Symphony Coastal Kitchen

[Teacher42]

Does the Coastal Kitchen close when in port. For people who enjoy not getting off in ports of call and do not eat buffet we found the Allure not to our liking, but we did take advantage of the on board booking perk to book the Symphony. On board the MSC Divina their Le Muse remains open in ports of call. Please advise.

[DJChick]

Yes, just on the Symphony for 2 weeks and CK was open each day we were in port and in Labadee.

Hope this helps!

 

[Teacher42]

Dear DJ Thank you . How was the food, we found it had deteriorated in the CK on  the Allure this past summer. Met a couple that was on for a month and when they said goodbye to the CK Chef he said see you soon again. Their reply was not on  this ship.. It had to be more than just the food.

[DJChick]

The food in CK I'd say was above average. Certain nights of the week the menu offers better selections such as the 1st night of the week when they have a very nice filet which as good if not better then what Chops offers. Day 6 we like the seared scallops but they also offer a poached lobster on this same day 6 menu. We asked for a "naked" lobster with butter on the side and the scallops. I think we got 3 or 4 scallops and 2 small tails which was just perfect for us. The presentation was always nice and the food was hot!! In the 2 weeks we were on the ship, we also experienced the main dining room food mainly the on the 2nd week of our 2 cruises. There are some menu items we still like in the main dining room and they were also good. But the food was always warm at best (sometimes even a bit cold) and this issue seemed to take away from our main dining room experience. CK also provided us with great service and nice views so I'm sure you will also enjoy your dinners in CK. Have a great cruise!

 

 

[Teacher42]

Dear DJ. Thank you. We will keep our booking on the Symphony. We are having such a nice time on MSC right now that we are looking over all our bookings for next year to see if we should switch. Would you book the Symphony again?

[DJChick]

We spent 26 days on the Symphony between the 12 night crossing and the 2 cruises we just finished which were the first 2 weeks of December. We had a great time on all  3 cruises and we also enjoyed some of the nice changes they made to this new Oasis Class ship. So yes, we will book this ship again in the future.

 

But I must be honest with you, we felt at times that this ship seemed to be a bit more crowded then all of the other Oasis Class ships we sailed on.

 

I never seen such long lines outside of the show venues as we did on the Symphony. People in general lined up 30 to 45 minutes before the venue opened it's doors for seating.. The Line to the Aqua show at 30 minutes before they started seating people was back to the Merry Go Round. Other venues including the Theater was the same. Is it the fact that everyone wanted to get a good seat to see all the new shows or was it because all our sailings had a very large amount of upper tier C&A Members which happen to be a bit more senior in age.

 

Of course Rccl keeps adding more cabins to each new Oasis Class ship so maybe the extra occupancy is also adding to how full the ship feels. But I guess we are all aware that when booking large ships with very high occupancy, we might experience over crowded situations.

 

We ourselves have tried MSC Cruises in the past with our last 2 cruises being on the MSC Seaside back in February. We were in the Yacht Club on all of our cruises with MSC. That experience is wonderful but we also did experience the rest of the ship too almost everyday at times. Again when you left the Yacht Club the Seaside felt very crowded and I must say it felt more crowded then what we just experienced on the Symphony. It was always a joke with our friends that when we returned to the Yacht Club each evening after taking in a few shows or visiting a few venues, it almost felt like Heaven when we returned!

Hopefully I helped you with some good information but if you have any questions at all, just let me know!

[Teacher42]

Dear DJ. Thank you again. You are very helpful.

[BirdTravels]

We just did the short 4 nighter on the Symphony when she got to Miami. We liked the ship and pre-booked as much entertainment as was available. The link to our live post is below. It has a couple of dinner menus from Coastal Kitchen.  We popped in there between shows and the staff was always very accommodating on getting us through a lovely meal in time for our next show. Our next cruise is on the Harmony. 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2602607-first-voyage-of-the-symphony-of-the-seas-from-miami/