Fish Extender gifts question

[Daisy'sMama]

Ok, I am just trying to figure out how this works. We are sailing in Feb with a smaller FE group. However, one of our families has 11 people and one has 16. Does that mean I need to make/bring 27 gifts, but my daughter will only get two? Is it per person or per family or per stateroom? How do I broach this with our group without sounding selfish? I just want it to balanced.
thanks
Stephanie

[Hunclemarco]

Not sure if you have to mention anything at all. If all you can do is one gift per family group, that should be fine. If you can and want to create individual gifts...that would be fine too. If you fear your child not receiving much, you can also pack a few gifts and throw them in throughout the trip. This should be a fun activity...no need to complicate matters

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[Laundress]

Has your group set up a cut off time for signing up for FE? I found that the last few weeks our group trippled in size. we had to have a before and after cut off group. We ended up with so much cool stuff that I had to buy a duffle bag from the gift shop to get it home.
To get back to your guestion. you can do the gifts any way you want, per person,room,family,grown ups,children. some people do one gift per day some one for the whole trip. It really is up to you. you can also choose to put your name or not. The whole thing is a surprise. But there is still plenty of time for the group to grow and for things to even out. Enjoy

[iloverags2]

I will apologize ahead of time, but I don't get those two "families". To me, if you have say a family of 5 or 6 spread out over two staterooms, that is one thing. Extended family beyond that in a number of staterooms? Seems to me they need to be broken up as that...mom/dad/kids for each set of families within the family. Again, not to be harsh, but that just is my take on it. I will say in all the exchanges I have participated in, when parents are traveling with their kids and grandkids, they have always been a separate family so to speak. Just my opinion.

As others have said, the way you handle it is up to you.

[AnotherPrincess]

We are traveling with extended family and we have 2 rooms total. The way we look at it is each room is a family. Therefore each room will have an extender and each room will give gifts. I think the rule of thumb should be that if an extender is put out, expecting to be receiving, then gifts should come from that room too. However, this isn't always what happens. Unless your extender group specifically addresses this, it will be up to each family/room to decide what to do.

[JustTJ]

The issue I ran into last year for our FE, was that some didn't pay attention to our situation. I was travelling with a Girlfriend and my youngest son. It started out as a "Mommy and Me" trip for myself and my youngest, but then I invited my friend along. We both signed up for the FE, She made her own FE gifts and I made my own to give out. We did, as far as I'm concerned, make it clear we were TWO separage families in one stateroom, giving out two separate gifts. Some people who gave to us, gave one gift per stateroom. It should have been one gift per family. So some items, we had to decide who would take it home, and the other would be without. And some of those gifts were very nice gifts. Don't know what else we could have done in that situation?

[Hunclemarco]

We had about 30 in our FE group....and then a few extras that joined in the last minute. We purchased/made items for each individual, then one item for each family group. We made extras for those that joined in some instances...last second

The person that set up our FE had us put each individual on the list, and we were able to determine the family groups. Also noted were special occasions, and ages of the kids. This way we were able to do as we could. Unfortunately you'll never know if you'll get items from a family group or from each individual within the family group. There may be no way to determine a "balance". Again, it's suppose to be a fun event. Do what you're able and want to do, and enjoy it in the fact that you're giving some cheer to others on the cruise... then anything you receive with be that much more joyful

We purchased disney candies, disney flashlights for the kids, and made personalized disney magnets with the help of the disigns thread for everyone. Then the second day we sent everyone glow sticks and pirate garb. We then made tote bags...one for each family group so if they chose, they could use it for Castaway Key day. We were on a 3 day Bahamian cruise.

[sissy_ib]

Are the 11 people and 16 people considering themselves one group each? They should be doing it by family unit or stateroom. How are they listed on the sign up sheet?

[DobieLover]

I'm very new to this... with the FE, there's no "secret Santa" type assignment /matching by the organizer? Just everyone gives to everyone? I have lots of cute little stuff for kids... would it be appropriate to just give to the cabins with kids for however many kids are in each cabin?

