HELP- Serious doubts about FE participation

[JWBmom]

Please bear with me....I am new to the whole FE thing.
I have been trying to come up with FE gifts without breaking the bank.
I am not trying to be cheap, just don't have a whole lot of extra money laying around.
I am not very crafty and have been searching for things to do for FE gifts and everything is sooooooo expensive.
So my question to all of you experts is how do you do this without spending a small fortune????
I know my kids would love to participate, but I am seriously considering opting out of participating.
Thanks!

 

[Wests4Disney]

I did many of my gifts home-made. I know that you said you were not very crafty, but some of my ideas require more computer skills, than crafting skills.

I made a small coloring book for children (think 1/4 sheet size). I printed blank free Disney coloring pages on cardstock, and bound them at the school with the school binders. I also included 16 color crayons. Those can be from a large box and then tied with a ribbon.

Candy and goodies are fine for the older kids. For adults: I also made magnets, which can be printed small like 10 to a page.

If you do not have computer skills, check out the disign boards, there are tons of ideas that can be borrowed from there. there are even people who will design things for you.

good luck, we did items that required more time than money.

 

[miry]

hi. Wish I could help more. I am a little on the crafty side and am making all of my gifts for under $1 each - neclaces, key chains, duck tape wallets, paper bag scrapbooks, etc. If you check out michales craftiing webste you might find things that are pretty easy. If not maybe a survival kit with bandaids, clothes pins, hair ties, etc. If you look at other posts you might find photos and lists of those. For kids maybe glow stick or other things from the dollar store. I hear candy is always a good thing. You don't have to be extravagent, just have fun. There are lots of places to search here to get ideas. I'll find some of them and ad them as links when I get home this evening.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1980639

 

[budbeerlady]

One of the things I was able to do very cheaply for our cruise FE. I found a great picture of the dream and had it made into a postcard type with our sail dates on it. I found the card deal on hip2save with free shipping I paid under $2 for 25 of them. I was going to give each family 1.

And I plan on doing individually wrapped candy, maybe pirate tattoos for the kids. Heck, I know Dd would be excited to find a laffy taffy in her pocket. The excitement for her is that someone put something in there, not what is the items $.

 

[Bethshaya]

You can try Oriental Trading company online as well for really cheap pirate themed things that come in bulk. For like $5 you can get pirate tattoos, or kits to make keychains, or put together treasure chests with chocolate coins.

Lots of ideas for less then $12 for a dozen.

 

[CrystalS]

You can get a box of halloween candy for a decent price and there should be more than enough in there for everyone on your FE list

Sometimes candies are nice gifts to get, you can bring them to the shows/theaters in place of the expensive movie candy they sell on board

 

[Mickeygolf]

I'm with the PP. We're most likely going to do candy as most people enjoy it and it will be easy. We may try to find an item to give to each family that is specific to our region, but most of the kids will get candy from us. We have a very large FE exchange group and I can't imagine making things for everyone and then getting them to the ship. I have a ton of respect for those that can and do. I'm just hoping my cruise mates will be happy with my contribution.

 

[ppiew]

On our cruise we have a # who are lactose intolerant, allergic to nuts and latex, can't have candy or sugar anything so I decided to avoid them all. The dollar store and Walmart (in the birthday section) has neat inexpensive stuff. They have glow sticks (great for pirate nite) and are packaged 8 to a package for $2.97. hacky sacks (?sp) 2or 3 for a $1.00, lip balm for about .50 lots of stuff.

 

[SmilingGrump]

We were first time FE participaters on our Alaska Cruise and we loved it! We delivered things every day, but that is not a requirement. Some others gave out things every day too, others only once during the trip. We didn't think anyone "cheaped out" ... our fun came in delivering the gifts and exploring the ship. Finding different routes to all the cabins, etc.

As mentioned, you certainly don't need to spend a lot nor be crafty. My DW is very crafty and made many of our FEs, but gifting candy, tattoos, etc are always well received! You get to use them up on the ship and they don't take space up in your luggage on the way home

 

[mousetravel]

I'm not crafty at all. For our FE exchanges, I just went to Party City and got the Disney loot bags and put different candy, stickers, etc. in there. I would always keep checking back there regularly because they're always putting stuff in clearance. I did different themes: Mickey for the moms, Cars for the dads, Princess for the girls, and Toy Story for the boys. They have a ton of Disney stuff there! But you don't have to do them for each person in the cabin, you could do one gift per cabin.

 

[Goofy4Ever]

I also think cd's with local music or Disney songs is a neat gift. I enjoyed listening to them.

I tried to be really crafty last time, but it was too much work. This time around I am going to Sam's and giving out candy, gum, and individual bags of cookies, goldfish, etc.

