No, it's not a trip report but I figured it belongs here since it's about trip reporting methods. I've been thinking about a thread for this topic for a long time. I think it'd be a great tool for us trip reporters!
There's more than one way to skin a cat. Let's compare notes. If you've never written a trip report but enjoy reading them, here's some insight into what we do to make them happen. Perhaps you'll be inspired to throw a report out there in the future.
Okay. First of all, I freakin' loooove to write. Always have. Second, being the momma a reoccuring theme in ever single Walt Disney World trip we've taken as a family (January 2004 - present) is capturing and preserving the memories so we'll have them forever. Before I was inspired to try my hand at trip reporting this was in the form of taking a gazillion and 1 pictures. Trip reporting has taken this to a whoooole new level. I don't believe I could go on another family vacation anywhere without writing a trip report for it. It's what I do now and relatives have come to expect no less. LOL!
My inspiration. I credit Hollybelle's report from her & Brett's first stay at the Contemporary for a conference. That report is the one that got me thinking I could not only DO a trip report, I could smoke one out there. Yeah. Did I mention I like to write a little?
Trip reporting is something I've planned ahead for since I started doing them. They've all been intentional. The results haven't always been what I wanted and a few times I've been disappointed in myself. In the end, the pro's of my better reports outweigh the negatives in my less-than-stellar pieces so I'm still feeling them. You can certainly expect to see more reports out of me whenever I travel to WDW (or anywhere) in the future.
To plan ahead for trip reporting I make sure I have the tools I need: a fun little notebook complete with fine-tip sharpie, a bag to carry around the parks that will accomodate everything, a camera (or at minimum my iPhone), my laptop, and an external storage device.
When on vacation I always carry a bag of some sort. I favor smaller cross-body bags or smaller backpacks. This is not the type of bag I carry around in day-to-day life (I'm a Disney Dooney junky). I don't like the thought of carrying my pricier, more valuable bags/purses around theme parks so I find bags cheap on eBay, while on vacation, or I make them. My bag has to have room to conveniently carry my little notebook w/pen, camera, cell phone, lip gloss, compact, comb, a small bottle of ibuprofen, and a small change purse to hold a few bucks, my ID, room key, and AP. Ideally there are pockets to keep things seperate so I'm not putting my AP or room key up against the cell phone or camera. Don't need to demagnetize anything important. In recent years I've favored cross-body style bags more because they're easier to access on the fly. I used to love the fact that at bag search I could just hold it up & open for the security folks to dig thru but last trip a couple times I was asked to take it off completely before they would check. :shrug:
The notebook. I like cute stuff. My favorite notebook I've used so far was my Up! Adventure Journal that came with the Blue Ray. Love this one! I don't like full-size like 8 1/2x11. It has to get stashed in my bag so a mid-size works best.
The camera. Most commonly I use a point & shoot. I have 2. One is a Nikon and the other is a Panasonic HD video camera that also has a 12 mp (I think) still option. Both are user-friendly but the Nikon seems to do better on the stills. I have used my iPhone 4 in a pinch. Those pics aren't the greatest but it amazes me how far the capabilities have come. I think with some photography apps & practice it could really become the easiest solution in the future. Also, my oldest kiddo got an entry-level Canon Rebel XS set-up from Santa for Christmas in '09. He carries his camera often. Sometimes the hubby will carry it for him & take pics also. I incorporate some of their pics into my reports as well.
Part of our night time routine on vacation is cleaning off memory cards for all cameras. I "file" all or pics into a file structure set up on my external drive. I file by year-->destination/month of travel-->date-->name of person who's camera the pics came from. Each day has it's own file folder and each person on each day has their own file folder. This is the way we do things because we like to make sure we always have plenty of space on our memory cards and prevent a larger photo loss if a memory card/camera is lost. We've lost a camera at WDW before and weren't lucky enough to have it turned in to Lost & Found. Those lost pictures have haunted me for years.
Note-taking. I have the WORST memory. My mind has so many things that I'm trying not to forget and stay on top of at all times that I forget things about like Dory does. I have to take notes or the details will melt together into a big memory gumbo that tastes fantastic as a whole but it can be a challenge to pick out each and every ingredient. I make notes every chance I get. If we're on a bus I'll whip out my notebook and jot down a few notes. Slow lines, at restaurants before or after a meal, if the guys are having an ice cream, etc., if there's a couple minutes of being even semi-still I'll scrawl out a few bullets with key words touching on what we've been up to & things I thought were note worthy. If something funny or interesting happens I'll wait and make sure to write a more detailed narrative to keep the details whole. I should scan a few pages to show y'all. The notebooks are a mess. It's the minimum needed for me to remember and write later.
