Food Allergy River Cruise on Avalon Waterways in France

Because of our travel consulting business, our company, An Easy Journey, LLC. was invited on an Avalon Waterways river cruise sailing from Bordeaux, France!

As Paris and France are our travel companies #1 place for our clients to visit, always excited to see what’s new/changed for people who have food allergies.

If you didn’t know, Paris & France can be notoriously challenging for those who have dietary restrictions/food allergies.

SO MUCH Info on Paris & France with Food Allergies

Now, if you’ve read our blog posts, we have a lot of info on Paris & France with Food Allergies, see:

• Loving Paris with Food Allergies
• Paris is Always a Good Idea
• From Disney Paris – Mickey Cookie Recipe Food Allergy-Friendly
• Lavender & Luxury: South of France with Food Allergies
• Cruising with Food Allergies: Viking River Cruise thru France

Want more real life food allergy travel stories and expert tips as well as food allergy-friendly recipes?

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From our food allergy travels to the tips learned from our many clients, we share what we know to help you travel go a lot less stressfully & travel with more confidence!

And our super helpful Ultimate Packing List for Traveling with Food Allergies is yours free, here.

And speaking of highly desirable info, grab our super helpful, free Ultimate Packing List for Food Allergy Travels here.

😎 Using our Food Allergy Specific Packing List, you will save yourself lots of time, money & stress!

It’s our personal 24-years of traveling with food allergies packing list & also suggestions from our clients & members of our Private Food Allergy Travels and life Facebook Group – Join us there too.

It’s a very positive, helpful Community!

Train from Paris to Bordeaux

Onto our Avalon Waterways River cruise! Katie & I are taking the train from Paris’ Gare Montparnasse train station to Bordeaux.

As always recommend, book online as soon as you have dates. We book thru Omio & reserve seats on the 2nd floor to have a good view! As we find out, several travel agents didn’t pre-book their tickets & are scrambling to find a return train to Paris at twice the price we paid!

We Uber to the Artistry II Avalon Ship & check-in to our suite #203.

Of course, we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our balcony suite!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH AVALON! 💖

Our Avalon Waterways Cabin & Food Allergy Prep

Because Avalon has a really unique concept – no cabin balconies, instead our cabin is larger & so get a wall of windows that open up to the scenic river!

As our river cruise is to Southwest France, we have never been to any of the places on this cruise. – exciting but also a bit terrifying too.

As we mention earlier, Katie & I have concerns if Avalon Waterways will be able to accommodate for her multiple anaphylactic food allergies.

When you live with anaphylactic food allergies, stepping onto a cruise ship can feel like a giant leap of faith!

Onboard a river cruise, there’s only 1 galley (kitchen), 1 culinary staff, & no option mid sailing to just walk down a street to a grocery store/market for safe food.

For this reason, we pack quite a bit of food allergy-friendly food in our suitcase, especially snacks and safe granola bars/protein balls & bring onboard fresh strawberries, raspberries & a cold pasta salad we prepare this morning in our Paris Airbnb, in our backpack cooler. Also, our Avalon cabin has a mini fridge – very helpful!

With these food items, we feel prepared to be able to eat safely at least until our next port.

Katie & I are actually quite anxious – is Avalon REALLY able to accommodate for her food allergies?

Or are we going to survive on grocery bagged salads & our suitcase full of food allergy friendly snacks?

Because of her many, serious food allergies (anaphylactic to: peanuts, legumes, shellfish, soy, meat & dairy intolerance. She also cannot have tree nuts if cross contact with peanuts)  this is Katie’s 1st cruise.

And as we advise clients, you must speak with all cruise lines special accommodations department before booking, to make sure that they can accommodate for your specific food allergies & you feel comfortable with their answers.

Now, from 1st hand experience, not all cruise lines are capable.

But Avalon is very knowledgeable from our initial conversation. And on arriving onboard, the head chef Cosmo and Maitre D” Milan, sit down with us privately to go over our specific food allergies.

By the way, Cosmo & Milan are FANTASTIC & train their staff to be exceptional –  truly understanding food allergies! 10 out of 10!!! Really.

On our 1st evening aboard, they prepare Katie a delicious appetizer of cucumber, smoked salmon & watercress.

