Hi Megabear,
It’s been well worth it for us from the perspective of this cruise. It’s the Easter holidays, the ship is full and there are many children aboard - nothing awful, but we’ve preferred the quiet of the Retreat.
Food wise - there are a couple of breakfast options each day, replaced with four or five lunch options (different meat/veggie/vegan options) and a dessert around 12. At about 2:30 the scones appear and then that’s it.
Drinks-wise, the fridge has Heineken, cans of wine (white and pink - the red isn’t in the fridge) as well as a range of soft drinks.
There have been loads of beds available - even at its busiest, it’s always been at least a third empty. However, one of the attendants did say that it was very full on all the Caribbean sailings with people claiming beds early. On this cruise, there have been warnings posted about people reserving sun beds and then not using them - but this has been ship-wide so I’m guessing that it was a problem in one of the communal areas, not the Retreat.