Composition. I've seen this addressed in obviously different styles. Some people like to type out their entire narrative in a word processing program before they even start posting everything on the forums while others literally type if out on the fly as they're uploading pics. I've done all sorts of combinations of these methods. My first TR I typed about half and had a few days of pics uploaded before I started posting. My May of '09 trip was written entirely on the fly as things were uploading...it never had anything typed up prior in a word processing program. January '10 was hard for me to get the perspective I wanted. I started typing that one out, deleted, started again, deleted again, etc. like 4 or 5 times before I thought I was even close to getting the perspective where I needed it to be. I think I probably had that one nearly complete and about 1/2 the pics uploaded before I started throwing it up on the forum. I much prefer the way I handled the elements this past trip in November. I spent a whole day combing the pics & editing. I kept a window open with my pictures, my notebook next to me, and flashed back & forth between the two the entire time I wrote my narrative. The writing combined the two elements into a more cohesive story. I wrote for the pics and used the pics that reflected the notes. It all flowed better that way. Every pic I used for reference got uploaded as I typed. By doing the report this way I had the entire narrative typed and every pic I intended to use uploaded BEFORE I started posting anything on the forum.
Posting. Even with everything complete & ready to go before the actual report starts posting there's still a lot of work to be done. Cutting/pasting text bits with pic links in the right places takes time. Generally I try to do some level of proofing again as I'm posting but, as you know, I don't catch every typo or gramatical error.
Time. Typical timeframes to put together a trip report are as follows:
**Picture editing: 4+ hours. I don't edit like some of the hobbyist photogs. I'm just out to kill the red eyes & capture what I'm talking about by cropping as needed.
**Text writing/typing: For our 9-10 night trips I'd estimate about 30-40 hours.
**Photo upload to Photobucket: Usually about half as long as it takes to write the text. I like doing this while I'm typing the text so I can kill 2 birds.
**Assembly for forum posting: I'd estimate this at a little more than a third as long as it takes to write up the text. It's a lot of flashing between windows copying & pasting. Oh and the **worst** is when you mess up and hit the little red "x" to exit a window instead of the little yellow "_" to minimize. This usually will trigger a string of curses from me. LOL!
**Responding to guest comments: Eh, that's the payback for all the work. I have no clue. Probably more time than I'd guess because I get lost in it.
**Reading trip reports back with my family: Hours and hours. Then there's re-reads and the pauses to regain our composure. It's another reason I even post trip reports. We relive our adventures together which is completely awesome!
For the future I'd like to think I'll copy/paste and assemble my narratives with the pics into working documents that I can print out and save the way HollyBelle does. I have yet to take the time to do this. Perhaps I'll set this as a goal for this year so I can present the volumes to my family as a Christmas gift. That'd be fun. I could print copies for each of the boys to put in their big memory boxes full of their life mementos and keepsakes.
So there it is. That's the long version of how I go about trip reporting. How about y'all? Anyone else wanna share their methods? Did I scare any potential reporters away from giving it a shot on their next adventure?
:wave:
There's more than one way to skin a cat. Let's compare notes. If you've never written a trip report but enjoy reading them, here's some insight into what we do to make them happen. Perhaps you'll be inspired to throw a report out there in the future.
Okay. First of all, I freakin' loooove to write. Always have. Second, being the momma a reoccuring theme in ever single Walt Disney World trip we've taken as a family (January 2004 - present) is capturing and preserving the memories so we'll have them forever. Before I was inspired to try my hand at trip reporting this was in the form of taking a gazillion and 1 pictures. Trip reporting has taken this to a whoooole new level. I don't believe I could go on another family vacation anywhere without writing a trip report for it. It's what I do now and relatives have come to expect no less. LOL!
My inspiration. I credit Hollybelle's report from her & Brett's first stay at the Contemporary for a conference. That report is the one that got me thinking I could not only DO a trip report, I could smoke one out there. Yeah. Did I mention I like to write a little?
Trip reporting is something I've planned ahead for since I started doing them. They've all been intentional. The results haven't always been what I wanted and a few times I've been disappointed in myself. In the end, the pro's of my better reports outweigh the negatives in my less-than-stellar pieces so I'm still feeling them. You can certainly expect to see more reports out of me whenever I travel to WDW (or anywhere) in the future.
To plan ahead for trip reporting I make sure I have the tools I need: a fun little notebook complete with fine-tip sharpie, a bag to carry around the parks that will accomodate everything, a camera (or at minimum my iPhone), my laptop, and an external storage device.
When on vacation I always carry a bag of some sort. I favor smaller cross-body bags or smaller backpacks. This is not the type of bag I carry around in day-to-day life (I'm a Disney Dooney junky). I don't like the thought of carrying my pricier, more valuable bags/purses around theme parks so I find bags cheap on eBay, while on vacation, or I make them. My bag has to have room to conveniently carry my little notebook w/pen, camera, cell phone, lip gloss, compact, comb, a small bottle of ibuprofen, and a small change purse to hold a few bucks, my ID, room key, and AP. Ideally there are pockets to keep things seperate so I'm not putting my AP or room key up against the cell phone or camera. Don't need to demagnetize anything important. In recent years I've favored cross-body style bags more because they're easier to access on the fly. I used to love the fact that at bag search I could just hold it up & open for the security folks to dig thru but last trip a couple times I was asked to take it off completely before they would check. :shrug:
The notebook. I like cute stuff. My favorite notebook I've used so far was my Up! Adventure Journal that came with the Blue Ray. Love this one! I don't like full-size like 8 1/2x11. It has to get stashed in my bag so a mid-size works best.
