keeping track of cruises...unique ideas?

[rfsdvm]

creating some bucket lists to look forward to in retirement (still a few years away) and

one on our list is to go on each of Royal Caribbean's ships at least once. (can add other

cruise lines once we've done all RCL's )  

looking for ideas on fun way to track and/or display our progress (sort of like the map

of all National Parks that you can check off as you visit...and yes that's another thing

on our list :-).

Thanks for any ideas.

[Essiesmom]

I believe there are clear pages for filing business cards, and I have seen them used for cruise cards (Sea pass).  Does sailing all of Royals ships include sailing on former ships now retired to other cruise lines?  I believe there are several floating around in Europe…. EM

[rfsdvm]

unfortunately we haven't saved our sea pass cards (have done 7 RCLs so far).  Just planning on ships currently under RCL brand.

 

[CDNPolar]

We just use Apple iPhone Notes and have a shared Note between us where we list the following:

 

 

Then I have a separate Shared Note that I track every continent, country, and city visited, but this is not by cruise itinerary.

 

These are always my goto for remembering what and when...

[leaveitallbehind]

10 minutes ago, rfsdvm said:

unfortunately we haven't saved our sea pass cards (have done 7 RCLs so far).  Just planning on ships currently under RCL brand.

 

With the exception to date of Icon, over the years we have done exactly what you are planning to do and have been on at least one ship in each ship class in the RCCL fleet (and Celebrity, minus Edge class) and many several times. To date that is 17 different RCCL ships.

 

At one time they used to sell coffee mugs in the gift shop identifying each ship, of which we have 16 (plus 2 Celebrity) but have not seen them in recent years and are missing Anthem as a result.  We also have kept our SeaPass cards from each cruise, but over the past 32 years and 50+ cruises some are missing. 

 

@Essiesmom's suggestion of the clear plastic business card holders is a good one and I will likely now add a project to my list to catalogue the many cards that are primarily sitting in rubber band wrapped packs in a drawer!

 

Enjoy your years ahead of cruising!

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, leaveitallbehind said:

…

 

At one time they used to sell coffee mugs in the gift shop identifying each ship, of which we have 16 (plus 2 Celebrity) but have not seen them in recent years and are missing Anthem as a result. …

A few years ago HAL regularly gave out dark blue ceramic coffee mugs with white initials identifying the ship as trivia contest prizes - we have a good collection Z- Zuiderdam, P-Prinsendam,

M-Maasdam, N-Noordam, W-Westerdam, O-Oosterdam, R-Ryndam, V-Veendam - several duplicates, so we have close to two dozen.

 

Just one of the many nicieties (like the fresh OJ at breakfast, live music in the MDR at dinner, the ceramic Delft tiles left in your stateroom at check-in, etc. etc.)  which HAL abandoned as they joined the mass market.

[leaveitallbehind]

32 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Just one of the many nicieties (like the fresh OJ at breakfast, live music in the MDR at dinner, the ceramic Delft tiles left in your stateroom at check-in, etc. etc.)  which HAL abandoned as they joined the mass market.

Yep.  Lots of changes even amongst the mass market lines they've joined.  The ever evolving cruise industry....Gone are the good ole' days.

Edited April 20 by leaveitallbehind

[MacMadame]

How about getting a shadow box and putting *something* for each cruise in it? You probably have something you saved as a souvenir for most, if not all, of them. For the missing ones, maybe print out something from the website (the desk plan or a picture of the ship or your favorite venue) for those ships and add them as a background picture in the box.

[sprint180]

I have a little scrapbook that I put pic and info of each cruise in with pages designated for ones I haven't done.

[Flatbush Flyer]

These fold out 3D globes come in varying sizes. Bought ours in a eclectic shop in Miami.

[Honolulu Blue]

21 hours ago, rfsdvm said:

creating some bucket lists to look forward to in retirement (still a few years away) and

one on our list is to go on each of Royal Caribbean's ships at least once. (can add other

cruise lines once we've done all RCL's )  

looking for ideas on fun way to track and/or display our progress (sort of like the map

of all National Parks that you can check off as you visit...and yes that's another thing

on our list :-).

Thanks for any ideas.

Some personal notes that may be useful to you or others:

 

• I keep track of almost all my e-mails related to all my cruises
• I've kept almost all the papers related to all my cruises - even the ads (mostly).  I keep all of them in an individual envelope.
• I've kept all my key cards and medallions
• I found a neat binder that holds my key cards and has room for plenty more.  The medallions are an awkward fit here, so they're separate.  
• I've kept all the prizes I've won on my various cruises
• Going on all the ships of a cruise line doesn't interest me personally, but it does sound like fun.  I have done 13 different Carnival ships.
• And I take lots and lots and lots of photos on my cruises.  Let's close this with a photo from one of my most recent cruises, because why not? 🙂

 

[rfsdvm]

thanks to all for the ideas....think we may end up just creating

a shared google doc and fancy it up with some pics...definitely

have lots of those.

