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Monday, January 20, 2025

Rachel's Bachelorette Cruise | Allure of the Seas [Day 4] Debarkation

Debarkation is a little different when staying Star Class because they truly want you to have an amazing experience until the very end.

The night before, Tao told us to have our luggage out in the hall by 7AM that morning so they could carry them down for us (when staying in a standard room, luggage needs to be in the hallway by the specified time the night before). I set an alarm to get the bags out in the hall and awoke to pitch black darkness. I could not get a light switch to turn on any lights, so we stumbled around in the dark to get our bags in the hall. I somehow missed the luggage tags on the piano, so we didn't put tags on our bags (fortunately, we all still had our arrival bag tags on our suitcases which identified them as Star Class).

After that, we went back to bed. We woke up later to a PA announcement that the ship had lost power, and they would be restoring it shortly so that we hopefully would not be delayed in our debarkation. So that's why the lights didn't work....

What also didn't work were the long power-operated blackout curtains, so we propped them open with the furniture to get some light in the room.

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Room service is not available on the morning of debarkation, so Tao told us to go to breakfast at Coastal Kitchen, the dining room exclusive to Suite Guests and Pinnacle Crown & Anchor Club Members. It had been my intention to avoid Coastal Kitchen because Sara was technically not booked in the suite, but since Tao told us to dine there for breakfast, and it was the very last morning of the cruise, I didn't think that it would be an issue.

I was wrong. This was the only time during the cruise that we had any issue with our 7th non-suite girl. Despite the restaurant not being busy, the host at Coastal Kitchen told us that there were only 6 of us who were in the suite, so one of us could not dine there. Before anyone could do anything else, I said, "Okay, I'm going to go eat in the Windjammer," and left the dining room. I figured that it would be the easiest for me to leave because I knew my way best around the ship. The Windjammer was chaotic, to be expected, but I got a quick breakfast and then headed back to Coastal Kitchen (breezing right past the host) to let the girls know that I had eaten breakfast and would wait for them in the room.

On my way out of the dining room, I ran into Tao who had already heard about the issue and was very concerned and apologetic. He offered to have breakfast delivered to the room for me, but I let him know that it was fine because I already ate in the Windjammer.

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It worked out well because that gave me time to sweep the room and make sure no one had forgotten anything (I found Rachel's curling iron and Meredith's swimsuit).

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Also to enjoy some time on the balcony.

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After the other girls had breakfast, we waited in the room for Tao who would escort us off the ship. He had originally told us 9AM, but was running a little late (probably due to the power incident) so it ended up being a little after 9:30.

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Tipping was something that I was a little nervous about because I watch a lot of Below Deck and know how important it is to tip appropriately for elevated service. While pre-paid gratuities ($20.50/day for suite guests) are added to your folio automatically, it is customary to give an additional cash tip for this level of service. Information on Star Class tipping was pretty sparse, so I'd like to offer some transparency that can hopefully help you when planning how much cash to bring for tips.

We tipped our Suite Attendants $300 each, maybe more than average, because we utilized them frequently with the hot tub, in-room dining, rollaway beds, etc. We tipped our Royal Genie $700 with the thought process being $100 per girl. We were lucky in that we saw Tao and both of our suite attendants before departing the ship so we could thank them personally.

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Tao escorted us off the ship (using his special elevator override) and all the way to the door that he couldn't cross - the luggage pickup room. He had set us up with a nice porter and waited there in the doorway to make sure that we all got our bags (thankfully we did - despite them not being properly tagged).

I didn't realize that our porter experience would also be elevated. We saw the line for non-passports and sent Sara to go ahead and get in it since it was so long. Our porter realized what had happened and flagged someone to get Sara and escort her to the very front of the non-passport line. Then after we were through Customs, our porter stayed with us until we secured a ride.

Since we all had different flight times and I didn't know where everyone would want to go after the cruise (maybe some girls with later flights would want to go hangout at Disney - I didn't know!), I didn't pre-book transportation from Port Canaveral to MCO. Well, it turned out that everyone was okay with just going straight to the airport. Since there were 7 of us with suitcases, we ordered two Uber XLs (you never know with Uber XL if you're going to get a van or an SUV with the 3rd row that takes up the entire trunk).... then the first Uber that arrived was a mini van. Our porter talked to the driver and he agreed to take all 7 of us with luggage - he could fit us all, cancel the 2nd Uber. Our porter helped load the luggage into the van, and I thankfully still had some cash for a tip.

The Uber driver was chaotic. We're talking speed demon, heavy breaker, rear rider. I wondered if he was trying to make us puke. Well, we got to the airport, and he asks Kristi (who booked the Uber) how she was going to pay him. "I paid you on the app." "Yes, but I took all of you, I gave you two rides, how are you going to pay me?" "I'll tip you on the app." At that point we had all of our luggage out of the van and I was saying let's just ditch this guy, but Kristi was worried about her Uber rating (the driver should also be worried about getting reported) so she tipped him on the app in front of him so that he could see. Very weird experience - the only time I've ever run into a Uber driver scammer.

So the only real snag was at the very end - if I were to do it again, I would pre-book a private sprinter van to take us from the port to the airport.

Rachel had the first flight to catch, so we hugged her goodbye and found a restaurant in the airport to hang out in until our flights.

What an incredible Bachelorette Trip! It was such a fun time, and I am so grateful that Rachel has such a wonderful group of friends that we got to share this incredible experience with.

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a fantastic bachelorette party; Hope the wedding was just as fun. Now the big question is when the NYE cruise report is gonna happen. BTW, we are cruising on X_Reflection from Feb 1-8. Out of FLL, GC, Aruba, and Curacao with 4 sea days

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    Replies
    1. Soon! I also have our Disney Wish cruise which we took in August, and Rachel and I are sailing on the Disney Wish again this weekend!

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