I think it all about the fun of it or at least it should be

 

[Jodijo]

On our cruise we have a # who are lactose intolerant, allergic to nuts and latex, can't have candy or sugar anything so I decided to avoid them all. The dollar store and Walmart (in the birthday section) has neat inexpensive stuff. They have glow sticks (great for pirate nite) and are packaged 8 to a package for $2.97. hacky sacks (?sp) 2or 3 for a $1.00, lip balm for about .50 lots of stuff.

Just a caution about glow sticks - I had glow sticks in my checked luggage and when I got to Florida, my suitcase did not appear on the luggage carousel. I went to report it missing and they said they had it but I had to sign to get it because of suspicious items in it - The glow sticks. I don't think I will be taking them again unless we find a way to get to Florida without flying.

 

[Princess Olivia]

I completely get where you're coming from. Let's just say after much stressing and NO crafting skills I ended up spending a lot of money. Something that should be fun (I'm sure it will be) caused some tiffs between dh and me. I don't dare bring up the fact we don't have FE's yet and need 2. After what I've spent I might just try to make something but it will probably look like my 2 yr old made it. Maybe that's what I'll claim

 

[MTmomma]

We called our local tourism office intending to hand out the "Get lost in Montana" bumper stickers. They GAVE us over 75 chapsticks with the logo instead. Free.
the magnets we made were printed on cardstock, 9 per page. Laminated, then cut magnetic tape on the back. Under $10 in supplies to make one for each and every person on our cruise.
Bottlecap keychains were $20 for supplies. Tissue paper through the printer for the Dream logo, then decopaged and laquer over the image. Huge time investment.
oriental trading for the toddlers squishy water squirters.
Pressed pennies from our local carousel. $0.51 each.
There are a large number of ways to participate without breaking the bank.

 

[rillsung]

We called our local tourism office intending to hand out the "Get lost in Montana" bumper stickers. They GAVE us over 75 chapsticks with the logo instead. Free.
the magnets we made were printed on cardstock, 9 per page. Laminated, then cut magnetic tape on the back. Under $10 in supplies for each and every person on our cruise.
Bottlecap keychains were $20 for supplies. Tissue paper through the printer for the Dream logo, then decopaged and laquer over the image. Huge time investment.
oriental trading for the toddlers squishy water squirters.
Pressed pennies from our local carousel. $0.51 each.
There are a large number of ways to participate without breaking the bank.

I totally need to try that!

We made magnets using Vistaprint for ours. We did go cheaper than some since we joined the cruise in May (it was an August cruise) and most everyone else had been part of the group for 2 years LOL. Our cruise also was like 100 rooms!

 

[jrfaith]

I can't imagine 100 rooms for a group. I filled a suitcase and we only have 11 cabins. WOW!!!

 

[finkerbell]

I just got back from an Alaska cruise and had participated with the FE's for the first time. We struggles as well but finally settled with dry erase boards from the dollar store that simply had a metal boarder around them with magnets on the back and the pen attached on the side. We then got a fantastic graphic from the boards, uploaded it to photobucket and added our own text relevant to the cruise. We took the graphic to Office Depot and for $10.00 had stickers made up with the logo which we put on the dry erase boards. Each board only cost about $1.50 (includng the stickers) which I thought was pretty good! (it also depends on how many families are participating) I'm crafty but didn't have the time so this worked well for us. I also had small gifts for the kids -disney themed silly bands, cell phone "socks" that ordered from China way ahead of time that were amazing considering I got 6 for .99 cents an they had Tinkerbell on them I alsofound whale decks of cards and journals on sale for under a dollar. I must admit I started early and it did take some time to find just the right items at the right price but it is doable. There was such a wide range of items we received and I thought the variety was great and fun regardless of what the item was. It's not how much the item costs that counts it's just fun partcipating. Even my 25 year old daughter delighted in the candy we received!!! ))) Good luck!

 

[sullins5]

Just another thought for you...

You're 6 months out, plenty of time to watch for clearances and PERFECT timing for Pirate gear! After Halloween, I'm sure you can find tons of stuff on clearance, from pirate tattoos, pirate material, scrapbooking paper (can make anything with those), just about anything Pirate! Then search the boards, see what others have done, and/or just buy candy! Good Luck!!

 

[PizzieDuster]

My DD loved anything with candy in it.
I loved anything with our cruise date - anything DCL on it.

What was the best about participating in the FE was just walking up to
the stateroom door and my DD would love to find what was left there.
She would even get excited if she "heard" someone put something there!

Not everyone has to buy a personalized FE holder. We saw many
bags hanging.

My DD and I were very glad we participated!

 

[cryssi]

Go to the creative DISigns forum and get a design, then make bookmarks or print magnets. Add some candy and voila! I have to say that I loved all the homemade gifts, we got a lot of bookmarks and postcards...awesome! Also, someone had our dark date anddisney wonder alaska printed on a reusable tote. I use that often! You can get really cheap blank totes on jiffyshirts.com. You also can just do a cabin gift, not individual.