The binder...am I forgetting anything??!?

[Peggy13]

You sure are prepared! I'm also the organizer in my family and we all had our passports (myself and 4 children, but not husband) for our June Mariner cruise - he never made time to renew his passport - couldn't ever get the time to go get that picture taken (and I just couldn't do that for him). So I made sure he had that BC with the raised seal. Well - they never even asked to see his BC - he only needed the expired passport!

[nrh322]

You sure are prepared! I'm also the organizer in my family and we all had our passports (myself and 4 children, but not husband) for our June Mariner cruise - he never made time to renew his passport - couldn't ever get the time to go get that picture taken (and I just couldn't do that for him). So I made sure he had that BC with the raised seal. Well - they never even asked to see his BC - he only needed the expired passport!

 

That makes me wonder if it's worth bringing my passport (along with everything else)... even though I haven't gotten my name changed yet. I can document the name change through my driver's license and marriage certificate. I just hadn't gotten around to getting the new passport yet! I can't call myself anything other than LAZY! I've had THREE YEARS!! On the other hand... according to the theory of relativity, time is going by faster as I'm getting older. :o

[marci22]

I think you can leave the 2 lb. divorce decree at home.

[banderboo]

make 2 extra copies of everyone's BC and ID's. Give one copy to your husband to put in his carry on and one copy to someone that you could get a hold of in case of emergency.

 

this is good just in case you lose that precious binder and/or the BC and ID's for someone.

 

Leave the divorce decree at home. RCL doesn't care.

[deltadoug13]

Being in the airline business, I would add your name AND cruise itinerary inside your suitcase on top of everything. If your suitcase is lost:mad: or delayed and misses the beginning of your cruise, a good agent (someone who cares and takes alittle initiative) can find it and forward it to your next cruise port. Believe it or not there are some very good airline agents out there that will take the time to get you your belongings as soon as possible. So, if your suitcases gets lost and you have info inside, at least they have a better shot of finding you.

Just for the record, I always planeside check or carry on everything.:D

Doug

[nrh322]

make 2 extra copies of everyone's BC and ID's. Give one copy to your husband to put in his carry on and one copy to someone that you could get a hold of in case of emergency.

 

this is good just in case you lose that precious binder and/or the BC and ID's for someone.

 

Leave the divorce decree at home. RCL doesn't care.

 

 

I have extra "certified" copies of everyone's birth certificates in an accessible file at home. We have family house sitting... so if worse came to worse... a courier could probably do something. I do have an envelope with xeroxes of everything in my purse, but I don't know what good copy/copies would do. I can't imagine that they'd let us out of the country with a xerox.

 

Both RCCL and my TA told me to bring the divorce decree to document custody and my name change. The kids' and I have different last names than DH and I. My BC has my maiden name. My passport has my ex-husband's last name. My driver's license has my new name. They also told me to bring my marriage certificate to DH. It's a pain in the a$$.... but I'd rather be safe than sorry. This is the price I pay to travel with my kids and not be married to the antichrist any more! :)

[nrh322]

Being in the airline business, I would add your name AND cruise itinerary inside your suitcase on top of everything. If your suitcase is lost:mad: or delayed and misses the beginning of your cruise, a good agent (someone who cares and takes alittle initiative) can find it and forward it to your next cruise port. Believe it or not there are some very good airline agents out there that will take the time to get you your belongings as soon as possible. So, if your suitcases gets lost and you have info inside, at least they have a better shot of finding you.

Just for the record, I always planeside check or carry on everything.:D

Doug

 

 

I have our last name and a cell phone number written in three inch high letters in permanent ink marker on the outside of every piece of luggage we own (no Louis Vuitton here!). I also put copies of the itinerary inside. Gone are the days of carry ons now that they've done that whole 3 oz. bottles in the tiny ziplock thing. I bring way too much goop for my hair to even bother with anything besides my purse... and, of course, THE BINDER!!!! :eek:

[Javalava]

I use a set of 8 tab dividers. The first section is Pre-cruise with all the important papers we'll need. Then I label the following sections, embarkation and one for each of our ports. I fill each section with page protectors and then it's easy to slip in the Cruise Compass, maps and any other papers I might want to save. It's easy to do each night, helps keep the room free from clutter and best of all, it's already organized when I get home! :)

[01Sweetpea]

Glad I'm not the only one who totes around a 3 ring binder full of all my travel info. :)

 

Looks like you have it all covered.

[bunting]

Just a word of caution.....for those that scan or copy your credit cards remember to protect the copies to the same level as the original card especially if you are in the habit of locking those items (the original cards) in your safe onboard when they are not in use, consider doing the same with the copies...also think the same about any calling cards that you might have with you..........we do a similar thing as nrh322 but actually write our name and number on the inside as opposed to the outside of our cases...................

[JsWife07]

You may also want to take something that has some brief medical history and any medications you take or are allergic too; you just never know!

[bunting]

Oh did anyone mention descriptions including color, size and make of luggage...and if you get a chance a quick photo in your email account alongside the photos of the jewelry as I mentioned earlier.....really helps trace missing luggage onboard..............

[sept10dsm]

Okey dokey... I just finished prepping our travel binder. I have determined that my Cruise Critic addiction has rendered me incapable of thinking for myself. Never once on any trip prior to this one have I had to ask so many people so many questions...:confused: I'm beginning to wonder about subliminal messages in the ads or something. :eek:

 

Here are the contents of my binder. EVERYTHING that I've included is notarized, raised sealed, and/or certified if required. All the documents are in separate sheet protectors and everything is in one of the fabric covered three ring binders that zips up securely.

