My expectations vs the reality of this cruise were definitely not in line with what I expected. Long story short, this was my families 6th cruise and the first time we have cruised with Royal Caribbean (RC). The on board activities were seriously lacking. I understand it was an Alaskan cruise and so swimming might not have been an option, but maybe RC should have also thought this. The activities were a 3 at best, when they were actually open and working. The I Fly and North Star were booked within the first 3 days of the cruise. Maybe instead of letting families continually book these, you could have given the other families on the boat the chance to book them as well. I spoke to several families on board that were highly frustrated all the activities were booked. The roller skating was booked from the minute it went on the RC app. I was over charged for a broken arcade game, which I went to guest services and waited (for about 30 minutes no less) to get a refund and the lady said, "Oh my system is not working right now for a refund and I will have to try again in 24 hours." Then she wrote me room number and amount for refund on a envelope and said "is there anything else?" I also NEVER received my refund, which I figured by the not-so-good customer service I received by her. The drinks were ridiculously over priced. Over nine dollars for a beer, and over four dollars for a coke? I broke down and bought a beverage package for my son, which we found out did not include water bottles. So, you will let the 13 year old boy have free soda (from one soda machine per floor) but not a water bottle? Nope! I had to pay two dollars for each water. I paid $54 for the same bottle of wine I can get at Kroger for $14. That's what I call price markup! Also, if I wanted a drink from a waiter I realized I better be prepared to wait about 15 to 20 minutes for the waiter to come back. Oh and then I had to pay that mandatory gratuity charge on EVERY single thing you purchase! Then the food. I get it, it's a cruise and you are feeding so many people, but the food was maybe a 2 at best. The windjammer was so bad, my kids were buying snacks in the tourist stores at shore, and brining them back on the boat to eat. We found hair, not once, not twice but three times in our food. The main dining's food was about a 5. There was a couple nights we ate at the main dining and ordered 2 entrées, because the first one was so bad. I have never had more terrible Salmon in my life. And this was an Alaskan cruise! The service at the main dining was not that good either. I had to get up one night and go look for my server because they just forgot about us. We had dining at 7, and a show at 9. We did not even get our food until 8:30! No lie! Then the servers just said, "so sorry, we re really busy." I get it, but aren't you prepared for this many people. Speaking of prepared for this many people, my family made a game out of finding a place to sit for breakfast every morning. So you have thousands (maybe) of people of this ship, but ONE restaurant for breakfast? I'm not counting the solarium because let's be honest, that place was almost the size of our room. So we would walk into the Windjammer every morning like buzzards, waiting for someone to get up from their table. It was by far the most unorganized and poorly planned breakfast restaurant I have ever seen. You had less than half of the tables you needed in order to serve all your guests. Did RC think that people don't eat? Of course we have to eat at the Windjammer! All the other restaurants, like the activities were booked! Horrible preparation and organization. The staff on the boat was ok. Whoever the guy was doing bingo the first day was horrible! Everyone around us said that. And Bingo prices! You can only buy a package, (with one sheet of paper) so you are basically sharing, because that was $25 !!! What a rip off. My family already spent nearly $7,000 for this cruise, and the entire time, we felt (for a lack of a better phrase) nickeled and dimed to death on this boat. I understand the cruise industry suffered during COVID, but so did everyone else. This was our first vacation after COVID and we highly regret booking it with RC. Needless to say, since we have been back, all of our friends and family have asked us about our vacation. We tell them Alaska is beautiful, but do not book with Royal Caribbean! P.S. Unless you are older (like 50 plus) and don't want to do a lot of fun activities or have godo food on the boat, don't bother with this cruise line!