Hanging FE's Without Joining a Group, What do you think?

[luv2sleep]

So I read a blog post that says this lady bought and hung a FE during a cruise and stuff magically appeared. No mention on if she gave back, but she was definitely not part of a meet and greet group or anything, just was told to get one and did.

Personally I only deliver FE gifts to cabins on my list, but it got me thinking, what do you do if there is a FE on a room not on your list?

Honestly if I had an extra I might pop it in thinking it was a cabin I missed, but I would be upset if I didn't have enough for the folks who contributed to our FE.

Has anyone experienced this, and what do you think?

I haven't read the other posts. I'm not joining an FE. Done 2 and decided not to do them anymore. However, my son LOVES the FE. So my plan was to fill it daily with little goodies just for him so he still gets what he wants out of it. If ppl put stuff in it I wouldn't know even where to start to return it. I wouldn't have it out expecting freebies though. Not at all. On out last cruise I saw FE not on our list. Since I didn't have extra I didn't put stuff in them. If I had had extra I would hesitate because what if there are food allergies, they don't want food, or they don't even want the stuff?

 

[atwood]

We haven't signed up for our trip. But I do plan on doing it for our daughter. I planned to leave stuff for her everyday or trip out etc. she will be so happy but I am not sure I will do a group. Should I put something saying that or just let it be. I do not want anyone feeling like we put it out for them to fill. I would feel awful doing that

 

[dunnhorn]

We usually make CDs of great cruising songs, and we ALWAYS bring extras. We have seen FEs before that haven't been on our list, and we have dropped a copy of a CD in the sleeve before. Heck, we have given the CDs away to our neighbors.

Just love spreading the "magic." It's not necessarily about what we get out of the FE - I just think it's fun to give... but that's just me.

 

[carmie3377]

We didn't do the dis FE last cruise but did hang our FE out. We were traveling with friends that we exchanged with and we left items for our kids. We ended up with a few random gifts, but that was totally not my expectation. In fact, I found out later from our meet thread that one of the gifts was left from a non participant. He simply knew from prior cruises that there would be FEs and brought homemade wooden cars and randomly left them. They were SO neat!

And I did post a "thank you" on our thread for the random gifts. I felt bad about it since I couldn't return the favor but there really wasn't anything else to do.

And the times that I did participate, I carried a list with me when I delivered.
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[kuhltiffany]

I hope I don't get flamed for admitting this, but if I see an FE that wasn't on my specific FE assigned list, I "regift" items we have received in our personal FE into it. We have many food allergies, so most of the treats we get we cannot use, so this is what I do with them...

 

[rmargani]

I hope I don't get flamed for admitting this, but if I see an FE that wasn't on my specific FE assigned list, I "regift" items we have received in our personal FE into it. We have many food allergies, so most of the treats we get we cannot use, so this is what I do with them...

I think this is a great idea! There is no reason that a gift should go to waste if your family can't use it. I think it is just one more way to spread the magic.

 

[ppony]

I never participate in the FE activities but I know the premise it is based on....give and receive...so when I hear of a TA telling a client to just "hang one out and it will get filled with goodies" just makes me cringe.

Does the TA not actually know how the process works??? I would never put one out and just expect people to fill it up without reciprocating. That is just tacky.

I see nothing wrong with hanging one out if not part of a group if you plan to fill it yourself with stuff for your family (and if in the process you get some misdirected ones)...but to hang one specifically expecting others to fill it is just wrong.

MJ

I was also annoyed when the one I participated in had one group in 3 different cabins (all adults) so they had 3 FEs hanging for gifts in each... then, they only gave is one baggie of old Halloween candy. I don't count monetary value, but some people put a lot of effort into their gifts like I did. I loved things people came up with, most were not costly in the least. I did little Disney paintings with easels for all adults cabins. So to give out 3 paintings (and extra stuff for the kids) to this group in return for one little bag of candy really gave me a sour taste. Each cabin w/ a FE should have given something IMO. I'll not participate again after that and a lack of anyone bothering to say thanks after. Courtesy was lacking IMO with most in my group.
At least I had a great time doing the paintings.

 

[canadiandisneycruise]

We had a surprise FE as a gift right before our cruise. The sign up had concluded, but we hung it up because the person who gave it to us was cruising with us. We did take a few Canadian things we would drop off at random doors while doing the detective game. We actually got some stuff too! The kids LOVED it! My concern doing it was having room to bring stuff, but I know we will do it if we cruise again! So much fun!!!

I think if you hang one, make sure to give too!!! It's fun to drop stuff off!!!

 

[Jcmh]

I will be bringing out FE, but am not on a FE list. We booked last minute and I don't have time to get everything ready for a FE, but my son (2yo) loved getting presents. So I will be filling ours will gifts from Mickey. I do not expect any extra items to show up in ours. On our last cruise we delivered gifts to less than 1/3 of the FEs that we saw hanging, but that was all that was in our group. I did have a few extra kids gifts and I left these in some of the adjoining cabins.

On our last cruise, our twins turned 3. In lieu of a birthday party, we arranged for Tinker Belle to deliver surprises to them.

