Planners unite!

[tanner2]

Oh my gosh, I thought I was abnormal:eek:........... I'm such a big planner, I love to research, I went to Disney and stayed at 4 star hotel for $20.02 a night! got discount ticket to seaworld by joining southwest frequent flyer miles program, rental suv for a week for about 120.00 dollars, and went 1st class to vegas cheaper than coach! I always do search forum for where ever i'm going and read, read, read!!!:)

[Gallivanting Souls]

Oh my gosh, I thought I was abnormal:eek:........... I'm such a big planner, I love to research, I went to Disney and stayed at 4 star hotel for $20.02 a night! got discount ticket to seaworld by joining southwest frequent flyer miles program, rental suv for a week for about 120.00 dollars, and went 1st class to vegas cheaper than coach! I always do search forum for where ever i'm going and read, read, read!!!:)

 

Good job on getting such great discounts!

 

I'm looking forward to "naming my own price" for a 3 1/2* hotel in San Pedro before our cruise. I tried this when we stayed in Idaho Falls and it worked out great! -But I would never do this without doing the research first!

[TravelingTrio]

I thought I was alone!!! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. Out of the three of us, there are two of us that are completely obsessed. We watch youtube videos, read the forums, the reviews, look at all the excursions etc. I think I have the entire carnival website memorized. Out of all of us, I'm the planner though. I love doing "research." If I wasn't able to do this, I would burst at the seams. I feel like I already went on the cruise from all the pictures I've seen and the reviews I've read. I even know what drinks I want to order!

 

I'm a Grad student and I think this is starting to interfere with my work but I don't care lol. I'm too excited to care.

[Don_In_AZ]

Oh yeah, I'm a planner, Does anyone else use a spreadsheet?

 

Count me in the "planner" group! ...And I also love spreadsheets! I have one that is tracking all of our cruise costs vs. our savings. We are pre-paying as much as we possibly can with regard to on-board expenditures. I've planned and pre-paid our beverages, PG meals, and I'm now planning our shore excursions.

 

We are taking a Hawaiian cruise this October and so I went out and bought a bunch of books on Hawaii (one for each island) and am reading up on what our options will be.

 

I honestly think that planning is half the fun of going. I always learn alot and I truely feel like it increases the quality of my travel experience.

 

One note of caution though is to stay flexible. Sometimes when I put alot of effort into coming up with your master plan, it's easy to get discouraged when reality gets its own ideas... So make your plan, follow your plan as much as events allow and be ready to change your plan when necessary or when a new opportunity presents itself.

 

And BTW, my wife thinks I'm nuts too!!!!

[DireMongoose]

Are you a planner? I am! I'm not cruising for over eleven months, but I feel the need to research and read everything. I'm really not OCD :cool:, but doing stuff for the cruise seems to make the days go by quicker!

Any thoughts on this? What have you learned?

 

I so am... and it's funny, because I'm really, really not organized with anything except cruising. My wife and the couple that sometimes cruise with us clearly think I'm a bit of a nutball.

 

My take on it... the cruise lasts a week (or whatever) but you can stretch out the fun and anticipation of it a long way by trying to research fun excursions, off the beaten path things to do and eat, etc. I don't care about saving money by planning so much as making sure that, come vacation time, I don't have to do a lot of thinking and can just have a great time made up of partly of things I already know I want to try.

[Sea Hag]

I'm so happy to see others using spreadsheets! I thought maybe I was goofy. Well, I'm probably goofy, but at least that isn't more evidence.

 

I map it out with all the costs in one column, corresponding payments in the next, totals paid and totals left to be paid. Some items are marked as guesstimates, but I try to come as close as I can on that.

