Elf on the Shelf on a cruise

[mom2aprincenprincess]

Has anyone ever brought their Elf on a Shelf on their cruise with them? We are cruising on December 4th. Our shelf elf makes his appearance on thanksgiving night at our house. SO, for the elf to continue to keep an eye on the kids for Santa, he should make the voyage with us.... For anyone who doesn't know about the shelf elf, he or she, is a stuffed elf that Santa sends to keep an eye on them everyday until Christmas. He flies back to the North Pole each night to give his report, then is in a new spot in the house each morning....he is often caught doing fun and mischievous things......He kids love finding him every morning I need enough ideas for 7 nights, and I hope that housekeeping will not touch or move him. Anyone done this or have any creative ideas?

 

[wilkeliza]

Has anyone ever brought their Elf on a Shelf on their cruise with them? We are cruising on December 4th. Our shelf elf makes his appearance on thanksgiving night at our house. SO, for the elf to continue to keep an eye on the kids for Santa, he should make the voyage with us.... For anyone who doesn't know about the shelf elf, he or she, is a stuffed elf that Santa sends to keep an eye on them everyday until Christmas. He flies back to the North Pole each night to give his report, then is in a new spot in the house each morning....he is often caught doing fun and mischievous things......He kids love finding him every morning I need enough ideas for 7 nights, and I hope that housekeeping will not touch or move him. Anyone done this or have any creative ideas?

Just make tell the stateroom host not to mess with him.

I will say if the kids aren't in the room while the stateroom host is there they may come up with some creative stuff! Our first cruise I came back to my stuffed animal in a "pool" made of towels and paper and then another time on our 2nd cruise I came back to find my stuffed animal ridding a swan haha!

 

[gismo1554]

Yep if he's out on display then the stateroom host might use him in the towel animal display. I have often found when I've left things on the bed they have also used these (link Sunglasses or a necklace the one day). This however sounds like a fantastic idea! I absolutely love it!

 

[Iamaplanner]

That's so fun! I love that you're bringing your Elf.
I totally agree with others - you will need to tell the stateroom host right away that s/he can't touch or move it. That is part of the magic for ours - it is untouchable
I think it would be great if you could use the towel animals (maybe ask the stateroom host to make the towel animal but hide it so you can incorporate with the elf after your little ones are asleep).
Enjoy!

 

[MUN]

Has anyone ever brought their Elf on a Shelf on their cruise with them? We are cruising on December 4th. Our shelf elf makes his appearance on thanksgiving night at our house. SO, for the elf to continue to keep an eye on the kids for Santa, he should make the voyage with us.... For anyone who doesn't know about the shelf elf, he or she, is a stuffed elf that Santa sends to keep an eye on them everyday until Christmas. He flies back to the North Pole each night to give his report, then is in a new spot in the house each morning....he is often caught doing fun and mischievous things......He kids love finding him every morning I need enough ideas for 7 nights, and I hope that housekeeping will not touch or move him. Anyone done this or have any creative ideas?

Just explain to the stateroom host that if he/she touches the Elf, the Elf will lose its magic, and the stateroom host will lose part of their tip.

 

[2P2W]

Such a great idea about the Elf!! I think the room attendant would be loads of help with the Elf. How fun! We leave on our cruise the same day as you but on a 3 day. Have a wonderful time!!

 

[Quellman]

That's so fun! I love that you're bringing your Elf.
I totally agree with others - you will need to tell the stateroom host right away that s/he can't touch or move it. That is part of the magic for ours - it is untouchable
I think it would be great if you could use the towel animals (maybe ask the stateroom host to make the towel animal but hide it so you can incorporate with the elf after your little ones are asleep).
Enjoy!

Our host on the magic taught us how to make ducks. So we had about 9 of them on our couch by the time we were done. The other option is to go to one of the towel folding classes!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

We brought our elf "Jingles" with us last year and I was nervous, ha ha. I didn't want my DS to see him and anything get spoiled. We also have brought him out near Thanksgiving but since we cruised around the very beginning of December I waited to build up the anticipation. I surprised my DS and had Jingles sitting in our porthole window after we had unpacked (which the elf was in my backpack the whole time). He opened the curtains and smiled really big and had fun with him. My DS has officially reached the end of Jingles and we had the talk this summer about "Santa" so that's a little sad in a way but kids indeed grow up. The room steward didn't do anything odd with him and had in waiting in the bed, on the counter, etc., nothing too extreme but definitely talk to him/her if you're concerned.

Have fun,
Heather

 

[PaMomofOne]

The one time we went to WDW in Dec, I took photos of our Elf doing fun things at our house (watching Elf on TV, in my daughter's bed, etc...) in our house. I sent them to my sister who then resent one a day to show us what she found when she was "checking our house". Hard to do on DCL unless you buy the data/wifi package, but it could be safer than bringing the Elf.

