My husband and I took a Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Star for our Honeymoon. Overall we had a great time (except for the first day which was horrific). We had a free drink package and three specialty dining packages which made the experience much better. It probably wouldn't have been worth it otherwise.
I didn't have a bad meal the whole time on the ship. Lucky we were advised to book our dinner reservations ahead of time - many nights we saw long lines of parties waiting for tables. While I liked the "free-style" dining format, the fact that you had to plan ahead in order to actually get a table without waiting kind of defeats the purpose of the whole free-style idea. Also, I noticed the service in the specialty dining rooms was far superior. The servers in the main dining hall didn't treat you like you were in an actual restaurant, and were not at all attentive. We had to keep flagging down our waiter who never brought our beverages.
What really impressed me about this cruise was the entertainment. They had excellent musicians in each area of the ship performing every night, as well as fantastic shows in the Stardust Theater.