This was a family cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. There were seven family members on this cruise. The positive aspects of the cruise were the condition of the ship which was very good and clean along with the friendliness of the staff particularly the cabin attendant.

Now for the reasons why I only gave this cruise a one-star rating. We had booked our shore excursions months prior to the trip. Two days prior to boarding we received an email that the shore cruise we had booked for Juneau was cancelled and we could book an alternate after we were on the ship using the Royal Caribbean app. Once on board, the app failed to operate probably due to too many guests attempting to use it. We eventually were able to book an alternate shore excursion for Juneau that was not our preferred choice. We also attempted to use the app to make dinner reservations at the My Time Dining restaurants. Once again, the app failed. By the time we were able to make reservations, the earliest reservation was at 8:00pm. Since we had a one-year-old child in our group, this was too late. On the first night we went to the restaurant without a reservation shortly before it opened, and we were seated after a five-minute wait. On the second night we did the same thing, but the wait was more than a half hour and when we were seated over half the tables in the restaurant were empty. Either the person seating people did not know how to do this or there were staff shortages in the restaurant.

On the first full day of sailing, we were informed by the ship's Captain that he had to turn the ship around and travel back toward Seattle for three hours such a crew member could be air lifted from the ship due to a medical emergency. I fully agree with the captain's decision. However, the Captain did state the ship would arrive in Juneau by 12:30pm on the next day such that people could still go on their shore excursions. Based on GPS data we had and the speed the ship was traveling, this was clearly impossible. Finally, midmorning on Sunday, the Captain informed guests that the ship would be arriving in Juneau by 6:30pm and that all of the shore excursions were cancelled. The captain obviously knew this the day before. We finally were able to get off the ship in Juneau around 7:30pm and had to be back on the ship by 10:30pm. All of the normal guest services in Juneau were closed and a number of the shop owners indicated that they had been told the ship would arrive by noon. They had not been told the ship would not arrive until the evening. Around 10:00pm, people started lining up to return to the ship. The line grew to be many blocks long such that people had to stand in-line over an hour. There was no provision for special accommodations for people with handicaps or families with small children. Read more