What is in your Disney Binder?

[smidgen21]

I printed out a ton of stuff from TGM last night to take with us. I'm going to print a copy of our hotel ressies and make a copy of our park hopper passes in case they get lost. But what else do you have in your binder? I've read so much over the past 6 months. I want to take it all with me so I can reread it in the car driving down (22 hr drive). TIA.

 

[saratogadreamin09]

Everything you have is perfect.

I also like to pack disney fun facts (like hidden mickey's and other characters) so we know what kind of fun things to look for in the parks, the weather for when we're going to be there, and maps of the parks and our resort. Also, itsa good idea to have a road map of disney if your going to have a car and traveling places within disney.

 

[stacy347]

I usually put in a page of our ADR conf. #s, a few trip journals printed out from mouseforless (they have really cute ones and it helps me remember the little things), a touring plan for each day and a page of tips for stuff that you wouldn't normally think to do while running around the parks (mostly gathered from the little known secrets threads all over these boards ).

 

[saratogadreamin09]

The trip journals are a good idea too.

 

[smidgen21]

thank you for your ideas! I printed the journal pages. Then I went to Google maps and printed driving directions from our hotel to each park. Then I printed directions from our hotel to different restaurants we might want to eat at, plus the outlet malls and super target. We have a TomTom, but it's nice to see just how close different places are before heading out. I printed out the Best kept secrets page from the DIS. I've printed over a 100 pages in the last 24 hours. I have a very small 3 hole punch (punches 5 pages at a time) so I'll be taking my binder and print outs to work tomorrow so I can use the large electric punch

I'm sure I'll add lots more over the next 2 weeks.

 

[scrapbookmommy]

I printed out a ton of stuff from TGM last night to take with us.

What is TGM? TIA

 

[cathy0124]

tour guide mike

 

[DznyDreamz]

I always have the EMH's for the week we are there, the regular park hours, the parade times, our ADR lists. I also have a list of the different pin trading board times for each of the resorts and shops so we can just hop on a bus to a resort of our choice and do a little pin trading a resort hopping at the same time.

What else....well, our basic plans of where we go each day.

I don't print out menus personally since they change so much, I always have my laptop and have a blackberry so if we are on the fence about somewhere we just look it up and decide.

 

[smidgen21]

oh no, DH just saw the binder with all the pages just waiting to be 3 hole punched and said "what's that"? Now he knows I'm obsessed. okay he knew that before hand, but he told me I need a 12 step program. I told him I needed some light reading on the road. Then he reminded me the 1st half of that trip would be mostly in the dark. So I added a book light to my shopping list.

 

[Khazid]

Here is how my vacation binder gets broken up. My DW and I take a one week trip every year, so this is the standard layout/format I use when the planning begins (around 9-10 months prior to departure).

Binder -- 1/2" 3 ring binder. - I use this as it is easy to put into my carry on.

To Do List - I break this up in the following blocks and plan what needs to be done prior to departure: 180 days out, 90 days out, 30 days out, 14 days out, 7 days out.

Budget Plan - Just a simple planner sheet with what I've budgeted to spend on various categories during the trip. There are two more columns on the sheet that allow each category to record what is spent, and how much is left in the budget. I log reciepts each night just to keep us on budget.

ADR Page - If making reservations for local restaurants, WDW/DL ADR's etc. This becomes a one page stop for my daily itinerary.

Packing Lists - Packing light is critical in today's travels with airlines starting to charge for checked baggage. I start with a big list and work it down so that we travel with everything we want, but not so much it takes six pieces of checked luggage to carry it all.

Itinerary - Daily log of what's on the master plan. Touring plans, spa reservations, etc. all go here with times listed as appropriate. The binder contains the 8.5X11 master plan. Right before departure date I print these out on 3.5X5 smaller sheets that can be taken individually for each day during the trip.

Important Documents - I have a zipper pouch that keeps small items like theme park tickets, passports, etc. Behind that goes the original copies of all travel documents. As a backup, copies of all these documents (including first page of passport) is kept in a manilla envelope that goes in my DW's carry on. That way, if the binder is misplaced, we have a way to get things replaced if necessary. (luckily it has never happened)

Sounds like a lot, but once you start planning like this it is amazing how systemic it becomes. A standard seven day trip takes up about 10 sheets of paper, not including the travel documents.

Enjoy!

 

[Hootch]

of those things on our last trip. I also included CS menus with ratings so we could have a good idea of where we might eat on the go, Steve Soares ( http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/ ) entertainment list so we can get an idea of when and where things will be that week, the latest closures list and the list of attractions open for extra magic hours. Prior to the last trip my wife was distracted and the trip down was her chance to catch up.

For Spring Break we're taking a road trip through Texas. I'll print out the park hours and recommended parks for that trip. Our 90+10 date is the following week. We'll probably have some agreement on dates for particular restaurants by the end of the trip.

 

[annaj]

We usually visit a grocery store (or Walmart) at some point during our trip, so I try to add coupons for what I think we might purchase.

Shampoo, water, sunscreen, cold medications, cookies, granola bars, cereal, hand sanitizer to name a few.

