"NCL just has a better product than Carnival does right now."

Are we talking about ship design or overall experience?   If it's the former, I might be tempted to agree with you.   Other lines are outperforming Carnival in ship design. 

But have you seen the reviews NCL is pulling right now on Cruise Critic?  I've never seen so many poor reviews for a major cruise line in my life, and most of them are directed at NCL's food and service.   NCL seems to be pursuing a strategy to endow it's main (free) dining rooms with blandtastic food and mediocre service in the hopes its customers will pay $25 per person per night to upgrade their meals in the specialty restaurants.   Great for NCL.  Not so great for its customers.  $25 bucks plus drinks and service charges per person per night is nothing to sneeze at when you can book most cruises for around $75 per day.  Can you say hidden 30-40% increase in fare? 

If you're a repeat Carnival customer, you know that you're simply not going to get crappy service on Carnival.   Apparently Carnival's food is now a notch above most other lines too, including NCL and RCCL.  And of course, food is almost always free. 

Food isn't the only consideration when choosing a cruise, but my impression is that food is a big minus on NCL right now. 

That being the case, I'd take Dream.