Organizing Cruise Docs

[karlanee]

Just thought I'd pass on this tip. It's something I thought of and implemented this week. We'll be sailing in less than a month.

 

I have a household notebook that I keep for organizing myself. I thought, why not do this for our cruise?

 

I have a 1/2" clear-view white three ring binder. On the front I put a printed picture of our ship. Inside, I have four plastic sleeves, one has our receipt from Carnival, and on the back our printed FunPass. The second has our birth certificate copies in an envelope that I've slipped into the sleeve. The third has the maps I bought from Can-Do Maps of Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. The fourth has our cruise docs in it.

 

Then I have punched three holes in all the printouts I have. I've seperated them with tabs to keep it organized. I have one that has planning stuff, such as a timeline planning list from *************** and a couple of packing lists. I have one for the ship - it has our itinerary along with the FAQ sheets from Camp Carnival info on the website. We had our girls highlight things they were interested in. I have a section for Cozumel with the printed shore excursion list and the printout of information I found on another website about Cozumel. It also has the coupon for a free margarita I printed from Los Cinco Soles website in case we make it to Poncho's Backyard. The last tab is for Playa del Carmen and has similar printouts.

 

This may seem a bit obsessive - I'm not highly organized, I assure you. The reason I did this notebook is for that very reason. I had piles of things here and there, and could never find what I was looking for. I decided to put it all in one place. I'm paranoid about getting to the ship and not having some important paper or item I need for reference. This way, I just pack my notebook in my carryon and away we go!

 

If anyone has ideas to add to this, feel free!

[mathgal]

I have done this very thing for each of our two cruises. Since we booked all of our tours online prior to the cruise, I also added all of the email confirmations for each tour. As I was planning my cruise, I would copy and paste any special tips I found into a single Word document. It was also printed and added to the binder.

 

Since we had a good idea of what most of our costs would be, I did a spreadsheet on Excel with anticipated expenses. I took it along in the binder and jotted down the actual costs as they occured. I added an empty plastic sleeve where I stuck any receipts from purchases. Believe it or not, my estimated costs were less than $3 off from our actual expenses for a WHOLE WEEK's cruise!! :eek: (And I kept track of every penny!)

 

When I return from the cruise I add all of my Carnival Capers to the book and any other "handouts" from the ship. To complete my "scrapbook" I put all of my cruise pictures on heavy stock paper using those clear plastic stick on "corners". I make a "template" for various picture layouts on the computer and then add picture descriptions and clip art using Word. Once each picture page is done, I slip it into a plastic page protector. Last but not least is my VERY long journal that I do to record all of those special cruise memories! It takes a big three-ring binder to hold it all but I find myself pulling it out ever so often just to re-live my wonderful cruise! :)

 

You can get large postcard pictures of your ship while you are onboard (for free in your cabin) and I use that on the cover of my binder. (It has a clear front just for this purpose.)

[KandMGIn]

I had a whole bunch of print outs for our first cruise. I even organized a "things to do list" based on the tips from the threads. I never looked at it on the ship. I was having so much fun that I never felt like refering to the activities I had "planned". This cruise, I am not bringing a "things to do list". I am, on the other hand, bringing two toddlers, so there will be plenty of "things to do" that will be not much fun for me! :eek:

 

I am glad you have it all organized, but remember to be spontanious (sp?), adventurous, and just relax and have a great time!

[brennan5!]

Hi, karlanee. I am very interested in the information from the site that you/was ******** out. Can you email it to me? lisa.brennan@yale.edu. I have started organizing information for our April cruise - your notebook sounds ideal!

 

Lisa.

[Philly Steve]

Glad to know I'm not the only one doing this! I also added print outs of shore excursions to my notebook. Somehow, they're easier to consider when you can hold 'em in your hands. And yes, it's a great foundation for a scrapbook.

[sea_u_onboard]

I do this also - BUT - I have a folder and a binder. We drive to the port so the folder has the information on our hotels, maps to the port, things to do in the port city, such like that - since we come in a day or two before. This way I don't have to take all this stuff on board with us - I just leave the folder in the car. I pack the cruise binder in a backpack that we carry onto the ship. I use pockets in the binder to hold documents and birth certificates and such. I have also used the large ziplock bags to hold documents. Just punch holes and attach in the binder. I print off my confirmations for things purchased online and for the excursions I have booked. I also keep in there my luggage tag labels - if I booked a guarantee cabin and a packet of the small zip ties for the luggage. Anything I think I'll need at the port and as soon as we board goes into the backpack.

