Feb 7-10, 2013 3 nights Bahamian on the Dream

Hi, newbies :) (well maybe you're just new to this meet-group!)

I <3 how the DISboards has these specific boards for us to meet some of our cruise-mates in advance :). We can plan a meet-up onboard, and we can organize the FE here too.

"FE? What on earth is an FE?", I hear you cry. (Anyone out there old enough to remember Tom Lehrer? Oh well ::sigh::). Take a deep breath; here goes.

An FE is the abbreviation for a Fish Extender.

"Fish Extender??? Did she say "Fish Extender?":confused:?" I hear echoes ...

Yes, I did. A Fish Extender is ... well, outside of every stateroom on mostly all the DCL ships, is a fish-shaped (well I think it might be a seahorse sometimes, but nevertheless, it's still called a "Fish" Extender ... keep up lol) plaque. A sea-life animal-shaped plaque. With a hook on it from which items might be hung. Cast members use that plaque to leave messages for the guests. Sometimes something might be in an envelope, wedged into the sides or top of the plaque-with-a-hook, other times items might be in a bag and hung from aforementioned hook.

"Okay, a fish or seahorse shaped plaque albeit with a hook. Why on earth does it require extending?" I hear you further moaning from all ends of the earth.

Well, see, it needs extending so that ordinary, innocent but fun-loving Disney cruise guests (yep, just like us lol) can use it for their own not-so-nefarious purposes. Which is to create a little EXTRA pixie dust at sea. Just in case you're not having enough fun already :laughing:

People on these DISboards have created this fun activity. We hang a bag of sorts from the hook, and exchange token gifts (or sometimes not-so-token, but that's a whole other ball of wax, so-to-speak).

Think of it like DCL-themed trick-or-treating for the whole family. It's such fun to sneak around trying to deliver the FE gifts without getting caught by the others in your group. It's such fun to come back to your stateroom at the end of an activity or at the end of the day, and find little surprises in there :).

It is supposed to be stress-free and FUN. There does not need to be a competition to out-craft or out-purchase what you think others will do, it's also supposed to be a surprise for the others in the group.

An FE can be purchased already made for you - try looking on Ebay and Etsy. Or you can find directions online - search for no-sew FE or how to make an FE. Some people simply use a tote-bag. One time I saw one that was made from duct-tape. Once I saw one made from their kids' old shorts, with the legs sewn shut across the crotch-line, to form simple pockets; the shorts were attached to each other by ribbon. I think they were even Mickey colors.

Go and do an online search for anything related to FE's and FE gifts. There are whole, ginormous forums here on the DIS, devoted to all things FE.

Go explore and have fun.

However, and this is a biggie, it is rather late to start an FE. Not to say it can't or shouldn't be done, especially since it seems we have a small group here.

All that said, I am going to take this to Fb and create a group. Here is the link https://www.facebook.com/groups/136972659788787/. From there we can organize the FE and see what we want to do.

If you don't already have an account on Facebook, create one and then come back here to click on the link to get to the group page, then request to be added. I made it a 'secret' group for security purposes.

DH and I already are part of 2 other FE groups (they sail a bit later than us) and I'd be happy to organize us if you'd all like.

This is going to be our 2nd cruise, our first was last Feb on the DCL Magic. I am so excited to be going on the Dream:dance3::banana::cool1: this is going to be AWESOME!
 
Ok, we now have a page on Facebook, you have to request to be added, just go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/3NightBahamianDCLDream.Feb7to10.2013/ do the request thingy ;).

I tried to set up a spreadsheet on Google Docs that we can share, I can only hope that I did it correctly. I tried asking an online friend from another group but I am impatient for her reply so I tried to do it myself lol.

Please, if someone else wants to do this, I am ok with that.

Also I welcome ANY and ALL suggestions, comments, ideas, etc.!
 
We will also be on this cruise (4 of us) and the kids (10yr old twins) are excited to learn more about the FE. I cannot access the Facebook page using your link or just by searching for groups under the above title. Any suggestions?
 
We are doing parks and then the cruise ... I have 2 daughters, 10 and 7. Anyone else with kids these ages going?