 

1. Flight Confirmation

2. Hotel Confirmation

3. Set Sail Pass (members here already confirmed that it was fine and dandy that we only have ONE Set Sail Pass for all four of us - even if we do have two cabins - RCCL confirmed as well - I still think it seems odd!)

4. DH's BC (cert. w/ raised seal) (He doesn't want to get a passport. I know it seems weird, but it helps keep him from doing a lot of work travel. As soon as he gets his passport, he'll be having to spend 2 weeks out of 4 in China. We're procrastinating deliberately.)

5. My BC (cert. w/ raised seal) (I have TWO expired passports. DH and I just got married a little bit ago. I haven't gotten a new one with my new name yet. The rest of my family is using their BC's, so I figure I'll go with the flow.)

6. DS1's BC (cert. w/ raised seal) (Bio-Dad JUST signed off on passport permission. It's much too late to even try to get passports.)

7. DS2's BC (cert. w/ raised seal) (see above)

8. Consent to travel - Signed by Bio-Dad - Notarized - (I had to sell my soul to the devil to get this form. RCCL said I didn't need it. TA said I didn't need it. Y'all said I needed it. Pray for me!)

9. Divorce decree from Bio-Dad - shows me as primary custodial parent - certified - notarized - raised seal - cost about a zillion dollars - weighs about 2 lbs.!!

10. Marriage certificate to DH (just in case my driver's license isn't enough proof of my new name)

11. Print out of our Shore and Land Excursions Summary (to show what we paid for in case there's a computer glitch!)

12. Travel Guard Insurance Policy

13. Printed Copy of RCCL's Travel Documentation Policy

14. Everything they mailed us in the giant CRUISE DOCUMENTS envelopes

 

DH and I will keep our driver's licenses in our wallets. I have school photo IDs for the kids in my wallet too.

 

Other than that, I can't think of anything that I'm forgetting.

 

CAN YOU??:eek:

I have never made a binder for our cruise vacations, but I always do the same for our cross country trips. A divider for each day with directions, infomation and any other information. Anyone that has ever looked through them has been amazed. Nice to hear someone else does the same. Have a wonderful cruise!! Yes, do bring the marriage certificate, in fact I was told to last year on a Royal Caribbean cruise.

[bethaniesmom]

i have also always done the envelope thing with my cash, just a way of having the right cash you need without carrying excess in any one place, and it helps to have small bills because we have found that often cab drivers and store clerks make change in their own currency, then what do you do with it? Always call the credit card company! Don't have to do the whole notebook thing any more because we have had several cruises and the kids are adults...but I do take a copy of passports, hotel confirmations, and itinerary in a ziplock bag with my boarding passes...

 

have a great trip!

 

Beverly

[Happy ks]

If I were you, I'd go through the binder and discard every single piece of paper that is not absolutely necessary, there is no need to haul along a bunch of useless papers. The divorce decree is one, just photo copy the page that states you have custody. You already have the notarized letter, nothing else is needed.

 

I agree with you, leave the outdated passport at home. I don't know why you would need your marriage certificate, either. As long as your ID (drivers license) has the same name as your cruise documents, you won't need it.

 

You have the same sail and sign because you are a family living at the same address.

 

Don't bother taking the cruise booklet with you, it's just for information that you have already taken care of. We rip out the cruise contract (although I don't even think we need that, since we have sail and sign) and toss the remainder of the booklet. All that info will be duplicated onboard.

 

Keep it as simple as possible, take only what you need to survive. We also discard as we go along, any paper that is no longer needed (hotel res, car rental confirmation, air confirmation, etc...) gets tossed as soon as it's used and no longer pertinent.

 

We do photocopy our itinerary, placing a copy in each bag as well as leaving one with our emergency contact. We do copy our passport and credit cards (along with contact/cancellation numbers), keeping those items in a safe place.

 

Another great thing to do before you leave is to clean out your wallet and/or purse, taking only one credit card per person, your drivers license and your health card, leave the rest at home. Not only less space taken up, but fewer credit cards to cancel should you have one lost or stolen.

 

I love to plan and gather information in advance, I enjoy the knowledge of how to do something the right way. These boards are a great help for those issues. But, you do need to know that if you overplan you can also set yourself up for disappointment if things don't go exactly as planned. Sometimes planning too much can be a detriment to the fact that you are vacationing to have the opportunity to relax and enjoy your family.

 

So, remember to relax and allow the vacation to unfold and... keep it simple :)

[I2BZ2W8]

To a new cruiser this is valuable information..I wrote down notes. Sometimes we need a few minds to help us remember the important stuff. And to the OP...I'll be copying your list. I for one, have the darnest luck and I can see myself standing at embarkation without some major document and knowing it was left on my office desk.

 

I for one am getting a bit peeved. Paid for expedite on passports and both have yet to go through processing.

 

Thanks for the info.:)

Write your congress(person) I know a few people have had been successful with this!

[LAKaye]

In addition to all those things listed in the previous posts, I take a copy of my living will, along with the name and contact information of my Health Care Proxy person. My lawyer advised me to do this---throw a copy in your suitcase she said......and so now I do.

 

Leslie

[dcgrumpy]

I don't know why you would need your marriage certificate, either. As long as your ID (drivers license) has the same name as your cruise documents, you won't need it.

 

 

 

I have read posts by people saying they were asked for their marrigae certificate because the name on the license doesn't match the name on the birth certificate.