Who here loves to plan for the cruise?!?

[Macklovin38]

I'm such a cruise planning nerd, it's my favorite part.

 

First, I research the ship by watching YouTube videos, reading reviews and memorizing the deck plans. Next, comes the itinerary- weather, excursions, excursion reviews, reservations, reservation confirmations!

 

Now to get a hotel for the night before embarkation! What is close to the port? Can I park there all week? What is there to do in the port city?

 

I love all of this!!! Yesterday, I spent my day checking the port camera waiting for my ship to sail away for a week of fun without me- Just 11 more sail aways and then it's my turn!!!

 

My family thinks I'm crazy.

 

Who else loves to plan?!?

 

 

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[OCruisers]

Guilty! I love to plan cruises! :D

LuLu

[cb at sea]

I enjoy planning any trip...cruise or not! I especially love the research on where we're going....

 

I don't do a "spreadsheet", tho....that's a bit too anal for me! I don't plan every minute, or schedule meals/shows/activities, either. It IS a vacation, after all! But, I do enjoy finding out what's to do in each new place.

Edited July 28, 2014 by cb at sea

[Cruise, J.D.]

I

Who else loves to plan?!?

 

I do! I love researching cruise options, the embarkation city, and the ports of call. I'll come up with some cruise and excursion ideas and run them by the family. I'm always responsible after we decide what to do for booking everything and keeping us on track.

 

After many cruises and time on this site you get to know the ships and the Carnival brand, so you don't have to research the ships as much.

[TARRA]

I also love to plan my cruises with videos, ratings, reviews, deck plans, entertainment, etc. I still have 130 days to go, but I will be excited for all of that time!

:)

[Grayton Beach Girl]

I plan so much that my family thinks I'm crazy! In June on the Liberty, I decided to surprise them. When we sat down to dinner one night, I announced that I was being spontaneous. I had no idea yet what I was having for dinner, and I had not even looked at the menu. Next cruise, I think I will try to arrive at at least one port with no plans, and just go with the flow!

[SMSACE6]

I'm such a cruise planning nerd, it's my favorite part.

 

First, I research the ship by watching YouTube videos, reading reviews and memorizing the deck plans. Next, comes the itinerary- weather, excursions, excursion reviews, reservations, reservation confirmations!

 

Now to get a hotel for the night before embarkation! What is close to the port? Can I park there all week? What is there to do in the port city?

 

I love all of this!!! Yesterday, I spent my day checking the port camera waiting for my ship to sail away for a week of fun without me- Just 11 more sail aways and then it's my turn!!!

 

My family thinks I'm crazy.

 

Who else loves to plan?!?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Your cruise planning sounds a lot like mine:D Only trouble is, most times I book my cruise 9 or 10 months before, so my planning becomes a little obsessive. My family thinks I's crazy too! But I remember my grandma used to have an expression that roughly translated meant "the planning of the event often is as good or better than the actual event".

 

I am now three months away from mine, and still researching the ship that I have been on before;) and the ports three of which I have been to before.

 

Sometimes I think I am crazy too.:)

[karessamom]

We're not even going till aug 2015 and Iam already driving everyone crazy!! Trouble is I really don't have the time to spend doing it! Ha. That's what drives'em crazy. But it's fun!!

[Kimberlyr22]

My husband says I must like planning more than the actual cruising, because I do so much planning that there's no way I can have fun on the cruise because nothing is a surprise. So not true -- I have to plan so much because my husband is a nervous traveler, and I need to have all the answers to his questions so he feels comfortable! Plus, I just love planning and organizing anything. Put the final touches on my glitter cruise binder last night -- less than six days till sailaway! Then I'll spend the next 12 months planning for next summer's cruise.

[Taylor95]

I'm so happy to read that I'm not the only one that is a crazy researcher/planner! 😄.

 

 

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[SailingRNC]

Me Too !!

 

 

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[Rock712]

I love to plan trips. In heaven right now , planning three different trips. In the fall we're going to the mountains , right after Thanksgiving heading to Disneyworld for our annual Disney Christmas trip , and then returning to Alaska next May on the Legend. My wife laughs at me because she's total opposite. She would just throw a couple things in the suitcase the day before and say " lets go and wing it "

[Cruiserpkg]

I, too love the planning to an almost fanatical degree! My husband thinks I am crazy but I know he truly appreciates it when travel time comes. My sister swears I am better than a travel agent!! Cruise Critic is so great because all of us cruise junkies can get so much info!

[SeagoingMom]

I was the fanatical researcher/planner you describe until my most recent cruise, when I began to realize that what I truly wanted was to simply re-visit a cruise we had taken a few years earlier -- same ship, same itinerary, same cabin , if possible! (This in not what we ended up doing, but it was what I wanted to do...) I wanted to simply hit the "buy" button (so to speak) and be at sea. It was a time in my life that I was so stressed out (that is why we "needed" to cruise -- to relax) that the cruise planning and research were just adding to my stress.

