It's embarkation day!!! We spent another night at Disney's Yacht Club Resort. Rachel, Meredith, and Kayla went for a morning run around the Boardwalk while Megan and I hung back to get ready. We were also joined by Sara who flew in on a redeye from LA (the same Delta redeye that I had flown a few days earlier). The runners got breakfast from Boardwalk Deli while they were out, so when they returned, I went to get breakfast with the non-runners. We ordered our food from Boardwalk Deli to go, and unfortunately, didn't notice until we were back in the hotel room that we were shorted one breakfast sandwich. I tried to get a refund via messaging guest relations on the app, but they said I would need to call billing.... and I decided it wasn't worth my effort in that moment to get $12 refunded.

We were also on the hunt for an ATM machine because we wanted more cash for tips. There are Chase ATMs in the lobby of both the Beach Club and the Boardwalk.

Before the trip, I printed out bag tags for everyone and slipped into reusable clear luggage tag holders so we could quickly tag our bags. Sara was booked in an inside cabin, so instead of tagging her bags to go to that room, I made sure to make her a bag tag for the suite.

We were running a little late that morning - to be expected with six girls all getting ready in one room. I was a little nervous because I hadn't heard from our limo driver from Backstage Limo. However, once we were out the door, he was waiting for us under the Porte Cochere.

Meredith in the background falling out of the limo with the popcorn bucket is everything -

Our driver's name was Charles, and he was very nice and accommodating. He helped us get hooked up to the sound system and also took our photo. We really lucked out that it was not at all crowded at the Yacht Club Porte Cochere that morning.

Our first stop was to MCO to pick up Kristi who was the last of the group to arrive.

Then Charles needed to refuel which I thought was a little weird, but I wasn't that bothered considering we were a good 15 minutes late that morning, we had the stop at MCO, and we took the opportunity to get out and get snacks and go to the bathroom.

Now, on to Port Canaveral!

Note the instructional safety video being completed in the limo -

Megan brought the champagne, and the limo was stocked with ice, glassware, and bottled water.

Bring your own popcorn bucket... (actually, we noticed a sign later that said no eating in the limo..... Charles didn't say anything to us, though)

There she is, Allure of the Seas!

Earlier in the week, I received an email from Tao with detailed information about where to go at check-in. Star Class has a separate check-in area that is identified by the purple Star Class banners. Charles had no issues finding it.

Arrival was both easy and chaotic. We needed to add a bag tag to Kristi's bag, tip the limo driver, and tip the porters all within like 2 minutes of arriving.

The only low-quality photo I got of the Star Class banner -

Time for check in! We went to the Star Class check in stand where we were introduced to Judy who would be walking us through the entire check in process. We were first ushered through security, then to the check in desk upstairs where we showed our passports.

Then, we were escorted to the suite lounge at the port to wait for Tao who would be escorting us onto the ship. The entire process was a breeze, and I was so glad that we had someone leading the group through the motions - we didn't have to worry about where to go.

There were drinks and snacks in the lounge.

Our Royal Genie, Tao, arrived at the lounge to greet us. We could tell he had done his homework because he already had all of our names and faces memorized. He insisted on carrying my backpack (it's so heavy with all of the camera gear - I felt bad!) and led us to the photo op.

I'm so mad at myself for ruining this photo by not wrapping my arm behind Megan -

I realized what I had done and asked for a do-over, but I don't think the photographer understood. They had already moved on to the hugging photo -

Time to board the ship!

Tao had our entire arrival experience planned out. As soon as we got on the ship, he escorted us to a bar where they were pouring seven margaritas. Tao and the bartender actually asked a passenger if she could scoot over briefly and that's when we realized all of the stares we were getting.... and rightfully so, I mean we were wearing matching t-shirts and just rolled up to the bar where there were seven margaritas waiting.

This felt very VIP, and I knew we had the perfect group of girls for this experience!

After picking up our margs, Tao escorted us to our muster station (Main Dining Room on Deck 5) to check in. Sara's muster station was different since she was booked in the interior room, so Tao took her to her station to check in as well.

Then it was time to see our room! We realized that Tao had special elevator privileges which seemed to allow him to immediately call an elevator and override other floors.

