Suite Class Dining

[Yellowlily]

Family and I are sailing this spring on Allure in a Grand Suite.  We've never done a Grand Suite before.  So, have read some different things about dining and wanted to get some advice, etc., about our dining options. 

 

I understand we can dine in Coastal Kitchen - do we need to make reservations in advance on our cruise planner or go through concierge or no?  

I've also read that the In-Room Dining during Main Dining Room hours is an excellent perk and imagine we will do this.  

Considering the Speciality restaurants - should we or no?  I'd love to try the 150 Central Perk and Sabor (for lunch).  What I'm mostly conflicted on - should we get one of the dining packages or no?  The 3 night and BOGO dining packages are enticing but looks like we have to go there the first day, correct?  We always do specialty dining when we've sailed in the past but usually once or twice.  We are sailing on a 7 night cruise.

Lastly, we did the get the Deluxe Beverage Package for both DH and I.  Kind of glad we did after I saw how possibly crowded the lounge can get.  Considering refreshment packages for my kids also, but not sure (they aren't really soda drinkers, I'll have to weigh the options).   We did buy a water package for the room.

 

So, in a nutshell, what are our options exactly and would it be overkill to book specialty dining if we have Coastal Kitchen and In Room Dining available to us? Any other advice, things to know, etc.?  Thanks!

[George C]

We just did sister ship oasis in a owners suite, same perks as grand suite. We got reservations from concierge for first two nights in costal kitchen, had breakfast and lunch there daily, dinner first night was excellent second night was ok. View is amazing. If you have drink package why buy water package you can get water and bring it to suite , you also get a large bottle of Evian for free in suite. We also bought 3 night package on the ship , really enjoyed 150cp should have done it twice. We also enjoyed habatchi which is not covered by restaurant packages, not all restaurants are open for lunch and you do have costal kitchen. Grand suites are great but no dinning table for room service that’s a advantage owners suite have . 

[Yellowlily]

2 minutes ago, George C said:

We just did sister ship oasis in a owners suite, same perks as grand suite. We got reservations from concierge for first two nights in costal kitchen, had breakfast and lunch there daily, dinner first night was excellent second night was ok. View is amazing. If you have drink package why buy water package you can get water and bring it to suite , you also get a large bottle of Evian for free in suite. We also bought 3 night package on the ship , really enjoyed 150cp should have done it twice. We also enjoyed habatchi which is not covered by restaurant packages, not all restaurants are open for lunch and you do have costal kitchen. Grand suites are great but no dinning table for room service that’s a advantage owners suite have . 

Ok, good to know, thank you.  Did not realize about the water.  DH purchased the water package, maybe he should cancel it.  Thanks for the heads up.  

I thought they bring you a dining table for room service in a grand suite or higher?  Guess no?

Great about 150 Central Park, it looks like my kind of place.  Thanks for your input!

[Cigar King]

One more thing about the water, you can ask for bottles in the lounges.  We always had plenty.

[George C]

We really liked the cheese platter offered at end of the meal at 150cp very elegant adult dinning, yes cancel water package. Forgot to tell you about the only negative thing about suite, they are addictive you will not want to book anything else. 

[Yellowlily]

So great about the water.  I'm still confused on the in room dining.  Everything I've read/seen says we can order room service (no fee for GS or higher excluding tip) and we can order from the MDR during regular dining hours right to our room (and from the reviews I've read this seems to be one of the favorite perks among suite guests(GS and higher), I hope it's an option still).  Wouldn't they set up a dining table for us?  We also have a balcony.  I'd like to clarify this to be sure.  

 

Cheese platter at 150 cp sounds amazing!  And yes, I'm thinking once we do a suite it will be hard to ever go back to just a balcony cabin!!  Looking forward to it!

[reallyitsmema]

24 minutes ago, Yellowlily said:

Ok, good to know, thank you.  Did not realize about the water.  DH purchased the water package, maybe he should cancel it.  Thanks for the heads up.  

I thought they bring you a dining table for room service in a grand suite or higher?  Guess no?

Great about 150 Central Park, it looks like my kind of place.  Thanks for your input!