 

It was a new world for me -- to have all that preparation actually not be fun for me. So I learned that sometimes planning stresses me out more than not planning. This honestly came as a shock, because I remember saying to more than one person in the past that I had gotten as much (or maybe more :confused: ) enjoyment out of all the planning and researching than I got from my actual cruises!

 

At any rate, I have seen the difference in how I feel about a cruise designed to be an "adventure," for which the planning part only adds to my interest, and a true "get-away-from-it-all" cruise, for which I would rather not do any planning whatsoever!

 

I suppose in the future I will have to figure out which type of cruise I am going on so as to know how (or whether) to research and plan!

[jsfromsc]

Planning and looking forward to the cruise is half the fun for me.

[cosaraquis1]

Sometimes I think I have just as much fun planning as when I am on the cruise. Gives me something to look forward to, especially during the long cold winter months.

[Midwestgal]

My favorite form of foreplay:p

[hunter14]

Best part of the trip for me!

[jean s]

I love planning for any trip. I do lots of research and find as much information as possible. My dh on the hand will ask after we have boarded the plane and fastened our seat belts, "So where are we going?"

[Macklovin38]

I loved everyone's responses.

 

I keep telling my family that when the cruise gets here they will appreciate all my obsessive behavior!

 

 

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[celebrity]

If it wasn't for me, my family would have never traveled! 20 cruises and countless land trips have all been researched and orchestrated by moi.

Don't ask about the first trip to Disney for my 2 young sons msny years ago. I had read that when they drop the ropes to enter Magic Kingdom, you need to run as fast as you can to Splash Mountain. I literally went into training mode. Running my treadmill daily so we could be the first on line at the ride. lol. I was in tip top shape. :)

By the third day, my younger son said, " Mommy, I don't like eating breakfast when it's still dark. " I was bound and determined to be first on line at every park and we were!

We stil laugh about it all . That was before Fast Pass.

My now adult sons tell me often that they had the best childhood. They still cruise with us.

On our First Med cruise last year, I lost 12

lbs stressing over every little detail and my husband still cannot believe what I pulled off. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Planning to return in 2016 with a whole lot of knowledge and a lot less stress.

Planners unite!

Edited July 28, 2014 by celebrity

[jammen]

I'm such a cruise planning nerd, it's my favorite part.

 

First, I research the ship by watching YouTube videos, reading reviews and memorizing the deck plans. Next, comes the itinerary- weather, excursions, excursion reviews, reservations, reservation confirmations!

 

Now to get a hotel for the night before embarkation! What is close to the port? Can I park there all week? What is there to do in the port city?

 

I love all of this!!! Yesterday, I spent my day checking the port camera waiting for my ship to sail away for a week of fun without me- Just 11 more sail aways and then it's my turn!!!

 

My family thinks I'm crazy.

 

 

Who else loves to plan?!?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Planing is part of the fun, the closer you get to the cruise the better it gets

[richfret]

They laugh at us Planners but like with a moon shot, there is plenty to be done before those rockets are ignited. I have started a binder that is over 3 inches thick and I still have 178 days to go. Tell me this is not important:

Quick Reference Cruise Guide, Recent Carnival Gift Card Promo summary, Future Cruise Vouchers file, Military Rate Back Up, Cruise Insurance Details, Luggage Tags, Boarding Documents, TA price summary, Copies of Fun Times of prior cruises, Cruise Budget, Deck maps, Ship Pictures (Interior & Exterior), Directions to port (We drive.), Special Requirements Form Copy, Pictures of Passports (In case we lose them), Roll Call Participants, VIFP Benefits, Ships in port, Liquor Ads from local paper, Selected Tours & Excursions, Maps of the Islands, Menus, Port data, Data for future cruise purchase (For $100 OBC), Take with and to do listing, paper supplies for use on the cruise and naturally a Miscellaneous File which I refer to as "The Kitchen Sink". Have I missed any thing?

[bearette]

My husband laughs at me until he is enjoying the fruits of my labor. I try to be spontaneous so I leave a day or port unplanned on our trips but then I have ideas of what to do so I plan not to plan! I hate finding out something existed after the fact so I want to know what is out there.

 

Spontaneous experiences are awesome but when we were taking advantage of night time museum openings, planned visits around closing times, etc he told me I did good.

 

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[DMH15]

I love researching so I will have the knowledge to make good choices on my cruise. Even the spontaneous ones. Knowledge is power. Don't want to come home and read someone's review and say, "what? I didn't know about THAT?" If at all possible. But I gotta accept some things are up to fate. For instance, confirmed Chef's Table but FTTF is SOLD OUT. So, gotta go with the flow to some extent.