Do You Use a Spreadsheet?

I don't use a spreadsheet. I use TripIt for things like hotel & airline confirmations & a calendar app on my phone that lets you color code entries. I easyWDW & enter each park's hours, parade/firework & if it's recommended or not for each day of my trip & any adr's I have in to the calendar app. The only time I stick to any sort of a schedule for what park on which day of the trip is if someone is with me. If I'm solo I determine what park each morning based on which parks are recommended & my mood & have been known to change my mind by the time I get the bus stop or park hop to another park after just a few hours.

BOG twice in one week, Jeff? Jealous! And I love that all your "snack bingo" options are sweets

The first one is for lunch, but if the line is too long we might skip it. The second is dinner. We're looking forward to it! I was up at 3:00 am PT on ADR day to try and get that one

Joe says I have way too much free time and a bit of an obsession.....

Jeff I was up at 5:30 a.m. EST when I made my ADRs 180 days out. Luckily I was on vacation but still

This trip (aka A Hot Mess of a Disney Wedding ) I'm using TripIt and a spreadsheet. Several spreadsheets in fact. The spreadsheets are helping to keep me somewhat sane and TripIt means I have everyone's travel details quickly to hand. I'm not really a heavy duty planner for "normal" trips - mainly just ADR's and if a park has EMH happening. The rest is pretty free form and somewhat spur of the moment.

Can't wait for JeffC's guest post on the spreadsheets!

LOVE me a binder, Petridish!!
Family thinks I'm crazy, but I grin and bear it!

Jeff....you have really upped the game around here, my friend!!

Oh heck yes I use a spreadsheet (and the hubs makes fun of me all the time for it!).

I make spreadsheets for all my Disney vacations, if you don't you do at least some minor planning, your going to waste a great deal of time deciding on the spot.. You need to plan the parks so you can plan your meals, and make reservations. I like to make a small spreadsheet (Attached) that fits in my wallet. I also do this for the people I work with. They all think I'm nuts, but when they come back, they are grateful for the time saved and good advise, especially for the first timers.
Some people think they can just go and wing it. Not in WDW..... These days its way to crowded, and if you plan on dining at a decent restaurant, you better have reservations.
NEXT TRIP: SEPTEMBER 8th 2013..

I don't use a spreadsheet. I use TripIt for flight, hotel , shuttle & any other travel documents/confirmations I get in email. Other than that I use a calendar app on my phone that lets me color code entries & enter each day's operating hours, parade/fireworks schedule & recommended/not recommended status in to the calendar app. I do primarily counter service with maybe one or two (if that) table service meals during a trip so that information gets enter in to the calendar app & the confirmation email gets forwarded to TripIt. When I'm solo I totally wing it & decide what park I want to go to based on which parks are recommended for that day, my mood & possible which bus shows up first often when I'm already at the bus stop. The only time I stick to any sort of a schedule/plan is when my mom or my mom & stepdad have joined me & that's simply because I want to make sure they get see/do as much of what they want to as possible.

Jeff, great guest article on spreadsheets!

And you've given me food for thought where my own MS Word planning documents are concerned. I think I'm going to have to revise mine to make them as useful as your spreadsheet is. (But I'm sticking with Word; I just like it better than Excel. I'm an editor, not an accountant.)

I create a spreadsheet even before booking anything. I use it first to propose the idea to my money tight husband and friends that want to go to. (I've done power point presentations for added delivery too ) I start with a budget before an itinerary. Our trips to Orlando or California are never JUST Disney so we usually have more than one hotel and lots of other activities to plan. After I've sold the idea and we've received approval from work for the time off, I start with our itinerary. My spreadsheets have a ton of info, but they are not anything like the link I clicked to find myself here. Looks like I'll be revamping it to be a better planner. Thanks for those who did share, it's very helpful. Maybe I'll get mine looking good enough to share.

My spreadsheet is constantly evolving. It is different for each trip. Depends on who is going with us. Please, share yours. I am taking little nuggets from here and there and storing the notes in different tabs for future use, if needed. Clearly, mine is the most basic one, but I like my spreadsheet. The majority of my info goes into my calendar.

Hello Hello Hello Echo2382 and to our group, sure glad you clicked that link and found yourself here. I think you will be glad you found us.

Here are some of the spreadsheets I have used in the past and some for future trips. Pretty much all the same just different colors for different times of year and occasions. Thanks for looking and feel free to use. Just please don't steal my reservations...

GREAT spreadsheets! Thanks for sharing! Mind of I use some of your images on potential future spreadsheets?

This is mine. It's still in it's draft stages as we are making changes daily to our game plan.

*I posted this in another thread before I knew about this thread! Oops!

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Thats what they are there for. Hope everyone gets good use out of them

Hey, if the topic heads that way, so be it! I like your spreadsheet too!

I feel like I should utilize mine for more information. I am just so in love with my Entourage calendar. I put more detailed information there, I just find it easier to keep up with. But I do find that my spreadsheet get more info each trip. So, I must be working my way to retiring my Entourage Calendar.

Wow, these are intense! Awesome spreadsheets!

John,those are awesome!!! I may steal some of your ideas as well

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks guys and feel free to pick it apart, use whatever you like. Hopefully you can find some things that might be useful on your trips. Also left plenty space to write things down after it is printed out or insert special parades, shows or fireworks you might be interested in seeing into the spreadsheet ahead of time. If anyone has some suggestions on how I might be able to better my sheets please let me know. Constructive criticism is always appreciated.

Loving all your examples! I just started a plain one in Word. It is so much easier to read already!!!

Can you send me the spreadsheet pretty PLEASE with cherries on top

Hello Tracy and welcome. You should be able to download most of these spreadsheets right from this thread. They are in .xls format.