Traveling gluten free on Go Nordic Cruiseline

A 15-hour cruise from Copenhagen to Oslo for around 35€ in my own cabin? In cities where a hotel easily runs 150€ and a short boat tour is 50+, I was sold as soon as I heard this was a thing. Turns out, it’s a great way to get from A to B. But for those of us who are gluten free, the dining situation is a mixed bag, featuring few possibilities but one very good option, at a price.

My GF Take at a Glance
Overall Rating: 7/10 (Limited with an impressive option)
Top Dining Pick: Kull (Moderately upscale, great safety, reservation recommended)
My Suggestion: Pack your own snacks and splurge on one good dinner
Also see: My GF guide to Copenhagen | My GF guide to Oslo (coming soon)

About my Go Nordic Cruiseline ferry voyage

I won’t detour into a full cruise line review, but for context, this ship sits somewhere between a car transport ferry and a proper cruise ship though it definitely edges closer to a cruise compared to other regional ferries I’ve taken.

The ship is big, though not massive. For an absurdly cheap ticket, you get access to:

• A pool and hot tubs (very family centric)
• Live entertainment that goes well into the night
• An arcade, table top and board games but no casino anymore
• Several bars and a duty-free shop (though the shop has little for us beyond nuts and a few candies)
• 4 onboard restaurants

The cabins and other facilities are however pretty basic, which explains the low price. As a tourist, it’s a slower, cheaper, and to me, great way to transit between the two countries. As a local or someone visiting who just wants a day in one city or the other, it’s a mini-adventure where a round-trip ticket costs less than all but the cheapest hotel room in either city.

But enough of that, let’s talk about the food. The gluten free food that is.

The restaurants and their Gluten Free options

As I mentioned, there are at least 4 places to eat on the ship and I’ll break down what each offers, and what my take was.

Kværn Cafe (GF Rating: 1/10)

First up is the coffee shop, which also has a few bites, though not for us. Kværn is the budget buy, especially for breakfast when a buffet feels like a bit much, and it is also the main hot coffee stop. Unfortunately, their allergen signs and the number of gluten-filled treats adorning every bit of the cafe suggested they have little we can eat. If you tolerate GF oats, you may find a suitable oatmeal, but for me, it was a complete miss.

Skagerak Buffet (GF Rating: 4/10)

This is the most popular spot on the ship, offering an all-you-can-eat dinner for 40€ and breakfast for 21€. Given Scandinavia’s strict food safety standards, I was curious to see how they handled allergens. The staff was kind but honest: they have GF options, they have an allergen section, but it is all in a shared space — a very shared space. They let me take a look, and between how little of the food I could have and seeing lines of people grab dishes while cutting bread all over the place made it an immediate pass for me. However, if you talk with the kitchen, I am sure they would bring you fresh portions from the back if you wanted to try.

Syd Italian (GF Rating: 6/10)

Continuing on by price point is the Italian restaurant. Their menu is pretty simple to start with but the cruise line’s website says they offer GF pasta and pizza, noting that the pizza is done in a shared oven. A hot plate of pasta felt like a safe and well-priced bet, but when I went to chat about options, they told me pasta wasn’t an option. While I have done fairly well on shared pizza kitchens in Europe, they’ve been very GF friendly spots, and I didn’t want to push my luck here, so I passed again.

Kull Fine Dining (GF Rating: 9/10)

This brings me to Kull, the fanciest restaurant on the ship (there’s also Nord, a fine dining spot, but it was closed and not listed on the Go Nordic Cruiseline website) with a proper sit down vibe. After the other spots, this was a total 180 from any of the others. Approaching the hostess to ask about GF, she went right to the chef who confirmed that not only could they do GF, but a good portion of the menu was naturally gluten-free to start with. They were rather busy so I booked a table and came back a few hours later for what turned out to be one of favorite meals of the trip: fresh fish in a wonderful sauce with a side of potatoes. Dessert looked tempting, but with a hefty price tag and a cake from a Copenhagen bakery waiting back in my cabin, I stopped there. No reactions, no issues, just an unexpectedly impressive dinner. Fourth time was the charm apparently.

The Pool Deck & Other Bars

There is also a pool deck bar which I didn’t really count as they were only open for the first couple hours of the cruise and didn’t serve up much. But I did spot hot dogs and while I did not ask about those, fair odds that they are GF and would be willing to grab you one before it reaches the bun stage, general CC risk notwithstanding. Other bars around the ship had some nice looking charcuterie plates as well. Again, I did not inquire but presumably they could be modified to hold back on any gluten containing crackers or dips.

Duty Free Finds

The duty free shop isn’t much help either. There are a few GF candy options, some nuts without any warnings, and some dried fruit (I buy the dried mango they sell every trip as a snack) but that was about it. The same goes for the couple of vending machines and other kiosk like options which had beverages, a snack or two, but not much.

Other food options before, after, and on the cruise

The nice part about this cruise is that you’re entirely welcome to bring your own food, and many people did. I didn’t spot any fridges or cold storage options in the cabin, but for just 15 hours, it’s manageable. I had planned to live off my own supplies as well, stocking up on some GF bread, peanut butter, fruit, and with a few tuna packets (I also always travel with an add-hot-water backpacking meal or two, just in case). Just before getting on the ship in Copenhagen, I also walked over to Thunberg’s Kreative Hjørne, a 100% GF bakery that’s about 10 minutes away, and grabbed a few treats for the ride.

Landing in Oslo the next morning, I dropped my bags, grabbed a yogurt at the first decent store I saw, and trekked right over to GLH Glutenfrihuset Tøyen. It’s one of Oslo’s 100% GF bakeries, and sitting down with their amazing pistachio cinnamon roll by 11 was not a bad way to start my Oslo city day.

My take on the cruise

For the price, it’s hard to have anything but great things to say. I didn’t come in with high expectations for gluten-free eating given the tight space and the local diet, so leaving having had one genuinely amazing meal at Kull felt like a total win.

Obviously, more options would be nice, especially a safe breakfast choice, but being able to pack your own things and get off the ship well before lunch makes it incredibly easy to work around. I’d gladly ride again. If you’ve got stricter needs, it never hurts to reach out ahead of time to see if they can store things for you or if you can rent a cabin fridge.

Also see: My GF guide to Copenhagen | My GF guide to Oslo (coming soon)