FE disapointment?

[MelSpees]

You shou

Aw Jrimom1, that is sad. So sorry to hear your son only got 2 FE gifts out of 19 participants. I think that is very unusual. Though I think it rarely happens, I wonder if you happened to have someone removing gifts that had been left for your son? I hate to think that, but it seems very strange that your son got such a tiny percentage.

I did my first FE a year ago on a 4 nt Dream cruise with the tiny grand-princesses. I had booked very last minute and joined a latecomers FE group which had a very tolerable number of people in it, which is one of the main things that convinced me to try it. Every day that we came back to our room, the pockets on our FE had goodies in them, and the girls LOVED it all! They got all kinds of odds and ends, some cuter than others, but it was ALL great fun and just discovering what was there!

I would do another FE if it was a pretty small group. I'm hoping there's one (a manageable sized group) on my upcoming Hawaii DCL cruise 9/17!

l'd check now for your Hawaii cruise. We're on the Van-Hawaii cruise right before you. Our groups are being split up right now. There will be a latecomers group, or groups, but most people are planning now. We're splitting into groups of 10 and you can participate in as many as you want.

 

[southerngirl528]

Mahalo, MelSpees! Wonderful to know you're going to Hawaii too! We're just doing it in different order! Great information! I think I will have to break my personal ban for FB to check and see if there's a group for our cruise (used to be on FB all the time, but swore off of it as taking up way too much of my time)

 

[turtle27]

On our first (and only so far) FE we tried really hard to get everyone's characters, BUT, in our price range, it was very hard to find certain characters for certain rooms at a reasonable price. I am not crafty, so tend to buy vs. craft. I think someone picked their fave character as the Cheshire cat, and someone else had one of the lessor car characters, it was getting a bit crazy trying to find of this stuff. So, we went main Disney characters, I hope that would not upset anyone. We did try hard, just were not able to for everyone.

 

[kswright02]

On our first cruise a couple months ago I had signed up originally when we booked for FE but then as the list was being broken down and finalized I backed out as the thought was overwhelming me as we've never cruised before. Fast fwd to 2 days before the cruise and I posted a pic of my luggage (I'll be darned if I packed for 5 people in 2 suitcases!) and said I was glad we didn't do FE because I was anxious.........and then someone pointed out I was still on the list!!!

So after work the day before we left I was at the dollar store, grocery store, and local souvenir shop. I was so embarrassed by my FE and I am looking forward to a redo on our next one but reading things like this just makes me more ashamed of my last ones. Fwiw, the kids had fun and we enjoyed everything we got and hope the other cabins enjoyed there haphazard bags as well:/

 

[MelSpees]

Wow! I just read another thread "FE Gift Log" and that is what gives FE a bad name.
Unfortunately, the "entitled" will always be ridiculous in their expectations. If they're going to be that way, they shouldn't participate.

kswright02, I'm sure your thrown together gifts were appreciated by most people. I think it's great that you made the last minute effort to not disappoint people.

 

[5xdisneyfans]

I really like the idea of pixie dust. Maybe that's what the kids I will do just make something small and place them on random doors. Maybe a magnet or something like that.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I really like the idea of pixie dust. Maybe that's what the kids I will do just make something small and place them on random doors. Maybe a magnet or something like that.

I am making extra magnets to pixie dust people, but I won't be bringing extras of my FE gifts. The 14 rooms in my group are taking up enough room in my suitcase.

 

[Deb T.]

We always enjoy participating in FE Exchanges (and most of the time it's just DH and me sailing without kids). We've received all sorts of gifts and appreciate everything. We have some great souvenir trinkets that serve as special reminders of past cruises. One of our favorite things to get are glow sticks because they make perfect nightlights! Each night, we put one on the desk and one in the bathroom.

I've been the organizer of the FE Exchanges on most of our cruises. I've never specified a theme, dollar amount, delivery schedule, or anything else that could potentially complicate things. My philosophy is for it to be a fun, stress-free activity that enhances your cruise experience. I've definitely gotten better at organizing it as time's gone on. Now, I ask upfront for cabin number, names of everyone in the cabin, ages of the children, any allergy considerations, and the size of the FE group you're comfortable participating in (broken down into groups of 20, 40, 60, or "Sky's the Limit").

My advice would be to go into it with no expectations. Give whatever you want and don't feel pressure. Keep whatever gifts you like and toss the ones you don't want to cart home. And, I hope you find a little joy in checking for surprises each day!

 

[kuhltiffany]

I find it depends on how big the FE group is. The bigger the group, the more likely to get candy, cheap trinkets, etc. Smaller groups seem to allow people to put more thought into what they are giving...

 

[smrtgrl_95]

I did my first FE on my cruise last September and we had a ball. My philosophy was to just give a gift that would be useful. I also did a cabin gift and not an individual gift. I made fleece blankets for 20 cabins, using fleece bought on 70% discount at Jo-Ann thoughout the year. I ended up spending about 4.50 per cabin on something nice that could be used by all ages. That being said, I was very appreciative of all the gifts we received and it made the trip extra special for my Aunts who were on their first cruise. It's also great because I have a lot of stuff I can bring on my next cruise (Hawaii 9/17) that I didn't get to use the last time. All in all, as long as your grateful for what you get and go in with no expectations you should be satisfied.

