How do you 'document' your cruise?

[Rogillio]

My wife and I are both prolific writers so following every family vacation we've ever taken we have a 'travelogue' of out trip. We intermix both of our perspectives into the document. They are really fun to go back and read.

We also have a folder with all the digital pictures from each of our trips. I think combined we have probably 50,000 digital pictures, much of that from our various vacation adventures.

Neither of us into scrappbooking I know people that do that and it is really cool.

I just read a cruise trip report from 2000 that I'd not read in years. Some thing that I think I will never forget are actually kept alive by our travelogues.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

For me, I'm getting the DCL Album (just shipped!) and plan to make notes in it along with the photos. The first thing I do after a trip is email myself a list of all the attractions I hit. I also try to stay very present. Some trips fly by and it's like 'where'd it go?' You would think this 4 day (1 land 3 sea) would have whisked by, but it didn't! I remember being present for all of it, from sitting on my veranda, to the muster, to all the dinners, the pirate, everything. The photos help to get a time line. I have written in journals before that I still have to document everyone on a previous disney trip, but it was written with no pics and the pics are in a different place. Think I will like the combo better. The photos help keep my actual memories going. Of course, I'm only one week out. Come on album so I can get all my thoughts in!

I have found myself waking up to dreaming about Philharmagic 3 D (which is funny, I like that show but as much as that, or so I thought) anyway the point is Disney is still totally on the brain this week...

Maybe just a few bullets each day for the highlights and then fill it in either on a quiet deck moment (hope you have more than a 3 day planned for that then!) or at least get the substance and you can add the feelings in later. Example:
-Nassau, Ferry to Blue lagoon. Dolphin greeted us when we got off the ferry! First sea lion encounter of the day. Amazing! We laughed a lot. Conch fritters were amazing, come back for that. Snorkeling was a bit dangerous, Dad made his 31 yr olds come in from the water! But we did see some fish. Got a free concert rehearsal on main stage. Bought a cute I Kissed A Sea Lion shirt. Put my mermaid tail on in the water and took a few photos with some kids in the Lagoon. Showered and still had time to sit in a hammock a few minutes! After that was Strawmarket and Tortuga shopping....

Actually excuse me, I'm going to pull up a word document and start actually adding all this on it. I can print it and put it with my photo album. I'm in between orders at work and what a great wait to fill a few minutes before it all leaves my memory...

Maybe you can grab a lap top and type in a few things like above each morning with a cup of coffee?

Happy journalling to you!

 

[Rogillio]

For me, I'm getting the DCL Album (just shipped!) and plan to make notes in it along with the photos. The first thing I do after a trip is email myself a list of all the attractions I hit. I also try to stay very present. Some trips fly by and it's like 'where'd it go?' You would think this 4 day (1 land 3 sea) would have whisked by, but it didn't! I remember being present for all of it, from sitting on my veranda, to the muster, to all the dinners, the pirate, everything. The photos help to get a time line. I have written in journals before that I still have to document everyone on a previous disney trip, but it was written with no pics and the pics are in a different place. Think I will like the combo better. The photos help keep my actual memories going. Of course, I'm only one week out. Come on album so I can get all my thoughts in!

I have found myself waking up to dreaming about Philharmagic 3 D (which is funny, I like that show but as much as that, or so I thought) anyway the point is Disney is still totally on the brain this week...

Maybe just a few bullets each day for the highlights and then fill it in either on a quiet deck moment (hope you have more than a 3 day planned for that then!) or at least get the substance and you can add the feelings in later. Example:
-Nassau, Ferry to Blue lagoon. Dolphin greeted us when we got off the ferry! First sea lion encounter of the day. Amazing! We laughed a lot. Conch fritters were amazing, come back for that. Snorkeling was a bit dangerous, Dad made his 31 yr olds come in from the water! But we did see some fish. Got a free concert rehearsal on main stage. Bought a cute I Kissed A Sea Lion shirt. Put my mermaid tail on in the water and took a few photos with some kids in the Lagoon. Showered and still had time to sit in a hammock a few minutes! After that was Strawmarket and Tortuga shopping....

Actually excuse me, I'm going to pull up a word document and start actually adding all this on it. I can print it and put it with my photo album. I'm in between orders at work and what a great wait to fill a few minutes before it all leaves my memory...

Maybe you can grab a lap top and type in a few things like above each morning with a cup of coffee?

Happy journalling to you!

My wife keep notes during the trip with names and dates and trivia we learn from the places with visit, the exchange rate, how much we paid for that ridiculous cab fare, etc. She spinkles in some of these into our trip reports.

My hope is, when the kids are old and grown and have kids of their own, they will read this reports and be flooded with memories.....like I am when I read them.

 

[Justacruiser]

take pictures of everything. You can develop them or look at them right waw on the computer recount your activities.

 

[Toddymae]

I do an iBook off the Mac. There a lot of programs like this out there.

I don't do every cruise (done 36 cruises) just the ones that the family thinks are special, Alaska, Panama Transit, Fantasy Inaugural, and each one of the grandkids first cruise, etc. I take the best pictures and write the stories right there - that way we have the picture and what we did and who we did it too.

 

[ludari]

Pictures and the daily navigator. With the navigator I know what happened each day and I match my pictures to those events. I also take note of my port adventures. When I was on the maiden voyage for the Disney Fantasy they gave us all sorts of goodies including copies of the menus for each day.

 

[jrabbit]

I get chided for taking so many pictures, but heaven forbid if I miss "the one!" We keep our digital pictures on the computer by trip and we always print out -- way to many -- to put into a physical album. You should see our book shelves!!

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

This sounds right.

 

[flateacher]

I scrapbook every cruise with the photos, Navigators and other things we keep. I even scrapbook some of the parks visits if they are for a special occasion. (I can't do all visits - we live less than 50 min away!)

I then take all the photos and video clips and make a DVD along with a sound track laden with Disney music!

My family LOVES the DVD's I make of our vacations. When it is finished we have movie night!

 

[Beermam42]

Shot about 4 hours on 6 day Magic cruise. Edit it to little. Over 2hrs. Pictures are outstanding on 70" home TV. Daughter had 10meg still and HD water proof camera that shot HD video. I could shot stills with video camera but really needed good light to come out right.

 

[bfamily5]

We are anxiously awaiting our first cruise, but I am the planner and keeper of all things (i.e mom) I am also an early riser, so every morning I would get up and write down our previous day with the amount of hours we had been to the parks and a synopsis of our day...what everyone had for lunch, supper, funny things that we may have seen or done or said, favorite rides, etc. It's without proper grammar and punctuation ...sort of like "on the fly". I had a little dollar store journal that was replaced with a very nice leather bound Disney journal. I love re-reading those trips!!

 

[PizzieDuster]

Old school. Spiral notebook and post its. One drawer designated for everything and of course pics.

On our last cruise, for a FE gift I got a travel journal! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! I used it and still use it for all our silly over nights. It's a nice
5x7 journal about half an inch thick.

 

[PizzieDuster]

I scrapbook every cruise with the photos, Navigators and other things we keep. I even scrapbook some of the parks visits if they are for a special occasion. (I can't do all visits - we live less than 50 min away!)

I then take all the photos and video clips and make a DVD along with a sound track laden with Disney music!

My family LOVES the DVD's I make of our vacations. When it is finished we have movie night!

You should start a business...I'd send you all my stuff and pay you to have a DVD with the Disney soundtrack..

 

[dfriia]

My wife and I are both prolific writers so following every family vacation we've ever taken we have a 'travelogue' of out trip. We intermix both of our perspectives into the document. They are really fun to go back and read.

We also have a folder with all the digital pictures from each of our trips. I think combined we have probably 50,000 digital pictures, much of that from our various vacation adventures.

Neither of us into scrappbooking I know people that do that and it is really cool.

I just read a cruise trip report from 2000 that I'd not read in years. Some thing that I think I will never forget are actually kept alive by our travelogues.

You should try a blog or online journal. I use Blogger, but there are other options out there that are especially tailored for travel.
http://antarcticaonleboreal2012.blogspot.com/
http://roadtripswithbob.blogspot.com/2012/05/boarding-disney-wonder-april-29-2012.html
http://www.fuzzytravel.com/
http://www.mytripjournal.com/
http://www.travelpod.com/

 

[Rogillio]

I then take all the photos and video clips and make a DVD along with a sound track laden with Disney music!

My family LOVES the DVD's I make of our vacations. When it is finished we have movie night!

This sounds way cool! I would love to try this. Do you have any special s/w you can reccomend for making/editing the video? Do you include still photos and mp3?

 

[texasgirl29]

I write things down in a journal, and after we return home, I collect digital photos from everyone -- myself, daughter, husband, mother-in-law. I organize them by day on my hard drive and upload to a photo service (winkflash, shutterfly, etc.) I create pages in Photoshop 12 x 12 size (standard scrapbooking page) -- of our journey there (often a road trip), the ship, our servers, the food, the excursions, coming home, etc. Then I upload the pages and/or photos to an online photo book service. Winkflash has sales several times a year up to 100 pages for a set price. I think shutterfly's quality is better but you can't bet the Winkflash price. I make two books -- one for us and one for my inlaws. My inlaws really enjoy getting the "coffee table" book to read and show to their friends.

You don't have to know Photoshop or any other fancy programs -- just upload the photos to the canned layouts in the program, add a caption. I like to use just one big photo on the left side and a selection of photos on the right -- one spread to a topic.

 

[texasgirl29]

One more thing -- I do a photo-heavy trip report. I have done a couple at cruisecritic.com but not on disboards because I didn't have even posts last summer.

 

[mrp4352]

I take notes throughout the trip (I used to by hand, but now I use my iPad). When I get home, I cut and paste into a word document and flesh it out. After I clean up my pictures and scan in memoribilia, I drop those in to the word document so I have one "master" memory source. For my Alaska trip last year, I decided to do a digital scrapbook with some details, but not to the level of my "master" document to supplement.

 

[mkmommy]

I did a travel blog for the first couple and then I got a coupon for a free shutterfly book. They are so much fun to do and they turn out so well.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Yay! I started on my Trip journal about Tues or so and finished it last night. It's over 20 fully typed 12 size font, no double spacing pages long!

It makes me realize how much an impression everything made on me, I tried to be 'present' and mentally at each moment, and even though I typed up my log 10-12 days after the trip, I remember details to fit 21 full typed pages.

And also a testiment to how much Disney has to offer for vacations!