 

[kings2001]

We go away for a few days every December and I never bring our Elf (a.k.a. - Elfie) because I'm afraid he will end up getting lost. I take pictures of him doing fun things before we leave for our trip and while I'm getting ready in the morning I'll text them to myself so that they come into my phone as a text message. Then I tell the kids to look at what Grandma just sent me.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

Or elf would always let us know if he was traveling with us or not. He packs himself up in a way that can be carried if he is coming along. For instance, once, he was discovered peaking out of my carry-on bag holding a little suitcase (small jewelry box with pipe cleaner handle) for the trip, and another time, when we were driving, he was waiting for us in a secure location in the car. He might just show in our cruise stateroom though.

I would hope that the stateroom host WOULD move the Elf around. Kids will believe anything if they want to believe: "Man - he must be so excited to be on the cruise that he couldn't sit still! Let's write a letter to Santa to tell on him!" If our elf saw something as exciting as a towel animal, I KNOW he wouldn't be able to contain himself to sit across the room watching. If I needed to move the display for sleep later, I would carefully slip something like a folder under the entire display and move it without touching the elf.

Our elf is inspired by what we are doing at the time, so I am positive that he would set up his own little beach on the Castaway Cay night. He would dress like a pirate for pirate night (perhaps a patch and plundering jewelry from mom's jewelry box). He might set up a lounger and possibly binoculars to watch the ocean. He could interact with a towel animal that had shown up on another day. He could change the magnets on your door to elf magnets - don't know where he would hang out for that though. I don't remember what the shampoo and conditioner containers on the ship look like, but the resort ones have fabulous elf-sized Mickey ear lids. He could sneak out for soda and ice cream and be caught with the "evidence."

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

We brought our elf "Jingles" with us last year and I was nervous, ha ha. I didn't want my DS to see him and anything get spoiled. We also have brought him out near Thanksgiving but since we cruised around the very beginning of December I waited to build up the anticipation. I surprised my DS and had Jingles sitting in our porthole window after we had unpacked (which the elf was in my backpack the whole time). He opened the curtains and smiled really big and had fun with him. My DS has officially reached the end of Jingles and we had the talk this summer about "Santa" so that's a little sad in a way but kids indeed grow up. The room steward didn't do anything odd with him and had in waiting in the bed, on the counter, etc., nothing too extreme but definitely talk to him/her if you're concerned.

Have fun,
Heather

Our Elf didn't go away just because DD discovered the secret. She had a ton of fun planning elf pranks for ME to discover last year.

 

[MunFam]

Just a little thing to keep in mind if the SR host incorporates the elf in to your towel animals...how are you going to move your elf off the bed to sleep without touching him and therefore losing his magic...or balancing him and having a terrible tumble where he will then have to live "dead" on the floor for a while?

 

[jburge12000]

We took our elf "Mo-Mo" last year. Was tough to hide in the luggage and make sure the kids did not see him before we unpacked. The stateroom host was really great about it. We were really nervous about forgetting him on the last day, so we packed him up the night before after the kids went to sleep. We spent the next day at DW staying the night at the Port Orleans and we could not get him out. The kids were asking what happened to Mo-Mo. Before we left I took the backpack that we had the elf in out to the pool area and made an elf-selfie with Mo-Mo on one of the Alligator statues at the Port Orleans. On xmas, when Mo-Mo left to go back to the North Pole, he left the kids a letter telling them to be good and that even though they did not see him at DW, he was still their watching, and his note included his selfie. The kids immediately recognized the Alligator from the pool and were just blown away that Mo-Mo was really their watching them in the pool.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Our Elf didn't go away just because DD discovered the secret. She had a ton of fun planning elf pranks for ME to discover last year.

Now that my DS would love to do! I'll have to keep this in mind

FYI on our elf, we've always touched him and handled him so that has not been a challenge for us but I know many others don't touch theirs. I put Jingles in my backpack with me as a carry on which is never out of my sight and knew he would be "safe".

Heather

 

[Tiffylv]

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[mom2aprincenprincess]

I think that I will let out SR host move our elf around. I mean, why not? After all it is still Disney and there is magic everywhere all the time! Why can't Simon move around during the day? Right?! Lol. I guess props for the elf are just a few more items to add to my packing list.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

I've got to give a giant high 5 to all you parents above that have incorporated your elves into your vacation and a huge thank you to the OP for starting this thread. Reading this tonight has brought me a lot of smiles. Way to go everyone, this is a great thread. Happy cruising to you all!

 

[Mickey4me!]

I think I must have watched too many Twilight Zone episodes as a child because that whole Elf on a Shelf thing really creeps me out...

 

[preciouspups]

Just a little thing to keep in mind if the SR host incorporates the elf in to your towel animals...how are you going to move your elf off the bed to sleep without touching him and therefore losing his magic...or balancing him and having a terrible tumble where he will then have to live "dead" on the floor for a while?

Our Elf can be touched by adults but not kids. Sometimes that damn elf parks himself in the middle of the kitchen table and homework can't be done if he doesn't move. And if the mini me doesn't behave before school, Elfie will leave early so he can give Santa an earful.

Our Elf went to WDW with us a few years ago. The staff did some fun things with him and usually worked around him by adding the towel animals to where he was instead of moving him. This year he will be going on the cruise with us even though it is a week before he usually comes out. My 8 year old is so excited wondering if Elfie will be on the boat. I would love to find him a swimsuit to wear!