Free Cruise Planning Spreadsheet and Templates
Five practical tools to plan a cruise yourself: compare sailings, map each day, total the real cost and plan every port day.
Have an Advisor Fill It InPlan It on Paper Before You Pay
Most cruise planning goes wrong in the gaps: a fare that looked lower until drinks and gratuities went in, a port day that was too short for the tour you wanted, a final payment date nobody wrote down. A simple cruise planning spreadsheet closes those gaps. This site gives you the templates, free, with plain instructions, so you can lay out your options side by side and decide with everything in view.
Use them on your own, or hand a filled-in sheet to our cruise advisors at Mister Cruise and ask them to check it. Either way, nothing here asks for an email address.
What you will find
- Cruise planning spreadsheet: compare three sailings line by line (CSV download).
- Cruise itinerary template: one row per day, from the hotel night to the flight home.
- Cruise budget calculator: type in your own figures for a trip total, per person and per night.
- Cruise planner template: a printable sheet of every decision to make.
- Cruise planning worksheet: work back from all-aboard to plan each port day.
Which Template to Use When
| When you are… | Use this | What it settles |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing between ships or dates | Cruise planning spreadsheet | Which option is better value once everything is counted |
| Booked and planning the days | Cruise itinerary template | What happens each day, and what still needs booking |
| Setting or checking a budget | Cruise budget calculator | The real trip total, not just the fare |
| Making the many small decisions | Cruise planner template | Cabin, dining, packages, documents and deadlines |
| Planning a day ashore | Cruise planning worksheet | How much time you truly have in port |
Packing and document lists are a separate job, done well by our sister site Cruising Checklist. If you would rather use a cruise line’s own app planner, Cruise Clicks explains how those work.
Five Habits of Good Cruise Planners
Write the fare rules down
Deposit, refundability and final payment date belong on the sheet beside the price.
Count the whole trip
Flights, hotel, parking and insurance can change which option is cheaper. See Cruise Airfare and Free Cruise Parking.
Use ship time
Port times on cruise documents are ship time, which can differ from local time.
Check the cabin
Deck and location matter as much as category; Cruise Ship Deck Plans shows how to read a plan.
Share one copy
A shared sheet stops group trips sliding into six versions of the truth.
Prefer a Person to a Spreadsheet?
Plan It Cruises is part of the Smart Traveler network, led by Mister Cruise. He has sold travel since 1972 and worked full-time in the industry since 1977. He has sold or originated more than $500 million in cruises and has trained more than 500 travel agents.
When you ask for a quote, our cruise advisors at Mister Cruise handle it personally — not a call center — and book everything for you. Meet Mister Cruise →
Send your filled-in sheet, or just your ideas, through the Official Cruise Directory quote form and a Mister Cruise advisor will price the options. Live fares are on Cruising for Less, and the Mister Cruise cruise-offers newsletter sends new offers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are the templates free?
Yes. Download them, copy them, print them and share them with the people you travel with. No sign-up is needed.
Which programs open the spreadsheet?
The files are plain CSV, so Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice all open them. Save a copy in your program’s own format before adding formulas.
Do the templates include prices?
No. Every number comes from your own quotes and choices, so the sheet stays accurate for your sailing rather than going out of date.
More Cruise Sites From Our Network
Why Templates Beat Memory
A cruise involves more moving parts than most holidays: a ship, a cabin, a fare with its own rules, flights, a hotel, transfers, packages and a string of port days, each with dates attached. Kept in your head or scattered across emails, something slips. Kept in one sheet, the whole trip is visible at a glance, and anyone travelling with you can see the same picture. The templates here are deliberately plain so they work in any program and print cleanly, and they never go out of date because the numbers are always yours.
Built for Real Trips
Each template grew out of the questions travellers ask most often when they plan a cruise themselves: which option is really cheaper, what still needs booking, how long a port day really is, and what we have forgotten. They work equally well for a weekend sailing from Florida, a family week in the Caribbean or a fortnight in Europe. Use one or all five; there is no right order except the one that helps you decide.
Fill It In With an Advisor
Tell us the sailings on your shortlist and a Mister Cruise advisor will return a written quote for each, ready for your spreadsheet.
Quote My Shortlist