We were staying in the Royal Loft Suite which is located on Deck 17 which is a suite-only deck.

Tao had decorated!!!

The stripper girl cutouts are hilarious!

Are you ready for a Royal Loft Suite tour?!

Near the entrance, there is a library and a grand piano that can play itself.

Tao set the piano to play when he was showing us the room, and that's the only time we ever played it. It was a handy surface, though. This is where they would leave our towel animals and daily cruise compasses.

Here's Tao! He loved our buttons and wanted one to wear, so Rachel gave him hers. He wore the button proudly the entire cruise!

Tao helped us all connect our phones to WiFi. He also taught us how to connect to the sound system, but it was a little complicated so we never re-connected to it (we had brought portable speakers).

For our welcome drink, I chose a bottle of Moet & Chandon.

Electronic tutorials by Tao -

The Royal Loft Suite is 2 stories tall. The first floor has the living room, large dining area, and second bedroom.

The second floor has the primary bedroom which has a king bed.

There's also a projection screen. They retracted the projection screen at turndown service that night, and I couldn't figure out how to bring the screen back down again.

The upstairs bathroom has a giant whirlpool bathtub and a double vanity.

Also, upgraded soaps.

On the opposite wall, there was a dual shower.

The downstairs bedroom has a configurable bed that can be either two twins or one king.

It also has direct access to the balcony.

Also a vanity and full length mirror on the closet doors -

The downstairs bathroom has a shower and a single vanity. Something to note about both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms in this suite is that they have windows to the outside. The lower portion is frosted glass, while the upper portion is not.

They provided a cooler stocked with drinks, in addition to the mini fridge.

There's a little wet bar underneath the stairs, and a mini fridge is in the under-counter cabinet.

Tao sent me a list of options for beverages before the cruise, so the cooler was filled with drinks that we chose in advance.

Outside, the suite has an expansive wrap-around balcony. There's a wet bar and dining table for 8 outdoors. I was really hoping that we could dine outside during our cruise, but the weather didn't cooperate (a little to wet and windy).

Wrapping around the corner, there are more lounge chairs and the hot tub. The hot tub was definitely a huge motivator to book this suite (Rachel loves hot tubs). The hot tub is not always full of water - it gets drained and cleaned after each use. Tao asked us to give him advance notice for when we would like to use the hot tub because it takes about 45 minutes to fill each time.

Meredith was commenting about how her hands were cold holding her drink, which reminded me that I got these fun personalized koozies for everyone -

Tao gave us an overview of our cruise schedule -

Then it was time for lunch! We had Giovanni's Table delivered to the room. I placed the order a few days before the cruise. Tao had let me know that they typically do not do in-suite dining on embarkation day, but he made an exception for our Bachelorette Cruise.

I just ordered a few of several different entrees and figured that everyone could share/take what they want.

I ordered (2) Cheese & Cured Meat Boards, (2) Caprese Salads, (2) Arugula Salads, (2) Calamari, (1) Carbonara, (1) Gnocchi, (1) Seafood Linguine, (1) Bolognese, (1) Risotto, and (4) Filet Mignon medium rare.

The Filet Mignon was great -

Also, I love a good charcuterie board -

After lunch, we decided to venture out to the pool deck for sailaway.

We wandered over to the Solarium where the girls got in line for the bar. Meredith really wanted an ice cream cone, and I wanted to take some more photographs of the ship, so we ventured off in search of soft serve.

What's unique about Allure of the Seas is that it's the only Oasis class ship that doesn't have Abyss, the large purple slide on the back of the ship. This will soon change after its upcoming drydock, scheduled for February-April 2025, but in the meantime there's a great view of the Aqua Theater and back of the ship.

Ultimate Abyss is a dry slide that will be located where there is currently a bar. It's not the only slide coming to Allure - she'll also be receiving three new waterslides: Cyclone and Typhoon racing slides and Supercell bowl slide.

Continuing our quest for soft serve, we walked by the mini golf course.

H2O Zone -

Soft Serve is located on deck 15 between the Sand Bar and the Pool Bar. They have a dedicated crew member there serving ice cream. This is probably a lot cleaner and more efficient than self-serve.