I couldn't get the fb group to open ... Thanks for the FE explanation ... I had no idea what I meant ... Really cute idea! How many participants are usually involved?
 


That's great to hear! It's our first disney cruise and I keep hearing that there are lots of little kids in Feb. Our girls will definitely been in the kids lab and will be thrilled to have other same age kids to meet!
 
Hello All - we are offically booked!

We will have a total of 4 of us - in two cabins me and my son who will be 8 and one of my friends and her daughter that will be 15.

We did this cruise last year and had such a great time.

I also tried to access the FB page and had no luck!!

Excited to sail with you all!!!
 


Grr :( Idk why it's not working, I thought I did everything I've done before:confused:tsk.

Did I post this link? Fb says posts can be added to the board by emailing to 3NightBahamianDCLDream.Feb7to10.2013@groups.facebook.com. **Crossing fingers**

Here's my next idea:confused3, maybe it will work better?

PM me here with your Fb name and I will see if I can find YOU on Fb and invite you that way. (This little Fb group of 2 - me and my DH - is pathetic LOL.)
 
We are doing parks and then the cruise ... How many participants are usually involved?

It really varies. My first cruise (last Feb), we had 95 people, which was about 33 staterooms. We ended up splitting the FE group so we wouldn't be using all our free time delivering LOL. We had 2 meet-&-greets and that was fun, but that was a 7-night cruise.

On this 3-night cruise, there's no at-sea days; we should really decide and discuss as a group how we want to handle things.

That's why I like Facebook, it moves easier, you can see more posts at one time, you can do polls, and the posts are more organized; that is, all the comments to one post are right there with the original post. Here, every comment is a separate post, and if you don't quote the original post, it's hard to see it as a connected thread, know what I mean?
 
First time cruise, how does this work? We are a group of 11?

Tita155, see if you can find my post at the end of this board - it's on this page lower down. I describe what an FE is and how it works. If you have any more questions, feel free to post away :).

A group of 11! How fun :)!
 
Ok, I figured that I can try to fix the Facebook stuff at another time, but for now I needed to get an idea of how many of us there are. I just went through the pages here and made a simple list and this is what I came up with.

(You can see that there is a lot of information missing. Some of the information that people request is if they want to personalize or customize the FE gifts. Since they'll be surprises, the info is asked from the outset. On the other hand, if you don't want to provide such info, there's no FE police. And personalization and customization is COMPLETELY UP TO THE GIVER. If you want to give a gift to each PERSON vs. one gift for the whole cabin or family, again, that is COMPLETELY UP TO THE GIVER.)

Info typically provided (I'm creating a spreadsheet on my pc, when it's more complete, I can post it here):
DISboard screen name
Real last name
Real first name
Kids' names, genders and ages
Any allergies or other food info (if anyone is giving candy, etc.)
Stateroom # (if you don't have it yet, just provide as soon as you get it)

Some groups decide to include adult's names, genders if names might be confusing, favorite Disney characters, favorite color, any on-board celebrations, etc., anything someone might need to know if customizing the gift. I just kept it simple here. If you want to provide any of these other things, feel free to do so.

Here is the info I gathered (sorry if it doesn't format too well):
Daisy’sMama - Stephanie, DH David, DD Daisy (11yo)
Dltgbates - 5 guests DD (9yo), DS (15yo)
3 adults, 2 kids
nanhol - Group of 16 MIL’s birthday
RosiePA
tita155 - Group of 11
momster24 - Dawn, DH Adam, DS Aydan (10yo)
Disneymomoftwinz - 2 parents; DD (10yo), DS (10yo)
goofydisneygal - DD (10yo), DD (7yo)
mydisneyboys - 1 adult; DS (8yo)
- 1 adult; DD (15yo)
mom3girls2000 - Maxine & DH Mark

I don't know yet how many cabins nanhol and tita155 will have, but if we assume that nanhol has 3 cabins and tita155 has 2, then right now we have 14 cabins with 53-ish people. 14 cabins are easy enough to deliver to, but if it turns out that we are spaced out all over the ship, we might decide to split the FE group, but we can decide on that a little later.

