Annual Convention: Pit Bull’s a Godfather!

Having a food allergy is never easy, especially while traveling.   Attending large conventions/corporate events can be just as much of a challenge.  You know how it goes; you pay to attend the event and it probably covers your hotel, event attendance and some meals.  I wish more event planners would recognize that there are enough folks with food allergies to pay attention.  Here’s an idea: Send out a questionnaire to find out what the allergies are and then communicate how they are going to accommodate.  If they can’t, that’s ok too; just say so, so the attendee can plan accordingly.  As you can see by this ranting, I had a mixed experience attending my annual convention.  I guess it’s just a work in progress.

After 5 days of convention, the day was finally here:  we’re heading to Miami to board the brand new Norwegian Escape!  

Side Note!  Pit Bull was awesome!!!  That’s right Pit Bull is the Godfather of the Escape and after the inauguration he gave us a mini-concert.  It was very hot outside, but well worth the wait.

The Escape has several restaurants to choose from to dine.  Some charge a small fee and others are complementary.  I didn’t get a chance to try any of the specialty restaurants, however what I did try was great.  First off, the two main restaurants are not Tabor and Sabor…Donna!  Lol…she renamed them after a few drinks.

Before dinner, our company had a private happy hour party.  The drinks and Hors d’oeuvres were free flowing…however not one option was GF…not one.  How hard is it really to do a bacon wrapped asparagus?  Thank God wine is gluten free; but as you can imagine, I had to watch how much wine I consumed on an empty stomach.  I was starving by the time we got to dinner.

For dinner I joined my friends Donna, Ozzy and Gerry at the restaurant Sabor…I mean Savor.  After reviewing the menu, I decided it would be best for me just to tell the server that I have a gluten allergy and have him suggest some options.  He took our drink order and quickly brought me GF bread.  As you can imagine, I was very excited to have bread to snack on while we waited for our dinner.  So far so good, right?...Wrong.  I found out very quickly he had no idea exactly what gluten was; he just knew to bring me GF bread.  So I took it a step further and asked him to speak to the chef and see if either of the two options I was interested in could be prepared GF.  I pointed out a shrimp dish and a filet dish (I don’t eat beef often, but I was considering it).  My friends and I were talking, laughing and catching up.  All of a sudden we’re being served….I quickly pondered what was under my cloche?  To my surprise, lobster…I never even asked for lobster.  I guess the server or the chef took it upon himself to select a meal for me without even checking with me first.  So as you can imagine, I wasn’t very happy.   I didn’t want to spoil the evening, so I let it go and chalked it up to NCL working out the quirks.

For breakfast we all met up in the morning in the Garden Café.  It’s like every other cruise ship with multiple breakfast options.  So at least the mornings were pretty uneventful. 

For lunch we dined at Taste (i.e. Tabor…lol).  The menu had a lot of different options that could be GF.  I decided to go with Chicken Nachos and I was not disappointed, it was fabulous.  I did make this decision on my own without informing the server; she just looked too frazzled to handle one more thing.            

Our second and final dinner was in The Manhattan Room.  Same start as the night before, but I lucked out and actually had a server who understood gluten….Praise the Lord! She was able to point out options and the one thing I really wanted was a Shrimp Pasta.  She said that she didn’t think they could make that GF, but she would ask.  Just in case I selected one of the options she pointed out.  A few minutes later, she tells me that I can have the Shrimp Pasta with GF pasta…I swear the gates to heaven were opening.  Why oh why can’t it be like that all the time?  It just takes education and experience.  Imagine, Norice (GF friend from Scotland)… I had bread and pasta on board….it didn’t taste bad at all; in fact it was very tasty.   For dessert, I had Pistachio Creme Brulee!  There is also a bake shop on board…I wonder if they have anything GF?

 

The Escape also has a brew-house, but unfortunately I had to stick with a Corona.  Apparently Japan has a tasty beer that is naturally GF, but they didn’t offer it.  The draft house also has a photo booth…that’s a mistake.  Donna, Gerry and I decided to get in and here are the results….it was a lot of fun. Can you tell?

