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THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL THE REPLIES, I REALLY APPRECIATED IT!!  Below are
all the responses that I received. There were conflicting reports about
Carnival, some had a horrible experience and others were good.  Most said
Princess lines were the best for gluten free, but between Royal Caribbean
and Carnival, Royal Caribbean won.  Personally, I had an okay experience on
Royal, they tried, but I was told before hand that I could get gf pancakes,
deserts, etc... and I wasn't able to.  They did try though.  We have
decided this time to do a Disney cruise, because it isn't all that much
more right now due to the discounts, and the Disney theme parks are the
absolute epitome of gluten free experiences! I am assuming that the ship
will be the same. I will let you all
 know when we get back how it was (not
until November though) Best to all! (The following are all the responses)

I posted my experiences (very favorable) with Princess Lines. I received
many replies (which I summarized). Just about all of them were favorable.
The bottom line is...Let the head waiter know of your special needs the
first time you go to the dinning room.

Holland America should be knowledgeable. I've travelled on it and one of Bob
and Ruth's groups have also.

The Princess line,seemed very knowledgeable about gf diets. Information is
even available on their website once you go in to personalize your cruise.
I've heard that they were very good about special dietary needs.

We went on Celebrity's Millennium cruise ship out of Charleston, SC in
December.  The food manager(maitr'de) as they are now called informed me
that they get several celiacs per cruise.  The travel ag
ent is the one who
sets it up and he/she should be knowledgeable about it.

I KNOW that Princess is fantastic.  Have read that Carnival is also.
Holland America says that they can accomodate a GF diet in their
literature - they make delicious GF bread - period.  They didn't have a
clue what GF really means.  Princess has been so great for us that I will
probably not try another line.

We had a wonderful experience on Crystal.  Every night after dinner the
maitre'd sat down with my husband and the next day's menu.  They made
everything GF to order (except the obvious puff pastry etc) and even had
special cookies/breads/cakes for him.   I know that they are more expensive
than the other lines but they are running specials now due to the reduction
in business.

we did well on a Norwegian Cruise around the Hawaiian islands.  They had GF
bread (food for life brand - NOT my favorite, but they tried! 9 and soy milk
(I am casein intolerant as well).  Some meals were tough, but they really
worked with us.

I've been on a number of cruises.  I was on Royal Caribbean last year, and
they were familiar with the diet.  I notified them about one month before
departure, they required a faxed note from my doctor, and then the
obvious...dates of cruise, etc.  Every night for dinner, they made GF bread
for me.  It was pretty good, pretty sweet tho, not something I would eat
with my dinner.  I usually would have a square while waiting for my dinner,
and then take the rest of it back with me to my room, and have it with my
breakfast in the morning.  They were cute about it, they would add raisins
one day, nuts another.  I think they made a whole 8x8 pan of it for me
everyday, I had SO much of it piling up in my room every day I couldn't eat
it all.  But I thought it made my breakfasts great!  I didn't have the
 heart
to tell them to stop making it, cuz I had so much!  Anyway, after dinner
each night, I would make sure to ask about the next night's menu, and I
would then pick out what I wanted the following night so that they had a
heads up on how to prepare it for me.  I did this on Carnival a few years
back too!  I think that's the best way to handle dinner.  Breakfast isn't
too difficult, you can always have eggs, yogurt, fruit.  (I did bring my own
cereal on a cruise to Tahiti this past year, but that was on Radisson...I
got tired of eggs everyday).  Lunch was probably the hardest meal, I think.
You can always just do a hamburger pattie, if you know that it's 100% beef,
and salads.  (I brought McDonald's individual packets of salad dressings
with me...LOTS of them).

