FE .. Problems with People Taking Stuff

[JayhawkFans]

We are really wanting to participate in a FE exchange on our Fantasy cruise next year. My question might seem silly but here goes ... Our cabin #8572 is just as you enter the hallway midship right off the stairs and elevators. We would really like to participate in the FE but I'm wondering if we will be a target for thieves .. With being so close to the staircase/elevator area and the animated paintings / midship detective activities .. etc ... I'm wondering if we will find our FE items being taken by others passing by? Granted it's impossible to predict what might happen but just curious if people who have currently cruised have had any problems with their FE's being looted.

 

[FFMatt12]

I am not on the same cruise as you, however, I am tuning in to see the results of your question. I have been reading up on these extenders but theft is always the first thing I think of.

 

[HookdonWDW]

We've participate in FEs 3 times, and as far as I know we've never had anything taken - but if it was taken, I guess I wouldn't know! FEs are about spreading the magic, and since worrying about the possibility of someone stealing something would take away from that magic, I don't dwell on it. We always get more than enough and have a blast. If someone needs something bad enough to steal it, oh well...

 

[JayhawkFans]

I too had the thought of if someone needed it that bad .. help themselves because they obviously needed it more .. but it would be disappointing to put effort and money into something only to have someone with sticky fingers help themselves. I really hadn't given it a thought until I realized just how close we are to the elevator and stairs. We really like that area for ease in getting up and down to where we want to be ...

 

[purfectlyweird]

I would say watch out for any f.e. gifts that you do receive that are magnets. Sometimes the magnets contain unique graphics like the ship name embarkation date etc. so if you put them on your door they might be susceptible to theft. I was warned about this for my 1st cruise so all the magnets I made had the families last name on them to help prevent this.

 

[muse7mom]

We were in 8050, two rooms away from elevators and stairs. With all of the wonderful things we received, I wouldn't think anything ever came up missing. I didn't think it was a problem.

 

[PizzieDuster]

I don't know if anyone took anything out of our FE. We came home with tons of stuff.

However, when I got home, I mentioned that I always ran out of my gifts and couldn't make it to the lower floors (even though I had brought extra). I don't think we had a list of cabin numbers back then. A DISer mentioned that sometimes people see the FE and people putting gifts in them and will put out a bag/shopping bag and they did not sign up for the fish exchange. That's how I ran out. The second time I had a list and walked past many 'bags' on cabins that were not on the FE list.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I have only had a door magnet taken. I participate in Candy Exchanges and have not had any problems. Have not been real close to an elevator, but anyone passing in the halls could be tempted.

 

[lds0191]

We have never noticed anything being taken but we did catch Max going through the Fish Extender at the cabin across the hall from ours. It was pretty funny.

 

[lbgraves]

There have been lots of reports of things being taken out of FEs, as well as the FEs themselves. That is why it is suggested that you ziptie them to the fish. I've only known of a couple things being taken when someone asked if everyone received a particular item after we got back.

 

[Tiffylv]

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[JayhawkFans]

Thank you so much everyone for your responses. Looks like we will go for it and hope for the best. We'll definitely zip tie the FE. Thanks for that tip!

 

[momtoleasawav]

I guess I don't know if anything has ever been taken because I didn't know what to expect. However, my daughter had a senimental magnet taken last time, I've learned my lesson not to leave anything out that we care about

 

[PizzieDuster]

Funny you mention that....on our (only) cruise I didn't do fish extender because I didn't know about it until last minute, but my candy-loving first grader was so jealous every time we walked past one. He tried to convince me to put a bag out so we could get candy too. That's not how it works, buddy!!

Awww. I don't blame him. While making deliveries I would get comments or questions how does "this" work. Tiffylv, makes me feel better knowing I may have lightened up a little ones day

 

[Amunet]

To thwart the potential of this, our FE bag has deep pockets ^_^ I imagine it's easier to take things that protrude from a shallow pocket FE than a deep one.

 

[jgross24]

We have done the FE several times......we had some stuff taken on one of our cruises. I saw the gifts in our FE when I left our room to pick up our kids from the kids club and when we got back 10 minutes later, they were gone! On another cruise we had some magnets missing from our door! This doesn't discourage us though....we still sign up every cruise and have fun with it!

 

[muse7mom]

Our FE hanger is personalized with our names. I can't understand someone taking it because we have a very unusual last name. If someone wanted to take it that badly, I guess they can have it. I won't let that ruin my trip.

 

[3Down1Up]

To thwart the potential of this, our FE bag has deep pockets ^_^ I imagine it's easier to take things that protrude from a shallow pocket FE than a deep one.

I've also read of people putting velcro on each pocket to keep the pocket closed, so that the would-be thief would have a harder time reaching into there.

 

[wanderluster25]

We've never had a problem with FE gifts going missing. We did, however, had some magnets stolen from our door.

 

[PACVII]

Ok so I will ask what is FE