Now I Know I'm Obsessed

[skyhawk]

Just completed booking all my excursions, and my REAS (Palo and Spa), took a best guess on my dinner roatation. I took all this, and other information, and put it into an EXCEL spread sheet with times, locations, color coded, etc. As I'm putting all this together, I'm thinking to myself - "ok Mike, calm down...it's supposed to be a vacation....relax".

Make me feel good please and tell me I'm not the only one so obsessed.

Thanks
Mike

 

[ivanova]

obsessed? no, you're not obsessed, just thorough. Yeah, that's the ticket, we're just thorough in our vacation planning!!

 

[Ker-Bear]

Are you kidding. I love it!!!! If your obsessed I would hate to think what people would say about me. I am not going until 2006 and I have everything put into to a spreadsheet for my "wish list" of things to do and get etc. I hope Disney doesn't change to Eastern itinerary on me but of course that would give me the "rush" of getting to do it all again! The researching and using these boards are the best to meet my very sick need to plan so that I can enjoy and partake in everything!

 

[goingbacksoon]

Excel is awesome, and it works well for making out budgets and a template of your plans. Perhaps the best program MS ever devised. I have most of my stuff there already.

goingbacksoon

 

[ann-e-mator]

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but my family calls me the Disney Nazi... I had everything individually placed on index cards (color coded for each aspect of the trip, or port) and hole punched onto a binder ring. Then as we completed things, we would remove the index cards...I even had the disney maps (because I also did this for WDW) reduced to fit on the index cards...

Then there was the notebook that had tabs highlighting information that I didn't want to forget...

My family thought I was nuts, but in WDW, I group of travellers made me feel much better when they noticed the cards and wanted to know where they could buy them!!!! They were really disappointed when I told them they were made at home and that they weren't for sale...

I could go on and on about how much I "obsess" over this...
BUT make no mistake...I ENJOY every bit of it!!! And my family appreciates the fruits of my labor (even though they may roll their eyes at me!!!)

Knock yourself out!!!

 

[Mickeyhugger]

Obsession? DH and I call it fun!

 

[maryisme]

I have my excel spreadsheet open as I type..lol. Yeah, I am obsessed with this trip and all aspects of planning. DH just nods when I talk to him about it. DD says, "Oh no, not again".

Oh well, at least I have this board.

Mary

 

[TheWog]

I have 3 ring binders with sheet protectors organized by category. DW thinks I'm crazy but then appreciates when things go smooth. You're not crazy. I like the "just thorough in your planning".

 

[Bethipooh4]

I am so happy to ready I am not the only "obsessed" person out there. Sure they all laugh at us now as we plan, but they love us when it all runs smoothly.

As I sit here with a calendar and budget and quotes and high hopes to book our next cruise. I mean really, we have only been home 2 weeks from our last cruise. And boy am I kicking myself for not booking onboard. Must add that to my next list for planning. LOL

 

[Masonpips]

Originally posted by ann-e-mator

My family thought I was nuts, but in WDW, I group of travellers made me feel much better when they noticed the cards and wanted to know where they could buy them!!!! They were really disappointed when I told them they were made at home and that they weren't for sale...

LOL! I had my my PowerPoint slide/table with our dining rotation, Palo times, night-time and daytime activities, etc. I had printed 3, one for each dining rotation and threw two away at the terminal.

In Topsiders for the shrimp-fest we (my dh and our friends) were going through it and a guy next to us saw it. He asked where he could get one and I told him I created it and printed it. His response: "I love you". His wife gave him the oddest look.

LOVE you organizing fools, mean it!

 

[Ker-Bear]

ann-e-mator,

tell us about these index cards in more detail. they sound fabulous!

 

[TartanFan]

Way to go Mike! I've got all our "stuff" done too (and we also have REAS!) but I've gone down the post-it route - just hope I remember to bring all those little yellow thingies with me!

Maybe if I send you all my info you could do me a spreadsheet too!

See you on Aug 14th!

 

[kennancat]

Originally posted by skyhawk
I took all this, and other information, and put it into an EXCEL spread sheet with times, locations, color coded, etc.

I'm only thinking about doing a 7-day cruise, and have already done the same with the online navigators to plan out activities, theme nights, shore excursions, ports, etc for both the Eastern and the Western. Along with what dress I plan to wear each night, of course.

But of course, I'm only doing it to compare the Eastern and the Western to help choose an itinerary. Yeah that's it - I'm comparing

 

[bobsuzla]

Just look at my count down timer and tellme who's more obsessed? I am scouting out dates to book our second cruise while on board for our first. It's not a sickness if it doesn't hurt anyone...

 

[huckster]

I know how you feel my family makes fun of me every day i go over my plans reservations to eat in the park make ps get the excursions ready , pack new cloths in suit cases far in advace so there fresh and new.
they have learned that i really enjoy this and they tell me to relax i say this is relaxing to me they just shake thier heads and laugh.. but they always have a great time when they get there.
and once i am there i relax well except comando mode at the parks . but thats the only way i know!!!

 

[sters]

I didn't think to do Excel (except for the budget), but have a Word document (3 pages already) with tips and itinerary "possibilites." I minimize the file so when I get a good tip on this board, I add it to my list. And the sick thing is, I DON'T EVEN HAVE A CRUISE BOOKED!!! Just dreaming and planning... planning and dreaming. Only need the money to put the plan in motion and we'll be set!

BTW, I have to hide all this from my husband, who is convinced he'll HATE cruising. The more I talk about it, the more likely he is to yank this most worthy planning project from my grasp.

 

[Debbart]

I get so much pleasure from the obsessive planning that I consider it part of the vacation...it's not really a seven night cruise, iwith all the pre-planning t's more like a 70 night cruise

 

[ann-e-mator]

Ker-Bear asked about my index cards, but really it's great for anyone who doesn't know computers very well...

I had several categories... adult on board, child(ren) on board, general info, Nassau, Grand Bahamas, CC (or whatever ports of call you have)... each category was a different color index card... Then we went through every bit of information we could find and wrote down what we wanted to do...

From there, I hole punched the upper left corner of all the cards and put them on a single binder ring... and Voila! I had my itinerary broken down in an easy flip through format. We tore cards out as we completed activities, so it was easy to see what we still wanted to do and served as a great reminder when looking through our Navigator each morning...

Also helpful was a card on top that enumerated step by step what I had to do when we first embarked...that way, we didn't get caught up in all the excitement and forget what had to be done first.

Also worked well for WDW, when we divided it into sections by park....

Hope this helps...

 

[traycie2201]

I'm so happy to have found the rest of the obsesive holiday planning disers, i thought i may be alone, DH and DS tease me all the time and don't join in with my planning, i've used excel, word, passporters , have a file, index cards everything you name it , people say go with the flow and yes i will but there are things i want to make sure i don't miss, as all of us planners know it takes a couple of days of vacation to figure out what is where etc so if i do that before hand i get us extra vacation time, my family get to do things we would never have know about from the research i do, we save money , i.e before disboards i would have blindly booked all excursions through Dcl have now saved $$$$ and booked things on our own more suited to our family needs. And it makes me happy to plan and doesn't hurt anyone, so i say plan away. Happy planning to all.

 

[skyhawk]

Whew! Thanks folks. Maybe we're normal, and it's everyone else that's crazy?!?! :space: