A few weeks ago our family set sail on our first family cruise aboard Carnival Magic. While planning for our trip I knew I wanted for our kids to be able to record their adventures on and off the ship and have a way to remember this family vacation for years to come. I created a free download for “My Cruise Journal”, a fun way to keep track of all their important memories and friends they made on the cruise.
With the help of my mom we deigned and created a printable 7-day journal with daily prompts to help the kids record their favorite things and make future plans for activities and events they wanted to do while on our cruise. We were surprising our kids with this trip, they thought we were going to the cruise port to say “Bon Voyage” to grandma and grandpa who were going on a 7-day cruise.
I made cruise ship gift bags with the Cricut Explore and inside it included My Cruise Journal, a new book to read and a new pair of flip flops for their surprise “We’re going on a Cruise!” gift, which we gave to them at the port.
Each page includes a “Today we are: At Sea/In Port” heading so we can remember where we were when we had all of the fun. They can also write the Location and Weather for each day. Below that was a section titled “Drawing of my Favorite Thing Today.” I wanted a simple way that my two youngest, who are still learning to write, could easily express themselves without frustration. They loved drawing a picture of their favorite thing and this also turned out to be a great way to keep them entertained at dinner each night.
The next page has different prompts for each day and also asks the question “Tomorrow I want to.” This was a great way to help us plan out our days and make sure that the kids got to do everything they want to while on our special family vacation. We would look at the Carnival FUNTIMES program that our room steward would leave each evening to help us decide which activities on board where a must do and see for our family.
Each night we took our cruise journals to dinner with us, which as I mentioned earlier was a lifesaver with keeping the kids entertained while waiting in the dining room. It was also a great way for us all to hear what each child liked best about the day. It seemed like our days were jammed packed with fun, but it’s really nice to slow down for just a bit and savor the simple pleasures of our vacation through our children’s eyes. Some of their answers are sweet, surprising and downright funny.
And the best part, after all the trinkets are lost and life returns to normal they will have a great treasure and reminder of their favorite memories from our cruise on Carnival Magic!
If you’re planning a cruise and want a fun and easy way to keep track of your kid’s favorite memories, download our free “My Cruise Journal.” Print the free printable on white cardstock and make sure you select two-sided in the print options to get the correct back and front page sequence for your journal.
Do you have a special way your family records memories while on family vacations?
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This is such a fun and brilliant idea! I love that the kids have such a fun souvenir of their trip!
What a fun idea! I love this and it helps remember small things from the trip that they’ll most likely forget.
This is a great idea for preserving vacation memories.
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Thanks so much for sharing with Wednesday’s Adorned From Above Link Party.
Debi @ Adorned From Above
I need a Cricut AND a cruise! We made something similar for the last trip we went on…but the kids were too little to really fill it out.
Thanks for linking up at Wordy Wednesday!
I always make a journal from various sites for our family vacations. I’m so appreciative of your FREE journal for me to print out and use on my children’s first cruise. Thank you.
This is seriously adorable, and means I don’t have to create one myself! Thanks so much!!
Thanks for checking it out Kristin, I hope your kids have fun making memories on their cruise!
Thank you for sharing and being so thoughtful!!
Thank you, our kids really loved having these and it’s fun to look back after the vacation is over. 🙂
Thank you so much! We are getting ready to take our 3 boys on their first cruise, and I was going to make something like this. You have saved me SO much time, because now I don’t have to! 🙂 I wanted a way to make it both fun and educational, so this is perfect.
We are so happy to hear that Laura. My kids still love to pull their journals out and look at them. I hope you guys have lots of fun on your first cruise!
I love this! Do you have a journal for a 3 night cruise?
Thanks Leslie, I only have the one version but you could just print off the pages for the 3 days and put the book together with just those days. Depending on when you leave on your trip I may be able to make an update for you, please feel free to reach out to me via email at mariah(at)gigglesgalore(dot)net
Hi! Thank you! I will do just that. I appreciate your offer to shorten the book. Have a great day!
Any idea on how to make this I to a 9 day cruise?
Hi! You can email me at mariah(at)gigglesgalore(dot)net and I can send you a copy of two extra pages you can add to it.