[winemama]

i am actually depressed if i am not planning or working on a vacation or cruise...i live on this cruise board, my partner thinks i am nuts....we have a "cruise box" in storage also..and "cruise cloths"....my wife and i have it all worked out..i do all the planning, confirming, e-mailing..get everything ready to go, and she pack and takes care of everything else...i do everything till we step on the ship..she does everything while on the ship...i don't have to think

[yapmom]

Oh yeah, I'm a planner, Does anyone else use a spreadsheet? My family loves to make fun of my spreadsheets with their colors, fonts, etc. They all like to say that I have planned a bathroom break at 2:37PM, with dinner at 6:14, bla, bla, bla (not true BTW). My "best" spreadsheet was for a Disney trip, it was one sheet with all park times, show times, dinner res, alternate attractions, etc. Perhaps one of the most useful aspect of the spreadsheet is if you are traveling togather with another family, it gives a common (email-able) form to plan with.

 

So far for our cruise (our 1st) my spreadsheet has the flight times, hotel res, and ship sail, and dock times. I'm sure people will make fun of me, but by the time I'm ready my spreadsheet will include wake up times, packing times, etc.

 

Too funny, while not exactly a spreadsheet, I do have each day printed out of microsoft outlook and all of the above info and shore activilties filled in. I really like the research and knowing I am as prepared as I can be. BTW, my daughters threaten to take away my map when we go amusement parking:)

[Roadtripster]

I plan and research extensively and whoever I'm traveling with, (family or friends) make fun of me and think I'm a little over the top. :rolleyes:That is until we go and then they love having all the info. It saves so much time and allows you to see and do things you may not even know about. I have gone on a couple of trips with my 3 close girfriends and they now know how good it is to be informed. The 4 of us are going on our first cruise April 20, on the Destiny to celebrate 50 years of friendship and of course I have been reading for the past year. They told me they were going to get on of those tall flags you put on bikes and put it on me so they wouldn't lose me, cause I'm the only one that knows what is going on.:D Planning is the only way to go!!!:)

 

EXACTLY how I feel.

 

With this trip my husband keeps saying I am rushing it. LOL

It is three months away and you GOTTA plan and make reservations etc...

 

He was driving me nuts when I asked him to pick a week to take the cruise and ask at work if he could have off. "I have plenty of time". Well, no he didn't. That morning he checked and our original week was available, but didn't say to put his name down. Come that afternoon when he left, someone else requested that week and "snooze we loose" for that week.

 

My coworkers are amazed as to what I have found out about the ports and things to do. They about dropped to the floor when I showed them discount coupons for one of the park entrances, thousands of miles away from home. LOL

 

With the access the internet gives you, with planning, you have the resources to save tons of money and have a great time doing it. With the economy the way it is now, I don't want to be standing at the pier (wasting my valuable time) wondering if a taxi or shuttle will get me somewhere and then later, find out they double priced me.

[WarmWaters]

I thought I was alone!!! I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. We watch youtube videos, read the forums, the reviews, look at all the excursions etc. I think I have the entire carnival website memorized. Out of all of us, I'm the planner though. I love doing "research." I feel like I already went on the cruise from all the pictures I've seen and the reviews I've read.

 

Hehehe I just love this thread !

 

I am exactly the same, half of the fun of going on a cruise is reading up on the interesting places we might want to go and explore and then deciding what might interest both of us and fit our budget. I spent a lot of my free time doing travel research - it has become a hobby of mine.

 

Some people will tell you for them the fun is actually going there and stumbling upon these interesting places and things to do that people like me, discovered long before we actually go on the cruise. We are information gatherers - this personality type ask a lot of questions and needs to have information before we go somewhere or make a decision. Its just part of who we are.

 

As we travel often and on a small budget, we save a lot of money doing the research. We are not excursion people, we like to plan our own excurions and make our own plans away from the crowds. Our days in port are action packed. We will be on the go for hours on end to see and do as much as we can.

 

On our last cruise I found that using the see through plastic sheet protectors that you can file in a binder worked wonderful. I will put all our pages in seperate sheet protectors. Eg Day 1 will have all outbound flight info, directions to get to the hotel, the hotel info etc in it, Day 2 will be in a seperate sheet and it will cover how to get to the ship and tips on the ship etc. Then for every port day we have a seperate sheet protector with the printed info - what to see and do/ maps and directions for buses etc all together.