 

They will not bring you a dining table with room service but their is a dining table on the balcony you can use.  Coastal Kitchen on Oasis is good for breakfast.  We found lunch very limited, they only used two menus on our sailing in September, one of them once and the other one the other days.  Dinners were good but we did not feel it was as spectacular as some say.  Lobster night was awful, lobster was undercooked and we sent it back as well as multiple tables around us.  We would not eat there every night in the future, but would pick and choose based on looking at the menus onboard.

[molly361]

2 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

They will not bring you a dining table with room service but their is a dining table on the balcony you can use.  Coastal Kitchen on Oasis is good for breakfast.  We found lunch very limited, they only used two menus on our sailing in September, one of them once and the other one the other days.  Dinners were good but we did not feel it was as spectacular as some say.  Lobster night was awful, lobster was undercooked and we sent it back as well as multiple tables around us.  We would not eat there every night in the future, but would pick and choose based on looking at the menus onboard.

I agree food was not what I had expected from reading all the glowing posts about CK- atmosphere was a LOT better though than the MDR

[Clarea]

1 hour ago, Yellowlily said:

 ... Wouldn't they set up a dining table for us? ...

 

Nope, they won't bring in a dining table.

 

Some move the table from the balcony inside.

[Yellowlily]

4 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Nopem they won't bring in a dining table.

 

Some move the table from the balcony inside.

Excellent - sounds easy enough regarding the table from the balcony.  So, is this is nice as I've heard or not?  Dining in room during MDR hours?  Also, we have the Deluxe Beverage Package - can you order this for your room if we happen to get in room dining one night or do we have to go to a bar/venue to get a drink?

[George C]

Need to go to bar to get a drink to get it included with package 

[Yellowlily]

Just now, George C said:

Need to go to bar to get a drink to get it included with package 

Thank you

[reallyitsmema]

20 minutes ago, Yellowlily said:

Excellent - sounds easy enough regarding the table from the balcony.  So, is this is nice as I've heard or not?  Dining in room during MDR hours?  Also, we have the Deluxe Beverage Package - can you order this for your room if we happen to get in room dining one night or do we have to go to a bar/venue to get a drink?

 

We dined in our GS one night after coming back from a long port day.  We were told food would be there in 45 minutes and it was almost 1 1/2 hours by the time it arrived.  Had it come when we wanted, we would have been eating as we sailed away from port, we were long gone by the time it got there.  We had talked to the concierge about getting an order put in for a specific time and were told that we had to order it ourselves.

 

We would order again if we were going to stay in for the night, but otherwise, we would go to the WJ.

[cb at sea]

They don't serve room service meals "by course"...it's all brought at one time, unless you make multiple orders....dining "in cabin" isn't what you might be imagining.  Some love eating in...others don't.  I'm in the latter group.  I'd rather head to the dining room and be served!

[Yellowlily]

15 minutes ago, cb at sea said:

They don't serve room service meals "by course"...it's all brought at one time, unless you make multiple orders....dining "in cabin" isn't what you might be imagining.  Some love eating in...others don't.  I'm in the latter group.  I'd rather head to the dining room and be served!

Yes, absolutely, meal delivered as a whole not by each course.  What I was imagining/read/seen on Youtube reviews was many liked this option because you order off the MDR what you would like within the MDR hours and they seemed to like that as opposed to dining in the MDR because it was quiet, intimate and not hectic (especially if you have one of those days that you want a quiet evening). 

I wanted to get the details here on CC just to be clear.  I can imagine us doing in-room dining maybe once or twice.  However, all these things are really great to know going in, planning, etc.  Sounds like we really should take advantage of the specialty dining offers.  Glad to know what are options are going in so we can plan.

[tiger13]

You will not have a dining room table however GS have a very nice counter to put all the food then you can either sit on the balcony or use the little table near the couch.  As others have said it all comes at once so does tend to get cold but it is nice to pick and choose what you want to order.  Dont forget to order everything you will need such as salt pepper ketchup etc...

Enjoy !!

[Andy C]

We travel in Grand Suites - I want to add my two cents about in room dining.  Yes you can order from MDR menu while MDR is open.  When we were on Harmony this past September I called twice for breakfast and both times they argued with me that I could not order from MDR - this was eventually sorted out and chalked up to poor training.  And second as someone stated earlier they took much longer to bring the food than what they had advised it would take.  In the end my wife and I simply decided to not bother with in room dining anymore.  We'll be back on Harmony shortly and again have no plans to order in room dining.  