The camera. Most commonly I use a point & shoot. I have 2. One is a Nikon and the other is a Panasonic HD video camera that also has a 12 mp (I think) still option. Both are user-friendly but the Nikon seems to do better on the stills. I have used my iPhone 4 in a pinch. Those pics aren't the greatest but it amazes me how far the capabilities have come. I think with some photography apps & practice it could really become the easiest solution in the future. Also, my oldest kiddo got an entry-level Canon Rebel XS set-up from Santa for Christmas in '09. He carries his camera often. Sometimes the hubby will carry it for him & take pics also. I incorporate some of their pics into my reports as well.
Part of our night time routine on vacation is cleaning off memory cards for all cameras. I "file" all or pics into a file structure set up on my external drive. I file by year-->destination/month of travel-->date-->name of person who's camera the pics came from. Each day has it's own file folder and each person on each day has their own file folder. This is the way we do things because we like to make sure we always have plenty of space on our memory cards and prevent a larger photo loss if a memory card/camera is lost. We've lost a camera at WDW before and weren't lucky enough to have it turned in to Lost & Found. Those lost pictures have haunted me for years.
Note-taking. I have the WORST memory. My mind has so many things that I'm trying not to forget and stay on top of at all times that I forget things about like Dory does. I have to take notes or the details will melt together into a big memory gumbo that tastes fantastic as a whole but it can be a challenge to pick out each and every ingredient. I make notes every chance I get. If we're on a bus I'll whip out my notebook and jot down a few notes. Slow lines, at restaurants before or after a meal, if the guys are having an ice cream, etc., if there's a couple minutes of being even semi-still I'll scrawl out a few bullets with key words touching on what we've been up to & things I thought were note worthy. If something funny or interesting happens I'll wait and make sure to write a more detailed narrative to keep the details whole. I should scan a few pages to show y'all. The notebooks are a mess. It's the minimum needed for me to remember and write later.
Composition. I've seen this addressed in obviously different styles. Some people like to type out their entire narrative in a word processing program before they even start posting everything on the forums while others literally type if out on the fly as they're uploading pics. I've done all sorts of combinations of these methods. My first TR I typed about half and had a few days of pics uploaded before I started posting. My May of '09 trip was written entirely on the fly as things were uploading...it never had anything typed up prior in a word processing program. January '10 was hard for me to get the perspective I wanted. I started typing that one out, deleted, started again, deleted again, etc. like 4 or 5 times before I thought I was even close to getting the perspective where I needed it to be. I think I probably had that one nearly complete and about 1/2 the pics uploaded before I started throwing it up on the forum. I much prefer the way I handled the elements this past trip in November. I spent a whole day combing the pics & editing. I kept a window open with my pictures, my notebook next to me, and flashed back & forth between the two the entire time I wrote my narrative. The writing combined the two elements into a more cohesive story. I wrote for the pics and used the pics that reflected the notes. It all flowed better that way. Every pic I used for reference got uploaded as I typed. By doing the report this way I had the entire narrative typed and every pic I intended to use uploaded BEFORE I started posting anything on the forum.
Posting. Even with everything complete & ready to go before the actual report starts posting there's still a lot of work to be done. Cutting/pasting text bits with pic links in the right places takes time. Generally I try to do some level of proofing again as I'm posting but, as you know, I don't catch every typo or gramatical error.
Time. Typical timeframes to put together a trip report are as follows:
**Picture editing: 4+ hours. I don't edit like some of the hobbyist photogs. I'm just out to kill the red eyes & capture what I'm talking about by cropping as needed.
**Text writing/typing: For our 9-10 night trips I'd estimate about 30-40 hours.
**Photo upload to Photobucket: Usually about half as long as it takes to write the text. I like doing this while I'm typing the text so I can kill 2 birds.
**Assembly for forum posting: I'd estimate this at a little more than a third as long as it takes to write up the text. It's a lot of flashing between windows copying & pasting. Oh and the **worst** is when you mess up and hit the little red "x" to exit a window instead of the little yellow "_" to minimize. This usually will trigger a string of curses from me. LOL!
**Responding to guest comments: Eh, that's the payback for all the work. I have no clue. Probably more time than I'd guess because I get lost in it.
**Reading trip reports back with my family: Hours and hours. Then there's re-reads and the pauses to regain our composure. It's another reason I even post trip reports. We relive our adventures together which is completely awesome!
For the future I'd like to think I'll copy/paste and assemble my narratives with the pics into working documents that I can print out and save the way HollyBelle does. I have yet to take the time to do this. Perhaps I'll set this as a goal for this year so I can present the volumes to my family as a Christmas gift. That'd be fun. I could print copies for each of the boys to put in their big memory boxes full of their life mementos and keepsakes.
So there it is. That's the long version of how I go about trip reporting. How about y'all? Anyone else wanna share their methods? Did I scare any potential reporters away from giving it a shot on their next adventure?
:wave:
I jot down notes throughout the trip whenever there is a lull, and then at the end of the day, right before lights out I am sure to write down any other details I missed. 
