Cruise Cricket is such a better name…

Less than six weeks to go!!!

Actually it is 39 days to go but who’s counting?

Our daughter came to visit on Friday for just two nights but she brought her enthusiasm for the upcoming trip with her as well as her work-in-progress Excel spreadsheet. Randy & I use checklists and try to get each checklist to be no more than one page (even if we have to put it in 9 point type!) but her spreadsheet has definite advantages.

First, it is one document no matter how many “pages” (sheets: she has three separate “sheets” so far). This is a huge advantage because it means we don’t have to haul around many pieces of paper (you’re welcome, trees!) or store many different files on the computer.

Second, it’s easier to color-code. I’m a great believer in color-coding. I’ve done a spreadsheet for our cruisecritic.com friends for the available tours (you can see it on this message on cruisecritic.com http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=41806510&postcount=385) and have colored the cells according to “Full,” “Cancelled,” etc. Love those colors!

Third, it’s a different way of looking at what needs to be done and that makes my mind work in a different way and think of things I hadn’t thought of before.

All that may not seem like a lot, but it is, to me. I’m now excited all over about the trip and what needs to be done. Have you guessed that for me planning a trip is almost as much fun as actually going on the trip! For our daughter, too, I think.

My son-in-law calls the Cruise Critic website Cruise Cricket. That is a SO much better name! Lots of people we’ve met on ships think “Cruise Critic” (understandably) means a bunch of people who like to criticizer what’s wrong on cruise ships. Couldn’t be farther from the truth, but the name does lend itself to that interpretation. So, from now on, to me at least, it’s going to be Cruise Cricket. 

Thank you, Ken!