Back at the Solarium, Rachel and the girls had managed to secure some chairs. It was quite busy in there!

On these 3-day cruises, everyone really wants to maximize that first day. There's a lot more pool-goers on embarkation day for weekend cruises.

As Meredith and I were wandering the pool deck, we noticed a gated staircase with a purple sign that said "Star Class." We were like.... does this work? Is this for us? Tried our keys on the gate and it did!

The Suite Sun Deck is on Deck 18 forward and has lounge chairs and a bar.

This was a lot less crowded than the Solarium. We could see the other girls in down in the Solarium and waved them up to join us.

Once we left the port, it got a little chilly/windy on deck, so we decided to go back to the room to hang out before dinner.

We returned to snacks, champagne, and martinis!

Meredith was a big fan of the shrimp cocktail.

Since we were in the room, I did some quick unpacking - went ahead and hung up my dinner outfits to attempt to release wrinkles.

Kunal and Munif were our stateroom attendants. They handled cleaning the room.... which is a pretty big task with such a large room that includes a dining table and large outdoor deck.

Rachel Facetimed our parents to show off the room.

And I insisted that we take one last group shot with our matching tees on. It was tricky with the wind....

We had asked Tao to have the hot tub filled, so we dipped in before dinner.

Tonight was our Caribbean Night - all of us wore colorful florals. Really my one regret with the bachelorette trip was not spending more time finding/sourcing my outfits. I really didn't think too hard about it until a few weeks prior to the trip, and it didn't help that I was shopping in the wrong season (or that I'm not an off-the-rack size). I ended up getting this 2 piece floral set from Amazon because I needed the fast shipping. But yeah, that's my lesson learned that I've been actively improving upon this year.... shop and outfit plan with ample time before a big event or trip.

Enjoy some general getting ready photos. I only brought one camera body this time (my Nikon D750). For dinner, I swapped out my zoom lens for my fixed 50mm and added my SB-700 speedlight.

I'm not sure whose idea it was to shotgun beers before dinner, but I volunteered to photograph and take video (of course).

I'll spare you the video, but just know that these girls were not great at shotgunning (except for Meredith who didn't realize this was really a staged photo op, therefore turned away from the group to suck down her beer).

Off to dinner at Sabor!

At this point, Meredith insisted on taking my camera so that I could be in some photos. So here's the back of my head...

And my lovely paparazzi -

We took the same shot, so this will be fun to compare. Which do you prefer?

Me with my iPhone 13 Pro -

Or Meredith with my D750 and 50mm lens -

Of course it's two very different focal lengths, but I do think what is noticeable is that the girls are looking at Meredith with the DSLR. I've found that when I photograph parades and shows, the performers tend to make more noticeable/consistent eye contact with my large DSLR camera, verses my phone camera.

I took my camera back from Meredith...

Rachel and I ate at Sabor on Harmony of the Seas in 2019 and loved it. I can always eat Mexican food. It's my favorite. Unfortunately, Royal Caribbean is moving away from Sabor and will be removing this restaurant from the ship (replacing with Playmakers) with their upcoming drydock.

I was a little disappointed that they seem to no longer make tableside guacamole. That was a thing, right? Or am I confusing Sabor with NCL's Los Lobos (also one of my favorites)?

We ordered a bunch of small plates, including the Fried Chili Calamari -

For my entree, I went with the Carne Asada Burrito. It didn't disappoint.

And for dessert, they brought out Cinnamon Churros.

Tao stopped by Sabor during dinner to check on us and offered to take our photo. He told us to meet him at the Comedy Club at 9:45 PM, and he would escort us to our seats and bring us drinks.

We had some time to kill after dinner, so we played around on the Boardwalk.

There was no line for the carousel, so obviously we had to ride.

Then we went into the arcade and attempted to play ski ball...

But we could not get the machine to work!

We read the signs thoroughly, making sure we didn't need to load our cards or get tokens, but I guess the machine was broken.

Oh well, Rachel and I went for another spin on the carousel.

Tao met us outside Comedy Live and escorted us in to the seats he reserved on the front row..... yikes.

