we are boarding Mariner Saturday. It will be our first cruise since August last year (Harmony). The food a year ago was pretty good to fantastic, we ate in MDR 2 or 3 nights and specialty rest of the time.
We are eating MDR first night this trip. We have 3 night specialty dining plus Izumi. So, I suppose that remaining night will be determined by the first night MDR.
We have always enjoyed the MDR, it's just part of the cruise experience for us. If the food there has gotten as bad as everyone says, we will figure something out for remaining booked cruises.