How I Preserve My Cruise Memories: My Post-Trip Ritual With The Cruise Maps

I am recently back from my 8-night Windstar Wind Surf cruise from Venice to Rome, and once home, I did what I always do after every trip. I sat down to order my latest set of mementos to add to my growing collection.

For me, the main way to do that is through The Cruise Maps and The Cruise Cards by The Cruise Globe.

Here is exactly how I preserve my cruise memories, how these brilliant pieces are created, and how you can get a special 10% discount to start or build your own collection.

My Post-Cruise Ritual: The Three Things I Always Order

Every time I disembark a ship, I order three specific items to ensure that trip is captured forever, and added to my collection:

1. The A4 Cruise Map

I order a beautifully detailed, A4-sized custom print of my exact sailing. These prints are specifically sized to slot perfectly into my Cruise Map Album. Seeing the pages fill up with different coastlines and routes over the years is incredibly satisfying.

2. The Cruise Card

Ordered via The Cruise Globe, this is a premium, tangible card for my specific sailing. It displays the embarkation and disembarkation ports, the duration, the actual nautical miles traveled, a precise map of the route sailed, and a handy QR code that links directly to the digital version of the cruise on The Cruise Globe.

3. The Cruise Ship Card (When Available)

If it’s available for the vessel I was on, I also grab the specific Cruise Ship Card. This details the tech specs of the ship itself: the date it was launched, the number of decks, the passenger and crew capacities, and more. While these aren’t available for every single ship just yet, the site lets you easily set up an alert so you get a notification the second your ship’s card drops.

How I store them: Both the Cruise Card and the Cruise Ship Card go directly into my dedicated Cruise Card Album, right alongside the physical plastic cruise card issued to me by the cruise line during the trip. It keeps the whole memory of the voyage in one beautifully organized place.

Making a Statement: Framed Studio Maps

For particularly significant voyages—like my Panama Canal Group Cruise—an album isn’t enough. For those milestone trips, I order a large, professionally framed cruise map to hang on the wall.

In fact, if you’ve watched my recent YouTube videos, you’ve been looking right at one! The framed map from that Panama Canal crossing hangs proudly on my studio wall and serves as the backdrop for all my videos. The maps from my other major milestone trips are displayed across another room in the house, turning my travel history into actual home decor.

The Tech Behind the Maps: Real Satellite Tracking

What makes these maps and cards so special — and why I partnered with them — is that they don’t just print a generic brochure itinerary. They show exactly where your ship went.

The Cruise Maps and The Cruise Globe were founded by a fantastic trio of friends of mine: geographer Matt Jones, well-known cruise content creator Emma Le Teace (Emma Cruises), and naval architect Will Ellison.

Because of Will’s background in marine technology, the platform is built to utilise historical AIS (Automatic Identification System) satellite ship tracking data. Every ship reports its exact position every few minutes. The team pulls thousands of these data points for your specific sailing dates, and their team of mapmakers manually verifies the data to ensure 100% accuracy. If your ship took a detour to avoid a storm or took a slightly different path into port, your map will show it.

How to Get Your Own (With a 10% Discount)

If you want to start logging your own travel history or want a beautiful memento from a recent holiday, I’ve secured a 10% discount for the Tips For Travellers community across both sites.

• For Custom Cruise Maps & Albums: Go to thecruisemaps.com/TFT. The 10% discount will be automatically applied to any map product at checkout.

• For Cruise Cards & Ship Cards: Head over to TheCruiseGlobe.com (or download their app). You can create a completely free account and enter your entire cruise history to see your lifetime stats and routes mapped out in 3D. When you are ready to buy physical cards, click the “Order Cards” link in the lower right corner and use the discount code TFT at checkout to get 10% off your order

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