OK Cindy, get your paper and pen out...
Allergies can completely incapacitate you and your family. I have a very serious shellfish allergy, plus we love food, so we are experts at food and travel. We travel the entire year with our lecture series and we try not to eat out or on the road - not only for health reasons, but if we did we couldn't afford these costly vacations!
Bring with you some of the plastic sports bottles with the pull top lids. Fill them with water to take on excursions. Bring blue painter's tape and label each one with each kids name. Bring 2 highliters, 2 sharpies. Use the tape to post daily schedules on the back of your door.
Go to Target, Walmart or Kmart and get some of the plastic beverage containers with screw tops to keep milk, juice and water in your cooler. Approx. 8 inches x 3-4 inches. Get different colors - about $1 each. Use your blue painter's tape to label each one and refill each night.
Bring a sponge with a very small travel size dish washing liquid to clean them out.
Each night order room service: peanut butter (if the kids can eat them) and jelly sandwiches. They are self contained and easy to pack to go the next day. Also, order the cookies as they are easy to take too. Pick up the bananas, grapes, dry cereal boxes crackers at Topsiders and Scoops. Make each child in charge of their own daily responsibility to pick up their own food, bring it back to the room and put it in their own lunch bag. They should check off their food list each day. If they kids can't eat PB&J pick up sandwiches fixens each morning and put them in your baggies.
Bring dozens of ziplock baggies in three sizes. Lunch bag, quart and gallon size. Roll them up and tie several rubber bands around them to use when you may need them. put plastic spoons, forks, knife inside the baggie roll. Tuck them anywhere in your luggage to use when you unpack.
Bring a clear over the door shoe holder and put the baggies and silverware in a designated pocket. Label the pockets with your blue tape. What goes where in advance and each child gets a pocket for junk!
Bring 2 or more soft sided lunch coolers (like Gydell said) and put your drinks and snacks in them for the pool or excursions.
This is the website for the best coolers we've ever found in our traveling life!
http://aocoolers.com/
They are soft sided and hold ice for easy 24 hours with no leakage. We have the 6 pack size and the back pack. We put the 6 pack size in the room cooler and leave it there. Each night we take 2 gallon baggies and fill them with ice. Put on at the bottom and one at the top. We also brought small tupperware like containers that insert into each other to conserve on space. We'd put cheese, fruit etc. in the cooler and it would keep for days. We always had food available. The back pack is so that we can take cold item with no problem. Jonathan will carry the backpack, I'm in charge of the lightweight collapsible stroller and camera, Zoe is in charge of her own entertainment backpack. We'll be mobile and always have breakfast on the buses. We are not morning people, so to get out for some of these excursions we will have to bring breakfast. We also want to pick up food in the cities we are visiting, so we can bring it back.
When I think of something else I'll let you know. All of you with picky eaters, check out this website. We have been very impressed with their gear.
PS: bring a door stop the doors on the boat are heavy!