Right now with the holidays looming, and then just about a month after that until we cruise, we need to know how many cabins and people we have so we can get started on the gifts!

I've never been on the Dream; if anyone here has already been, where do you think a good place/time for a meet-&-greet would be?
 
mom3girls2000 said:
Tita155, see if you can find my post at the end of this board - it's on this page lower down. I describe what an FE is and how it works. If you have any more questions, feel free to post away :).

A group of 11! How fun :)!

Yes thank you so much for all the information, I am going to make sure the others in my group would like to participate. I love the idea.
 
Okay I sent you an email through Facebook to request to join the group. It won't let me private message you on here as it said I haven't made enough posts yet. :). We are so totally on board for the FE. I tried to start something, but as a first timer myself, I have no clue what to do! Just let me know. We are 2 cabins with 3 and 2.
 
I just read your last post all the way through. Adults are Dave and Liz Bates and Emily Dunstan ( my son's nurse). Son is Terry and daughter is Gracey. We LOVE all things Disney and my son also LOVES Star Wars. His room will have a Star Wars FE.:). Our rooms are 8590 (son and nurse) and 8592 (me, husband and daughter).
 
We have three cabins, I am making sure all in my party are on board, one more question, is it one gift person or stateroom and is this all three days of the cruise.mi am getting really excited, this sounds like so much fun!
 
you have most of my info correct - here are some more details

Cabin 1 (GTY) Debbie (me) and Lucas (8)

Cabin 2- (GTY) Amy and Sydney (15)

Both kids will be celebrating birthdays on this trip.

I will get the cabin numbers posted as soon as we have them!! Amy does not have a user name on the Disboards so you can just keep it under my name on the spreadsheet.

Our last three day had 17 cabins in the FE and it was a perfect size - didn't take too long to deliver - and the kids loved the entire thing!!!

Thank You!!
 
Yes thank you so much for all the information, I am going to make sure the others in my group would like to participate. I love the idea.

Just to let you know, not every cabin HAS to participate. Not even every PERSON in a cabin has to participate.

Which reminds me that it's important for the group to know, if something is only for a specific person in a cabin (or perhaps for just the kids, or one thing for girls and another for boys), it's good to label them.

A nice way to indicate this (and it's a favorite of kids too) is to go to your local Dollar Tree and pick up a box of Disney zip-top sandwich baggies, or pack of Disney paper lunch-bags.
 
We are all on Board and Ready, Everyone loved the ideas!! WE cant wait.. we all have FB
State Room 1
DISboard screen name Tita 155
Real last name Lopez
Real first name Erika & Samuel
Kids' names, genders and ages: Ezekiel (8) Boy, Emma (2) Girl
Stateroom # 5168

DISboard screen name N/A All under Tita155
Real last name Salcedo
Real first name Arlene & Tony
Anthony (3) Boy
Stateroom # 5166

DISboard screen name
Real last name: Diaz
Real first name: Luz & Omar
Kids' names, genders and ages Priscilla (7) Girl Omar Jr (4) Boy
Stateroom # 6080
 
We are all on Board and Ready, Everyone loved the ideas!! WE cant wait.. we all have FB
State Room 1
DISboard screen name Tita 155
Real last name Lopez
Real first name Erika & Samuel
Kids' names, genders and ages: Ezekiel (8) Boy, Emma (2) Girl
Stateroom # 5168

DISboard screen name N/A All under Tita155
Real last name Salcedo
Real first name Arlene & Tony
Anthony (3) Boy
Stateroom # 5166

DISboard screen name
Real last name: Diaz
Real first name: Luz & Omar
Kids' names, genders and ages Priscilla (7) Girl Omar Jr (4) Boy
Stateroom # 6080

Thank you, Tita155 :)! (Or should I say, Erika:) ).
 
I changed the Fb group setting from Secret to Closed; maybe that is causing this issue?

Try again when you have time:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/3NightBahamianDCLDream.Feb7to10.2013/
or go and search for Feb 7-10, 2013 3 nights Bahamian on the Dream or search for me (Max Schoenholtz) and send me a Friend Request and maybe that will also help.
 

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