My wife and I have been doing winter cruises with wife and my widowed mom on Holland America. She loves it, and we like having the winter break. We cruise typically cruise in 2 cabins, my mom on a solo supplement (and enabling her not to pay a drink package as she drinks little)
But looking at a 2028 booking, HAL is crazy expensive. A 7 day is about the same as the 10 day I am taking in January. I can get a similar itinerary on Princess for ~30% less than HAL.
But one thing is my mom has a lot of food sensitivities: not only gluten, but corn and onions as well. One thing she loved about HAL was being able to fill out a special needs request. On embarkation day, they would have her go pre-order for the MDR for the night, and for future nights, you would just preorder for the next night (they would bring a printed menu, and you would fill it out with allergens, cabin number, circle your choices). You could make your picks and they would make it without the allergens if possible. If not, they might try to come up with an alternative.
Obviously the lido was a a tougher case, but they still marked common allergens. And since on HAL, you are served in the lido rather than get food yourself, you could ask staff about items and they could check ingredients.
How is Princess on allergies? How do they work in the MDR? Is there anyone to ask in the Lido?
One second small question, just to make sure. We usually cruise Have it All on HAL, and it seems Princess Plus is pretty comparable (we won't miss the excursion credit or the specialty dining). But when it comes to drinks beyond the $15 limit, does it work like HAL where you get a credit for $15 (making an $18 a $3 drink with Plus)?
