Do You Use a Spreadsheet?

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Kristen K.'s picture
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Do You Use a Spreadsheet?

Do you create some sort of spreadsheet when planning your travels? I do what I call a "Quick Look" which is a one sheet table that has all of our check points on it listed by day, with all the reservation times and numbers as well as contact information for the whole party. I print one out for each person traveling so that just in case we get seperated everyone knows where our next checkpoint to meet up at is. However mine is much less intense than many of them I've seen out there.

What goes into your Disney spreadsheet? I've included a few links of others I've found on the web.

Source: mamaofalltrades.com via Helen on Pinterest

http://www.plan-a-magical-vacation.com/disney-vacation-planning-spreadsheet.html

http://www.couponingtodisney.com/2010/07/01/well-i-promised-my-planning-spreadsheets/

http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/disney-world-spreadsheet.html

angels444's picture
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Another forum that I use to go to had a woman that posted hers, because her husband made her cry. She was telling everyone about how hard she had worked and the hours and hours she spent planning and making ADR's. She had the days and nights all planned. When I say planned this woman had it planned. Rope drop 9am, space mountain 9:15, blah blah 9:40, blah blah 10:15 and so on. She showed it to her husband and all he could say was where are the bathroom breaks? I was laughing so hard when I read that. Now if J had said it to me I might have felt differently, but whenever I see a spreadsheet I think of her and I remind myself don't be commando.

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We put one together with park hours, EMH, dining reservations and confirmation numbers, a loose itinerary and we have a page dedicated to things we don't want to forget! Like specific things we need to bring back home or the location of the ultimate ice cream cookie sandwich! It's not commando touring style but it comes in handy and so easy to open up and look at on the smart phones without having to carry bits of paper around!

I blogged about it here Smile

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crazycatperson's picture
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I don't use a spreadsheet. Instead, I create a Word file that's partly straight text with important trip information and partly tables that organize our schedule, ADRs, etc.

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The only time I use spreadsheets while traveling is for comic cons for the panels and screenings. For Disney the most I do is make little index card notes for each park to identify locations of bathrooms and first aid.

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senseicj's picture
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I use trip it and it is so easy it eaven updates itself with adr's and flight res and will update flight changes for you and notify you of changes. plus you can use your cell phone with the app and everyone on your trip can access it

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I will jot notes and what no on a notebook. The rest I store in my head wink

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I prefer Trip it because it organizes it better and looks prettier but Before I did use excel

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I will use some sort of major organizer when I go over to Europe/Paris. Because that's my trip. I'm planning 99.9% of it with in the budget. I'm a major planner for my future, but I haven't had any huge need for one of these yet. I'll have to remember Trip It when it comes around time for the Paris trip.

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Breaufam's picture
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Yes we do. It's a minor one, and does not include bathroom breaks lol. I've referred back to it many, many times in the months prior to our trip. After viewing JeffC's, I also used a Disney font for esthetic purposes mickey laugh

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Did someone say "Spreadsheet"?? yay yay

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Holy cats JeffC that's just too wild. laugh laugh

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angels444 wrote:
Another forum that I use to go to had a woman that posted hers, because her husband made her cry. She was telling everyone about how hard she had worked and the hours and hours she spent planning and making ADR's. She had the days and nights all planned. When I say planned this woman had it planned. Rope drop 9am, space mountain 9:15, blah blah 9:40, blah blah 10:15 and so on. She showed it to her husband and all he could say was where are the bathroom breaks? I was laughing so hard when I read that. Now if J had said it to me I might have felt differently, but whenever I see a spreadsheet I think of her and I remind myself don't be commando.

rolling

Us.... unless we have an ADR that night (Which determines where we at least finish the night up at)... we check to see which park is the least busiest and go. Finally we only have 3 ADR's this year... so its going to be a lot of "Whatcha wanna do today?" Looking soooooo forward to that!

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Kristen K.'s picture
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senseicj wrote:
I use trip it and it is so easy it eaven updates itself with adr's and flight res and will update flight changes for you and notify you of changes. plus you can use your cell phone with the app and everyone on your trip can access it

I love TripIt! I've been using it for my past half dozen trips or so and it's fantastic. Do you use the free version or Pro?

Though I have my whole trip in TripIt, I still make my "quick look" sheet.