Avalon is already exceeding our food allergy expectations! And dinner is even better! Each Avalon menu lists out the menu with the Top 14 food allergens so you can see options. Our extremely helpful Maitre d’ Milan speaks to us at every meal and then converses with Chef Cosmo to ensure it will be safe for Katie.

As our 1st meal onboard, Katie has Smooth Pumpkin Soup, Grilled Fillet of Halibut with sautéed cabbage with whipped dairy-free potatoes and  a dessert of raspberry sorbet! WOW.

Avalon is exceeding every food allergy expectation.

See our video on how Avalon Waterways keeps people who have Food Allergies safe, here.

Food Allergy River Cruise on Avalon Waterways in France Is SCRUMPTIOUS

So much delicious food allergy-friendly food! Breakfast is amazing.

Milan again comes and quietly speaks to Katie about what she would like to eat. Of course, from our many years experience of having food allergies, this is never the case.

Options? Really?

Chef Cosmo prepares Katie a wonderful breakfast crepe with fresh berries, fresh fruit and a side of eggs. Fueling up for our tour of Bordeaux!

After touring the lovely medieval city of Bordeaux, we are back onboard the Artistry II for a wonderful lunch. This time, Katie chooses a vegetarian burger (not often ok for her because of her legume allergy) and French Fries. Absolutely delicious, this is a meal Katie will choose again throughout our cruise.

After our lunch, Katie and I go back to relax in our cabin and do a little work. However, we are soon enticed to the upper deck for incredible views, meeting up with our new friends and Happy Hour! In case you didn’t know, Avalon includes a daily Happy Hour in your cruise fare. And we enjoy each of these! Many times, the cruise director Maria or the Captain will speak at this time – always informative and fun!

Tonights dinner follows the exact protocol: we are given the same waiter Henri, & Milan respectfully chats with Katie about the menu and her choices. Milan then speaks with Chef Cosmo and returns to either say

Yes we can accommodate for your food allergies or can we make a change?

It’s absolutely incredible!

Tonight Katie is having a fresh Spring salad with poached pears and a blue cheese crumble with a light dressing (they gave us the recipe it was that good!). And Katie’s entree is fresh cod on a bed on seasoned rice.

Oh and for desert, Cosmo and his culinary team prepare an apple crumble! I honestly do not think Katie has ever been able to eat a crumble that I didn’t make.

Avalon with Food Allergies

As the day begins, we head to the dining room for breakfast. So much #foodallergyfriendly choices! Katie is choosing between a safe for her Eggs Benedict with hash brown potatoes or freshly made Pancakes with Maple Syrup & a fresh fruit platter. No matter, she chooses the homemade Blueberry Pancakes today and tomorrow switches to the Eggs Benedict.

Today we’re in we’re in the lovely town of Pauillac heading to a beautiful Countryside Chateau. As like yesterday, post-tour we go to the dining room for lunch. The menu has some new additions and Katie enjoys a very large Salmon Niçoise Salad. This afternoon, we are signed up for the afternoon bike tour with activities guide Alex, who’s very fun & gives us a fantastic tour!

Back onboard, Avalon crew always greet us by name, offers fresh water (plain, sparkling or fruit waters) and a cool towel. Honestly, this is one of the very best trips we have ever taken with food allergies.

Having just enough time to go back to our cabin to shower & change, Katie & I meet up with our new friends for Happy Hour and enjoy hearing about the tours others took.

Then, it’s onto dinner, with fresh pasta with Pecorino cheese, salad of French olives and romaine lettuce again in that light olive oil based dressing and for dessert, a pastry! You read that correctly: a pastry.

Avalon, we want to move in! This Food Allergy River Cruise on Avalon Waterways in France is better than our wildest dreams.

If you have food allergies, Avalon is a wonderful river cruise (guests must be 7 years and older). Especially as a romantic cruise or even as a family trip.

Wineries & Bike Excursions with Food Allergies

Our day starts with a delicious food allergy safe breakfast and then we’re off with our new friends and tour guides on a bike ride thru the vineyards, drooling over incredible French Châteaus owned by Chanel, the Château Canon in the adorable town of Saint – Émilion, & Châteaus from other prominent families & more. As you can see by our photos, incredible.

Again, Alex is our bike guide and he is safety 1st, making sure that we are all good and providing interesting commentary on what we are seeing. These tours are included in Avalons cruise price, so incredible value.