Read the details of one celiac's experience with cruise travel in the
Grapevine column (page 7) of Living Without magazine's
 summer issue. That
issue will be published in  May. www.LivingWithout.com

We went on a cruise last December on Royal Caribbean and they went
out of their way to accommodate our teenage daughter.  We brought a backpack
of some stuff like pasta, condiments, spices, cookies, cereal and pizza
crusts and they made special food for her each day.  We checked in with the
cruise line before we sailed to give them a heads up and checked in with the
head of the kitchen staff when we boarded.  Each night they gave us the menu
for the next night so that our daughter could choose what she wanted and
they made sure it was gf.  Each breakfast we ate in the main dining room
where they made her eggs, her cereal with milk, juice, her pancakes that we
brought the mix for (The Really Great Food Company has the best mix), and
fruit.  At lunch, she could have one of her pizzas or another main dish they
would make gf for her.  Also, they
 even brought a steak, and baked potato
and plain salad with her dressing to the private island to make sure she
would have something to eat the day we were there.  It was amazing.  All
this for one little girl when they had 3 thousand passengers aboard and this
was during Christmas week!  The head chef went over and above to make sure
everything was prepared without cross contamination and they even baked gf
corn bread for her.  We are going on another cruise on Royal Caribbean this
December and we will do the same but this time, we will bring some frozen
stuff like a loaf of bread and buns that can be kept in the fridge and used
that week.  They kept her food in a the chef's office to make sure it stayed
safe.  I have not heard about Carnival cruises being as accommodating.  I
have heard from others that Royal Caribbean is the best cruise anyway.

Princess Lines also cater to the celiac community.

I would suggest you to as
k your questions at this other excellent GF forum:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/celiac/messages
as there are quite a few msg strings about cruise subject.

Been on Carnival and it was a disaster.  The crew that serves you at the
table, may or may not speak English.  Unfortunately, I got I very nice
Chinese person that could not understand a word I said.  Additional help was
sought but only helped a little.  They got it right on the last day.  I was
better off eating on the islands.  I've heard that Royal Caribbean does a
better job.

I went on Carnival last week.  We took our gf rolls and loaf bread.  We
checked with the hostess at the beginning and she talked to us once a
day...we told her which we wanted and the chef made it gf the next day.  I
did call the main office before hand.  We always had plenty of
selections...different kinds of mousses and gf tortes.... It was great.

I have been on both c
ruise lines in the last year.  On both lines, the
maitre'd was very helpful--checking with me each evening to advise what was
safe to order from the menu and what was not safe.   On Royal Carribean
they even made me a special "bread" that they brought to my table every
evening meal.  (It was good, more like cake though, but awfully dry and I
didn't have the heart to ask them to nuke it in a microwave to restore
moisture.)

I would say that you are still pretty much on your own like you would be
when visiting restaurants anywhere.  However, not to worry!   There is
plenty of wonderful food to eat on the Royal Carribean line and you will
never be hungry.  Not so on the Carnival line.  I was often hungry--
especially late at night and the only place to get any food was a pizzaria
that also had Caesar's salad--had to ask for it without croutons, but it
was awful--tasted like it had fish oil in it.  Yuck.
    Overall , the food
was better at RC than Carnival altho they had very similar menus....

But, bottom line, let me give you the best word of advice I can give you
(whether you are Celiac or not)----go on Royal Carribean---not Carnival.
Carnival could not even begin to compare with Royal Carribean and we were
so dissapointed with Carnival that we will NEVER book with them again.
Loved every minute of Royal Carribean though!

I have cruised on Carnival and had no problem There was always something I
could eat. I have been told recently by a person in the cruise business
that Holland America has a program that caters to bfolks with CD.

I am going on a cruise tomorrow (April 25, 2003)to Ensenada with Carnival.
When I spoke with the Special needs department they emailed me a form to
fill out.  They said I could pack an extra suitcase with GF items (pasta,
etc if needed)and that the servers and
chefs would be able to accommodate
my needs.  She seemed to know what I was talking about.

My 3 year old has celiac's disease, and we have taken him twice in the
past year on a royal Caribbean cruise.  He had a great time.  Even the
kids staff were conscientious and helpful with his diet.  We received
the menu before sailing, spoke with the person in charge of special
diets about specific food items (ie butter, spices, ice cream etc.), and
spoke with the head waiter the first night.  We had one problem on the
first cruise, we ate frozen yogurt at an ice cream station.  It wasn't
GF.  We ate primarily at the main dining room and at Johnny Rockets. The
staff was great.  They made Aaron special bread every day, milk shakes
and a cake (there is a gluten free cake).  I also brought the celiac
dining card to insure full understanding. We plan to cruise again the
future, because it was a great vacation.  It was real
ly great not to
have to cook every meal or worry about calling various restaurants
looking for gluten free friendly places.

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *