Whenever I go on a cruise, my goal is to relax, slow down and see and try new things. As I slow down, I like to use my travel journal to capture new sights, sounds and memories that I’ll remember for years to come. But sometimes I can get stuck on what to record. I don’t want to just record each day hour by hour. So I came up with this list of 20 fun cruise journal ideas to help you remember each unique part of your trip. Try them out yourself. Often, the more varied, unique and creative the entry, the more memorable and the more fun to do! Good luck!
1.Make a spread of each of your favorite activities onboard the ship.
Sitting by the pool, snorkeling, karaoke, the list of activities on a cruise ship are endless and they’re all there for your enjoyment. It’s nice to slow down and ask yourself: Which activity was your favorite? Which do you want to remember? Gather your memories, pictures and memorabilia and make a spread in your travel journal on the topic.
2. Plan and pack a special journaling kit.
This one is really fun and makes each trip unique. Depending on where I’m going and what kind of journaling I want to do, I pack a special kit for each trip. For cruises, I usually bring more supplies because I’m just unpacking once, so it doesn’t need to be so compact. Here’s what I usually bring: notebook, my favorite pen, my watercolor set and my instant camera. I like to think about it beforehand to make sure I have everything I want, but also not too much that it’s overwhelming when I get on the ship. Check out my journal supplies and materials page to get ideas of what you want to include in your kit.
3. Sketch your favorite part of each day.
This can be done either in reflection at the end of the day, thinking back on what you did, or it can be done in the moment. Take your journal with you when you go to port and when you find yourself somewhere lovely, do a quick sketch. You can do this whether you’re a practiced artist or not. My favorite way for people who don’t sketch much is the blind contour. Look at your subject and without taking your eyes off of it or picking up your pen, draw it in 1 minute. Once the minute is up, look down at your page. The end result will definitely look a bit wonky, but it will also look a lot more like your subject than you thought. And it will almost definitely make you laugh. Mine always do. And it absolutely makes that moment unforgettable. Even if only I know what it is, whenever I look at that drawing I remember exactly where I was when I drew it and I can see the subject clearly in my mind. That’s why I journal, to remember more clearly. So this is something I always add in my cruise travel journal. When you get back to the ship, add some watercolor. You’ll be surprised how it becomes something you remember forever. This is also a really fun activity for kids. Try it out!
4. Make a spread of each port of call.
Use photos and writing to capture everything you did at each port. Each place is unique, don’t let them run together! To do this, you’ll have to really pay attention to the sights, smells and sounds so the experience will stay with you a long time.
5. Record your favorite meals.
There are so many different food options aboard a cruise, and they just keep getting better. There’s also the food at each port of call, the local cuisine of each location. How were they the same? How were they different? Write down the smell, taste and experience of your favorite new food.
6. Record the weather each day.
I love waking up each day, looking out the window and seeing what the weather is like. At the beginning of each day, write down what you see out the window. What is the air like? Hot? Humid? Record it all.
7. Record conversations you overhear.
This is a bit Harriet the Spy, and quite fun to do a bit of eavesdropping. This is what writers do all the time, and on a cruise, you’re bound to be surrounded by people who aren’t like you. Be curious and listen. Are they speaking in another language? With an accent? Did they say anything interesting? Funny? Record it. When you read it back you’ll instantly remember the moment and probably have a laugh as well.
8. Write about one new thing you saw each day.
This could be an animal, a landscape, an object. We travel to see new things and get new experiences, but often we forget soon after we experience them. Record them in your travel journal and you’ll always remember it was that cruise where you saw your first dolphin, or ten foot sandcastle.
9. Write about one new experience you had each day.
So many things happen during a day of cruising. If you’re lucky, it’s a lot of relaxation and a bit of adventure. That’s why cruising is so fun, right? This idea is fun to help you reflect on your day in the evening. Think about one new thing you experienced during the day. It could be a new food, or your first time snorkeling. You’ll only try that new thing once, so capture the moment. Ask yourself, how did you feel? Did you like it or not? When I use this prompt, I often surprise myself as I start writing and in the end, get to know myself better.
10. Write about your favorite part of the cruise.
Record this at the end of your trip, really use it as a time to reflect. Then, when you’re planning your next cruise you’ll have this entry to look back on. If it’s been some time, you’ll often forget what specific things you liked. Let’s say you loved having a room with a balcony, write it down! Then next time you cruise you won’t miss out on that thing you loved.
