We started cruising back in 1988 on Royal Caribbean and the food was excellent in the MDR. We cruised again in 1990 and Royal started to introduce the specialty dining with one restaurant at 20.00. We weren’t impressed to pay extra $$ to eat in a specialty restaurant when we already paid for our cruise including food. As I stated there food was excellent. I felt back then as I do now the more we paid extra for specialty food, this will be the norm and food won’t be included in your fare.
This is my personal opinion.