How do you store your cruise information?

[Blondilu]

Before a trip I will create a spreadsheet with the itinerary, daily activities, average temps, etc.  This goes in a "folder" on my desktop.  I print all receipts to PDF and save in the same folder.  I also save all e-mails pertaining to that particular trip.

 

When we're ready to go I print out (yes I'm old school) any pertinent info.  This could be boarding info, how-to-get-to directions, tickets to specific venues.  I put it in order by date in a real folder.  After whatever event required the printed page that page gets thrown away so I come home with nothing except an empty folder.

 

After getting home I delete my desk top folder.  To me it has lost all usefulness at this point.

 

I also no longer take pictures of everything I see.  I can't remember the last time I looked at scenery photos or photos of some castle or cathedral.  People standing in front of things is a different story.  I have lots of pics, which I love to look at, of my sisters or whoever I was travelling with standing in front an interesting place.  Part of the memory is that most of these photos was taken by some kind stranger.  

 

 

Edited August 16, 2019 by Blondilu

[iancal]

We discard everything after a trip.  We do keep a note of excellent hotel etc. if we plan to return.  The cruise data...no.  We have moved just about everything to digital. We take very little paper and keep even less paper.  We do not keep anything pertaining to a cruise.

Edited August 16, 2019 by iancal

[ShawninFL]

I used to do this, but found that I never went back to reference any of the information, thus I got rid of it.  If we do a big trip, I keep those documents a couple years just in case, but after that I discard them as well.  The only thing I've started keeping are my sign and sail cards.

[Markanddonna]

I am a writer and much of my travel is for research. I also give lectures on budget travel, genealogy travel, and history.  Here is what I do:

 

I set up a 1/2" wide  binder for each upcoming trip, make a planning calendar with the itinerary and put it in the front view pocket. I use lightweight plastic sheet protectors for copies of reservations and Google planning maps and other info. I carry this 1/2" binder with me and also have a zippered pouch for receipts. I often throw away the paper documents as I travel to lighten up my load, so to speak.

 

I also set up a folder for each trip on my computer and save a copy of all my document it the folder and then send it to my Kindle device in docs.  I keep this digital folder for future reference.

 

I usually journal on my trips, so I also have that. 

 

For simple trips to the Caribbean (7-14 days), I'm much more relaxed since I'm not researching and interviewing. Most of my trips are rather complex with several countries and multiple cities, flights, trains, buses, hotels, etc.

 

 

Edited August 17, 2019 by Markanddonna

[ducklite]

48 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

Most of my trips are rather complex with several countries and multiple cities, flights, trains, buses, hotels, etc.

 

 

Same here.  My upcoming trip visits five countries (two "in transit" and not including the USA); I fly on five different air carriers (under three reservations); have to negotiate four currencies (not including USD); will take five trains that's aren't just local subway types; will sleep in six accommodations; and I need numerous admissions which must be purchased in advance to guarantee I'll even get in (Auschwitz for example).

 

The holiday I'm already planning for 2021 is even more complex.

That's what happens when you want to be a traveler rather than a tourist.  🙂

 

[Markanddonna]

4 minutes ago, ducklite said:

Same here.  My upcoming trip visits five countries (two "in transit" and not including the USA); I fly on five different air carriers (under three reservations); have to negotiate four currencies (not including USD); will take five trains that's aren't just local subway types; will sleep in six accommodations; and I need numerous admissions which must be purchased in advance to guarantee I'll even get in (Auschwitz for example).

 

The holiday I'm already planning for 2021 is even more complex.

That's what happens when you want to be a traveler rather than a tourist.  🙂

 

We used a tour company for Auschwitz that picked us up at our apartment in Krakow.  It was a rainy day and we were glad we made those arrangements.  We took the bus to Zakopane which was easy peasy. Check out my website for info if you are going to Krakow. www.DonnaGawell.com  Look under "travel to Europe and Australia."  There is a section on Krakow and a few articles.  Don't miss the milkbars (they are restaurants.)  We did a WWII research trip there in 2018.

