Hi loves! Here are a few of my favorite photos from our recent vacation to Haiti & Jamaica. All of my Bonnet Creek photos will be posted with those outfit blog posts when they come up. Below, you will also find a short review of my gluten free dining experience on Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas.
I was severely unaware of how badly I was in need of a vacation! On the first day of the cruise my RA flared up and my hands actually swelled up like twice their size! So I just decided to make sure I worked out every day I was on vacation and I was so glad I did. I was super sore all over, but I had a lot of fun and I was able to execute a few yoga/pilates moves that I have been struggling with for a while. For the first time ever (I have been on 10 cruises) my husband and I actually ventured up to the 15th deck and worked out playing ping pong with my parents and mini golf.
I usually post a video chronicling my dining experiences as a Celiac on my YouTube channel, but I am just posting the pictures here. This cruise was pretty underwhelming food wise in my opinion. Below, you will see a photo taken in the Windjammer Cafe of lunch that I got from the "Gluten Free Corner". This is one section in the cafe that is completely segregated from the rest of the buffet that has gluten free food that will not be subjected to cross contamination. I thought this was a great idea until I tested the food with NIMA and it tested positive for up to 20 ppm of gluten.
I did speak to staff about it and apparently only half of that buffet was supposed to be gluten free, but for some reason the Gluten Free sign was put on both corners that day by accident... This is a major and detrimental mistake that probably made a lot of people sick. However, a little common sense is what prompted me to test this food (it came from both sides of the GF Corner) because I saw they were serving Guiness Beef stew. As soon as I saw that, I said to my husband "Guiness does not make GF beer why is this over here?"
I did however, eat breakfast at the Windjammer every day and never got sick. I knew from the last RC cruise I went on their sausage, eggs, and potatoes are always gluten free. As far as lunch goes, they didn't have any GF salad dressing at the Windjammer, they didn't have any gluten free breads for making sandwiches, and it wasn't even clear if the balsamic vinegar was GF because it did contain caramel coloring. So, my husband and I at lunch in the formal dining room the days it was open for lunch.
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| Food tested from the "Gluten Free Corner" at the Windjammer came back positive for gluten. |
Formal dining was exactly like last time, they have everything clearly marked on their menu. No matter who serves you they will have notes on your room # that someone has a food allergy. After every meal they will give you the menu for the next day and you can pick what you want. One night they did accidentally give me a plate with stuffing on it and I caught it before I ate it. They were extremely apologetic about it and stressed that that is
not how they operate there at RC. Overall, everyone was great, the service was great, and they all were extremely knowledgable and sympathetic to people with food allergies. I say the food was underwhelming because I didn't have many options outside of steak, seafood, or poultry with a side.
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| Gluten Free Prime rib with mashed potatoes and veggies |
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| Lunch in the formal dining room- Gluten Free Southwest Salad with salsa dressing |
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| This was lunch on our 5 hour excursion of Jamaica. This is all farm to table food that was made by a chef at our last destination on the tour. |
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| Lunch in the formal dining room- Chef made big salad (from the salad bar). |
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| Lunch in the formal dining room- Chicken sliders on gluten free bread and fries |
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| Lunch in the formal dining room- Gluten Free pulled pork salad. It didn't come with dressing so I used the GF Cesar |
For some reason on this ship the only dressing they seemed to have that was gluten free was the Cesar dressing. They served me 3 salads in one week with no dressing like the one pictured above. I just combined it with my big salad and added the dressing. Kind of weird, but it worked.
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| Dinner in the formal dining room- NY Strip with mashed potatoes and gravy with 1.5 pound lobster from Chops Grill |
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| Dinner in the formal dining room- Turkey with gravy, carrots, and roasted potatoes. This one they actually sent to me with the dressing (that green mound in the front); I asked them if that was dressing and it was and they brought me a new one. |
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| Dinner in the formal dining room- Grilled shrimp with butter rice and veggies |
Lastly, I don't have any "room service" photos, they pretty much didn't have anything gluten free on their menu on the t.v. so I never ordered anything. This ship is huge and has one floor that pretty much looks like a mall with shops, stores, and cafes. There is a pizza place in there that serves gluten free pizza made to order and cooked and sliced completely separately from the rest of the food until 3am.
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