Gerry, Lina & Donna

One of the highlights for me was watching and meeting Iron Chef Jose Garces.  He has a restaurant on board called Bayamo; which is Seafood with a Latin twist.  Featured prominently on The Waterfront, the Iron Chef’s first restaurant at sea offers a diverse selection of authentic flavors as vibrant as Cuba itself.  He did a cooking demonstration and it was fantastic.  We also got to ask questions, and you know me…Lina: “Do your restaurants offer gluten free options?”  Jose:  “all of my restaurants have plenty of gluten free items to choose from”, Lina: “Even the one in Washington D.C.”, Jose: “Especially that one..” Lina: “Great, then I’ll have to drive up there and try it out”, Jose: “Please, and let me know what you think”…Boy did he open a can of worms…lol.  Dave and I are going to try it out soon and let you know how it goes…you know I won’t hold anything back.  

The NCL Escape has a lot of dining options and I want to plan a cruise with them to see how the ten specialty dining restaurants hold up to my challenge… Who wants to go with me?  

Wish I could have tasted it...

The 3 B's: Brotchen, Bratwurst & Beer

Like I mentioned on my Facebook page (The Ticked Off Gluten Free Travel Agent), I knew that this trip to Europe was going to be a fun, but glutenous journey.   Thank God we brought Gluten-Ease (you can buy it at CVS), which "mostly" helped.

Our Journey began by visiting our family in Germany, aka the land of Gluten..lol.  My brother (Mark) decided to treat our family to a Low Country Boil.  Yes, he actually brought a cooler full of gulf-shrimp, Georgia Boy Sausage and blue crabs with us to Germany.  The best part: it's all gluten free!  The next morning our journey to the dark side began...no Gluten-Ease could handle all the gluten we ate & drank.  Each morning we were treated to a traditional German breakfast full of brotchen, pretzels, meat, cheese and coffee.  So yummy!  So far the Gluten-Ease is hanging in there.  We found out that one of our cousins was GF also, and gave her some Gluten-Ease and it really worked for her.  She had her first pretzel in years without a reaction.  We went out to a restaurant that serves deep fried ham hocks and spaetzle. Who does that?  The crust was like very crunchy pork rinds: hard to cut into and eat, but gluten free.  The spaetzle was okay, but I make GF spaetzle that is just as good, if not better.  On out last night we had schnitzel.  Dave and I got smart and shared a plate.  Still doing OK with the Gluten-Ease.  Did I mention that I miss Weizen Beer?  I didn't know how much I missed it until I began drinking it.   We said our family goodbye's and then set off to see the real Cinderella's castle.

Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany.  Wow so beautiful.  I should mention that you should buy your tickets to visit the castle and then have lunch.  We weren't thinking and had lunch first and then had to wait hours for our tour to begin.  For lunch we had more Weizen beer (Can't get enough of this evil but delicious liquid).  For lunch we had Goulash soup, Gluten-Ease to the rescue again!    Dave had schnitzel again and I tried to behave and had a large salad.  The story of Neuschwanstein
Castle is quite interesting and if you get a chance to see it, you should.  Now off to Munich and... 

Oktoberfest...Prost!
One beer, two beer, three beers too many.  Yep, I had forgotten how strong a German beer really is.  Before I went down for the count, I did get to have a gluten fest including bratwurst, pretzel, beer and more.  Gluten-Ease couldn't handle it all.  And then...I'm out!  Dave stayed with me, but the rest of the group had a great time on the rides, etc.  You can't imagine how big this festival is until you are there.  Thousands of people in each tent and there were a lot of tents.  I think they said that there are 350,000 people each day...now that's A Lot of Beer!  And after sleeping for over 14 hour, I was ready and raring to go to...

Venice
After a 6 hour train ride through the Alps (spectacular views), we arrived in Venice, the City of Bridges.  I don't think I have ever seen a more romantically beautiful city.  We did a night time
gondola ride, followed by a fantastic gluten-filled dinner...did I mention that we are almost out of Gluten Ease?  I had a seafood pasta, Dave had spaghetti bolognese, and we had a fantastic bottle of Villa Novare Valpolicella wine.  Best meal of the entire trip!  So after 7 days of gluten gorging, it was time to leave on our Cruise, and begin being a Gluten Free Travel Agent again.  The cruise began with the most unique transfer from the hotel to the Cruise Ship: a taxi boat brought us right to the port.

Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas: Greek Isles Cruise
For those of you who have been following our blog, I want you to know that the gluten free cruise experience is getting better.  Although there is definitely still room for improvement, this was our best experience yet.  Instead of breaking down our meals as we have done in the past, we will address the highs and lows of our overall gluten free experience.

