Pre-Vacation Checklist

It’s the week before your Disney vacation!  (It isn’t really for us yet, but we can pretend!)  What would be on your "To Do" list the last week and days leading up to your much anticipated trip to Walt Disney World?

Items to take care of at home:

ü      Plan for mail delivery and newspaper.  Will someone be bringing those in for you and will you have them both stopped?  Know that local schools would love to take the paper delivery for you and your newspaper can handle that donation. . . just ask.  Make sure to arrange for the mail to be picked up at the post office by your or delivered on a certain date.

ü      Pets.  We have someone come to our home that takes care of our pets for us, along with mail and newspaper delivery.  Leaving your vets phone number can also be helpful.

ü      Garbage/Recycling.  I know this sounds boring, but do you want day/week old trash waiting for you when you get home?

ü      Lawn care/snow removal.  We have traveled during the winter and the summer and have a great service that takes care of either, depending on the time of year we are traveling.

ü      Service your car if traveling long distances.

Things to take care before leaving home:

ü      Contact your bank/credit card company so that they know you are traveling.

ü      Notify a neighbor, family member, or friend of your itinerary and contact information.  Would it be beneficial for someone, other than you, to have a key to your home?

ü      Double check flight times and schedules.

ü      Double check part hours, dining confirmations, rental car or shuttle services, and any other reservations especially for pre/post vacation stays.

In addition to all the detail items there is packing to be done!  We create a packing list along with specifics about where items need to be packed—swimsuits in carry-on for swimming at our hotel prior to our cruise for example.

I also gather all of the necessary paperwork of travel—list of reservations, confirmation numbers, flight information, passports, ID’s, etc. and put in the bag I will be carrying.  I use a pocket folder to hold documents but have seen many different systems.  I also include hotel and airline customer reward cards/numbers, as we want to get credit for our travel.  The week prior to a trip is a great time to double check the documents.

Since my travel agent and I correspond regularly using email, I keep an email folder that contains all of our correspondence.  Finding the itinerary is easier that way rather than sifting through many emails.

In the minutes leading up to the time we leave our house, we double check appliances, make sure bags have been loaded into the car, water plants, leave a note with any specific directions for our pet care person, turn the heat down a bit or the air conditioning up a few degrees, and run dishes through the dishwasher (I would prefer to not come home to dirty dishes).  And, then we are off!

Once we have loaded into the car, then and only then, does the husband start to pepper me with questions making sure items he is thinking about have been packed.  But, that is a story for another time. . .