Please Contact Us if you are interested in an Avalon quote. We now know their food allergy protocols!

Because we did quite a bit of walking & biking today, Katie grabs 1 of her safe food allergy snacks we brought with us – the 1st time we go into “our stash”. While others are given a quick tour of a small local chocolate store.

Oh, try ALL of them if you can! (Full disclosure: Katie cannot due to her food allergies. Avalon did ask us in advance if this tour would be an issue for Katie as they could have our tour bus not stop here.)

Food Allergy River Cruise on Avalon Waterways in France

Our days are going far too fast.

Another day dawns and we enjoy a leisurely breakfast in the windowed dining room as we cruise down river.

Katie is hard pressed at each meal as she has never had this much delicious choice! Her usual, is the blueberry pancakes, fresh fruit platter and a pot of tea.

Lunch & dinner choices are too many, it’s hard to choose.

Other favs are: macaroni and cheese with fresh herbs on top, sautéed salmon with veggies and a basket of French Fries, & on our 2nd last night, the Gala Dinner, Chef Cosmo makes Katie her very own cream filled donut – just like all of ours & he delivers it with a big smile!

Both Chef Cosmo and Maitre d’ Milan, tell us multiple times:

It’s a pleasure to make your food allergy safe meals

I am crying. This is what Traveling with Food Allergies should be. Every trip, every time.

Shore Excursions on Avalon & Our Final Day Onboard

On our last day, Katie and I choose to do the tour to the beautiful beach of Arcachon Bay & my favorite, oyster tasting (Katie is allergic to shellfish but she can watch, sitting outside on a gorgeous sunny day).

Even before we left the ship for our tour, cruise director Maria has spoken to the onshore restaurant (NOT the oyster tasting but another in town restaurant overlooking the beach) to make sure Katie’s well taken care of for her food allergies (as well as all the others onboard who also have food allergies, there are several people).

Maria hands Katie an orange sticky note listing her food allergies & ask us to put by our place setting to help alert the servers.

Avalon staff had also asked if we preferred they make Katie’s lunch to bring with us but we had also contacted the restaurant and felt she could be accommodated but this level organization doesn’t just happen.

This is what great food allergy understanding, training, leadership and commitment to ensuring your clients are well taken care of looks like. And unfortunately it is rare.

Both of us really enjoy the shore excursion, walking thru the town of Arcachon, visiting the beautiful church of Notre Dam Catholic Cathedral, shopping & spending time together laughing!

Tonight is especially meaningful, new cruise friends – including much of the Avalon staff (bartenders Alex & Peter, activities guide Alex, cruise director Maria, Chef Cosmo & Maitre D Milan, just to name a few), are all a little teary-eyed too. We’ve had an incredible week of Mother-Daughter time, being silly & exploring a wonderful region of France!

Truly an honor to be invited.

And such memorable time with my daughter. Priceless in fact.

Just want all 33 million Americans who have food allergies to know Avalon is a great cruise option if you have food allergies!

The next day, departing the Avalon ship in Bordeaux, where we were so fearful only a week ago wondering if Avalon would truly be able to safely accommodate for our food allergies.

💕 I hope you are reading this love letter to Avalon Waterways and smiling.

This does exist & that gives me hope for other companies, resorts, cruise lines, restaurants, etc…

Full disclosure: we did have to pay some portion of our trip, although heavily discounted. This is not a paid for piece but our actual experience.

At An Easy Journey, LLC. we give you all the info – just see our Instagram post on Viking cruises could have killed my daughter by giving her peanut butter smoothie.

😏 Avalonians Katie & Cindi reporting that we WILL be back onboard soon.

Want to join us?!

🧳 In our next post, we’ll be sharing our favorite food allergy-friendly restaurants, tour tips, & experiences for 3 Perfect Days in Paris with Food Allergies! Make sure you’re SUBSCRIBED.

It’s sO helpful & a very memorable mother-daughter trip in Paris!

Some Questions to Ask Before You Book a River Cruise:

1. Are you able to easily understand the companies food allergy policies?
2. Do the special needs/dietary departments truly talk the lingo of food allergies?
3. Do they understand meanings of cross contact/cross contamination?
4. What kind of food allergy training does the onboard staff take?
5. How often?
6. Is the training only upper level staff or prep people also taking food allergy training?
7. How are emergencies handled onboard?