Can someone explain the FE process?

[Angeliki19]

Hi! We are booked for April 30th, 2018 3 night on the Dream. I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Its our first cruise and although it is short, we want to make the most of it!

I have heard about the FE thing so I know the general gist, but I have some questions!

1) How do I sign up?
2) Do you do it with just one family or multiple?
3) Do you do it for every day of your cruise?

I am guessing the answers to 2 and 3 are "whatever you want" but just wondering what the "standard" is! I don't want to stress myself out too much since its a short cruise and we will be just trying to take it all in, but I love this idea so much... Disney magic created by fans! We have to be a part of it.

Thanks!

 

[bobbiwoz]

https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-dream-april-30-2018.3593905/

You would join through the voyage's thread if someone has organized a fish exchange. The FEs are self directed, with their own rules, so there really not a single answer for everyone.

I have organized a local candy/snack exchange for many cruises and in March, there was no other FE organized on the Disboard, so we agreed that gifts would be given to the children if you wanted to, and even then, some people gave gifts every day!

What a bonanza of gifts that was!!

When I organize the CE, I keep the groups between 6-11 cabins, and I try to arrange groups by decks if more than 1 group.

 

[Angeliki19]

Great thank you! I just realized I put the wrong date in... we are on the 3 night on April 27th. We debated long and hard between the 3 and 4 night and that's why I keep getting the dates confused.

I didn't see a thread yet for our dates. I guess I can start one, but I definitely wouldn't want to be in charge of the FE!!! Do people do them on 3 night cruises or more of a longer cruise thing?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Great thank you! I just realized I put the wrong date in... we are on the 3 night on April 27th. We debated long and hard between the 3 and 4 night and that's why I keep getting the dates confused.

I didn't see a thread yet for our dates. I guess I can start one, but I definitely wouldn't want to be in charge of the FE!!! Do people do them on 3 night cruises or more of a longer cruise thing?

There would be some interest on a 3 night. As far as starting your own thread, don't be afraid, someone has to!

I hope you have a magical cruise!

 

[DCLDVC1]

Sometimes it goes like this.....

1) Sign up in your cruise group
2) Worry about what you're going to make
3) Make an elaborate, kick butt gift
4) Pack an extra suitcase filled with said kick butt gifts
5) Spend a couple of hours delivering gifts
6) Get a bunch of stuff from Oriental Trading Company in return
7) %*#*$%&%

 

[Dug720]

For a three-night unless your meet is doing very small groups or organizing it by ship location, to me it seems like you'll waste a lot of time getting them delivered.

People have gotten/made the extenders and just gotten their own stuff for their kids to have the experience without the hassle.

 

[cmph]

Hi! We are booked for April 30th, 2018 3 night on the Dream. I AM SO EXCITED!!!! Its our first cruise and although it is short, we want to make the most of it!

I have heard about the FE thing so I know the general gist, but I have some questions!

1) How do I sign up?
2) Do you do it with just one family or multiple?
3) Do you do it for every day of your cruise?

I am guessing the answers to 2 and 3 are "whatever you want" but just wondering what the "standard" is! I don't want to stress myself out too much since its a short cruise and we will be just trying to take it all in, but I love this idea so much... Disney magic created by fans! We have to be a part of it.

Thanks!

Regarding your third question, which I don't think anyone has quite answered - no, you wouldn't give a gift for every single day of the cruise to each of the staterooms on your list. You would just give to / get from each stateroom once at some point in the cruise. That would be pretty time-consuming to drop off gifts for all the rooms every day, really, as it takes longer than you might think to go all over the ship.

If you want it to be a bit simpler, you might suggest a pixie dust list in your meet group, which is less formal. We did that, and I found it to be less stressful - I'm not crafty/creative and was worried our gifts wouldn't be nice enough for some folks, wouldn't properly feature each family member's favorite character, would take forever to do specialized things, etc. The way the pixie dust list worked was one person managed a spreadsheet, and we all entered our name, stateroom number, number of us in the room w/kids' ages if we wanted to participate. No requirements you'd give to everyone on the list, no expectations you'd receive from everyone on the list. For us, it wasn't how nice or special the gifts were, tbh, but just the fun of the kids spotting a little gift when they got back to the room. DS8 couldn't care less, as it turned out, but DD11 (now 12) was really into it. She didn't care what the items were, she was just happy to find surprises in our FE. Of all the items we got, the one that turned out to be the best was -- men's socks, haha!! I don't know who gave them, but the men's dress socks with Mickey on them are now in DH's regular rotation, and every time he wears them or I see them in the laundry basket, it takes me back to our trip and makes me smile! We also got use out of Finding Nemo go fish cards while waiting in the airport; I'm betting we aren't picky recipients. The cruise had been the kids' surprise Christmas present, but our next isn't a surprise, and I think I may end up letting DD take charge of the gifts we pass out... she's super artsy/craftsy and will no doubt come up with something special, in which case I may join a more formal group. I don't think we'd ever join a formal group on a 3-day though. Hope this info helps a bit!

