How do you write your trip reports?

I very much enjoy reading everyone’s trip reports on this forum. I am wondering what processes you all use to write them. Do you write each night when you come back from the parks? Do you keep notes to write them later? Do you bring a laptop with you? A pad of paper? How do you remember all the great details and which day they happened?

I don’t take notes. But on an average 5 or 6 day trip I come home with close to 1,000 pictures, so it’s pretty easy for me “retrace my steps” looking at the pictures in the order they are in the camera. I DO take a laptop with me, but that’s mostly to download all of my pictures at the end of each day.As my reports are typically photo-heavy, I use BlogSpot to create them; it’s much easier to paste a link than to create the whole report within the forum.

As for the “mechanics” here are the steps I follow. (1) decide what pictures I’m going to use and resize them to roughly 800x600 pixels (after I have done all of the post-processing in PhotoShop). (2) Write the full text in Word; editing is much easier in a full word processor. I leave spaces for where pictures will go. (3) refine the picture collection, depending on how the text came out. (4) Go into BlogSpot and upload the text and pictures.

Is this time-consuming? Absolutely. The last “full” report I did was my DLR blog (that was admittedly a bit more than a simple “trip report”). The text was about a 50 page Word document and there were approximately 900 pictures. It was published in 12 parts, and I probably spent close to 100 hours making it. Conversely, I did a mini-report showing the MK resorts at Christmas that had a couple dozen pictures, just enough text to let you know what you were looking at, and it took me about 2 hours to do.

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That is dedication! Guess that’s how you earned your tagline! I’ll have to search for the trip report.

Eh, I just wing it. There are usually moments during trips when I’m too tired to do stuff, so I usually start writing a bit on my phone then. Looking through my photos and TPs helps jog my memory. there’s no right or wrong way though. Just make sure it’s fun for you and not a chore. :wink:

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I print out my touring plans before the trip, and when I remember or have the energy, I jot down any changes we made on those at night or the next day. I also use my photos to help remember, and MM was really helpful to recall if we rode something a couple of times if there were ride pics.

I wrote mine all when we got home. It takes me too long to do it on the trip - I try to be off my phone and in the moment!

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We haven’t been to WDW yet, but I do love to write, so I’m thinking I’ll post a trip report once we get back. I was briefly thinking about how to go about it, and I figured the best way would be memory and voice memos on my iPhone. I figure if I create a memo 2-4 times a day with whatever info I want to make sure to remember it will save me time of the trip trying to jot down things and be more accurate because I can record them immediately as they happen if I want to.

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Throughout my trip I jotted down things on my phone during down time. Waiting for food, a ride, fireworks, or whenever i wasn’t actively do something (including people watching).

I also jotted down things I couldn’t take a photo of but I wanted to remember. Like a quote I heard a dad gruffly say as he was force marching his children behind their mother. “Come on guys, your mother has a plan of attack. You guys gotta keep up!” Fellow liner? Hahaha

My notes are less than detailed, but I have a feeling the photos and memories will fill in the blanks once I get to typing.

I also liked jotting down things just to make sure I capture the “feeling” if that’s possible.

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I try to stay off the phone during family time too. It can be challenging at times.

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Yes it’s tough! Especially with MDE.

STAY IN THE MOMENT WITH YOUR FAMILY!!! Don’t do it or think about it until you get back. As fun as they are to write / do / read - the purpose is to spend TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY - don’t take a minute away from that.

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