We posted a few times for questions beforehand, and thank you all who contributed. It was super helpful-particularly people who had just recently cruised. We sailed the Odyssey of the Seas, this was our first Royal Caribbean experience, having previously only cruised Disney one time prior to Covid. So in no way do I have a lot of experience to compare anything too, but thought I'd share some thoughts in case this helps anyone else.
Pros (things that were wonderful): I'll probably give my pros here based on "Was it Disney quality?" if that helps.
--The ship was clean and neat, beautiful art work etc. Our ocean view balcony cabin was spacious, the deck was great (comfortable chairs, great view, etc.)
--Broadway style shows may have actually had a slight edge to Disney, the performers were wonderful talented, etc.
--Our main dining room (we did NOT do any specialty restaurants) service was amazing--Disney quality wait staff, etc. in every way. Just wonderful employees.
--Port everglades easy to get into, muster drill efficient and fast, also easy to get off the ship.
--The views were amazing...beautiful blue waters, etc.
Cons: (and full disclosure we were overall very underwhelmed by this experience).
--Port was changed to Nassau at last minute instead of Labadee, we did send an email to RC asking for credits (letting them know it was advertised and marketed as an Eastern Caribbean cruise and not a Bahamian cruise, which we had no interest in), and got a firm no, cited their policy they can change ports and (this was the insulting part) told me I could get a discount if I booked a future cruise while on board. I did respond back (respectful but assertive) and that was over a week ago, I've gotten zero response back from them.
--On board we had 2 staterooms, in our kids rooms the beds were split as we had asked--but super easy fix once we called guest services.
--Drink packages--difficult to use. We got the classic soda for my kids and husband, I got the refreshment package. I attempted to use to the refreshment package at 270 barista station (for both a fresh squeezed juice and a latte morning 1) and was told I could only get one drink and would need to get back in line for a 2nd one. I asked again to clarify, (and said "I'd have to wait in that again"--it was about a 7-10 minute line) and was told "yes, it won't hurt you to wait in line again"...I kid you not that was verbatim. They give you a cup on the soda package and you are expected to carry it with you everywhere (except Windjammer and MDR) if you want to use it, the freestyle coke machines rarely ever had ice in them, lines were long, etc. We did end up "losing" money on the drink packages as they were not easy to use, especially since our Labadee (which should have been inclusive) got switched to Nassau
--theatres--seats very uncomfortable and lots of obstructed views, we even would get there 20-30 minutes early to try and scout out good ones. In Royal theatre almost all the chairs were broken down (this ship was new in 2021 to put it in comparison) and you felt like you were sliding forward a lot. A shame because the shows were the highlight for us.
--excursions--we booked both directly with Royal, and were very disappointed in them. The Puerto Plata was a cooking class and water park. They put the cooking class in middle of the day so we never really had time to enjoy the park before or after before having to get back on the bus. We were very displeased about Nassau, but attempted to make the most and booked the Best of Nassau and Paradise island excursion about $65ish per person--we were taken to Paradise island and parked in the parking lot of the huge Atlantis resort and given 30 minutes to go see it--it felt like we were crashing other people's all inclusive as we peaked at their pools, signs all over trying to block us from using bathrooms, etc. as this must be a common problem for them with these tour buses, etc. and the other stop was to a public park on the beach and you needed additional money to actually go into the fort (which we didn't know to bring) additional money to buy food/drink from the bar area (even though it had told us bottled water was part of this "luxury air conditioned bus" it was never offered, and we were solicited and approached by street vendors almost constantly during the 20 minute stop here). Save your money--excursions based on the 2 we went on, not worth the cost.
--The ship was so boring, very little offerings compared to Disney (or maybe this is just a post-covid thing for all of them) on sea days other than trivia. The arcade was small and many of the machines didn't work, the shared "seaplex" rarely offered anything that we'd do and when it was (laser tag, etc.) it was offered during dinner, the pools were crazy swamped crowded, even in the adult only area and just sensory overload for us--we spent a lot of time in our staterooms. We booked this ship due to the Sky Pad for our teens--they still show it in all their marketing material, including the film showing it as we boarded the ship--but it has been completely taken out and replaced with cornhole. we never got to use the Northstar because you needed advance reservations or you had to pay an upcharge...it never worked.
--The running track is on the same deck as the pool loungers so basically its crowded and unusable all the time, frustrating to both the people trying to use the pool and hot tubs who get smacked by the folks trying to run, and equally frustrating for those trying to use the track and its always wet, and kids are jumping in/out at you. Poor design.
--elevators a nightmare, plan to use the steps and I found horrible for disabled folks. They are motion sensored and the elevators are always packed, so someone is sensoring all the buttons much of the time, making them stop at each floor...so it took forever to get an elevator anytime you needed one.
--Food underwhelming in quality, the El Loco fresh tasted like Taco bell, the pizza so/so, and the main dining room and Windjammer got slightly better over the trip, but nothing to rave home about, Applebees quality?
--My time dining is NOT my Time dining....you need a reservation or you stand in a very long line each night. You make the reservations months in advance and then it often interferes with the time of the nightly shows. Very inflexible and chaotic (A LOT of other guests we spoke too were not happy). Again, good service, just really poor design.
--Royal Promenade--Huge amount of the ship space is devoted to very expensive shopping--I think there were 5 watch stores, I kid you not--Rolex, etc. and I never saw anyone actually purchasing the high end jewelry, sunglasses, handbags, etc. to account for taking up that much ship space). Royal felt a lot "fancier" than Disney in everyway--but while we make a good living, we have no desire to pay thousands of dollars for handbags and jewelry and it would have been nice to see some shopping geared toward just a middle class family. These parts of the ship never crowded, while other parts people are walking all over themselves. Poor design.
Overall:
Underwhelmed, we don't plan to cruise Royal again. Maybe this is just a cruise in general, but we have no desire to go back to Nassau again, it was a huge turn off, so maybe cruising in general is just not our thing (Disney uses this port a lot too). We felt very nickel and dimed on Royal, almost everything is an upcharge (any sort of on ship entertainment, etc.). While not at all Royal's fault, my husband got sea lice exposure (we think anyway--he dipped his feet in for just a second at Chill Island and it was too cold to swim in for our taste so he got out right away) later that evening a rash showed up all over where his feet and ankles had been and he had violent sickness that night (TMI, but both vomiting and diarrhea and just slept all the next day).
