Cruising Journals

[Flossie]

Sillylizzie-- I recieved the book this past week. Thanks for the info it is really nice. I like the color and the simple design. Thanks again for sharing the information so we could all have one, maybe this time I will be better about keeping a journal.

[sillylizzie]

Glad to hear you like it! :D

[JanetMarie]

One of the things that I have for travel purposes is a "list." And on that list is my travel journal. I guess what I want to say is that if you get in the habit of always taking it with you, you may be more apt to actually write in it! Merry Christmas!:)

[cruisinbuddy]

LittleBit:

 

The other thing that I do is, I take 7 ziploc baggies for each day of the cruise. Since I scrapbook, I mark the bags, and that way, my items are ready to go when I scrap. ;) :) ;)

 

Excellent idea. I think I'll do the same, thanks.

[loves2Travel68]

I take a small notebook - the 4x6 style. It is easy to stash into anything you are carrying with you. Any time I had downtime, I was busy writing in that book. There were so many things I'm happy I wrote down just after they happened, because a couple of days later, I would've forgotten.

[JanetMarie]

Kari, nice idea, the small notebook. Because our vacations mean so much to us, I really like to journal and write everything down. It's nice to go back and read those entries and sit there and say, "Yes! That was fun!"

[gailc]

Glad I found this topic. I, too, keep a journal of each cruise we go on. I would never remember everything if I didn't. We do read them again & enjoy reading them. It's also a good reference for future cruises or if someone asks a question. I use a 7.75" x 5" book with 80 pages. It's not a fancy one, but it's easy to pack. Over the years, I've added more information in it. I also write what we ate, the weather, time we got up & went to bed, & anything else that went on each day. At the back of the journal, I put down how much money we took. When we get home, I put down how much we spent. It helps for the next time we go. I also put down our casino money for each of us & whether we won or lost & how much. I also have other categories at the back. It's amazing how much more information I've added over the years.

 

Whenever we go back to our cabin & I have time, I will write in my journal.

 

I just finished getting mine ready for our next cruise. I also take a small notebook for my purse which has the phone #'s I need from home. I will write in it on the plane & transfer it into my journal.

 

Nice to know so many others also keep a journal.

 

Gail

[JanetMarie]

I was in Barnes n' Noble the other day. Ladies, check out the journal area. They have an abundance of nice journals, and they have a lot that are tailored for the cruise industry!

[pampaul]

I'm also taking a journal with me on our cruise (we leave tomorrow) :D

 

It's actually just a notebook. But I plan on writing down each day's activity once we get back to our room.

 

I plan on including things I've heard mentioned before....times we get up/go to bed, what we ate, who we met, weather, what we did, where we went, etc.

 

I am also a scrapbooker....so I will be collecting as many things as I can to add into my scrapbook. I will then collect each page in my notebook and write it all up on my computer and print it out and make that my last page in my scrapbook.

[sanditoes4]

We went on our first cruise about a year ago, and yes I did one for our cruise!!! I also "made" my kids do one too....they did it at dinner while we waited!!! I did have to force this I also did it the year before our cruise when we went on our first reall big family vacation, my kids were older when we decided to start traveling one was 8 and the other 11, I wished I had heard the idea for postcards back then....but now the kids will dig their journals out and re-read them and laugh at how they wrote or "said" something in a weird way.....they are both now doing more journaling on their own and someday they will be very glad I "made" them do it!!!

 

We can never remember everything we will do in our lifetime and journaling is one way to keep things alive and well!! Make sure to include things like how something smells or tasted or a faint sound in the backround!!! These are the things that add depth to your passages!!

 

Good luck to all in your journals, keep writing and have great cruises!!!

[JanetMarie]

Besides journaling, does anyone decorate their cabin door?

 

I make this huge poster with all sorts of trinkets on it and then I have a "sign up sheet" with lines on it for people passing by our cabin door to sign and put where they are from. It's really interesting to see what folks have to write on our door! :D

[DaisyGirl55]

I will be going on my 9th and 10th cruise this year, and I think I will be joing the ranks of the journal group. I wish I had journaled before now, but I have always kept lots of notes, and I have lots of entries in my scrapbooks. I just recently finished a journal for my kids where you answer specific questions, and after reading these posts, I am anxious to journal my cruises.

 

Great idea, and great tips....

[bethee]

I have a daytimers wallet that I keep a running journal in. That way I can look back on my travels and day by day things. I have been keeping them for about twenty years. It's fun to look back on the different things I have done.

[MNJewels]

I have a daytimers wallet that I keep a running journal in. That way I can look back on my travels and day by day things. I have been keeping them for about twenty years. It's fun to look back on the different things I have done.

 

This isn't related to cruise journals, just journals in general. After my 85 year old Grandma passed, we found her journals. None of her children knew she kept a journal.

 

They were just little spiral bound notebooks from her adult life. Most of the days' posting were just a line or two. My grandparents were farmers. Most of her postings were about her family and the farm. Reading them brought my mom and her siblings such joy and further insight into their mom. I too enjoyed reading them, especially the postings about the day my mom was born. Major tear-jerker!

[linda_22003]

I just took a small spiral notebook which fit easily in my pants pocket or in the very small purse I took along on our Baltics cruise last year. I could make notes on the shore excursions as things were happening, or sit on our balcony on the ship and really write a diary entry. It worked so well that I'm taking another one along with me when we go to Paris in a few weeks.

