10 Tips for Journaling Your Next Cruise Vacation
Long after your cruise vacation is over, you might sadly begin to forget little details about your trip. The best way to preserve your memories and capture them forever is by journaling. Once you’ve written down your travel memories, you will be able to look back years from now and recall all the small details that made your getaway so fantastic. Keeping a travel journal is a great way to remember all of the experiences you had on your trip. Try these tips to make the most of your vacation!
- Keep a separate journal just for traveling and take it with you on vacation. Writing while you're still on your trip, while everything is fresh in your mind, will help you record completely and accurately.
- Start your journal with the most basic information: record the people you traveled with, the dates of your trip, name of cruise ship, length of cruise, and itinerary. List the ports of call and the hours you spent in each.
- Next, write out all of the highlights of your day. Describe the activities you did or the time you spent relaxing. If there was something you wouldn't do again, record that too!
- Write down a list of things you saw that you wanted to do, but didn’t have time to do. This will come in handy when you return to a cruise destination and can use your own journal as a resource for planning activities.
- Write down funny things that happened or any interesting facts that stood out to you.
- Record how each event throughout the day made you feel. Were you nervous swimming with dolphins for the first time, only to become completely ecstatic and overfilled with joy once you realized how much fun it was?
- Describe in detail the scenery and things you saw. Describe smells and tastes. If you tried local cuisine, note the restaurant name and location.
- Include details about the weather. Did you bask in the Caribbean sun, or were you bundled up in the Alaskan glaciers?
- Include your favorite details about the cruise ship and any employees that went above and beyond to make your trip memorable.
- Lastly, take an abundant number of photos to aid your written account. You'll never regret taking too many. Once you get home, print out your favorite ones that help add to your journal entry, and glue them down right in your journal.
The more details you can write down and the more photos you can take, the easier the memories will be to recall. These tips will also help if you return to the same cruise ports or destinations when deciding what you should definitely do again and what you should try new for the first time.
If you’re more comfortable with modern technology and prefer paperless accounts, you could try Vlogging, which is basically the same thing as a written journal but in video format. Instead of writing, try all the above tips and video record yourself speaking into the camera. Regardless of which way you choose to journal your travels, the most important thing is that you will be able to look back on your experiences years from now and be able to relive your cruise vacation all over again!