11. Record all the souvenirs of the trip and where you bought them.
My favorite beach hat I bought in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After I bought it I wrote down the story in my travel journal. The little shop on the cobbled streets of old town San Juan, the kind woman in the bright yellow ruffled top. When I read it back I can see it all again. It’s all captured in my journal, making the memory so vivid in my head years after the trip.
12. Make a glossary of illustrations.
If you want your journal to include some drawings or illustrations but you’re not a practiced artist, this is a great trick. Before your trip, do a bit of brainstorming of iconic images of the type of trip. For cruises, it would be things like: boats, bikinis, the sun, shells, waves, etc. Then go on Google or on Pinterest and look up ‘doodles ___’ and fill in the thing you want to draw. So many simplified fun images will pop up, and many with how-to guides of how to draw them line by line. Find some you like and practice drawing them. Your first one will probably look wonky but keep going! Once you have it down, copy it into your travel journal as a ‘glossary of images’ then when you’re onboard the ship working on a spread and you want an illustration to compliment it, you can add one easily.
13. Make a spread of the colors of the sunset.
This one is great for people who want color and variety in their travel journal, but don’t like to or don’t feel comfortable drawing. This is also great for kids! Here’s what you do: Pick a day to watch the sunset. Take your watercolors and your travel notebook. As you look at the sunset, make color swatches of all the colors you see in your travel journal. Just a simple circle or quick swipe of the color. In the end you should have a page of beautiful colors that remind you of that sunset. Plus, to do this you really have to stop and take in the full sunset for quite a while. It’s a double win, and always a fun page when I go back and look at my old journals.
14. Look for interesting patterns and draw them in your travel journal.
This is especially fun to do when you’re at each port of call because each place is so distant and when you look for something specific, like patterns, you can really get a deeper sense of the place even when you’re not there very long. Patterns can be seen in architecture, on streets, on food menus. Whatever you capture will have the feeling of that specific port, which I always want to document in my travelers notebook.
15. Create a map of your trip.
I love to start my cruise travel journals with a map of the trip and each port of call. It gets me excited about the trip and also acts as a reminder at the front of my journal of where I’m going each day. Sometimes I will color it in as we visit each one, it acts as a kind of calendar and gets me excited about each new place.
16. Save knickknacks and mementos in a special place.
Whether it’s an envelope in the back of your notebook or a special envelope you bring along, it’s so fun to be on the lookout for special memorabilia. It always surprises me how mundane this seems at the time, I think, “Do I really care about saving this?” Then months or years later when I look back it all seems so interesting and foreign, from a different time and place (which is it!) and it immediately sends me back to the place I collected it. I love this feeling. I suggest keeping maps and tickets especially. These are so fun to return to. Paste them in your travel journal or just keep them in a collection, either way they’ll be so fun to look back on.
17. Collect some sand from each beach you visit.
This one is for a particular collection oriented travel journaler, but if that’s you, do it! Or do it with your kids, it’s so fun and special. Before you go on your trip, get a container of some kind, I like to use a small clear plastic bottle. At each new beach you visit, put in a layer of sand and label it on the bottle or in your travel journal. By the end you’ll have a unique collection of all the beaches you visited on that trip. You can display it in your home or put it away and find it later, always reminding you of the special experience. It’s a kind of abstract travel journal, but one nonetheless
18. Collect a shell from each beach you visit.
Cruises are wonderful because you go to so many different places on the same trip, especially beaches. But it can be hard to remember all the beaches you visited. Collect a shell from each beach you visited, and then write a bit about the beach itself in your journal.
19. Make a list of all the people you meet and where they’re from.
One thing I love about cruises are all the people I meet from around the world. The other guests as well as the employees, I always meet interesting people that have wildly different ideas and life experiences from me. Often they speak a different language! I like to record these meetings, conversations or whatever strikes me as new and interesting.
20. Keep a list of reviews of your favorite activities.
Did you love the karaoke? Or maybe one of the shows was awesome. You’ll want to remember! Make a spread in your travel journal just for quick reviews. You’ll be so glad you have this when you book your next cruise.
Hopefully you got some new and creative ideas to try on your next cruise. Try one of these or try them all, just have fun and use these cruise journal ideas to make an unforgettable journal and unforgettable vacation. If you try any let me know in the comments!