We just returned today. It's funny, I think we had a rather opposite food experience, much happier with the dinners than the breakfasts and lunches and our server was outstanding. I mean truly truly outstanding. Assistant server was a sweetheart, missed things sometimes but not anything awful. We barely saw the head server, my DH didn't even know who he was. However it didn't matter as our server, Wayan, was so outstanding.
I'd agree that the character breakfast felt rushed, from a character standpoint but not any less so than some of the WDW ones we've been to. We did not see the dessert buffets advertised either, only heard about them from our tablemates. It didn't much matter to me as with 2nd seating, we were hardly hungry by then anyway. I'd agree dinner was long but I'd expected it to be so that didn't really bother us either, any sit down dinner at WDW seems to take 2 hours so it matched my expectations there.
The only time we had real issues was with our disembarkation day breakfast (today). Very attentive on the drink orders but it took a while to get our food order in. Which really didn't much matter as we weren't in a rush but it was very unusual. The funny part was is I think part of the delay was everyone chatting with, taking pictures and hugging Wayan as they left. I had one small service issue with the spa that took far longer to get resolved than it should have, but in the big picture of things we were thrilled. To be honest, Wayan was as good (perhaps better) than our servers in Palo were either for brunch or dinner (we did both).
I agree that the Navigator is a bit confusing and some of the times just didn't work out. We missed a couple of things we'd have liked to do as a result, but then again, we made other choices so it all worked out.
I think you make a GREAT point about getting the kids to the clubs earlier. We made the same mistake you did and as a result, our boys weren't into Edge, at all, despite having been very excited about it pre-cruise. Luckily, thanks to wonderful table mates, it wasn't an issue and they had a blast but it could have been bad.
I think for us, right now, at the ages our kids are at,
DCL is by far the best fit and the only one we are interested in cruising with though it is at a premium. We did feel that our service, overall, was absolutely outstanding and the minor glitches were so very minor as to almost be not noticeable. And while my DH and I might have been underwhelmed with the breakfast and lunch options (and agree about that hidden breakfast room service card, I had to call to figure out where it was lol), our kids were not. As we got off the ship today we were greeted to hugs, thank you's and "That was the BEST vacation ever!" Which definitely gave us pause as we've done some awfully cool trips over the years.
I know everyone's experience is different, I just thought I'd share that we had pretty magical service consistently. We had an interesting experience in Skagway. After our excursion (ziplining) we stopped at the Skagway brewery for a beer and a snack. Our server, who attends college not to far from where we live but works in AK for the summer, made a comment. She mentioned it was Friday and that was her favorite day. She asked us if we were on the Disney Wonder. We said yes and she said "I thought so". She told us that the customers from the Wonder were by far the nicest, the children the most well behaved and that the entire staff looks forward to Friday, when the Wonder is in port.
She said she thought that meant we must be being very well taken care of on board as everyone was always in such a good mood. We thought it was a pretty cool tribute to DCL.
I hear you on the prices though, there's only a few itineraries that appealed to us where the prices work and I'm not sure the dates will really pan out. the summer rates are obscene. We actually chose this week for Alaska as the rates started to go back down and I never thought I'd say this but after checking out some of the other options for next summer, Alaska started to look like a deal!
, yet I've only made it to it twice
Not sure if that was you or not. I am terrible with names but usually pretty good with faces. We were all wrapped up in our own little world. It was totally funny to be that way when there were so many people around. I guess that is what happens to us when we're from an area like So Cal where people are packed in anyway. 