[Canuker]

By no means unique, but one of the ways to keep track of your cruises is the "Signature" feature in your Profile account for this Cruise Critic website.

For brevity, I have my signature closed (i.e. it does not appear at the foot of my posts).

If I toggled it to open, it would like like this:

Enchanted Princess: Fort Lauderdale - S. Caribbean - New York, 24.08...Celebrity Silhouette: Miami - W. Europe - Southampton, 23.04... Queen Elizabeth: Vancouver - Alaska - Vancouver,  22.07...Independence of the Seas: Fort Lauderdale - E. Caribbean - Southampton, 19.05…Celebrity Reflection: Fort Lauderdale - NOLA & W. Caribbean - Fort Lauderdale, 19.03...Queen Mary 2: Southampton - New York, 18.07...Queen Mary 2: New York - Southampton, 18.07...P&O Aurora: Southampton - Baltic - Southampton, 17.05...Norwegian Jade: Tampa - Cork, 17.04...Queen Mary 2: Southampton - New York, 16.08...Queen Mary 2: New York - Southampton, 16.07...Queen Mary 2: Southampton - New York, 15.08...Queen Mary 2: New York - Southampton, 15.08...Norwegian Pearl: Miami - E. Carib - Miami 15.03...Queen Victoria: Ft. Lauderdale - Southampton, 14.04...Queen Mary 2: Southampton - New York, 13.08...Queen Mary 2: New York - Southampton, 13.07...Rotterdam VI: Ft Lauderdale - Rotterdam, 12.04...Crown Princess: New York - Quebec, 11.09...Serenade of the Seas: San Juan - E. Caribbean - San Juan, 11.05...Ocean Princess: Dover - Greenland - New York, 10.06...Splendour of the Seas: Lisbon - Sao Paulo, 09.12...Emerald Princess: Ft Lauderdale - S. Caribbean - FL, 08.11...Celebrity Galaxy: Miami - Rome, 08.05...Carnival Spirit: San Diego - Hawaii, 07.06...Legend of the Seas: Tampa - Southampton, 06.05...Carnival Holiday: Mobile - W. Carib - Mobile, 05.04...QE2: Southampton - New York, 02.05...M.S. Odessa: New York - Montreal, 76.06

 

So many wonderful memories are elicited from this list.

 

Best,

Canuker.

[donaldsc]

Very simple.  I take lots of pictures.  I have my pictures organized by year; then cruise; then cruise date.

 

DON

[wcook]

Simple… tattoos. 
 

Side note: I happened to be reading an article early today from a nation park completist visiting the one in American Samoa. Sounds spectacular, but a huge PITA to visit. Hope you make it someday. I wonder if any cruises go there. 

[clo]

5 hours ago, donaldsc said:

Very simple.  I take lots of pictures.  I have my pictures organized by year; then cruise; then cruise date.

 

DON

Is all your 'leisure travel' on cruises? If not, do you have a separate system for keeping track?

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, clo said:

Is all your 'leisure travel' on cruises? If not, do you have a separate system for keeping track?

 

No but the name of the file folder makes things obvious.  File folder

 

"1998"; Sub folder "Grand Canyon"; sub sub folder "Day 2_Phantom Ranch"

 

defines exactly where and when the photos were taken.  These photos are obviously different from the contents of the file folder

 

"2024"; subfolder "Norway"; sub sub folder "Feb 23_Trondheim" folder.  

 

The advantage of this system is that I can tell you exactly what cruises I did in 1995 and I can also easily find photos from that cruise.

 

Each subfolder can also contain cruise notes, PDF copies of brochures and anything else of importance.  What I like about this system is that it is very easy to maintain.

 

DON

Edited April 24 by donaldsc

[MacMadame]

22 hours ago, wcook said:

Simple… tattoos. 

Tattoos are never simple! 🤣

[boyd_san_diego]

Download the smartphone TripIt app, or the same website (that I can't quote due to CC rules)! It's designed for upcoming and current excursions to keep track of every step of the journey, including flights, lodging, cruise ports, excursions, hotels, and anything else you can cream up. Send all journey email invoices to plans@{that website) and it will automatically build your itinerary (in most cases unless the email is ambiguous).  I used it last year on our Viking River cruise, and I'm building it for next month's Viking Ocean cruise.

[MBP&O2/O]

I am trying to transfer all my own logs from my time at sea. It is a nightmare🙂

I am using Excel, with separate sheets for

Ship and Crew details. Trip dates with sea time.

Port to Port details with distances.

Total count of all ports and how many times each has been visited.

Total distance travelled.

 

So far I am up to 200 + visited ports, over 100 different ones, with Aden as the most visited surprisingly?  I am finding ports i never remembered visiting😄

Longest trip 322 days. Plenty more to go at ...