Highs:
* Our Waiter - For the first time on a cruise ship, our dining room waiter understood gluten free eating restrictions, and worked hard to accommodate our needs.
* We met this very nice couple (Norice & Krisi) from Scotland; Norris so happens to be GF as well.  We met during a wine tasting event on the ship, which by the way, didn't have any GF crackers for us,,,Really?
* In the many conversations we had with Norice, we learned that Corona Beer is naturally GF...Who knew?  Thanks Norice!  Here he is in his formal Scottish kilt.

* Our head waiter - We first met him during our wine tasting and we discussed our GF restrictions.  He greeted us for our "lunch with the officers", and personally showed us which foods were prepared gluten free, and which we should avoid (There were many GF options, even though they were not pre-notified that we were GF.)  He was also our host at the Chef's Table, and again insured that our GF needs were managed well, with many dinner options offered.

High and Low:
* Windjammer - The Windjammer restaurant had a designated area for gluten free options. But it was inconsistent and incomplete.  There were limited options in the area, and there were gluten free options throughout the restaurant, that were not located in this area. 


Lows:
* The Chef - While our waiter tried hard to accommodate our gluten free restrictions, his hands were tied due to limited options from the kitchen.  The chef's solution to gluten free food is to remove the gluten, instead of using a gluten free substitute (corn starch in gravy, gluten free pasta, etc.).


* Gluten free pizza...it doesn't take 30 minutes to make a GF pizza, does it?  After a late night of playing Quest (A really fun game) we decided to go up to the Solarium to get pizza. Of course they didn't have any GF pizza ready but did allow us to order it.  They said it would be ready in 10 minutes.  Ten minutes turned into 20, then 30 minutes...really how hard is it?  Needless to say by the time we received the pizza, everyone with us was finished and ready for bed.  Again, inconvenienced by their lack of knowledge and GF.

With a few exceptions,  I find that GF knowledge is still lacking across the fleet and the industry.  Slowly we are seeing some signs of improvement and a slightly better understanding on what exactly Gluten is.  Here's hoping that by the time we take our next trip we will see continued progress with the knowledge and quality of gluten free dining.

If you are interested in joining us on future travels here is what we have plan for the next two years:

Fall 2016 - Sandals Grenada - I am told they are making great strides and want to give them another chance.

January 2, 2017 - 13 Day Carnival cruise to Caribbean & Central American sailing out of Baltimore returning to Tampa.

Fall of 2017 - Back to Europe.  This time we are planning a 2 night visit to Venice then a 10 Day cruise to Malta, Slovenia, Montenegro, Croatia, Barcelona, Palma del Mallorca and ending in Rome.  Two nights in Rome before we head home.

Contact me for details on these upcoming vacations for rates and details.  I believe that if more of us travel together, the industry will be forced to make the necessary improvements regarding GF dietary restrictions.

Stay tuned for my next post; I'll be doing a short two night Inaugural on the beautiful Norwegian Escape!

Our Royal Mess on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas

Being a travel agent, sometimes you just can't pass up a good deal.  My hubby and I decided to join our daughter on a Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas cruise to celebrate her 21st birthday and her recent engagement.  Side note: we sailed on this ship in 2006 before we even knew what gluten was.  My best friend recently took a cruise on the Allure of the Seas and was very excited for me because Royal Caribbean had added gluten free options marked on all their menus.  As you can imagine, we were excited to try these menu options.   To our dismay, our excitement was short lived.

There is really no need to discuss breakfast.  As you know, there are many options available (eggs, bacon, grits, etc) The only thing I will mention, is that it would be nice if they offered GF pancakes.  Sometimes you just need a" break" from the eggs...lol.

Lunch at the Windjammer - Just like any cruise, the first day on the ship, lunch time is pretty crowded.  As we were walking around trying to decide what we could eat, we were pleasantly surprised that there was a small section that was designated Gluten Free.  The only issue was that they didn't replenish the items once they were depleted.  Great idea, no follow through.  To make matters worse, we experienced the same issue everyday at lunch and were never able to sample these GF items.

Overall Experience: F (Fill it up)
Gluten Free Knowledge: (at least they had a designated GF area)

Dinner in the Main Dining Room - There were some ups and a lot of downs during our dining experiences throughout the week.

