As I said midway through the last section
one of the uniquely DIS things that goes on during a
DCL cruise is a bit of madness known as a Fish-Extender Exchange. I also said Id explain it later on. Well
we have arrived at later on.
So
just what is this bit-o-nuttiness? Believe me, that question gets asked very regularly on the DCL forum of the DIS (which you can find
here). When it crops up, one of the moderators will often point the newbies over to the Alphabetical-FAQ thread and say: There is a link to a good explanation of the F/E process in the FAQ
(stay with me a might longer here, I am going to get to the point in a minute). Now Ive written up a couple of explanatory posts on this topic myself, so when I first saw her comment, I was intrigued. Being intrigued, I called up the FAQ
Scrolled down to the entries starting with F and found this:
Now, that first title looked oddly familiar, so I clicked the link and found this:
Thats me! Seriously? I was quoted by one of the moderators
In the FAQ
Really? Now, what this means to you, is that you can head on over there and just skip the rest of this section all-together. But if you stay, then what Ill be doing is basically updating and modernizing that original post (treating it a bit like a ship spending some time in dry-dock). So, here we go
A Fish Extender Primer
So just what exactly is a fish and just why does it need extending? Well
The fish is a combination wall decoration/ornament and message clip that is attached to the wall outside every cabin on the Magic & Wonder. Aboard the Dream and Fantasy, it may be a seahorse, a fish, or a starfish depending on where your cabin is located, but the functionality is the same. In all cases, the CMs use these devices to leave messages, official forms or invitations for the occupants of the cabin as needed. Its kind of like a glorified fridge-magnet and will look like one of these this bad boys:
A Fish Extender is anything that you care to hang on said fish. Literally anything will qualify, but in general, they are usually some type of pocket organizer similar to either a shoe caddy or a mail organizer. They can be as simple as a canvass bag or as complex as your imagination cares to stretch. Here are a few examples that Ive encountered on previous cruises:
Ive even seen folks just hang up a plastic grocery bag as an F/E (probably because they joined in at the last minute or lost theirs, but no one will judge you harshly no matter what you end up using. There is actually a community of folks who make and sell these devices on
Etsy and
eBay. Some of em will also take custom orders (seriously
go Google it). Im not sure what the percentages are between those that buy and those that make their own, but Ive seen many different takes on the theme and some mighty good craftsmanship.
Now, no one in my house is very good with a needle and thread, so we chose to go a different rout entirely and engineered our own F/E. The parts list included a couple of small canvas bags, a Disney themed bandana (all purchased at Michaels) and some chain scavenged off a discarded light fixture. The end result, which has now served us well on a couple of cruises, ended up looking like this:
Howd we make it? First, cut images that you like out of the bandana and glue them to some crafters hard-board (this adds strength, and you can use any image you like including printed paper with this method). Use a craft knife to cut and trim the hard-board to size and shape then glue those pieces to the canvas bags (white glue works best). We then trimmed the edges of the hard-board with cotton string to give it both a nautical feel and a more finished look. Next, install grommets into the corners of the bags (you can find a grommet tool at either a hardware store or a fabric store). Then hook the bags together with a few links of chain (or rope, string, twine, ribbon
you get the idea) and call it done. There is also a link to instructions for a No-Sew F/E that follows the more traditional design in the DCL-FAQ, but we just wanted to have something that was different from everyone elses.
OK
now you know what it is, but just whats it for? Well
Its become a kind of Secret Santa game played by the folks who roam the DIS Boards. The idea is that every DIS member who is on the same cruise will go around the ship and leave a little nick-nack or whats-it in the pouches for the other members that are playing along. The generally agreed rules are that you give out gifts to each participant once per cruise, and that the gifts should be very inexpensive trinkets that either fit a cruise or holiday theme and/or show off a little taste of who you are or the place that you call home. Heres a link to a continuing thread on the boards that discusses the subject at length:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607
The way you join up with an F/E is to first join the meet-thread for you upcoming cruise. Once there just ask which member is in charge of setting up the F/E, then let that person know that you interested in taking part. Ive actually been in charge of running this little game a couple of times. During our last trip however, there was already someone in charge, so I just got to tag a long this time. There ended up being 26 total cabins in the exchange. We also chose to assign specific dates to each group so that every one would find one or two gifts each day of the cruise. We received a number of creative and fairly crafty little do-lollies during our sailing and Ill try to talk about a few of them as we go forward. As for what we handed out
it ended up being a little care package of miscellaneous Disney-esk trinkets that looked like this:
Heres what all was in the packets:
What you see there is a Mickey Pez dispenser, some Starbursts and gum (all acquired from a dollar store), a copy of that paper ship model that you can find in Bonus-Fearture-2, a Disney/Dream themed post-it pad and pen (which we Imagineered ourselves)
a couple of small door/fridge magnets (also our work) and heres one example:
and a CD of various Caribbean/Sailing/Vacationing/Disney related tunes. A couple of other groups also gave out CDs, but since I did the artwork for one of them, I already knew what songs she was planning to use and could stay away from repeating those tunes at least. I was also able to capture recordings of the various ships horn calls and added them to the CD as well.
Not one little bit of this nonsense will go down in history as the personification of gift giving, but taking part in the whole affair was a lot of fun. Now
let me ask you
have you ever tried to carry enough bricka brack to supply F/E gifts for twenty-five other families? Well if you ever do, it will look a bit like this:
On the up side, once you deliver all your gifts, youll have an extra bag left over into which you can cram all the flotsam and jetsam that youve collected up during your own exploits aboard the ship.