Allie's picture
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YES. I'm obsessed with excel and slightly obsessed with planning ahead. Looking at my spreadsheet just gives me peace when I'm stressed out Smile I don't plan every minute of everyday, but I like to have an organized view of what I wante to try and accomplish, means of transportation, times of shows and reservations, etc.

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Jeff - that is simply awesome!!!!!!!!

yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay yay

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Jeff, if NHShorty likes it, I like it....
.
Actually when I've taken the whole crowd to the world, I've done a simple spreadsheet that divided each day into chunks and it's worked well.

When it was just the two of us on our four day visit at the end of May, we throttled back a bit on the planning, but our minimalist planning was basically the same. Chunkify each day, list the important info, and be ready to adjust the plan as you go.

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I have only done a very loose plan, showing when the parks are opening and closing, our ADRs and if there is something special we have planned. That said, I love Jeff's spreadsheet!

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Allie wrote:
YES. I'm obsessed with excel and slightly obsessed with planning ahead. Looking at my spreadsheet just gives me peace when I'm stressed out Smile I don't plan every minute of everyday, but I like to have an organized view of what I wante to try and accomplish, means of transportation, times of shows and reservations, etc.

That's me. Totally, totally me. My family makes fun of me UNTIL WE GET THERE, and then everyone is thankful. Smile

The links you guys have been posting above are fantastic! I can't wait to incorporate some of those ideas!

And Trip It...is that an app? And, do you know off the bat whether it's available for Android?

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So after reading this post I downloaded TripIt on my smartphone (Android, so yes Nancy to your question).

I did not like the app. I couldn't do it all on my phone. I had to log in to the program on my computer...overall I just found it time consuming but I was a bit impatient so my opinion is solely that, my opinion...

I think I'm going to stick to my Excell spreadsheet's (attached is one I did for a friends sister).

I have the kindle app on my smartphone and I can use it to open PDF's, which is my new plan for having my spreadsheet portable and within easy access on phone. crossfingers we shall see how this works....

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Nancy D's picture
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Hmmm....that's a good idea, nikkirugby...the kindle app. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for that idea!

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My spreadsheet for our upcoming trip in September! yay yay yay

Only thing left to do is book the flight. I've been watching prices for a few weeks and have a target amount in mind - now the airlines just need to cooperate waiting

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Kristen K.'s picture
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yay yay Whoo hoo for spreadsheets!

I sure hope the airlines cooperate for you.

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My spreadsheet is so boring compared to your's. I'll have to spruce mine up a bit.

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I use one! And i've already started working on one for our Dec. trip! Here it is Smile, only the first half though... And dining is subject to change Wink.

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JeffC wrote:
My spreadsheet for our upcoming trip in September! yay yay yay

Only thing left to do is book the flight. I've been watching prices for a few weeks and have a target amount in mind - now the airlines just need to cooperate waiting

How do you do that!? I usually only do a very simple Word document but now I feel I gotta step up my game biggrin

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Mine is boring too. But it has the information that I need. I use it in conjunction with my Entourage calendar. The calendar has limited space, but I can put in notes and print out the notes. The spreadsheet has more space, and I can make it fit the overflow information. I have to get over my calendar dependency and just use the spreadsheet, but I am a creature of habit.

I will have a final version that will have all of our ADR's and confirmation numbers on it. I am just not done changing my dining around yet. Maybe I am, but maybe I am not. I don't want to add that stuff in yet and then confuse myself with changes.

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I love a good spread sheet! I always use one. I also use a small binder with plastic sleeves where I keep all my important documents (dining confirmations, any online purchase printouts like photopass+ or mnsshp, airline confirmations etc)

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I use a spreadsheet but you all have made me feel spreadsheet envy and spreadsheet inadequate. Oh bother!

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JeffC wrote:
My spreadsheet for our upcoming trip in September! yay yay yay

Only thing left to do is book the flight. I've been watching prices for a few weeks and have a target amount in mind - now the airlines just need to cooperate waiting

I was like - spreadsheets? You have got to be kidding me? Then I saw your spreadsheet JeffC and it is so darn pretty, now I want one too. How did you create that? It is awesome!

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Jeff's spread sheet is awesome. He got us hooked on using them since he made me the special one for my birthday trip! awesome