Here are the highlights:

• Bread!  They actually had bread for us everyday and a couple days we had options.  This was a great start to our dinner.  If only our assistant waiter could have remembered we were gluten free it would have been better.
• That's it...Did we mention this was a Royal Mess?

Here are the low-lights:

• When you have any type of food allergy, the Chef likes you to select your dinner for the next day in advance.  They brought us a typed menu and told us to select our meals from this sheet.  We were surprised by some of the options, but didn't think too much of it.  After we made our selections, we were then told we chose items that they could not make gluten free,  This piece of paper was the entire menu not just items that could be made gluten free.  On the regular menus, the Gluten Free marking doesn't mean it's GF; they just remove whatever the gluten is and you get the rest.  For example, when I ordered Horseradish Crusted Salmon, I received Salmon with butter sauce.  When Dave ordered Pork with Mojo sauce, he received beef with a baked potato..Huh? 
• Salad & Dressing - We ordered a Spinach salad and received spinach leaves, three Roma tomato slices and a bottle of Olive Oil and Balsamic (make your own dressing).  Are you kidding me?
• Lobster Bisque- We were surprised we could have this option and then lived to regret it.  It was saltier than salt (if that's possible).  It was brown and just flat out inedible.  When we tried to send it back, they brought us another option: Rice noodles covered in the same Lobster mess.  Seriously?  I think I just threw up a little in my mouth recalling this experience...blah.
• After demonstrating my frustration with the meals that were offered to us, they asked me to tell them what I would like to have and they would prepare it for me.  I asked for a simple Lemon Butter Caper Sauce on  Salmon.  Sounds simple right?  Guess what I received?  They brought me the Salmon with the sauce on the side; but it was not a sauce but a salsa: Mango I think with capers...to top it off, it was warm.  I tried the "Sauce" and it wasn't bad, by itself.  When I put a little on the Salmon, totally different story...words can not describe how bad it was.  Just because something tastes good on its own, doesn't mean it pairs well with other items.  Does the chef not taste what he serves?  
• These are just a few examples of the struggles we faced in the dining room.  I don't want to bore you with dry pork, fish, chicken and lobster.  

• Overall the issue with the dining room is that even when you preselect your gluten free meal, they are not altering the ingredients to give you a similar meal; they are just removing the items that are contain gluten (gravy, sauces, breading, etc.)  When I started learning how to cook my favorite dishes gluten free I didn't take anything away from the flavor; I replaced gluten products with non-gluten products while keeping the flavor profile the same.  It's not that hard and I don't understand why a Chef can't figure that out.

Overall Experience: D- (The bread saved them from an F)
Gluten Free Knowledge:

Jade Sushi - Since we were having no luck in the Main Dining Room, we decided to enjoy one of our favorite things: Sushi.  We were told that it was delicious...we must have gotten bad advice because that wasn't our experience.  There were very limited options  and all rolls.  NO Sashimi For You!  The rolls were mostly cooked fish and the rice was from last week..at least that is how it tasted.  I could only eat 1 1/2 pieces before I called it quits.  Literally the worst Sushi I have ever experienced.

Overall Experience: F
Gluten Free Knowledge: N/A

Sorrento's Pizza - Our second best dining experience.  It was so nice being able to order gluten free pizza that was ready in 5 minutes.  It was delicious.  No hassle and great Italian flavor.  They are the best for a midnight snack!!!  Major Yum.

Overall Experience: A
Gluten Free Knowledge:   

Sabor (In Spanish it means Flavor) - You had to pay a cover charge to dine here, but it was well worth it.   This was our Best Dining Experience from flavor, to ambiance, to service to menu options.  We started our dinner with a table side guacamole.  It was the most flavorful guacamole we have ever had. The server even showed us how to make it; too bad I didn't write it down.  I ordered fish tacos and Dave ordered Tamales.  Both meals were exceptionally delicious and we topped it off with a Cucumber Mojto.  No complaints here. 

Outside of Sabor

Overall Experience: A+
Gluten Free Knowledge:   
What we learned in Austin (see last blog), is that you don't have to lose flavor or an experience to be gluten free.  The chefs on Royal Caribbean ships need to be taught this.  With more and more people becoming gluten free due to allergy or choice, the travel industry really needs to step up to the Plate (pun intended...lol).  Seriously, it is time to start making changes so that the gluten free community doesn't feel deprived of flavor and menu options.

