Disney World Travel Journal

Earlier this year, my family took a trip to Disney World. I'm a planner. I had a big, zippered 3-ring binder with page protected printouts of every detail of our travel plans. It contained all the confirmation pages, menus, coupons, etc that I printed out on 8.5x11 paper. I had empty page protectors for all the brochures, and things that would go into scrapbooks back home.

I also designed a travel journal. Something smaller than a bread box and more intimate than the binder. The first time we went to Disney, I had printed out journal pages that went in the binder. Each night, I filled out the questions of the day, and made little notes. I was glad to have it when I wrote up my trip report and scrapbooked but to me those journal pages were too structured and boring.

It was probably a month before our trip this year and I was wandering the aisles of Marshalls.  I found this blank journal:

I paid $3.99-$5.99 for this. Can't remember. But I know it was cheap. It's 5.25"x7.5" with 104 pages. We were staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, going to take the Sunrise Safari, and I thought this Safari cover was perfect.

I wasn't looking to make this one of those swanky, professional looking, serious heirloom-type journals.  I just wanted something that was more fly-by-the-seat, not based on appointments or schedules. There for, the pages are not in any order of occurrence.

 With my Cricut Expression cartridges and Cricut pens, I created pages of things we hoped to see and do. We never made it to Mickey's Philharmagic this time, but I really liked the page I made.

 I made pockets at home with tags for some of the pages. For the countries, I used the Destinations cartridge.

Free, daily activity at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Left side: All the tabs I made for pages I didn't make of things we didn't do since we decided not to go to Hollywood Studios

I left spaces for journaling, and adding bits of paper along the way. I brought 2 travel guides and cut out the pics and printed info to glue into my journal. Luckily, I remembered to bring along a glue stick. However, the little scissors on my mini-swiss army knife were a chore to use.

 For every day we were on vacation, I pasted a cricut cut-out to a page.

Left side: Empty tea bag packets and coaster from the Concierge Lounge.

I left space for journaling each day but some days, glued in emphemera took the place of so many written words. 

Every scrap of paper was admissible into my journal, even things we didn't use or end up needing.

After the trip, I had what I wanted. A more intimate, thorough, and picturesque travel journal.

Now all I have to do is decide of if I want to cut out the blank pages so the book lies flatter.

Do you have Disney Travel Journal? I'd love to see it. Post a link in the comments section.