Can't join MC Realm

I have had a MC Realm subscription for years on my Nintendo Switch. Ahead of this latest update, after I log on and try to join the realm it won't load. It spools forever on the "joining realm" screen. Then I get an error saying "Unable to connect to realm. Please try again later." Its been a couple days now, always with the same message.
I tried restarting the system and logging back in. Nothing has helped.

:)