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CK is by far the best perk of being in a Jr Suite. They have the best filet of any dining venue, bar none, but it’s only served the first night. Think of it as a specialty dining venue that’s no extra charge and only for Jr Suite guests and higher. I absolutely loved it the one sailing I got to partake. Spectacular food every night.

Since you’re on an Oasis class ship, you’ll have to make reservations each night; for some reason they don’t let you reserve your dinner time on the first night for every night of your sailing, even though Quantum class ships have no problem with that.

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While all of the dining venues are excellent, for us, the first time in a suite on a quantum class ship gave us full Coastal Kitchen access and it was the impetus to keep us in that class or above on all future cruises. It has the ambiance of a specialty restaurant coupled with a menu that changes throughout the week ... and I suspect many here would agree: Filet night is a can't miss!

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Yes. CK is amazing!  And yes, it is a good idea to make reservations for dinner (breakfast and lunch do not require reservations).  For Junior Suite guests, CK is available for dinner only and only if there is availability so just be aware of that.  JS guests have better luck getting into CK on some ships than others.  YMMV.  You definitely should try to make reservations on the first day for that.  

What is so good about CK? 

For starters, they have their own kitchen so the food is more fresh and hot.  The venue is much smaller than the Main Dining Room so they prepare it when you order it.  The flavour is also much better.  And the menu is much more varied that the MDR.  I have always said that CK rivals any other specialty restaurant, in fact, some dishes are the same as those that can be found in specialty and sometimes taste even better!  The best example of that is Filet night in CK, their filet is the best onboard, better than Chops and Giovanni (IMO lol, some will disagree with me).

The other thing that CK wins out on is the view!  Especially on Oasis class ships, which Symphony is.  No specialty restaurant, or MDR can beat the view and the ambiance of CK.  Floor to ceiling windows, beautiful views of the sunset over dinner, I miss it so much just thinking about it!

And the last thing is the service.  Because the venue is a much smaller one, wait staff have the time to spend with you.  They are not running around like crazy like in the MDR.

I have a lot of photos of CK menus and food pics in my blogs (links are in my signature).  I have on from Symphony from last July.  It might be helpful so that you can get an idea of what it looks like and what food options there are available to you.

#teamCK forever!

 

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Coastal Kitchen is definitely something to explore since you have a JS.  Closer to sailing the menus will be available in the app.  I'd suggest you review the menus then consider what nights are higher priority based on your tastes.  

I view CK between specialty dining and the MDR most nights and for one or two menus they are equal to or superior to specialty dining.  Most nights they are very good but not as good as specialty dining.  The ambiance and service is usually better than the MDR but also review the MDR menus to see if any are less appealing or more appealing nights and balance that against the CK menus.  

Sometimes a JS will have a harder time securing reservations in CK however there is odd reservation smoke and mirrors used for CK reservations as they try to balance full suites, pinnacles and junior suites during dinner.  I've seen where they say there are no reservations available but visiting the suite lounge you'll discover CK is half empty.  It never hurts to drop by and ask how it looks tonight or if anyone didn't show up.  

Sometimes a JS can get in but not always during prime time every night so if there is an early show that would work with a later CK time that can often yield CK reservation success.  

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Our favorite thing was that they assigned us the same waiter, no matter which table we sat at-- so he knew our preferences, and also went above and beyond for our disabled DD.  She always got shrimp cocktail, and after seeing that we had to take it out of the tall glass, and remove the tails for her, he made arrangements to bring it out on a flat plate, tail off.

Also, after watching us cut up her food for her each time, he took to doing that for her as well, so that our dinners didn't get cold, and we didn't have to shuffle plates around.  He was well tipped on our last night.

We went 7 times on our 12 night cruise (MDR 1st night @ MTD, which was a disaster)specialty dining for 3, and 1 night we couldn't get a reservation). Next time we are on Anthem, we are definitely reserving as early as possible.

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