[collectingcoke]

I love the idea of bags for each day. I am a packrat when it comes to the cruise memorabilia that I collect for my scrapbooks. I always keep a journal day by day but then lump all my goodies into one big envelope. It would be so much easier to sort and scrap by doing it day by day! Thanks for the tip.

[Travelight]

I write a letter to myself on the ships stationary everyday describing my daily events...what I saw, ate, did, who I met etc. I have a stack of unopened letters from 12 cruises. I plan to open them in order when I'm too old to travel and re-live my past adventures.

 

 

Do all staterooms have special ships stationary? This is a great idea! thanks!:)

[lotro]

Do all staterooms have special ships stationary? This is a great idea! thanks!:)

 

If they have it, you can usually find it in the organizer in your room that contains the room service menus and general info about the ship, etc. It's usually a rather large binder found on the desk in the cabin. If you open the binder, the stationary, envelopes and pen will usually be in a pocket in this binder. If not, ask your cabin steward.

 

Another place you can check for a journal before you leave home if the Dollar Tree. They aren't anything fancy, but they are cheap...$1. I have been buying mine there for several years now. On the plane en route to the cruise, I detail the costs...cruise & where booked, air fare, pre-hotel, etc. It's amazing how fast you'll forget this stuff! I then document each day of the cruise and what islands we visited...what we did and what the cost of the excursions were. Make a PRO & CON listing for the particular cruise we were on...after 10 cruises they all start to run together!

 

Some days we're so busy, I don't get a chance to write everything I want in the journal, so I skip 5 or 6 pages and then can fill in the blanks later. While I was sitting on the upper deck pool area documenting my cruise, the Head of Houskeeping came up and began talking to me about what I was writing about...I think he thought I was a critic or something. We ended up talking over an hour and had a very enjoyable conversation...all due to my little travel journal!

[DeepWaterMariner]

I've been keeping a cruise journal for years. It started out on scraps of stationary but progressed to a leather covered journal which accepts new inserts when I finish up the original. It's made by Exacompta, a French company, and is marketed in the states by Exaclair. They have a web site and have covers that fit about any topic you can think of.

[playingfetch]

Do cruiselines sell journals? I am thinking about keeping one on my upcoming cruise.

[JanetMarie]

Yes, I have seen journals on some ships, however, if you have access to a Barnes and Noble, they are the best place to find journals. There are literally tons to choose from! I found a great leather one there with an antiquated (sp) picture of a ship on the front!:)

[AmberMarie]

I'm thinking about bringing an Iris case for all the Capers and small souvineers. And this year I'm definitely going to write in a journal.. I scrapbook and I would have loved to have my written words to scrap when I did my last cruise album... but I wasn't an avid scrapper at the time! :)

[cctn]

I have been trying to keep journals, start and don't finish - I bought several of the journals from the Logo shop of RCCL ships - I have all 20 photo albums of my cruises and want to redo them all - they are the regular photo albums with 4 x 6 size pictures and have not included any of the 5 x 7 or 8 x 10's that I buy separately from the photo gallery of the pics taken by the pro's of the ship -- so I want to redo each cruise so I can include all the different size pics I have of each cruise... and since 2002, I have been ordering 5 x 7 sizes of all my pics. They have albums that accommodate 5 x 7's but limited to 200 per album and I take about 500 shots and again, have the stray 8 x 10's and other pages that I save from each cruise. Lately, I have been glueing with photo glue each pic on a separate heavy matt paper then putting them in avery plastic protector sheets that are acid free/archival safe -- then buying photo binders to put the pages in - making each album more uniform and able to put all my different size photos in one album in stead of the pocket 4 x 6 or pocket 5 x 7 albums that are strictly limited to those sizes... ok, it's more or less like scrapbooking ... but I do each page from scratch instead of an attached page in a binder. It's a lot of work, taking each pic, glueing it, slipping it in plastic sheet but at least all my large photos are in the same photo binder. Most of the albums these days are so cute but limited to 200 photos per binder and I can't keep within that limit for my cruises -- then on my 4 day sailings, I take 100 or 150 - so I can't fill the album!! and I definitely want to do ONE album PER trip. Carol

[cctn]

I'm thinking about bringing an Iris case for all the Capers and small souvineers. And this year I'm definitely going to write in a journal.. I scrapbook and I would have loved to have my written words to scrap when I did my last cruise album... but I wasn't an avid scrapper at the time! :)

 

 

AmberMarie: You have the cutest pics!! your scrapbook is nice - I do not scrapbook like that - I just merely put 2 or 3 pics (cuz of the sizes I have) per page, label and that's it - I will add stickers if I have the appropo one - I used to scrapbook when I was younger and it wasn't popular as it is today ( I am 57 ) but these days, I want to make it compact and easy and simple for myself. AS I want to do with the rest of my pics that I have accummulated all these years - and believe me, I have lots and lots! since we have a lot of parties, clubs we belong to, get togethers, etc.

 

It's my #1 proj right now, my photos -- Carol

[AmberMarie]

I scrap for therapy, the fact that I'm preserving memories is just an added bonus. :) I keep an online photo album for simply sharing photos with friends. I also have a photoprinter for printing out photos I want to frame or give to friends/family. I do all of this on my flickr account (my new favorite thing). I will probably take hundreds of photos of my next cruise, so I bought a cheap photo album to simply put the pictures in, and then I will scrap them little by little. That cruise scrapbook I did was quite exhausting!