Travel - onboard a cruise ship as a Vegan with Allergies (2025)

You may recall a post I wrote back in 2022 about my experience of managing allergies and a vegan diet on a short cruise ship holiday - (My experience onboard a cruise ship as a Vegan with Allergies). Well, lets update that experience because in October 2025 we were on MSC Fantasia for a nine day trip and there were some improvements.

Let me firstly explain that my allergies (milk & egg) are mild, I am not prescribed an EpiPen so I am very lucky in that respect. I'm vegan by choice. Before going on our holiday, I registered my allergies using the MSC Accessibility Form which was easily found online. You must complete this at least 30 days before your cruise. This time around in comparison to 2022, the reply email was welcoming and informative with instructions for embarkation. While onboard the ship, I had a note left under my door acknowledging my special requirements made at booking. I was also asked to contact the reception desk twice during our cruise to make sure I was happy and my requirements were being accommodated. Overall, this experience was a huge step up from the last trip and I was happy with this improvement to communication.

On the first night of main restaurant dinning, one major change was being greeted by the head wait staff who knew I had pre-registered my allergies. Hooray! this was something that didn't happen on our last trip. We discussed my requirements and all my meal choices went through them. In my opinion that provides peace of mine as one person takes responsibility. This is a procedure that many restaurants in the UK now use. The daily menu usually included a vegan option for starter, main and dessert. There was an "always available" section to the menu which included (both labelled vegan) minestrone soup and pasta with tomato sauce. I was super happy to see that dessert was not fruit only but puddings - praise the vegan gods someone was doing a sterling job in the kitchen with creative ideas - pina colada compote, chocolate fudge trifle, lemon pudding, apple cake and more. 

If you opt for breakfast in the main restaurant then there were two vegan options - scramble tofu and bircher muesli. I didn't have a great breakfast experience with my order almost forgotten. Everyone else had eaten and left the table by the time mine arrived when we all ordered same time. Sadly I found the tofu was cold (that might have been intentional) and overpowered with curry seasoning. Sorry MSC but I couldn't face nine days of that on repeat. 10 out of 10 for having an option but it missed the mark for me.

Buffet dinning was still a gamble, with poor labelling and limited options. I'm always comfortable risk accessing my personal situation but I've got to be armed with correct information to make that decision. I wasn't successful in eating breakfast at the buffet but other meal times were slightly easier. I was so pleased to see a some what small but acceptable "vegan dessert" section (found under Vegetarian & Healthy Eating). This was a major improvement from fruit (I love fruit but fruit is not a pudding lol). I am still generally puzzled that items labelled vegetarian which were likely to be vegan were not labelled as such. For instance, I've eaten Marinara pizza in every Italian city, it is traditionally made without cheese (tomato & garlic), however MSC were labelling it vegetarian with no listed allergens. Same goes for some salads which were simply cous cous or quinoa and vegetables. On the other hand steamed vegetables were often labelled vegan. Not sure if it was just me but sometimes labelling at dinner time felt better than at lunch. It just failed to appear consistent. There were plenty of signs regarding allergies but a peak time it understandably can be tricky to get hold of staff. I felt overwhelmed to bat off other people at every buffet section to request allergy information. On one of my check ins, I inform staff I was struggling with the buffet but was told it was always advised to eat in the main dinning room. Fair enough, it was a better controlled experience but the problem is that scheduled opening hours clashed with time we spent off the ship. I guess that is to be expected.

It's funny because the first thing people say is how much they over eat on cruise holidays but I always reply "haha! not a problem for a vegan with allergies". You won't go hungry but it will be less food options than fellow diners that you may be travelling with. I'm always armed with my Happy Cow app when off ship and make sure to eat better meals on land and drop into supermarkets for extras to take back onboard. 

Truth be told I was dreading the food situation based off my last experience but this time around seemed less stressful and I was made to feel welcome by staff. 

Sarah x

Food pictures - large photo raspberry, coconut chocolate tart and biscuits (flavours varied & were my favourites of the trip, available in the buffet). In collage photo - Watermelon & tofu salad, Gnocchi and cauliflower, Pina Colada pudding, Falafel, Chocolate fudge pudding, Beetroot hummus, Tofu Scramble.