Edited August 17, 2019 by Markanddonna

[ducklite]

6 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

We used a tour company for Auschwitz that picked us up at our apartment in Krakow.  It was a rainy day and we were glad we made those arrangements.  We took the bus to Zakopane which was easy peasy. Check out my website for info if you are going to Krakow. www.DonnaGawell.com  Look under "travel to Europe and Australia."  There is a section on Krakow and a few articles.  Don't miss the milkbars (they are restaurants.)  We did a WWII research trip there in 2018.

We want to do the six hour study tour, and the tour companies out of KRK only offer the three hour tour, or jack up the price to more than double what we can do using our own entry and transport.  We'll take the train to Oświęcim and then take the bus or walk (depending on the weather) to the Museum and start point.

[Markanddonna]

27 minutes ago, ducklite said:

We want to do the six hour study tour, and the tour companies out of KRK only offer the three hour tour, or jack up the price to more than double what we can do using our own entry and transport.  We'll take the train to Oświęcim and then take the bus or walk (depending on the weather) to the Museum and start point.

The train or bus station is easy to use.  Lucky you to be traveling to Krakow, my favorite city in the world (rivals with Sydney!)

[SRF]

On 8/16/2019 at 6:02 AM, DarrenM said:

I keep no receipts for work stuff once I have been paid the expenses. I would have a paper mountain if I kept them.

 

 

Legally, I have to be able to produce them on demand for up to 5 years.  Even though they are scanned for submittal.

 

Rules.  Both work and tax rules.

[ducklite]

37 minutes ago, Markanddonna said:

The train or bus station is easy to use.  Lucky you to be traveling to Krakow, my favorite city in the world (rivals with Sydney!)

As someone who lived in the NYC Metro for over 15 years, I'm very used to navigating local surface transit.

 

I'm excited to be visiting Krakow.  We're starting in Warsaw, and after Krakow going to Vienna, Hollabrunn, and Prague.

[clo]

6 hours ago, ducklite said:

That's what happens when you want to be a traveler rather than a tourist.  🙂

I think what you described above would scare the daylights out of a lot of people. 🙂  

 

I'm in touch via FB with a woman we met on a European river cruise about five years ago.  So, so nice but I don't think she has a brave or adventuresome bone in her body.  She knows we have a daughter in Seattle and sometimes drive up or back via the OR/WA coast.  It's stunning and she wants to do it.  But via an organized tour.  Yeah, technically she can but she'll see practically nothing.  Ah well, OT but I do sometimes ache for these folks.

[ducklite]

39 minutes ago, clo said:

I think what you described above would scare the daylights out of a lot of people. 🙂  

 

 

 

 

Ha!  2021 is three countries including the Ukraine.  No tour except to Chernobyl and Pripyat (planned long before the SKY/HBO series sent all the Insta-idiots there.)   Can't visit the exclusion zone without a licensed tour guide.  We're going to opt for a small group tour--no more than 6-8 plus the guide.  It's more expensive, but that's almost surely a once in a lifetime trip and I want to make the absolute most of it.  

I can't wait to see Kiev, a friend was there two years ago and said it was absolutely gorgeous and the people were very welcoming.

The more we travel independently to off the beaten path areas the more comfortable we are with it.   

 

I really want to go to Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Bosnia.  Serajevo has been on my bucket list for years.  

[DarrenM]

8 hours ago, SRF said:

 

Legally, I have to be able to produce them on demand for up to 5 years.  Even though they are scanned for submittal.

 

Rules.  Both work and tax rules.

Dont you just hate rules. Especially ones that are one way. 

[DarrenM]

2 hours ago, ducklite said:

 

Ha!  2021 is three countries including the Ukraine.  No tour except to Chernobyl and Pripyat (planned long before the SKY/HBO series sent all the Insta-idiots there.)   Can't visit the exclusion zone without a licensed tour guide.  We're going to opt for a small group tour--no more than 6-8 plus the guide.  It's more expensive, but that's almost surely a once in a lifetime trip and I want to make the absolute most of it.  

I can't wait to see Kiev, a friend was there two years ago and said it was absolutely gorgeous and the people were very welcoming.

The more we travel independently to off the beaten path areas the more comfortable we are with it.   

