gluten Free Cruising on Celebrity Cruises: Part 1 - The Gluten Free Experience
Gluten Free Edmonton - A Celiac guide and resource for gluten free information in Edmonton, Alberta
Thanks for posting this review! I'm going on my first cruise on Celebrity Eclipse gluten free next month and looking forward to it, but still feeling a little apprehensive. Sounds like you had a great time!
ReplyDeleteCelebrity was absolutely fantastic at handling the diet. Check out this post with some tips from when we traveled with Princess:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.glutenfreeedmonton.com/2012/01/tips-for-travelling-gluten-free-with.html
Cheers,
--Abisaac
I felt like I ate 5 meals a day, because I was always snacking on something from a mid-day salad to a gluten free grilled cheese sandwich for a snack.Best Cruise Secrets
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