 

I dont take a binder I just take the loose sheet protectors and use a highlighter before I leave home to highlight which sheet is which days activity. Then I put all my precious info sheets at the back of my carry on all together and they are handy and light weight and see through for when we need to ask for directions and its not floppy loose papers that might get water stains on etc. I again read through all of them on the plane before getting there and so does my partner just to get him up to speed as he is not a info gather at all.

 

I have learned so much from this message board, it has a wealth of information. Thank you for everyone who is taking the time to share their knowledge and experiences here.

[Pops-F]

I actually had a career in law enforcement research & planning! (they need to be done in that order, b.t.w.) Add to that being married to a government accountant (asst finance director for city) and we zoom past O.C.D. right to anal with capital A ;)

 

The actual cruise (two weeks away) will seem almost anti-climatic for me since I've done all the r&p since her cost analysis spreadsheet back in October. I'll bet a few DOD's will bring back the exceitment once on-board!

 

We've also acted as our own contractors for two home constructions; afterall, being a contractor is really only research, planning, scheduling, and accounting. We've got all those bases covered :D

[Gallivanting Souls]

It's great to see so many other planners out there!

I'm wondering kind of like a poll, what month is everyone's birthday? Kind of like astrology that if us planners fall into one or more 'signs'?

My month is Feb making me an Aquarius.

Any other takers?:D

[Zubsin]

Libra here. Planner with friends who think I'm nuts when I say what are you doing June 2010 want to join us FILL IN THE BLANK and all they can say is ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!? Planning is more then half the fun. I have three trips this year and I'm actually putting my husband in charge of the land trip to Whistler. Partly because the trip is his idea and I'm not a huge fan of Whistler, but we got a great deal so what the heck. The Roll Call for my upcpming cruise has been very disappointing so I peak at other roll calls for the same cruise different dates. I have learned so much from this particular thread that I think it is my favorite. Funny thing... I got TENNIS ELBOW from being the computer so much this year! HAH! travel on! dlz

[yapmom]

It's great to see so many other planners out there!

I'm wondering kind of like a poll, what month is everyone's birthday? Kind of like astrology that if us planners fall into one or more 'signs'?

My month is Feb making me an Aquarius.

Any other takers?:D

 

June-Gemini

[kf657]

Hello, as I sit here making lists for the cruise still 40+ days away...

Bins full of misc. stuff for out trip on the Ruby

I am a Cancer/Gemini born on the cusp, traveling with a cancer, virgo, aries and a scorpio the pisces stating home this trip.....

[Roadtripster]

Capricorn here!

 

But more so, I bet the majority of us are TYPE C personalities or an ISTJ personality.

 

Do a search online and you will be able to take a quick Q&A test to find out.

[RCCLRULES]

this really needs to be retitled "crazies unite".

[Zubsin]

I was thinking there must be personality type versus a zodiac sign..as a former MB trainer I should have guessed. I to am an ISTJ! Not crazy... I prefer to call it organized! HAHA! dlz

[itzmered]

Oh yeah, I'm a planner, Does anyone else use a spreadsheet? My family loves to make fun of my spreadsheets with their colors, fonts, etc. They all like to say that I have planned a bathroom break at 2:37PM, with dinner at 6:14, bla, bla, bla (not true BTW). My "best" spreadsheet was for a Disney trip, it was one sheet with all park times, show times, dinner res, alternate attractions, etc. Perhaps one of the most useful aspect of the spreadsheet is if you are traveling togather with another family, it gives a common (email-able) form to plan with.

 

So far for our cruise (our 1st) my spreadsheet has the flight times, hotel res, and ship sail, and dock times. I'm sure people will make fun of me, but by the time I'm ready my spreadsheet will include wake up times, packing times, etc.

 

I do the same thing for each of our vacations. Some are very detailed depending on how much we want to pre plan. It also comes in handy as I create a tab that lists all flight times and hotels that I can leave with people at home in case of an emergency. I love to plan and agree it helps pass the time before we go.