We put little gifts (and sometimes bigger gifts... like princess dresses on formal night) on our kids beds in the evening. We always left them a little something, even if it was just a party favor type thing that only cost a few cents.

We found that they enjoyed this a lot more than the FE. And we didn't have to hang anything outside our door and confuse people who were doing the FE... or worry about someone rifling through it, as is sometimes reported.

We will be doing this again on our upcoming PC cruise.

 

[lbgraves]

I was also annoyed when the one I participated in had one group in 3 different cabins (all adults) so they had 3 FEs hanging for gifts in each... then, they only gave is one baggie of old Halloween candy.

Whenever I have done an FE group we have made it clear that you can sign up for your immediate family/stateroom only. If friends [other adults] are traveling with you, then they need to sign up seperately to ensure that they know what is going on and decide if they want to participate fully. Last cruise I did gifts per family, not stateroom. You can decide if you are gifting per family, stateroom, or person when you participate in an FE.

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

The Dis-Boards won't let me post a link to the original blog post (I guess it is considered a competing blog?). But it was posted on a Disney based blog today.

So after thinking about it for a while I think the thing that bothers me most is not that one person does this, but that a blogger who claims to know all about Disney is posting to her followers that this is the way things work.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I like to participate in all groups when we sail. So I would go down each and ever hallway giving gifts. I found so many that were not on the list but gave anyway thinking the list got messed up. This continued on for a few cruises. I have finally decided that I will follow the list to the T now. I think it's becoming too wide spread for it to be a mistake. It's almost taking the fun away because of people taking advantage of others.

 

[Meghatron]

I like to participate in all groups when we sail. So I would go down each and ever hallway giving gifts. I found so many that were not on the list but gave anyway thinking the list got messed up. This continued on for a few cruises. I have finally decided that I will follow the list to the T now. I think it's becoming too wide spread for it to be a mistake. It's almost taking the fun away because of people taking advantage of others.

Why are you assuming that FEs not on your list are people taking advantage of others and not (1) a family doing their own FE gifts for the kids; (2) a FE exchange created from a different website or other group that is not your own?

To the rest of the thread:

If I put up a FE without signing up for a group, no one has to put anything in it if I'm not on their list. Likewise, someone can create gifts to hand out to any FE they see and never sign up for a group in return, nor even have an FE on their door. An FE is not an automatic demand for a gift.

As far as I've been told whenever FE origins come up on the boards, this whole practice started as a way to spread Disney Magic and pixie dust to other people on the cruise. This idea that we are entitled to expectations of value and effort and quid pro quo is kind of boggling, especially when the burden is consistently being put on the person hanging the FE and not the person choosing to hand out gifts, either to a room on their list OR to a room not on their list. YES, people who put out an FE EXPECTING gift for no effort are greedy people. BUT, if the idea of giving something for nothing--or for very little in exchange--just to make someone's day a little better REALLY bothers you that much, then don't sign up.

My four-year-old DD has been working very hard on what are going to look like incredibly cheap bookmarks. It's what we can afford and she is desperately excited to hand them out. We will not be putting our names on them because I believe that FE gifts should be anonymous to avoid exactly this kind of accounting mentality and ensuing judgement. The thought that a single person would dismiss not only her hard work but also her learning experience simply because their gift was "better" or bigger or just MORE makes me want to cry. We love Disney because the brand teaches our children that true magic is made by people, at the micro and macro levels. That includes the FE exchange.

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[3mmm]

Having five kids, I have found that the FE can be overwhelming. I have considered hanging our FE and just bringing gifts for our kids and filling it ourselves. I would not expect anything else in there.

We did participate in the FE on our recent cruise because it was broken down into 3 or 4 groups of about 10 - 12 cabins each. That was fun and very doable and we got lots of terrific stuff. We did have a couple of extra gifts that we gave to some late comers that joined our group but missed the cutoff. I don't feel bad skipping over FE's that aren't in our group and I will do my own for my kids if the group becomes too large.

 

[MDennis28]

Soooo, can I put a FE out as a way of decorating our door and celebrating the fact we are cruising with the mouse with no thought or intention of gifts? Just decor for decor sake? I don't want to post a disclaimer on the wall next to it. Don't want to be misunderstood either. Thanks.

 

[bumbershoot]

I put more of the blame on the TA. I think it's tacky to expect people to give you gifts without doing the same for others. It's not good that she is advocating though for others to do it.

I think it's shocking that the TA said it. It's MORE shocking that the blogger is still advertising for the TA (quite heavily, and she even has a quote request on the side of at least one of her webpages...1 guess as to what TA that request goes to AND I bet it's the reason why the site cannot be posted here...I found it by googling the blogger's quote that someone gave on the first page of this thread) and is allowing others to be under the delusion that this is just magical pixie dust, and isn't being done BY people.

The embarkation meetup is when people share updated room numbers, plus our FE coordinator is going to post room changes to her white board for those who can't make it. If one upgrades and the information still doesn't get out there to the FE group, that's the risk one makes when upgrading. It's not other people's responsibility to find you.

