For travellers with coeliac disease, holidays often come with an extra layer of planning.<\/p>\n
Every meal requires questions, every buffet is approached with caution, and even a relaxing cruise can become a logistical exercise.<\/p>\n
Now, one company is hoping to change that by launching what it says is the world’s first completely gluten-free ocean cruise.<\/p>\n
Celiac Cruise has partnered with luxury line Oceania Cruises to offer a 12-night sailing aboard the Oceania Vista in 2028, with every single restaurant on board serving food that is 100 per cent gluten-free.<\/p>\n
The voyage, departing on May 31, 2028, will explore the British Isles, calling at destinations across England, Ireland and Scotland, while giving guests something many say they’ve never experienced before: the freedom to eat anywhere on the ship without worrying about cross-contamination.<\/p>\n
For founder Maureen Basye, that’s exactly the point.<\/p>\n
“On a lot of cruises, you have to pre-order your food the night before,” she said. “You have to make a big fuss and talk to the server and ma\u00eetre d’. We want people to be able to go on vacation and not have to constantly be thinking or worrying about their food.”<\/p>\n
Basye launched Celiac Cruise in 2018 alongside Total Travel & Events CEO Connie Saunders after seeing the challenges her husband and son, both of whom have coeliac disease, faced whenever they travelled.<\/p>\n
The company operated its first sailing in partnership with Royal Caribbean in 2020 and has since run more than 30 cruises with lines including AmaWaterways and Oceania Cruises. While previous ocean voyages typically featured a dedicated gluten-free dining room and selected grab-and-go options, the 2028 sailing will take things a step further.<\/p>\n
All 11 restaurants aboard Oceania Vista will be entirely gluten-free, with no gluten-containing products carried on the ship.<\/p>\n
Nathan Hickman, Oceania Cruises’ senior vice president and chief sales officer, said working with the Celiac Cruise team highlighted the demand for a truly worry-free experience.<\/p>\n
“Their deep passion and expertise helped us design and ultimately deliver what will be a first-of-its-kind, fully dedicated gluten-free voyage,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ahead of every departure, the Celiac Cruise team also works with the Celiac Disease Foundation to train crew members on gluten-free safety and coeliac disease awareness. And the emotional impact has surprised even the organisers.<\/p>\n
According to Saunders, some guests have been moved to tears simply by walking into a buffet where they know every single dish is safe to eat. For many travellers, that’s not just a holiday, it’s the first real break from having to think about food at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For travellers with coeliac disease, holidays often come with an extra layer of planning. Every meal requires questions,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[44258,38312,7418,102,1779,6636,5340,7618,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-636718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-coeliac","tag-cruise","tag-gluten-free","tag-health","tag-new","tag-nutrition","tag-ocean","tag-oceania","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}