Fish Extender Gift budget

[Anonny]

What is the value or how much do you spend on fish extender gifts for each cabin?

Debating if this is something I want to add to the cruise budget.

Thanks.

 

[DreamCruiser100]

The GREAT thing about GIVING FE gifts is that there is NO budget requirement ( unless your particular sailing group makes one,which in my opinion would be a looked at poorly) YOU give what you can afford to give and let others give what THEY can afford to give. Creative people can make lovely gifts for pennies and those who aren't as crafty can look to the $ stores of clearance sales. Since you asked for an amount I would say anywhere from 1 dollar per person and beyond.


~~~~HTH~~~~

 

[MartDM]

We've always averaged about $10 - $15 per cabin (but, keep in mind, we like to do separate gifts for the adults & kids because we find that easier than trying to figure out a "one size fits all" gift).

 

[Pinocchio #1 Fan]

I'm doing my first cruise, and first FE exchange in September. I've decided to make two homemade gifts per cabin(can't give any details, as someone on my list might read this post). They will both be gifts fro the whole family instead of a gift for each person, but I am also getting some extra stuff for all the kids on my list. Each kid will get a few different age appropriate(I hope) suprises sprinkeled throughout the week. I figure if I had kids, I'd want my kids to get many gifts, and wouldn't really care what I personally got. I'm gonna try and have at least one gift per kid reflect Southern California(my home)in one way or another!

I hope this is the right way to do it!

 

[cjnix29]

I think it also depends on how big your group is! My group for my upcoming cruise is almost 140 people and 37 cabins. I am spending much less per cabin than I would have if my group was half that big. Do what you feel comfortable with, and what makes it fun but not a burden on your budget.

 

[Mackie Mouse]

Do whatever you feel comfortable with. My suggestion? You can't go wrong with something edible that represents where you live. Being from PA, we like Tastykakes and Hershey chocolate

 

[Magic3forme]

I didnt spend a lot of money on our past cruise, but I organize the FE so I thought my time was worth something.

I gave everyone wipe off boards from Target, and I had to purchase the magnets to adhere them to the doors.

 

[SamandWill1921]

We are going on our first cruise this Sept. Our FE has 17 staterooms and right around $50 people. My budget was $100 no matter how big the group got. $2 per person (including ourselves) I thought was reasonable. I've got a bot of creativity in me and I'm pretty proud of our gifts

 

[kuhltiffany]

My budget last time was between 2 to 5 dollars per person. Some age groups were harder, so I spent more trying to get something I felt was appropriate.

The next time I'm giving everyone the same thing (bought in bulk), so that has brought the cost way down.

 

[miry]

I'm doing my first cruise, and first FE exchange in September. I've decided to make two homemade gifts per cabin(can't give any details, as someone on my list might read this post). They will both be gifts fro the whole family instead of a gift for each person, but I am also getting some extra stuff for all the kids on my list. Each kid will get a few different age appropriate(I hope) suprises sprinkeled throughout the week. I figure if I had kids, I'd want my kids to get many gifts, and wouldn't really care what I personally got. I'm gonna try and have at least one gift per kid reflect Southern California(my home)in one way or another!

I hope this is the right way to do it!

I love that my son gets his own gifts, it helps make the trip for him that much more special.

I don't think there's necessarily a right way or a wrong way. What I have done in the past and am doing for our upcoming cruise is one family gift per stateroom and one individual gift per person. I craft all of my gifts. Last year I did a paperbag scrapbook per room - the cost was about .70 per room, mickey head wire necklace for women - about .25 each, personalized key chains for men - about .40 each, duck tape wallets for boys and handbags for teen girls - about .75 each, necklaces for little girls - about .40 each, papercrafting kits for little boys - about .85 each, and stuffed dolls for toddlers and infants - about .95 each. Obviously that doesn't take into consideration any of my time but it does include all my supplies. This year the gifts will be different, but I expect the costs to be similar.

I really think that if you give from your heart it matters more than what the monetary cost of the gift is. Have a wonderful time!

 

[DVC Jen]

We averaged about 8.00 per cabin. That is just an average though because we gave each child something and then the adults a common gift. So if one cabin had only 2 adults and another had 2 adults and 3 kids - obviously we spent more on them.

We had around 22 cabins participating. The gifts we received varied from personalized pencils to locally made candy to pretty elaborately made books all about our cruise.

I can't say I enjoyed the more expensive elaborate gifts more than I did the smaller ones. They were all fun and appreciated.

 

[Ptwolfman]

I hope this isn't off topic, but how about a few ideas for boys aged between 12 & 14?

 

[hbg4]

I've made keyrings, given Disney pins for trading at the officer's pin trading night, pack of cards, pirate tattoos, candy, bookmarkers, bandanas.

 

[Ptwolfman]

Those are great ideas. Very helpful. Thank you

 

[kuhltiffany]

Las time I gave them water guns for use at CC

I hope this isn't off topic, but how about a few ideas for boys aged between 12 & 14?

 

[Cinderelley]

I'm doing my first cruise, and first FE exchange in September. I've decided to make two homemade gifts per cabin(can't give any details, as someone on my list might read this post). They will both be gifts fro the whole family instead of a gift for each person, but I am also getting some extra stuff for all the kids on my list. Each kid will get a few different age appropriate(I hope) suprises sprinkeled throughout the week. I figure if I had kids, I'd want my kids to get many gifts, and wouldn't really care what I personally got. I'm gonna try and have at least one gift per kid reflect Southern California(my home)in one way or another!

I hope this is the right way to do it!

Well Hello fellow cruiser!! lol. I appreciate the withholding of details. I'll do likewise so no spoiler alerts here!

My gifts are homemade and I did one per cabin but my sister who is also in the same cabin wanted to make something as well so every cabin is getting two homemade gifts. Otherwise, it would have been one per cabin.

Budgets usually depend on the families gifts that they want to make. On my cruise this past October, a family from Scotland gave each adult one small bottle of scottish whiskey and one small bottle of cake vodka in addition to a few other things! Personally, I didn't spend that much this cruise as my gifts involve mostly cardboard and paper. Last time I spent probably $100 dollars total and it was my first FE exchange so I went overboard crazy with homemade gifts. The majority just do one gift per cabin and a few inexpensive goodies for the kids or candy.

 

[cmclaura]

I don't really set a budget, but I do try to be reasonable. I'm frugal by nature, too.

One year, when I was organizing the meet, I spent about $7 per cabin on really nice insulated lunch bags with the DCL logo, our cruise and dates embroidered on it (I enlisted the help of Tiffany who makes the FEs on eBay and they were amazing; she used the same idea for her cruise which, funnily enough, was the one right after ours!).

This year, it's worked out to be just under $3 per cabin BUT I got something really cool from the Disney Outlet Store here that normally retails for $10 each, so the perceived value is high.

I tend to avoid Oriental Trading unless it's something special like the light up 2012 pins we gave out on the New Years Eve cruise.