Cruise Planners Unite

[TMO3CCO1]

I know you are out there...the OCD people like me that spend hours reading and compiling information to plan your cruise vacation. This is my first cruise and I am in hopes you can help me.

 

Does anyone have a spreadsheet of their plans for their cruise vacations they would care to share with me. I'm thinking it would be easiest if I could print a spreadsheet with a general agenda for each day as a quick reference guide.

 

Thanks for your help! I will be traveling on the Oasis in May with my DH....WOOHOO! Can't wait!

[higgib]

...

[temple1]

I've always scoffed at too much preparedness, but after screwing up the dates of things on the ship during our last cruise (I seemed to be a day behind for some reason) I am trying to find an easy way to make sure I don't screw up on our next cruise.:confused:

[TMO3CCO1]

Hi, This is the spreadsheet I created for our 12 day Europe cruise last year. Is this the kind of thing you had in mind?

 

Yes, I'm trying to figure out a way to keep it all organized and together. And knew there would be plenty of individuals that had already created a spreadsheet so why reinvent the wheel. Thanks for showing your example!

[TMO3CCO1]

I've always scoffed at too much preparedness, but after screwing up the dates of things on the ship during our last cruise (I seemed to be a day behind for some reason) I am trying to find an easy way to make sure I don't screw up on our next cruise.:confused:

 

 

I'm not usually a planner by nature. Reservations are hard for me. I usually like to show up when I'm hungry or go with the flow of what we feel like doing in that particular moment...but after experiencing Disney World with no planning and not being able to do 1/2 of the "things" we wanted to do because we didn't plan better or they were full, I thought it would be to our benefit to plan our cruise.

 

I can see how it would be hard to keep everything straight and be a day behind.

[sanditoes4]

Here's what I do for every trip we have ever taken.....grid paper is my friend!! :D

[TMO3CCO1]

Here's what I do for every trip we have ever taken.....grid paper is my friend!! :D

 

 

I love it. Care to share what your tabs say. Do you have a tab for each day of the week or is it a breakdown of each port?

[DM_KidAtHeart]

I use the ShipMate app for Royal Caribbean for my planning and tracking. It has a checklist that can edited as you desire. It allows you to create a daily itinerary.

 

And once on the boat, it has great deck plans that are not internet dependent so you can reference them in airplane mode.

[handbellplayer]

Here's what I used on our November cruise. It was Freedom Eastern, but can be adapted for any cruise.

cruise schedule.xls

[sanditoes4]

I love it. Care to share what your tabs say. Do you have a tab for each day of the week or is it a breakdown of each port?

 

 

Each tab is in order of day but labeled with the port we'd be at. So on this (pictured) trip the first tab was Florida, under this tab was our flight info, cab info and hotel info. Day 2 was SHIP day, under this tab held our next cab info, set sail passes and whatever else I thought we may have needed. Day 3 was a sea day, but it was some things we wanted to do or see on the ship......you get the point though. I printed emails and 3 holed punched them and filed them, I filed everything that fell into my sly little mits!! :D (please note this is one of many)

[JosieRhodes]

high level spreadsheet I use to plan....

cruise.xls

[Fran&Tom]

Here's what I do for every trip we have ever taken.....grid paper is my friend!! :D

I am a planner and this is what I use also.

[TMO3CCO1]

All of these ideas are great! I knew you would be able to help a girl out! LOL Gives me something to do tonight for the planning of our cruise. All this planning makes me feel like I'm on an extended vacation and gives me even more to look forward to!

 

Keep the ideas coming!:)

[Fran&Tom]

I use the ShipMate app for Royal Caribbean for my planning and tracking. It has a checklist that can edited as you desire. It allows you to create a daily itinerary.

 

And once on the boat, it has great deck plans that are not internet dependent so you can reference them in airplane mode.

 

I also have shipmate- but always turn my phone off- so always missed those great deckplans- great to know I can still use them.

Thanks,

Fran

[MrFunInTheSun]

Check out the spreadsheet from Gambee's epic Allure review, that ought to keep you busy for awhile. :) First link is his review. Second link is his spreadsheet he attempted to follow thru on his cruise, but you know how plans change. :) He also has on that link the xcel version within that post thats on the second link below.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1737751

 

 

Xcel spreadsheet from Gambee's Allure of the seas trip.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=36033994&postcount=15

 

Have a great cruise!

[sotong]

Where does all this info come from pre cruise, in my experience lots of this info is only available in the compass when you board.

If times are based on previous cruises does anyone have any idea what the schedule will be for AoS in the Med from Southampton this summer.

Re planning I have my notebook with a page for each day and pages of notes on what to see and what to do on the ship and then a folder with a plastic wallet for each of the main ports.

