I'm the planner in our family, and I do much the same thing. I have a different color plastic three-hole report folder for each trip. I put in a bunch of plastic sheet protectors into the folder, and I print out all the information about the trip.... Cruise, flight, and hotel confirmations, as well as the cruise itinerary and excursions we might do, if any. Having the sheet protectors means I don't have to take the folder apart to rearrange sheets as I add in more information... I can just slip a sheet out of one protector and move it to another. I have a clear plastic zipper case that hold our passports as well as an envelope stuffed with dollar bills that come in handy for tipping at various points along the journey. I put zipper case in one of the pockets of the report folder. Keeping everything organized in one place gives me a sense of security..... I can go back and easily check that I have everything in order.
Oh... another thing that I have in the folder is the Disney list of what to pack for Panama, as well as packing tips from other sources. I need all the help I can get with packing. I found a good resource on
how to pack in a series of videos online. If anyone is interested, the link is
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_12295266_smart-packing-travel-tips.html This woman has some good tips. I ordered some dry cleaner bags on ebay just on her say-so, lol. My suitcase and carry-on are waiting to test her system
Karen
With our Cruise/
Disneyland trip fast approaching, I can see a need for me to put our trip folder in order. I am the planner in our family. I have more time, since I am semi-retired and with Donna still working full time and working her butt off, it just makes sense for me to do the planning.
With each Cruise/Trip we take I make a folder of everything we are going to do on the Cruise/Trip. I put transfers, hotel accommodations, dining plans, excursions, info on different aspects of the cruise/trip, who not to forget we need to tip, how much cash we need to take with us, you know the usual stuff. In the planning stage of the trip I see something I think pertains to our trip I will print it out and drop in into the folder. At the beginning everything is in no appropriate order. So, sometime before the trip gets too close I sit down and start at the beginning of the trip and put the printed out sheets in order for the trip. So, that time has come for me to put everything in order. To me, this means our Cruise/Trip is almost on us. The excitement starts to set in. I sometimes I even get a rumbly in my tumbly. (This usually means I'm hungry...................but often when I'm assembling our plans for our trip folder, it also means I'm getting excited about the trip!!!) So I will begin the process of assembling our plans in order for the folder today. Let the excitement begin!!!
(There goes my rumbly in my tumbly!!) Too much info guys?!!???
Oh my - your OCD makes MINE look shabby....so here is how I do it (being the planner and reservation person in our little household)
I left paper in the dust years ago - I use Excel spreadsheets. I begin with a simple one for planning stages, then add "sheets" as things become more firm. For example - we just booked the EBTA in May 2015 (yea, we are working on 2015 and 2016 already). The 2014 primary list sheet is about 100 lines (many trips planned!)So the primary sheet for the year lists each trip and all the steps for that trip (all reservation numbers and COST are listed here):
home to airport
flight information
airport to hotel/resort
.....spending money at resort/hotel
resort to ship
ship info (cabin, reservation #s - TA &
DCL then cost)
.....each port (arrival and leaving time)
.....excursions we are doing - or other activites
..........spending money at each port
.....spending money on ship
.....gratuities
.....liquor
port to resort/airport after cruise
flight home
airport to home
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As sheets are added - they are linked to the primary sheet for the year. Our packing lists are reviewed at the 6 month, 3 month and 1 month mark. We keep tabs on the weather where we will be headed and alter the lists as necessary for clothing.
We prepare for the spending by saving money in every way possible - we have a piggy bank (with mickey all over it!) that we put all our change in every time we get any - this becomes our splurge money. For our honeymoon in Oct we were able to save about 1000.00 this way, in about 9 months.
All items not completed are colored and we can see in a glance what has to be completed.
Since all our reservations are electronic we only need the emails - our smartphones have all this information available to us - since this document lives in the cloud. That being said - when traveling to Europe - we print the emails the week before we leave and put them in date order in an envelope.
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we also keep every receipt - these go in a small manilla envelope that will eventually be filed in the vacation storage bins.
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whew - ok - my OCD feels better now!
Cayla
I love that quote! 
Sitting by the pool or up on deck 4 with my Kindle in hand - a drink of the day in the other hand - guys it just don't get any better then that!!!