 

[Angeliki19]

For a three-night unless your meet is doing very small groups or organizing it by ship location, to me it seems like you'll waste a lot of time getting them delivered.

People have gotten/made the extenders and just gotten their own stuff for their kids to have the experience without the hassle.

Thank you, that sounds like a good backup plan!! I do this for our Disney trips (Mickey and Minnie leave little presents for my kids each morning) and they love it! Not as magical as giving and receiving from other families, but definitely less stressful and time-consuming! Great idea!

Regarding your third question, which I don't think anyone has quite answered - no, you wouldn't give a gift for every single day of the cruise to each of the staterooms on your list. You would just give to / get from each stateroom once at some point in the cruise. That would be pretty time-consuming to drop off gifts for all the rooms every day, really, as it takes longer than you might think to go all over the ship.

If you want it to be a bit simpler, you might suggest a pixie dust list in your meet group, which is less formal. We did that, and I found it to be less stressful - I'm not crafty/creative and was worried our gifts wouldn't be nice enough for some folks, wouldn't properly feature each family member's favorite character, would take forever to do specialized things, etc. The way the pixie dust list worked was one person managed a spreadsheet, and we all entered our name, stateroom number, number of us in the room w/kids' ages if we wanted to participate. No requirements you'd give to everyone on the list, no expectations you'd receive from everyone on the list. For us, it wasn't how nice or special the gifts were, tbh, but just the fun of the kids spotting a little gift when they got back to the room. DS8 couldn't care less, as it turned out, but DD11 (now 12) was really into it. She didn't care what the items were, she was just happy to find surprises in our FE. Of all the items we got, the one that turned out to be the best was -- men's socks, haha!! I don't know who gave them, but the men's dress socks with Mickey on them are now in DH's regular rotation, and every time he wears them or I see them in the laundry basket, it takes me back to our trip and makes me smile! We also got use out of Finding Nemo go fish cards while waiting in the airport; I'm betting we aren't picky recipients. The cruise had been the kids' surprise Christmas present, but our next isn't a surprise, and I think I may end up letting DD take charge of the gifts we pass out... she's super artsy/craftsy and will no doubt come up with something special, in which case I may join a more formal group. I don't think we'd ever join a formal group on a 3-day though. Hope this info helps a bit!

Thanks, this is also a great idea! Although with no formal organization is there a chance that nobody would put something in yours? I would hate for my kids to be disappointed like that. Like you said, its not about the quality of the gifts for us, but just that someone took the time to spread some magic our way! Definitely something to think about though... I know a 3-day cruise is short so I want to make it as easy as possible!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Thank you, that sounds like a good backup plan!! I do this for our Disney trips (Mickey and Minnie leave little presents for my kids each morning) and they love it! Not as magical as giving and receiving from other families, but definitely less stressful and time-consuming! Great idea!



Thanks, this is also a great idea! Although with no formal organization is there a chance that nobody would put something in yours? I would hate for my kids to be disappointed like that. Like you said, its not about the quality of the gifts for us, but just that someone took the time to spread some magic our way! Definitely something to think about though... I know a 3-day cruise is short so I want to make it as easy as possible!

Typically, if your cruise meet thread group starts a Fish Extender exchange, there's a list. And the agreement is every room on the list will give (at least) one gift per room to all the other rooms on the list.

I'm not sure how a "pixie dust" list would work. The only "pixie dust" lists I've had experience with were on cruise meet groups that the official FE list has closed (you need to allow time for everyone to get their gifts together), there are often people who show up (booked late, didn't know about FE group, whatever). The people on the official list make a list of those people. And the newcomers are on the pixie dust list. They (the pixie dust group) agree to deliver gifts to the others on the official list but aren't guaranteed that those on the official list will gift them. But, there's almost always people who make extra, and will add people to their list all the way up to embarkation day.

 

[cmph]

Thanks, this is also a great idea! Although with no formal organization is there a chance that nobody would put something in yours? I would hate for my kids to be disappointed like that. Like you said, its not about the quality of the gifts for us, but just that someone took the time to spread some magic our way! Definitely something to think about though... I know a 3-day cruise is short so I want to make it as easy as possible!