Thanks, Gillian

[SRQfireman]

If you buy in, you can unite with all these other Cruiseplanners.....I'd guess they have a yearly convention :D :) :D

(I thought maybe that's what you were talking about) :eek:

[TMO3CCO1]

Looks like I'm going to be a busy girl tonight! My husband will surely shake his head when he returns home from his business trip and I show him my newly developed spreadsheet included in my 3 ring binder and new app on my phone :D:D:D:D:D:D

[Eriksgarden]

Spreadsheet? No. But I make a mini "Ship Compass" that has the overview of our vacation with excursions, dinner reservations, and showtimes.

[handbellplayer]

Where does all this info come from pre cruise, in my experience lots of this info is only available in the compass when you board.

If times are based on previous cruises does anyone have any idea what the schedule will be for AoS in the Med from Southampton this summer.

Re planning I have my notebook with a page for each day and pages of notes on what to see and what to do on the ship and then a folder with a plastic wallet for each of the main ports.

Thanks, Gillian

 

I used Compasses that had been posted by previous cruisers. I still had to make adjustments once on board.

[slimkat]

Looks like I'm going to be a busy girl tonight! My husband will surely shake his head when he returns home from his business trip and I show him my newly developed spreadsheet included in my 3 ring binder and new app on my phone :D:D:D:D:D:D

 

ROTFLMAO!!!! This is sooooooooo me!

[happicruzer]

My idea isn't overly fancy or difficult with minor computer skills. Or, you can cut and paste the old fashioned way onto a sheet of paper.

 

I do create a calendar with the date and location on the left (Sunday, At Sea) or Monday, Athens or Labadee.

 

I do not like the 'description' of the tours from the on-board tour guide. Therefore, pre-cruise, if I've booked a tour (either by ship or private entity), I'm liable to have forgotten what was included so I copy the detailed information copied off the website and place it on this sheet of paper. Is lunch included; snacks; drinks? While time of departure may change, I include that for reference purposes and always check my coupon for departure location - on shore; theatre?

 

Usually two or three days fit per page. I then insert the pages into those clear notebook sheets (25 or 50 per package) and tape them to the back of the cabin door, switching out once we're past that period of time.

 

The info is readily available and helped stop the 'what are we doing and when' as my hubby knows where to look for the info because I do not have it in my head.

 

I've also come back from one or two ship's excursions that didn't do what they promised and had a partial refund. If I hadn't had the long-winded verbiage, I wouldn't have known what was missed.

[debshomespun]

I thought I did alot of planning, but setting up a spreadsheet with all the daily activities is way too much planning for me. I plan our port days for what we want to do. I have an envelope for each port day. I then put in it the reservations for that days excursion, along with the money for the excursion and tip. I also have the meeting time, and place, and directions on how to get there.

 

On sea days, I don't usually have much planned. I like to catch the rays from the deck above the pool area. Many more chairs there, and can still listen to the live music by the pool. Also, love to lay right by the rail and watch the ocean go by as I read my kindle! We don't go to alot of the shows anymore. We have seen many of them. We usually stop by the casino for a small donation each evening, usually after dinner.

 

I keep all my envelopes in my large zippered bag (looks like a large wallet) I got from RC. It has slots for passports, credit cards, (or seapass cards for on the way home after the cruise), and several zippers to put money and envelopes for each days events.

 

I do bring my highlighter. Each night before I go to bed, I read the cruise compass, and highlight what I think I want to do the next day.

[murfturf]

I planned excessively for our last cruise, and found it to be quite helpful however I also found that even within a few weeks, the cruise compass had changed! I was expecting things like "Ugly Tropical Shirt Night" and they weren't there. Also, the Love and Marriage game show kept switching nights on all the compasses I read - and in the end hubby and I didn't even get to see it!

 

I did plan ahead of time using spreadsheets - clothing included but found myself taking it easy more once on board, using the compass and our current state of mind to guide us! However, I was glad I had the folder full of everything because there was nothing in my room to remind me of any reservations I had made! I expected reminders for our cupcake decorating or our Portofino's reservation. Maybe they were on the TV messages or something, but I never found it!

 

Have fun though - I thoroughly enjoyed the planning part. Just don't be upset when things don't go as planned. I had a mini-breakdown on day 2 because of a few things like that but I got over it and went on with my wonderful trip!

[blonde1981]

Each tab is in order of day but labeled with the port we'd be at. So on this (pictured) trip the first tab was Florida, under this tab was our flight info, cab info and hotel info. Day 2 was SHIP day, under this tab held our next cab info, set sail passes and whatever else I thought we may have needed. Day 3 was a sea day, but it was some things we wanted to do or see on the ship......you get the point though. I printed emails and 3 holed punched them and filed them, I filed everything that fell into my sly little mits!! :D (please note this is one of many)

 

I am doing the same thing for my cruise this year. Usually I use a folder with pockets but this time I'm doing a small 1 inch binder with tabs set up just like above.

 

For each port, if we are doing a tour I have gone to Wikipedia and printed out their page for each major site we are seeing - for example, a castle in Denmark. I do this because my husband refuses to do any reading before a trip on where we are going and what we are seeing and I don't want to lug a bunch of travel books.