Ask Mike
By Mike Groves
August 17, 2010

I received a quick email from one of our readers, Louis regarding the recent and sad death of a young man last week on board the Norwegian Cruise Line's Epic  after suffering an apparent allergic reaction. It is something all passengers with sever allergies should be made aware of and this is why have posted it.

Don’t trust that the ships galley crew will take your condition into account each and every time!

Dear Mike,

21 year old man dies of allergies on NCL ship.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/accent/travel/man-21man-21-dies-after-severe-al
lergic-reaction-to-861017.html

I am allergic to sulfites.  I warn the Maitre De at the beginning of the cruise and each night I am given the following night's menu, so if there is wine in the dish, they prepare the dish without the wine. GREAT!!  One night, I ordered Southern Fried Chicken -- harmless you would think.  During dinner, I had a sulfite reaction.  You would assume there were no sulfites in the dish ----WRONG.  The ship gets "prepackaged/prepared" meals which they cook onboard.   YES, sulfites were used as a preservative for the fried chicken at the processing house.  The "contains sulfites" print was on the "outside" of the box which contained 25-50 prepared pieces of chicken.

The matre de spoke to the chef and all were "puzzled" about my allergic reaction.  Then, after dinner, the maitre de and chef did more investigation and found the outer box.

So, lesson learned........no food on the ship is "safe" from allergies because of the prepackaged/prepared meals used by the ships.

Louis

Yes saw I it and its terrible.

I feel cruise operator is possibly negligent / accountable as my nephew has this condition, but like so many others he is conditioned to inform all restaurants when on holiday.

I can't believe this victim would not have done that and this needs to be investigated fully. Such a simple thing these days for all restaurants to ensure they're up to speed when it comes to individual diners needs and expectations?

Thanks for contacting Cruise Bruise.

Mike
Ask Mike

By Mike Groves QGM
Cruise Bruise Security And Safety Advisor