There were at least a couple dozen people on our pixie dust list, and we definitely got dusted by more than half of them. We had gifts every day, some times more than once a day. Of course like anything else, you really can't guess how that will go each cruise. In our case, our list was comprised of late-comers who hadn't found the meet group until the formal FE was closed or booked last minute, some folks who had to change their cruise date at the last minute for an emergency and had already made their gifts, and some people like me who wanted "FE-Lite". And like schmoo said, some people on the formal FE will have extras that they will give to people on the pixie dust list rather than bring them all back home. If you're active in the meet group, you'll figure out pretty easily how well the pixie dusting will go, tbh. Our was via fb, b/c the meet group here was dead (like me and 3 other people), so you start to get a little bit of a camaraderie with people a bit more easily (names to faces and all). I would say to definitely participate actively in the meet group for the best results. I had to narrow down who we would give to, b/c 2 dozen would be nuts for me, and I first aimed for the folks I had chatted with the most or who had been the most enthusiastic or helpful in our group. Just b/c of quantities of stuff I was giving - I probably dusted 15 or so from the list. (This was a 7-day, though, and I spread the dusting over a few days fairly easily.) If you just threw your name on the list and never interacted with anyone prior to the cruise, seemed like a gift-grab.

And not that it's a guarantee, either, but you ought to have 100% gifting from a formal list, so if it's a concern - do that. But seriously insist that it stay 10 cabins or less per group for your first time and on a 3-day.

 

[MyShoes]

Sometimes it goes like this.....

1) Sign up in your cruise group
2) Worry about what you're going to make
3) Make an elaborate, kick butt gift
4) Pack an extra suitcase filled with said kick butt gifts
5) Spend a couple of hours delivering gifts
6) Get a bunch of stuff from Oriental Trading Company in return
7) %*#*$%&%

I wouldn't let this spoil your future Fish Extender experiences. Sometimes the gifts are from Oriental Trading; it's the chance you take when you sign up. Remember it's the magic.

 

[MyShoes]

There were at least a couple dozen people on our pixie dust list, and we definitely got dusted by more than half of them. We had gifts every day, some times more than once a day. Of course like anything else, you really can't guess how that will go each cruise. In our case, our list was comprised of late-comers who hadn't found the meet group until the formal FE was closed or booked last minute, some folks who had to change their cruise date at the last minute for an emergency and had already made their gifts, and some people like me who wanted "FE-Lite". And like schmoo said, some people on the formal FE will have extras that they will give to people on the pixie dust list rather than bring them all back home. If you're active in the meet group, you'll figure out pretty easily how well the pixie dusting will go, tbh. Our was via fb, b/c the meet group here was dead (like me and 3 other people), so you start to get a little bit of a camaraderie with people a bit more easily (names to faces and all). I would say to definitely participate actively in the meet group for the best results. I had to narrow down who we would give to, b/c 2 dozen would be nuts for me, and I first aimed for the folks I had chatted with the most or who had been the most enthusiastic or helpful in our group. Just b/c of quantities of stuff I was giving - I probably dusted 15 or so from the list. (This was a 7-day, though, and I spread the dusting over a few days fairly easily.) If you just threw your name on the list and never interacted with anyone prior to the cruise, seemed like a gift-grab.

And not that it's a guarantee, either, but you ought to have 100% gifting from a formal list, so if it's a concern - do that. But seriously insist that it stay 10 cabins or less per group for your first time and on a 3-day.

Nice to know the participation in the Pixie dust group was good. I organized one for a cruise happening in 19 days. The Pixie dust group was for late comers or for those who signed up for the cruise after the fish extender groups were closed. I'm looking forward to see how our participation goes.

 

[esquared221]

I'm really hoping someone starts a FE group for my cruise. I want to participate but Ive never cruise with DCL or done FE before so I don't want to run it. I'm not going to kill myself over it tho, small gifts and there's no way in hell I'm paying for an extra luggage just to pack FE gifts. I'm pretty artsy and crafty so that's probably the route I'll take. I know my kids would love this and I've done and thoroughly enjoyed being a FairyGodmailer in the past so I think I'd like it too.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I'm really hoping someone starts a FE group for my cruise. I want to participate but Ive never cruise with DCL or done FE before so I don't want to run it. I'm not going to kill myself over it tho, small gifts and there's no way in hell I'm paying for an extra luggage just to pack FE gifts. I'm pretty artsy and crafty so that's probably the route I'll take. I know my kids would love this and I've done and thoroughly enjoyed being a FairyGodmailer in the past so I think I'd like it too.

It's always possible to just "do" your own Fish Extender gifting. Many people just hang one and slip things into it for the others in their party.