Rachel told me that she really didn't think she wanted to do the adult comedy show. She knew that the comedian would pick on her and wasn't sure she wanted to take that. Earlier in the day, as I was explaining to Tao that we didn't want to do the comedy show, a few of the other girls overheard and objected - they wanted to go to the comedy show, yes we should sit in the front row so Rachel gets picked on.... it's a Bachelorette rite of passage. So in the moment, Rachel gave in. It would be fine! It would be fun!

It was definitely nice having the Royal Genie experience. After escorting us to our seats, Tao came back with a tray of Espresso Martinis for us. It felt very "star status" (ohhh - I guess that's what they mean by Star Class).

So the show.... the first Comedian wasn't funny. He came out immediately going for Rachel. He asked her a bunch of questions, and she would answer, and then he would just repeat her answer out loud as if maybe that itself was funny. I guess Rachel wasn't giving him anything to work with, so he moved to me. And because I'm a protective big sis, I was ready to take the heat.

Comedian: "Oh, you're sisters. Who is the oldest?"

Me: "Take a guess!"

Comedian: "You are."

Me: "Yes."

And that was it. He didn't poke fun at me being older but shorter. Didn't ask any questions to realize that although I'm older, I'm not engaged or married. He could have cracked some jokes about how my younger sister is getting married first. Plenty of material he could've found to work with, but he didn't go for it. Instead he moved on....

Comedian: "Where do you live?"

Me: "Los Angeles"

Comedian: "Ohhhh. Los Angeles?"

Me: "Yes."

Again.... no jokes. No jokes about traffic, smog, vain actors and influencers, Democrats..... moved on.

Comedian: "What industry do you work in?"

Me: "Entertainment"

Comedian: "Ohhhhhh, Entertainment, now? Huh - what do you do in Entertainment?"

Me: "I'm an Architect."

Comedian: "You're an Architect in Entertainment?"

Me: "Yes."

I guess when I didn't say actress or dancer he didn't know what to do with that information. At this point, he was done with me. He moved back to Rachel and continued with his interrogation. Rachel was getting increasingly frustrated and at one point she responded, "Are you going to make a joke?" which got some laughs from the audience. The comedian repeated back, "Am I going to make a joke?" And then turned to the audience and said, "Is anyone else tired of this bitch?"

At this point, a lady sitting across from us raised her hand and said, "Pick on me!" Which made me realize that I wasn't the only person in the audience feeling very uncomfortable. For a comedian who's main schtick was crowd work, he really didn't have a good read on the crowd.

The second comedian's act primarily consisted of making weird noises and doing toddler impressions..... which also made me very uncomfortable.

After the show, we hung back because Rachel needed to decompress a little.

We were eventually kicked out of the comedy club. I'm not sure if there was a second show or if they just wanted to shut down for the night. When we stepped out, there was a mass of people in the promenade because they were getting ready for a Mardi Gras party. In the chaos, Rachel and Meredith were separated from the group. I figured that wasn't a bad situation because Meredith really is the best person to get Rachel laughing again, so I suggested to the other girls that we just grab a drink, give them some space, then catch up.

We watched the little Mardi Gras show then decided it was time to catch back up with Rachel and Meredith. So we texted the group chat.... crickets. I suggested that we go looking for them, so we walked around going in and out of every bar and club. Finally I texted Rachel individually and asked if she was doing alright, to which she responded, "YOU GUYS DON'T WANT TO HANG OUT WITH ME???" Uh-oh.... That's when we realized that Rachel hadn't been added to the cruise group text (I had added her to the Disney group text, but didn't think to update the cruise group text). Also, Megan had Meredith's phone in her purse. So that entire time, we had just been texting each other.

Rachel and Meredith were in Dazzles (we had walked through Dazzles - must've just missed them!) where there was a great live band playing.

After the live band finished at Dazzles, some guys that we met at the bar convinced us to go to Blaze Nightclub for late night dancing. One of the guys offered to buy Meredith a drink, to which she responded, "You can't. I have the drink package." Which is my favorite turn-down I've ever heard.

My feet were screaming in pain, so I thought it would be a good idea to sneak back to the room to drop off my camera and change into flats.