I haven't (and probably won't) done a FE, but I agree. It's not up to the giver to figure out where people have gone. If someone is upgraded, they need to figure out how to get the info to people, IMO.

But I have a very smart grandson who would certainly notice other FE's full of goodies, and would wonder why Mickey didn't bring him anything.

As a FWIW...I saw *maybe* 6 FEs while wandering hallways of the Dream in Feb. Family was on deck 6 and we went through hallways getting to the Club and Lab, and I feel we saw many hallways while doing the detective agency. And I really didn't see that many.

My son asked what they were, and I told him. End of story. We weren't participating, I told him we weren't. No need to tell him that Mickey is giving presents to anyone, just tell him what's going on.

I mean, DO it for your grandson, that's fine! But there's no need to get into it being a fantasy; my son thought it was pretty neat that people did it for people without pixie dust being involved at all!

One thing we do is tag our FE gifts before we sail so that we know what cabin we are delivering to. We keep a list as well so that if we go to a cabin and there is no FE hanging there, we will know who we wanted to deliver it to.

I like it.

There are other decorations you can do as a "hello" to others. Hmm. Hearing this, I might bring ribbon for my FE group to pick up at the central room to tie on to signal that they are part of our group.

I like that, too. If you can figure out how to get it to people.

The Dis-Boards won't let me post a link to the original blog post (I guess it is considered a competing blog?). But it was posted on a Disney based blog today.

I'm thinking it's a "blog" made to advertise a TA and to earn money by people clicking on it. Might be a normal person who created it, but there's one TA heavily mentioned and linked to on it... That's the kind of thing the Dis doesn't like.

 

[tinkerone]

Why are you assuming that FEs not on your list are people taking advantage of others and not (1) a family doing their own FE gifts for the kids; (2) a FE exchange created from a different website or other group that is not your own?

To the rest of the thread:

If I put up a FE without signing up for a group, no one has to put anything in it if I'm not on their list. Likewise, someone can create gifts to hand out to any FE they see and never sign up for a group in return, nor even have an FE on their door. An FE is not an automatic demand for a gift.

As far as I've been told whenever FE origins come up on the boards, this whole practice started as a way to spread Disney Magic and pixie dust to other people on the cruise. This idea that we are entitled to expectations of value and effort and quid pro quo is kind of boggling, especially when the burden is consistently being put on the person hanging the FE and not the person choosing to hand out gifts, either to a room on their list OR to a room not on their list. YES, people who put out an FE EXPECTING gift for no effort are greedy people. BUT, if the idea of giving something for nothing--or for very little in exchange--just to make someone's day a little better REALLY bothers you that much, then don't sign up.

My four-year-old DD has been working very hard on what are going to look like incredibly cheap bookmarks. It's what we can afford and she is desperately excited to hand them out. We will not be putting our names on them because I believe that FE gifts should be anonymous to avoid exactly this kind of accounting mentality and ensuing judgement. The thought that a single person would dismiss not only her hard work but also her learning experience simply because their gift was "better" or bigger or just MORE makes me want to cry. We love Disney because the brand teaches our children that true magic is made by people, at the micro and macro levels. That includes the FE exchange.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

well said and I would be honored to get that bookmark. it sounds like just looking at it would let me know it was a childs work and having had children, I know how proud they get.
I can tell you that if I were to receive this I would be using it all over the ship in the hopes that the person who made it would know how happy I was with their work. i'm sure it would put a big smile on her face to see it being used.
let her continue and let her pass them out. let her know how happy everyone will be now that they have something to help them mark their pages.
and give her a big hug from everyone for all her hard work.

 

[luv2sleep]

I'm still putting up my FE to give my own son gifts even though I'm not participating in a group gift exchange. My son loves seeing it up and I love the look on his face when he gets stuff out.

 

[jetskigrl]

Soooo, can I put a FE out as a way of decorating our door and celebrating the fact we are cruising with the mouse with no thought or intention of gifts? Just decor for decor sake? I don't want to post a disclaimer on the wall next to it. Don't want to be misunderstood either. Thanks.

You can absolutely put an FE out. And no, I don't think you need to put any kind of disclaimer on it. There are multiple websites that do FE groups so just because the FE on a particular door is not part of the DIS group, it doesn't mean someone is trying to scam people out of gifts. They could be with another group or they could be doing it for their own kids...or they could be doing it just because they like to use their FE as a decoration.

Feel free to decorate your door as you please (within DCL guidelines, of course).

 

[dizzyr]

I'm glad I read this because I just found out recently what the fe is all about and when I told my girls they were super excited and we rushed out and bought stuff to make one. We also came up with lots of ideas about what to make as gifts. Our cruise is in november and while I realize its still a ways away there's no activity at all going on in our cruise meet up thread and I was worried the girls would be disappointed after putting in all the hard work of making it and planning the gifts (as will I). Now I will plan on bringing gifts for them and also pop the ones we made in random ones we happen to see. If the group here becomes more active that's even better but if it doesn't at least my girls will have the fun of checking what's in them every night. I will also see if I can find a group on another board that we can maybe participate in. If anyone is on the nov 17-21 dream cruise come join the thread - I need someone to talk to!!!!