 

I really want to go to Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, and Bosnia.  Serajevo has been on my bucket list for years.  

Why do you want to visit Chernobyl?

 

I am genuinely interested.

[ducklite]

11 hours ago, DarrenM said:

Why do you want to visit Chernobyl?

 

I am genuinely interested.

Perhaps the same reason that people visit the World Trade Center Memorial or the Grenfell Tower Site.  To keep present the cruelties that mankind has committed upon itself lest not we repeat.

[h-sar]

I have made a very conscious effort in my personal and professional life to go as paperless as possible. Here is my system:

 

1.  Upon booking a cruise, usually about a year out, and always for Christmas/New Yrs due to work, I start a new note for the cruise in my notes app on my iPad which automatically saves to my iPhone as well. I will copy/paste the itinerary for the cruise as well as the per night cost into the notes, having factored in all of the perks and shipboard credit.  This will easily allow me to see if a future sale is worth cancelling and re-booking. When flights are booked, the itinerary gets copied to these notes as well. As I do my research and find information on port activities, tours, prices, etc, while researching on cruise critic or other sites, I add those in under the port name. Once final decisions have been made about what we are doing in each port, I will delete any extra information. In the end, the notes only work out to the equivalent of about a one pager per cruise.  During the cruise, I might add in some notes about what we did, prices we paid, for future reference; therefore, I do not delete these notes. 

 

2.  As for having hardcopies of anything, our children convinced us a few years ago that we need to go digital  when it comes to traveling. If I’m not mistaken, I believe the only piece of paper I carried with me for last year‘s cruise (and this includes flight, hotel, car rental, and cruise), was my boarding pass for our Princess cruise. For someone who used to carry a ‘nerd book’ (a duotang with every piece of paper associated with my trip), I have come a long way in the last 10 years!  As there are usually four of us travelling with cell phones, there has never been an issue with somebody’s phone dying or not being able to pull up the required documents. 

 

3.   In my Hotmail, I have a folder for each cruise or land trip where I dump all of the associated emails. I don’t ever delete these folders, keeping them for future reference.  Emails from tour guides, my travel agent, airlines, hotel bookings, Princess, etc. are all in there. This way, I’m not sifting through hundreds of emails looking for something. I simply have to check the few emails that are in each trip folder.  I take screenshots of hotel confirmations, flight bookings, tour confirmations - basically anything that I have to pull up and show someone else. For easier access, I create a new album for these screenshots in my photos for that trip and then delete it upon return.  As we all have iPhones, I will airdrop this album into at least one other family member’s phone in case something happens to mine. 

 

4.  Rarely do I need to keep any receipts for the shopping we have done, because getting back to Fort Lauderdale from Edmonton to return something within the allowed time will not be doable! Receipts for larger items, like flights and cruise, etc. are emailed to me anyway. Should there be any paperwork I received on the cruise that I want to keep, such as the final invoice, or the document you sometimes get at the end of the cruise  detailing information about the ship, how far we went, etc., I will simply take a picture of it and drop it into my notes folder for that cruise and leave the paper behind. 

 

5.   Over the years, I have created for myself a fairly specific cruise packing list and land packing list, both of which I keep in my notes. There is not one single item I will be taking with me that is not on this list. I could literally pack one hour before I have to leave home for a two week trip and not forget a single item because my list is so comprehensive. During my trip, I will add and delete things on the spot on my phone if I felt they were useless or that I could’ve used something I did not bring. After many years of fine tuning it, I think my list is as complete as it needs to be for me personally. 

 

So, at the end of the day, this system allows me to be almost completely paperless, reduce my clutter, and still be able to keep all of the information close at hand for years to come. I have a lot of storage memory on both devices, so that is never an issue.

PS: been in Education  for 30 years, so planning, researching, and making lists turns me on like nothing else, LOL.

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by h-sar

[geoherb]

I print confirmations before a cruise and keep them in a large envelope to take with us. I keep emails indefinitely.  I make a spreadsheet to track expenses.

[crzndeb]

I always get a boarding picture. I started cruising in 1980, so when I logged dates and cruise lines on my IPad, I got the info from pics. Now I just type the cruises in as I book them. A couple of pictures have been misplaced, but I still have most of them.