[frank808]

4 hours ago, Yellowlily said:

Family and I are sailing this spring on Allure in a Grand Suite.  We've never done a Grand Suite before.  So, have read some different things about dining and wanted to get some advice, etc., about our dining options. 

 

I understand we can dine in Coastal Kitchen - do we need to make reservations in advance on our cruise planner or go through concierge or no?  

I've also read that the In-Room Dining during Main Dining Room hours is an excellent perk and imagine we will do this.  

Considering the Speciality restaurants - should we or no?  I'd love to try the 150 Central Perk and Sabor (for lunch).  What I'm mostly conflicted on - should we get one of the dining packages or no?  The 3 night and BOGO dining packages are enticing but looks like we have to go there the first day, correct?  We always do specialty dining when we've sailed in the past but usually once or twice.  We are sailing on a 7 night cruise.

Lastly, we did the get the Deluxe Beverage Package for both DH and I.  Kind of glad we did after I saw how possibly crowded the lounge can get.  Considering refreshment packages for my kids also, but not sure (they aren't really soda drinkers, I'll have to weigh the options).   We did buy a water package for the room.

 

So, in a nutshell, what are our options exactly and would it be overkill to book specialty dining if we have Coastal Kitchen and In Room Dining available to us? Any other advice, things to know, etc.?  Thanks!

If you want to eat dinner in CK at preferred times like 630-730 I would advise you reply to the co cierge when you get their email about a week before the cruise.  Those popular dining times tend to get booked early.  If you eat early 5pm or late 8pm+ you will probably have an easier time getting seating onboard if you do not reply to concierge.

 

We ordered food once in all our cruises and it was to get some prawns that were available on mdr but not in CK.  Asked to be delivered at 620 and it was there promptly.  Also have room service almost every night after windjammer is shut down and have had meals delivered within 30min.  Now this was not during times mdr was open, just room service.

 

As others have pointed out, no need for water package as you can stop by site lounge to grab a few bottles of water each.  You can have beer, wine, soda and bottled water in SL from 11am-11pm.  So no need to buy soda package for your kids as they can get some soda from SL when they do want as you say they aren't soda drinkers.

 

Might want to do bogo on first night as allure serves filet on the 3rd night.  I am of the mind, why pay for dining when it is already included in cruise fare and you do get a better experience most nights in CK compared to MDR. I find CK and MDR to be fine.

[George C]

a little off topic but make sure you have a drink in rising tide bar which moves from deck 8 in central park to deck 5

[Yellowlily]

2 hours ago, George C said:

a little off topic but make sure you have a drink in rising tide bar which moves from deck 8 in central park to deck 5

Will do!!!  Looks amazing!!

[SRF]

17 hours ago, Andy C said:

We travel in Grand Suites - I want to add my two cents about in room dining.  Yes you can order from MDR menu while MDR is open.  When we were on Harmony this past September I called twice for breakfast and both times they argued with me that I could not order from MDR - this was eventually sorted out and chalked up to poor training.  And second as someone stated earlier they took much longer to bring the food than what they had advised it would take.  In the end my wife and I simply decided to not bother with in room dining anymore.  We'll be back on Harmony shortly and again have no plans to order in room dining.  

 

We had this problem with breakfast one time.  Manager called back and apologized, and made person on the phone deliver the order and apologize personally.

 

We found that the food came fairly fast.

 

We only do breakfast one morning on the balcony.

[Big_G]

18 hours ago, Andy C said:

We travel in Grand Suites - I want to add my two cents about in room dining.  Yes you can order from MDR menu while MDR is open.  When we were on Harmony this past September I called twice for breakfast and both times they argued with me that I could not order from MDR - this was eventually sorted out and chalked up to poor training.  And second as someone stated earlier they took much longer to bring the food than what they had advised it would take.  In the end my wife and I simply decided to not bother with in room dining anymore.  We'll be back on Harmony shortly and again have no plans to order in room dining.  

 

I'll bet Pinnacles get their food fast and hot.

[George C]

Really perfer breakfast in costal kitchen or specialty over room service . 

[Andy C]

1 hour ago, Big_G said:

 

I'll bet Pinnacles get their food fast and hot.

 

Wouldn't it be nice if they could have it in their own lounge too!