Are there options for people who have specific allergies or with other dietary restrictions?

Happy to help. In short, yes, the chefs/cooks accommodate various dietary restrictions. If you have a really acute sensitivity to something (peanuts, garlic, etc.), be mindful that the ship is a contained system and they're cooking for 1,000 or so people.

If traveling on one of the field programs, they will do their best to accommodate in the field. No guarantees, though, depending on the country and the provider in country. In my experience, we had no issues keeping everybody happy!

Yes, there were vegans and such while I was abroad with Semester at Sea.

There is numerous health papers so they are aware before the student boards and all concerns are addressed. The staff is wonderful and works with any and all students.

I don’t think there are too many options. The food on board is pretty repetitive/limited. I have a severe peanut allergy and a lot of people relied HEAVILY on peanut butter and jelly and peanut butter toast for their meals.

The ship was pretty bad about monitoring the peanut butter, so I wasn’t able to use the jelly or anything near that station. I also had to avoid most desserts.

There is a new ship since I went on SAS, so it’s definitely possible that they’ve modified things! But for my fall 2013 voyage, it was pretty difficult to manage allergies.

Yes, there are. I never had to deal with it personally so I can’t speak to specifics but there were definitely people on the ship that had dietary restrictions/allergies and made it work.

I sailed on the MV Explorer in Fall 2011, so I'm not sure if the food has changed with the new ship. On my voyage there were a ton of options for every meal, in terms of vegetarian choices. I believe the options were highly limited for vegans. One of my close friends was allergic to gluten, so he had special meals made for just him (I believe at a cost?). He had reached out beforehand and let the ship know about his allergies beforehand.

Certainly, one would have to be cautious, traveling in many different countries, but the ship provides food for all types of diets and I know people with food allergies who sailed on my voyage.

Yes there are options for people with specific dietary restrictions. I had a friend who had some and you just need to let them know before you begin (you can call the ISE/SAS office too). The chefs work with you to determine your needs. Since the ship picks up food along the way, they do their best to accommodate with what they have. Just know going into it that you may be eating a lot of the same things day after day. But they do accommodate as best they can!