 

[jdb in AZ]

I did my first FE on my cruise last September and we had a ball. My philosophy was to just give a gift that would be useful. I also did a cabin gift and not an individual gift. I made fleece blankets for 20 cabins, using fleece bought on 70% discount at Jo-Ann thoughout the year. I ended up spending about 4.50 per cabin on something nice that could be used by all ages. That being said, I was very appreciative of all the gifts we received and it made the trip extra special for my Aunts who were on their first cruise. It's also great because I have a lot of stuff I can bring on my next cruise (Hawaii 9/17) that I didn't get to use the last time. All in all, as long as your grateful for what you get and go in with no expectations you should be satisfied.

How big was the box with all those fleece blankets?

 

[bumbershoot]

Aw Jrimom1, that is sad. So sorry to hear your son only got 2 FE gifts out of 19 participants. I think that is very unusual. Though I think it rarely happens, I wonder if you happened to have someone removing gifts that had been left for your son? I hate to think that, but it seems very strange that your son got such a tiny percentage.

I thought the same thing. It's just odd.

I was also a little worried with as low a post count as the poster had (can't find a cruise meet/FE thread she was in here), and just mentioning that a list had been put out...if she was actually signed up for it?

And I'm not sure what the FB FE she learned about had to do with the FE she was participating in.

 

[MelSpees]

I thought the same thing. It's just odd.

I was also a little worried with as low a post count as the poster had (can't find a cruise meet/FE thread she was in here), and just mentioning that a list had been put out...if she was actually signed up for it?

And I'm not sure what the FB FE she learned about had to do with the FE she was participating in.

That's what I wondered too and asked about. It sounded to me like she just thought you went around and filled FEs. Then she found out that there had been a sign-up through facebook.

 

[wcw57]

Count me in! Did you ship ahead or bring an extra suitcase.

I am now considering crafting tuxedos for each male so the can look classy on formal night...

 

[tinkerone]

I am now considering crafting tuxedos for each male so the can look classy on formal night...

i just snorted tea out my nose.
i love tongue in check! thanks for the laugh.

 

[wendy151950]

We're doing our 4th cruise and 3rd FE this summer. We are traveling to Copenhagen to start the cruise so my FE group is going to get small items that I guess can be classified as trinkets (and no candy) but they are handmade with the exception of glow stick mickey ears for the kids. I am on a FE group on the other web site and am shocked at how elaborate their gifts are. Don't get me wrong - there are some beautiful items - but to me FE is about having some fun and getting some mementoes of the cruise and not having to take an extra suitcase to get everything there. My favorite thing are magnets.

 

[TinkRose]

Our Cruise has come and gone and my family and I had a great time! (Disney Dream, May 1-4, 2015) I must say though, the FE was a bust. There was a list put out and my son was excited to get to work. We focused on the kids only. I have taught my son to appreciate what's given to him but my son rec'd something from 2 staterooms out of 19! My son was very disappointed everytime we went back to the room and nothing was there! I don't think that I would ever particiapte again! We gave gifts to 19 SR (to the kids, my son made them himself). I past another lady in the hallway giving gifts and she stated that a group was started on facebook. I am not on facebook, so I was not aware of that.

I was very curious about how this happened, it's very unusual, so I checked your cruise meet thread. You did everything right, signed up and responded to posts, but the original organizer was not responding so it looks like the whole thing was abandoned, last minute, just before the cruise. It would be easy to miss that post if you were traveling or busy getting ready to go. It looks like everyone could have gone with what had already been arranged and used the list like you did. It's shame because there was nothing wrong with how it was being handled without the original organizer. The facebook group would have been a different list. Your son deserves some pixie dust on his next cruise!

 

[Grammy4Lizzy]

We were on the first Hawaii cruise and we had a group of about 100. We had a great time delivering the gifts. My daughter is very crafty and made a scrap book for every cabin.
She was also on a cruise where they wanted to have a gift for every day and assign times to deliver. She opted out of that.
We are participating in FE on our Alaska cruise in June. My husband is a auction buff and he finds neat things and I use them for FE. Very inexspensively.

 

[Jrimom1]

Had you signed up for an FE anywhere? They are done through sign-ups. That way people know how many and who to give to. Sometimes the lists are handled through cruise threads here on the DIS, sometimes not. You should check there next time. If it's not on the thread, you can ask about it and find out what, if anything, is going on.

I did sign up and we communicated about it on the thread! @MelSpees

 

[redsonja76]

We've done it once before, and are doing it again this December. We aren't rich, and to make the magic of the cruise happen I am going to get my FE gifts with coupons. Most of the things I will give will be consumables like bath salts, nail polish, lip balm, etc. If they don't like it, that's ok, I tried and I put a lot of effort into it. For the kids, I am also making theirs because, well, like I said, I didn't get a single matching number on the power ball last night! For the little kids I'm going to make a Disney I Spy book for them, for the medium kids, they will probably get small legos, and the bigger kids, well I haven't figured that out yet. We got a lot of "trinkets" on our last cruise, and we had a tremendous amount of time seeing what was left in the pockets for us, and playing with all that silly stuff. We couldn't get through all the candy but that's ok, we ate our favorites, and passed on the rest to the stateroom host! It was wonderful. I don't think people should worry so very much. If it's given with good will, then that's enough for me!