This year we are staying off property with a full kitchen so my coupons will include lots more food products and laundry detergent.

I keep the coupons in a plastic 3ring zippered page.

BTW.... We use our travel binder for EVERY trip we make, not just WDW trips. Keeping everything organized makes our trips easy.

I have ours separted into:
maps, phone numbers (hotel, parks etc..), schedule(includes reservation numbers), shopping, coupons, and emergency contact info.

 

[smidgen21]

We usually visit a grocery store (or Walmart) at some point during our trip, so I try to add coupons for what I think we might purchase.

Shampoo, water, sunscreen, cold medications, cookies, granola bars, cereal, hand sanitizer to name a few.

This year we are staying off property with a full kitchen so my coupons will include lots more food products and laundry detergent.

I keep the coupons in a plastic 3ring zippered page.

BTW.... We use our travel binder for EVERY trip we make, not just WDW trips. Keeping everything organized makes our trips easy.

I have ours separted into:
maps, phone numbers (hotel, parks etc..), schedule(includes reservation numbers), shopping, coupons, and emergency contact info.

10 years ago I worked for a professor while I was a student. She traveled 1-2 times a week for various research projects, speaking engagements. She would always bring home a messy pile of receipts and expect me to compelte her travel reimbursement forms. The administrative assistant who arranged all her travel was gone on vacation and I arranged her flights, hotels etc. So I took a 1/2" notebook, made tab dividers for flight info, hotel info, itinerary etc with 2 zippered pockets (1 for airline tickets etc) and 1 for all her receipts (cab fares, parking garage etc). She was floored! When the admin assistant returned the prof showed her what I had done and she insisted she would never travel without a notebook again!

 

[noahdove]

I put a reminder by park of the pictures that I don't want to forget. Plus, my ressies are day by day and all the info is on a 3x5 cards. This way, I only need to take the 3x5 card with me to the park...My binder has pockets so I will put the little "co-pilot" card in there or anyother little thing that the kids get and we don't want to lose..good luck and have a great and magical trip

 

[DisneyBarlans]

In my binder I have the menus for all the restaurants we'll be eating at, EMH schedule, touring plans, park maps, spreadsheet with ADR's, park hours, parade times, etc.

 

[jeslegit]

These all sound great! Would love to see some photos

 

[lucas43068]

these are all great, i think im gonna make a binder now, any one have any pdf's or scans of any useful info they would be willing to send me? i honestly would have a clue where to start since im the MOST unorganized person in the world!

 

[schwoomp]

Mine is similar to Khazid's. It has the following tabs:

Broad itinerary- this is a one page spreadsheet that shows flight times, ADR times, which park we're going to for the day, what transportation (bus/boat) we plan to use, etc.

Touring plans- printed maps created on Touringplans.com. I also added the photopass photographer locations to these maps using disneyphotopass.com.

Confirmations- ADR confirmation numbers, resort confirmation, flight eTickets. I also have a clear pouch with the ME voucher book and travel documents.

Budget Tracking- Spreadsheet that shows our budget for food, souvenirs, tips, etc. Then I have a more detailed spreadsheet to track how we are doing on the food budget since we are not doing the dining plan. (I am a hard core budgeter in real life, so this is no "burden" for me.)

Miscellaneous- in here, I have a listing of ride height requirements, airport maps, etc.

 

[smidgen21]

Mine is similar to Khazid's. It has the following tabs:

Broad itinerary- this is a one page spreadsheet that shows flight times, ADR times, which park we're going to for the day, what transportation (bus/boat) we plan to use, etc.

Touring plans- printed maps created on Touringplans.com. I also added the photopass photographer locations to these maps using disneyphotopass.com.

Confirmations- ADR confirmation numbers, resort confirmation, flight eTickets. I also have a clear pouch with the ME voucher book and travel documents.

Budget Tracking- Spreadsheet that shows our budget for food, souvenirs, tips, etc. Then I have a more detailed spreadsheet to track how we are doing on the food budget since we are not doing the dining plan. (I am a hard core budgeter in real life, so this is no "burden" for me.)

Miscellaneous- in here, I have a listing of ride height requirements, airport maps, etc.

I like your tabs. I didved mine by park plus a misc section for confirmation numbers, maps to various locations near our hotel (restaurants, Super Target). I printed maps of each park, but I like the photopass map idea.

BTW I'm a fellow Michigander. We take the kids to several specialists in GR(DeVos Children's Hospital). My sister lives in Sparta. We live near Clare.

 

[smidgen21]

these are all great, i think im gonna make a binder now, any one have any pdf's or scans of any useful info they would be willing to send me? i honestly would have a clue where to start since im the MOST unorganized person in the world!

Most of my stuff is from Tour Guide Mike, so I can't share it (copyrighted stuff). But I found a great website that is very similiar and free.
link


Plus I printed off the customized maps from the disney website
link

the other thing I've done is started a Word file that I call WDW tips. Whenever I see something I want to remember I copy and paste it into the file. I'm going to print that off right before we leave.

I also printed the "secrets" from the Dis.