[stsomewhere]

Originally Posted by JustTJ

The issue I ran into last year for our FE, was that some didn't pay attention to our situation. I was travelling with a Girlfriend and my youngest son. It started out as a "Mommy and Me" trip for myself and my youngest, but then I invited my friend along. We both signed up for the FE, She made her own FE gifts and I made my own to give out. We did, as far as I'm concerned, make it clear we were TWO separage families in one stateroom, giving out two separate gifts. Some people who gave to us, gave one gift per stateroom. It should have been one gift per family. So some items, we had to decide who would take it home, and the other would be without. And some of those gifts were very nice gifts. Don't know what else we could have done in that situation?

My mom and I traveled together in the same stateroom.
We both gave out our own FE.
I asked the organizer to list my mom and I seperately.

[nikicares]

Originally Posted by Daisy'sMama

Ok, I am just trying to figure out how this works. We are sailing in Feb with a smaller FE group. However, one of our families has 11 people and one has 16. Does that mean I need to make/bring 27 gifts, but my daughter will only get two? Is it per person or per family or per stateroom? How do I broach this with our group without sounding selfish? I just want it to balanced.
thanks
Stephanie

I have "hosted" the FE group for 2 of our cruises, and both was set up for each family to do as they wish (gift per person, gift per cabin, gift per day) whichever works best for that person. Many people enjoy doing personalized per person gifts ( I am not that talented or crafty) so I always just made a per cabin gift with a few little goodies in it and then the family could decide who gets/wants what.

I did notice on the newer ships with the ships being larger I would NOT have wanted to hand out gifts per day - it was a lot of walking deck to deck, cabin to cabin.

Just know that being apart of a FE is about giving and receiving fun little surprises through out your cruise - this is just a fun "addition" to your cruise. Expect nothing and get lots of fun and laughter (and goodies) out of your experience!

[tink576]

In regards to the kids gift question. You should still do a gift for the staterooms with adults only....like what we do is give kid specific things or half adult half kid gift to the rooms with kids then an an all adult gift for rooms with only adults

[caribear]

Originally Posted by Daisy'sMama

Ok, I am just trying to figure out how this works. We are sailing in Feb with a smaller FE group. However, one of our families has 11 people and one has 16. Does that mean I need to make/bring 27 gifts, but my daughter will only get two? Is it per person or per family or per stateroom? How do I broach this with our group without sounding selfish? I just want it to balanced.
thanks
Stephanie

I have been involved in a couple of FE's.....and it is usually divided by staterooms. If the family with 11 people has 3 staterooms....then that is 3 different FE holders hanging from 3 cabin doors....thus 3 different FE gifts. Each stateroom should make a gift to give out....for this purpose it would be easier to make 1 gift per stateroom to give out to the other participants. Now if this family of 11 is only going to have 1 FE holder hanging from 1 cabin......then you can do 1 FE gift to hand out. It's not based really on how many people are in your family.....it's based more on the number of cabins. If someone chooses to make a gift for each person in the cabin....VS one larger gift per cabin....then that is up to them. Just have fun with it....and if it seems too overwhelming....then just bring some of your own little gifts to put in your DD's FE each day.

[DbleTheFun]

In all the FE exchanges that I have participated in, the coordinator creates a list, It contains Cabin #, and names/ages/sex of the people in the cabin. Then all participants print out this list, and make/hand out treats based on this information. It's SO much fun to come back to your cabin to discover a little treat or two in your FE, and even more fun to slip some fun items into your fellow cruiser's FE's from your family.

I dont think there needs to be a long list of rules, but I do think that if you sign up to participate, you ensure that you follow through and contribute to all the cabins/people in your exchange. Whether that means something larger for the cabin to share, or smaller contributions based on age for each cabin member- just have fun with it and dont stress!

[mncooldad]

Thanks everyone for sharing ideas. I am new to this so everybit helps.