*These gluten free dining experiences took place in May 2019. It also include notes about dairy free modifications and shares information about the fish/shellfish free, peanut free, and chicken & turkey free options available through room service too.

Room Service on the Disney Dream

The Disney Cruise Line does an excellent job at accommodating guests with special dietary needs in their various restaurants. But, I'm always pleasantly surprised by how well they can also accommodate with their room service options. On our recent cruise on the Disney Dream in May 2019, we took advantage of room service a few times on our 3-day cruise.

Though we're usually just too stuffed to order a lot of food from room service, on this cruise we did order a few things. The first was an allergy-friendly cake. I had always been curious about the allergy-friendly cakes on the Disney Cruise Line -- especially after reading about the gluten free Mickey Mouse cake that Alexis' Gluten Free Adventures ordered on one of her Disney Cruises.

Ordering cakes from Disney Cruise Line at the time of our cruise required us to order a cake using an online PDF form that we had to fax to Disney Cruise Line at least 7 days before our cruise. You can see this form and the variety of special dietary needs friendly cake options on their website.

But, if you're planning on ordering a cake on an upcoming Disney Cruise, you'll now be able to order a special dietary needs cake online through their new Onboard Gifts portal. I did recently look up the options for our cruise to Alaska next year, and it looks like they have reduced the allergy-friendly cake offerings (or our cruise is limited on options). Here's a screenshot of the options available for our cruise in the Onboard Gifts portal.

Disney Cruise Line Allergy-Friendly Cake Options / Photo Copyright Disney Cruise Line

We really enjoyed our cake a lot, so we may have to order the Mickey Mouse allergy-friendly cake for our next cruise too. I'll also be curious to see if their options expand or if these are the only options they'll be providing to cruise guests now and in the future.

Disney Dream / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

I would say that Brandon and I both aren't super sweets people. We both like dessert, but it's not always our favorite part of a meal. That being said, we are both suckers for good chocolate cake. I decided to pre-order the Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Mousse Filling and Chocolate Glaze.

This cake was ordered to be gluten free, peanut free, and hazelnut free. The cake and frosting were also dairy free, but some of the decorations on (like the chocolate tuiles) contained dairy. The cake was priced at $21 and said it contained 4-6 servings.

The cake was set to deliver to our stateroom on embarkation day at 5 p.m. Since Brandon and I both really enjoy sitting on our verandah and sailing away from port on embarkation day, we thought this might be a nice way to celebrate sailing away. Our cake arrived about 5:15 p.m., so fairly on time for our preferred delivery time.

Disney Dream Room Service / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

As you can see, the cake was beautifully decorated and presented. We were both really impressed by the overall appearance and how nice it looked. I admit, I think we both expected a rather plain cake to arrive. So, seeing all the decorations and fresh fruit was pretty exciting.

We each tried a small serving of the cake as we sailed away from Port Canaveral. I think both of us thought it would taste OK, but we were both really pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Brandon said it was the best chocolate cake he's had in a long time -- gluten free or not. We both agreed that we would definitely order this again.

Because the cake was quite large for two people, we actually ate the cake throughout our cruise. We had to do some shifting to keep it in the refrigerator. But, it was totally worth the effort. The cake held up very well over the course of our 3-day cruise.

As an aside, the cake is very rich. So, I'm glad it took us the entire length of our 3-day cruise to eat this cake because it was a lot!

Because our cruise was fairly short, we didn't order too much more room service. We do always order room service in the afternoon on our Castaway Cay day after we've returned from the ship and before the ship departs from the island.

Brandon always order the Mac & Cheese -- which contains gluten but is fish/shellfish free, peanut free, and chicken & turkey free. He has said it's not the best mac & cheese in the world, but it's still pretty good.

Disney Dream - Room Service Cheese Plate / Photo Taken by Gluten Free & Dairy Free at WDW

We also usually order the gluten free cheese plate. Depending on your cruise, you may or may not be served gluten free crackers (like we have been on our previous cruises). On this cruise, we were served the cheese plate minus the crackers because they did not have any in stock. Either way, we always enjoy the cheese plate which is gluten free, fish/shellfish free, peanut free, and chicken & turkey free.

If you're interested in other special dietary needs options, I recommend speaking with room service about the options available on your cruise. I have heard from other guests that you can also order special diets cookies (usually boxes of Enjoy Life Foods cookies) and even allergy-friendly chicken tenders too.

Overall

While room service isn't always at the top of our list on our shorter Disney Cruises, I'm so glad they have options for guests with special dietary needs. Both Brandon and I love the cheese plate. And, we were especially impressed with the allergy-friendly cake that we ordered on this cruise too. We'll definitely be ordering another allergy-friendly cake on an upcoming cruise now!

Have you been on a Disney Cruise? What's your experience with special dietary needs options through room service?

Room Service on the Disney Dream

Room Service on the Disney Dream

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