[ldubs]

On 8/15/2019 at 7:11 PM, navybankerteacher said:

I have an email folder for each upcoming trip - which I dump after the trip is completed. I also have a hard copy “Travel Folder” which holds printouts of cruise confirmations, booked flights, scheduled Amtrak boarding passes, hotel confirmations, car rental confirmations, etc.  As soon as a trip is completed the paper is heaved - otherwise clutter could emerge as a disincentive to further travel.

 

If the trip was good enough to remember, we’ll remember it — if not, we do not want reminders.

 

Same here.  Once the trip is over, everything goes to the circular file.  

[SRF]

On 8/17/2019 at 10:32 PM, ducklite said:

As someone who lived in the NYC Metro for over 15 years, I'm very used to navigating local surface transit.

 

I'm excited to be visiting Krakow.  We're starting in Warsaw, and after Krakow going to Vienna, Hollabrunn, and Prague.

 

The Occupation Museum in Krakow is superb. I was there the week it opened. It is in the Schindler factory.  Yes, THAT Schindler.

 

In Warsaw, the Uprising Museum was very interesting.  And a part of history I did not even know existed (and no, it is not about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising).

 

I hope this is a month plus trip.  Warsaw and Krakow are good for at least a week each.  Vienna for that or longer.  And Prague, a week just gets you started.

[Becoming]

I label any e-mails pertaining to the cruise by the cruise date.  Before the cruise, I will print out any that I'd like a hard copy of for the trip.  

 

I do keep a journal of each trip.  It includes a bit of pre-trip information and then I journal daily during the trip.  

 

After a cruise, all the paperwork gets somewhat organized and put into a gallon sized zip lock bag.  I started using zip lock bags for filing years ago during a move.  I continue to do it as small things don't get lost and I can easily see what's in the bag.

 

I tend to keep my vacation stuff forever.  It's part of the memories!  Then I have it for referral or just reminiscing.

 

Patti 

 

 

[ducklite]

10 hours ago, SRF said:

 

The Occupation Museum in Krakow is superb. I was there the week it opened. It is in the Schindler factory.  Yes, THAT Schindler.

 

In Warsaw, the Uprising Museum was very interesting.  And a part of history I did not even know existed (and no, it is not about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising).

 

I hope this is a month plus trip.  Warsaw and Krakow are good for at least a week each.  Vienna for that or longer.  And Prague, a week just gets you started.

Glad to hear they are both well done as we're planning on visiting both. 

[Warm Breezes]

Before we take any vacation (land or sea) I keep a Excel Spreadsheet that has our Itinerary, Confirmation Numbers, Addresses, Phone Numbers, and Costs with a separate tab with a packing check list.  I keep an e-mail folder with e-mail confirmations for all future planned vacations.  Before we leave I print/email some copies of our itinerary (minus the costs plus emergency phone numbers/e-mails) to give/send to selected members of my family, work, and my Mother's assisted living facility in case of an emergency.  I also print one of for myself with the costs and the packing check list as well as e-mail confirmations/boarding docs/travel insurance/etc which I put in a folder to keep in my carry-on travel bag while we travel.  After our trip is completed, I delete all related e-mails and the excel sheet from my files and update an excel sheet I have with all of our past cruise information date/ship/days/itinerary/room type/excursions/who went with us.  Everything else but our memories, souvenirs, and photos/videos get trashed.  

[clo]

3 hours ago, ducklite said:

Glad to hear they are both well done as we're planning on visiting both. 

I've already emailed that to Bob for future travel.

[marco]

Other than photos, nothing.  We'll keep a couple of daily programs and a menu or two for a couple of weeks  to show freinds and family but then they get tossed, too.  I probably should save some stuff as I do have a couple of tupperware bins up in the attic with lots of cruise adn T/A memorabilia from the 60's and 70's.  But back then you got passenger lists, beautiful daily menus printed on board, "thank you for sailing with us" gifts., invitation to dine with the captain, etc etc.  Lots of stuff you don't experience on cruise ships anymore.