Please don't mistake this as I am not a fan of cruising with Royal Caribbean or other cruise lines.  I love cruising!  Here are some fun pics of us on board...

Flowrider...So much fun!

Dave after a few drinks...lol

Sail Away Party

Success! Gluten Free Austin Style

We went to Austin, Texas to celebrate my birthday 

with my daughter Katie. 

  

Side note you will see some meals missing, that's because we took a quick 2 day trip to Killeen, Texas to meet our new Grandson Fred Jackson Brown.  Isn't he adorable?

We are happy to announce that Austin provided our best Gluten Free travel experience so far.  Here’s how it went down…

Fuzzy Taco (Lunch Day One)

We were a bit concerned when we saw the name of the restaurant…Do you know how it got its name?  I do, but I should probably keep this PG…lol

They had a decent sized menu…but it definitely could accommodate GF guests.  I decided to have fish tacos.  Not only were they gluten free, they were delicious!  So full of flavor.  Dave decided on tacos too, but he went the chicken & beef route.  Also, GF and delicious.  Great beginning for Austin.

Overall Experience: B+

Gluten Free Knowledge -

Hopdoddy (Lunch Day Two)

This is a very popular establishment.  The line was out the door.  We were so excited because we were going to get to eat a burger (with a fresh made GF bun of course).

I had the Ahi Tuna burger (Sushi Grade Tuna, Sprouts, Teriyaki, Honey Wasabi, Nori Chips, Pickled Ginger and Mayo); in other words Sushi on a GF Bun.

Dave had the Good Night Good Cause burger because $1 went to charity (Angus Beef, Tillamook Cheddar, Caramelized Onions, Jalapenos, Hickory BBQ sauce and Sassy sauce)

While the burgers were delicious and unique, they need a bit of help with the bun.  It was very tasty, but crumbled as soon as you picked up the burger. We had to eat it with a fork and knife which took away from the burger experience.  

We would definitely eat here again 

(hopefully they will have worked on their buns by then).

Overall Experience: A-

Gluten Free Knowledge:

We spent the afternoon wondering around Austin, visiting a few bars (It’s my birthday, I’m allowed!)

We decided to check out the bats. Here is a website to read about them:

http://www.videocityguide.com/Austin/listings/Congress-Bridge-Bats

 For those who aren’t aware apparently a half million or so live under the Congress Bridge and fly out at sunset.  Well I have seen the pics, but all but 17 decided to stay under the bridge 

on this particular day…whomp whomp (insert sound effect here).  Maybe next time....(Sad Face)

Second Street + Kitchen (Dinner Day Two)

This is an upscale restaurant and the ambiance was very nice and cozy.  Beware: if you need reading glasses you should bring them, it’s dark and the menu font is small.  I didn't bring mine, so Dave ordered for me.  Back to gluten free… They had many GF options to choose from and it all looked yummy.  For the appetizer, we had Black Truffle Pommes Frites (basically, French fries with truffle aioli)…Delicious!  I ordered the Roasted Beet and Arugula Salad…double Delicious!

For our meal, we shared the Braised Beef Short Rib with Black Truffle Grits, Cippolini Onions, Brandy Balsamic Glaze and Tobacco Onions (which I had never heard of…but were tasty) and the Seared Diver Scallops with Pork Belly Fried Rice, Coconut, Nam Pla (Whatever that is), Zucchini, Cilantro, and Mint.  Sounds like a strange mix of ingredients, but it made our tummies happy.

Overall Experience: A

Gluten Free Knowledge:

On my actual birthday (don’t you celebrate the entire week?), we went to Top Golf!  What a fun place.  If you haven’t tried it, you should…We had a blast!  So much fun in fact we didn't take any pics...this one is from their website www.topgolf.com

Jackalope Bar & Grill (Dinner Day Three) – Since it was the only item on the menu that was GF, we had wings and not very good ones…enough said.  We did however have the Helldorado (Vodka Punch Drink for Two), it was much better than the wings.

Overall Experience: D+

Gluten Free Knowledge:    

If more cities and travel destinations would embrace Gluten Free cuisine like Austin has, we’d all have a happy tummy.  They not only have many Gluten Free options, but they have made them delicious.

Check back soon for our “Gluten Free” Royal Caribbean cruise experience: What a Royal Mess!