As Rachel's sister and maid of honor, I've been able to flex my design, photography, and trip planning skills to celebrate Rachel and Landon throughout this exciting season of life. In true Victoria on Vacation fashion, I helped plan their surprise engagement at Disney's Boardwalk as well as her Bachelorette Trip to Walt Disney World and - you guessed it - cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas!

Back in July 2022, Aaron and I were visiting Rachel and Landon in Austin when it somehow came up in conversation that the best time to book a cruise price-wise is usually as soon as the itineraries are released..... which led to us looking at February 2024 cruises and booking a Royal Loft Suite on a 3-night cruise on Allure of the Seas for Rachel's Bachelorette. At the time, Rachel and Landon were not yet engaged. But Landon was there, and he agreed that 2024 seemed like a good year to get married. So we put down a deposit and booked a cruise that was over a year and a half away.

Flash forward to October 13, 2023. Rachel and I were at Walt Disney World with our parents (Stove & Judy) celebrating Rachel's birthday. On the hottest, most humid day of our trip, I insisted that we walk from Hollywood Studios (instead of taking the Skyliner) to the Boardwalk for lunch when guess who comes peddling up on a Surrey bike - Landon!!! Landon proposed, Rachel cried that it wasn't fair because she was wearing a Hocus Pocus t-shirt.... then she said yes, and after the rest of our fun celebratory trip at WDW, I started planning Rachel's Bachelorette Cruise in February 2024!

Originally, we thought we may have 10 girls in attendance, but we ended up with 7 total. Unfortunately, the maximum number of guests for the Royal Loft Suite is 6. I went back and forth on how I should book the additional 5 girls - did I do 4 in the suite, 3 in a separate stateroom? 5 in the suite, 2 in a separate stateroom? I didn't want anyone to have to sleep on a pull-out couch, and I also didn't want anyone to feel excluded. I turned to Cruise Critic where I started a thread on Star Class and received some excellent advice.

The Royal Loft Suite is a Star Class Suite, and it includes the Ultimate Beverage Package, Unlimited Dining Package, and WiFi for all passengers booked in the suite. The cost to add the 5th and 6th guests to the suite was a $400 per person. After doing the math, it was the most cost-effective to book 6 girls in the suite, and 1 in an inside stateroom (even with the single occupancy surcharge).

Another incentive to book 6 girls in the suite is that it would be easier to take advantage of the perks offered with Star Class, such as the Royal Genie, with the majority of our group booked in the suite. Rachel really wanted the suite to serve as home base for her bachelorette. The additional inside stateroom that we booked for our seventh girl was done for occupancy reasons only - everyone would be staying together in the suite. Technically only those booked in the suite qualify for Star Class benefits, but we were optimistic that our seventh girl wouldn't be excluded, especially given that it was a Bachelorette trip.

I worked closely with Rachel and got a lot of great ideas from her - she wanted to have a "Caribbean Night" with dinner at Sabor and "Sparkle Night" with dinner at 150 Central Park. We also wanted to be budget-conscious and avoid additional expenses, taking advantage of everything included in our cruise fare. We planned to stay on the ship in Nassau to enjoy the suite with a laid back pajama and hot tub morning. We did look into an overwater cabana for Perfect Day CocoCay, but they were quite pricey (started at $3,000 and finally dropped to $1,500 a few weeks before the cruise), so instead we decided that we'd take advantage of the complimentary offerings and start the day at South Beach, then move to the Oasis Lagoon.

When we first booked the cruise, I knew nothing about Star Class... so little that I actually booked the drink package for Rachel and myself (I later canceled - the drink package is included with Star Class). Royal Caribbean's Star Class is intended to provide a luxury experience and includes a "Royal Genie" to make it all happen. Our Royal Genie on Allure of the Seas was Tao Yin, and he reached out via email two weeks before our cruise. In my email response to Tao, I:

Tao also provided an itinerary:

We wanted to provide some fun, cute, and useful girts for the girls. Rachel and my mom actually provided the majority of the gifts for the girls.

Lanyard Wristlets with ID Holders - perfect for keeping up with SeaPass cards

Bride/Mate Tees - this was the only "one time use" item I gifted, but I thought it would be fun to wear to board the ship and would make a cute photo!

Customized Celebration Buttons (also to wear to Disney)

Since we were sailing out of Port Canaveral, of course we decided to spend some time at Walt Disney World at the beginning of our trip. Three of the girls were able to join us for a Disney day at Hollywood Studios and Epcot on Thursday, so I booked the Yacht Club Resort for Wednesday and Thursday night. Rachel and I decided to extend our trip on the front end, but I could not find availability at any Epcot-area resorts. However, there was a great rate available for Contemporary Resort Main Tower Theme Park View (we've never stayed at The Contemporary before, only Bay Lake Tower), so we decided to give it a try and booked for Tuesday night. I'll take a second to acknowledge my benefits here - since I work for The Walt Disney Company, I was able to get discounted hotel room rates, and I used my Park Passes and Complimentary Tickets to get all of the girls into the parks.

I wanted to wear matching outfits to Disney, but didn't want to make anyone buy anything Disney-specific, so I suggested that we could all wear black athleisure. I was surprised when the girls actually suggested that we could do matching Disney t-shirts. There are so many cute options on Etsy that we had a hard time choosing, but ultimately went with these cute vintage-style Mickey shirts in Comfort Colors. I also surprised all of the girls with cute black and white bow Minnie ears.

After booking the hotels and cruise for the group, the only other logistics I really had to worry about was transportation from Disney World to Port Canaveral. I thought it would be best for our check-in process if we all arrived to port together, and it would be really fun if we arrived together in style.... I put in several quote requests for different limo transportation companies. Originally, I booked through Happy Limousine which had many great reviews and recommendations.... but after some communication issues (no reply to emails, conflicting information from representatives on chat and via phone), I ended up canceling and booking with Backstage Limousine. Part of the challenge was our pick-up situation.... six of us would be picked up from the Yacht Club Resort, and we'd need an additional stop to pick up our seventh from MCO. Backstage Limousine assured that they could add the second pick-up location which gave me confidence.

I'll start out with our trip report, then share some helpful guides with everything I learned planning a Bachelorette Cruise and cruising Royal Caribbean's Star Class!