Favorite Fish Extender Gift?

[emica13]

Hi all! Quick background: My boyfriend and I are taking our first Disney Cruise this December! 4 Days to the Bahamas with 2 other couples in our late 20s. We are signed up with a fish extender group made up of 40-50 other people (adults and families with kids).

I have a few ideas for our FE gift, but I would love to hear from you. What was your favorite thing you received (or would have liked to receive) as a Fish Extender gift? For adults, for kids, for teens, anything! We're from Maine, so I'm sure everyone would be happy with the maple candy and lobster magnets I've been looking at, but I want to give the people what they want!!

Thanks for any help or advice you can give. 117 days can't go by fast enough!!!

Em

 

[jlynch924]

We're doing our 4th DCL cruise in Nov, but participating in FE for the very first time banana and we're all excited. I've gotten lots and lots of ideas from Pinterest and various blogs. If you google "fish extender" you will be inundated with ideas!

Have fun!!

 

[DISNEYWITHCHILDREN]

My favorite gift was 3 small clear plastic bottles tagged St. Marteen, St. Thomas and Castwaway Cay to collect sand.

Honestly we got so many great gifts, but that was my absolute favorite. I did also like that someone gave us a box of snow caps. If we had gone to the movies I would have definitely taken them with us. However we got back one day from an excusrsion, and I was so hungry! A few snow caps and I was good to go with my 6 year old for 10 rounds on the Aqua Duck!

 

[Narnia_girl]

I've received so many nice gifts and love them all. Probably my favorites are items I can use at home on a regular basis that remind me of DCL. The magnets are on my fridge and get looked at every day. The magnet clips are used all the time. I also use the bookmarks, cups, tote bags.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Your gift idea sounds great. I really like magnets. I can put them up immediately on our door, and they're fun to collect. I also really appreciate candy. For some reason, people always complain about getting candy on here, but honestly it's one of our favorite gifts.

 

[MissChris]

We did fish extenders on the last trip we took and it was so much fun to have a little present waiting for us when we got back every day. I will say that we got so much candy that even though we're a family of four, we left a big bag of candy in the stateroom for the steward to take, I hope the crew enjoyed it because we couldn't eat anymore!

We got a huge variety of stuff, the kids got really adorable homemade activity books that promised a prize if they were completed and returned to the maker's stateroom, that was cute. And some really cute homemade disney crafts, like magnets and bookmarks. But I really liked the stuff that was themed to the places our co-cruisers were from, those were my favorites for sure. We got beignet mix, and some specialty treats from various states and those were the most fun because they were unusual and unique. I love your idea of themed gifts from Maine, that's really fun and memorable.

 

[Laundress]

Our last cruise we got lots of cool stuff but I use my key chain every day. It reminds me all the time of our trip. That is my favorite.

 

[jana616]

We just got our finalized FE groups for our upcoming cruise. I'm thinking of making each person in the room a little bag of ice cream toppings to use with the self serve ice cream machines, and then giving each cabin a CD of MNSSHP music (our cruise is right before Halloween)...do those sound okay?

 

[TLinden16]

One thing that I did for a FE gift that went over really well was a deck of playing cards personalized with a label with the dates of the cruise. I found a graphic of Disney deck chairs online, and put the phrase "There's always fun on deck aboard the Disney Fantasy" and the dates and stops on our cruise.

 

[LindaBabe]

hands down, the most useful gift we ever received was a flattened cardboard thing that popped up into a drink carrier tray for drinks from the beverage station.

The second most useful thing was a baggie containing a (clean) q-tip, safety pin, paperclip, rubber band, coated hair tie, one of those wire twist ties and I forget what else. We were forever dipping in to that bag to solve some issue.

The most beautiful thing was hand beaded jewelry made by DolphinGirl.

And those are the most memorable out of 17 cruises of clever, attractive useful and other wise wonderful FE gifts.

 

[Meriweather]

We got great home made magnets with the cruise stats on it
a CD with cruise and Disney music on it
key chains.....all home made and Disney themed

What we didn't like have been all the dollar store items....we are 2 adults.
We left all of those for the cabin steward to do with as he pleased

 

[AquaDame]

We got great home made magnets with the cruise stats on it
a CD with cruise and Disney music on it
key chains.....all home made and Disney themed

What we didn't like have been all the dollar store items....we are 2 adults.
We left all of those for the cabin steward to do with as he pleased

I feel awful but these two adults never got around to using all the ice cream kits either.

 

[jana616]

I feel awful but these two adults never got around to using all the ice cream kits either.

So people get a ton of those as well? Our TA told me that was one of her family's favorite gifts bc they actually used it and it made their experience a little more fun. But I don't want to be one of 15 kits people get. Most of our rooms have kids.

 

[iloverags2]

I love the idea of lobster magnets and maple candy! Our fridge is full of magnets we have collected over the years from various places...and candy is always a good thing!

 

[JKSWonder]

So people get a ton of those as well? Our TA told me that was one of her family's favorite gifts bc they actually used it and it made their experience a little more fun. But I don't want to be one of 15 kits people get. Most of our rooms have kids.

In two prior FE's, I have never received a single one of these. My kids and I would love it.

 

[TheRichFam]

I'll agree we love the magnets. Every time I open the fridge I remember our Fantasy cruise and look forward to our trip to Alaska on the Wonder!

We also really liked the scavenger hunt that helped us get to know the ship; the CD of music from the onboard shows, ship whistles and background music; and the hand painted DCL themed photo frame.

I will echo PPs concerning Dollar Store gifts. We could really do without them. It just gave us a lot more stuff to deal with in an already crowded stateroom (we have five in our crew!)

Bottom line: whatever you do will be "good enough," even if it doesn't make anyone's favorite FE gift list. Just relax, have a good time, and let the experience add to your trip, NOT stress you out so much you forget you're on vacation

 

[aprilchem]

We've done 2 FEs and got a couple of the ice cream kits. The other thing we got a lot of was first aid kits; I think we got 6 or 7 total.

 

[emica13]

My favorite gift was 3 small clear plastic bottles tagged St. Marteen, St. Thomas and Castwaway Cay to collect sand.

Honestly we got so many great gifts, but that was my absolute favorite. I did also like that someone gave us a box of snow caps. If we had gone to the movies I would have definitely taken them with us. However we got back one day from an excusrsion, and I was so hungry! A few snow caps and I was good to go with my 6 year old for 10 rounds on the Aqua Duck!

That's an awesome idea, thank you!

 

[emica13]

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses! Its so nice to hear that the magnets went over well, and people enjoy things with some thought. Wish you were all going on the cruise with us! Can't wait to get working on these!

Thank you again, and Happy Disney!

Em

 

[emica13]

Thank you I have a tendency to over plan, so a reminder to relax is always appreciated!