[Izzy Bee]

I do this too. I have a divider for each port of call, coupons we may use, maps. I also have a list of cell phone numbers for everyone is our group so that we could contact each other either driving in or back home, in case of emergency.

[karlanee]

I had a whole bunch of print outs for our first cruise. I even organized a "things to do list" based on the tips from the threads. I never looked at it on the ship. I was having so much fun that I never felt like refering to the activities I had "planned". This cruise, I am not bringing a "things to do list". I am, on the other hand, bringing two toddlers, so there will be plenty of "things to do" that will be not much fun for me! :eek:

 

I am glad you have it all organized, but remember to be spontanious (sp?), adventurous, and just relax and have a great time!

 

 

Oh - yes, I'll be spontaneous. The only reason I have this notebook is to make sure I have all I need in one place. It's mainly for the embarking and stuff.

 

I also have the hotel confirmation email since we too are driving to port and staying overnight before hand. I have shore excursion lists too - the one with prices included. We've already decided what we're doing, but this is included in case the excursion we want is full.

 

Thanks for the idea of using it as a scrapbook start!

[sea_u_onboard]

I did forget to mention that my cruise binder includes a list of all the important numbers we may need.

[SxyEbnyFem]

Glad to know I am not the only nut on these boards. :p

Any & every thing pertaining to our cruise (travel docs, hotel info pre/post cruise, ship info, packing lists, ports info, etc.) can be found in my 1" three-ring binder. IT IS JAMMED PACKED!

In the beginning of my planning stages...yes, I was laughed at...yes, I was mocked...yes, I was even affectionately called 'Clark Grizwald.' Now, whenever we get together with our travelmates, it is always requested that I bring "THE NOTEBOOK!"

Guess it is I who has the last laugh! :cool:

Happy sailing,

T.

[Blndiebby25]

It is comforting to know that I am not crazy. I am starting to do this as well and by fiance thinks I am crazy because the cruise is almost a year away. At the moment most of my stuff is on a computer disk. I have been planning everything; reading the boards; copying and pasting reviews of the ships and the independent tours; writing down tips not found anywhere else. I am very excited and want everything to be perfect.

[cruznon]

WOW!

I organized a trip to Paris like this once and it was so helpful.

But I guess since I see a cruise as so laid back and relaxing, I never thought about doing it for a cruise.

If you have kids and/or plan to take lots of excursions/activities this would be very helpful.

Have a great trip!

[pelletib]

It's nice to see that I'm not the only one that does things like this. My DH jokes that my binder should have it's own frequent flyer memberships!!

[jimbug]

Here's an addition: LL Bean now has a travel ticket organizer for $19. I ordered one as a Christmas present to myself :-) and can't wait to use it for my upcoming cruise. It's a really good organizer for your cruise docs, confirmations, and passport/birth certificate/id, and if I remember correctly even has a place for a PDA.

[MRIrene]

Better hold on to it tight and don't do what I did last week! I had all of the documents for our group of 15 with me in a binder. Was holding on to it and unloading luggage, getting it to porter, and trying to keep everyone together. Got upstairs and in line when I realized, I didn't have the documents anymore. Talk about panic! :eek:

I couldn't remember where I laid them down, but decided it must have been on the pile of luggage that the porter took over 20 minutes ago. I know how careless they are with luggage (they managed to destroy several of our pieces of luggage this trip) and could just picture them tossing the documents on the ship with the luggage and scattering everything. I ran back down the stairs and to the front of the terminal, just in time for the porter to come walking back up with the folder holding all of the documents. I was so happy that I give him another tip. Everyone would have been so upset with me if they had come that far and couldn't have gone on the ship. Talk about an adrenaline rush.

[karlanee]

JimBug,

 

Are you living at OU? Wondering because of your web addy for pics. Nice pics by the way. I'm in Edmond! Used to live in Norman! Small world!

[rgreenpc]

I have a clear folder that I got from a Princess Cruise in April.

 

It is great for documents.

 

My fiancee stores all of our trip info in her PDA for easy use and portability.

 

This is her first cruise and we still have like 300 days to go and she is already planning.

 

 

... and I thought I was hard core <G>