Feb 7 2010 4 Night Bahamas

[disnemimi]

I haven't been on this thread in a while so just found out about the possible FE on our trip. I am most definitely interested in this activity (or secret Mickey) for our 3 cabins. Having never cruised, I am not sure I would be the right person to head this up.

Stampinshauna, sure let's wait until your Nov. cruise is over to see how that FE goes. And yes on wristbands to wear if everyone wants to participate.

KelsiesMommy, I like the Secret Mickey idea and doesn't sound like too much work.

I read about the FE on several other threads and they do sound like fun. I'm wondering if I can make 3 of these for our three rooms!!!

Disnemimi (Karen)

 

[gilmore]

This is our first ever cruise and 2nd ever big vacation. We're not travelers, but had a BLAST at WDW last Nov. DH surprised me - literally out of the blue - last week with this cruise. Just the 2 of us - kids are staying with grandma at home. It's like the honeymoon we never took, 11 years later. We're so excited and doing LOTS of reading so we know as much as we can before we go. Any and all information and advice is very much appreciated. So glad to join your discussion!

 

[stampinshauna]

This is our first ever cruise and 2nd ever big vacation. We're not travelers, but had a BLAST at WDW last Nov. DH surprised me - literally out of the blue - last week with this cruise. Just the 2 of us - kids are staying with grandma at home. It's like the honeymoon we never took, 11 years later. We're so excited and doing LOTS of reading so we know as much as we can before we go. Any and all information and advice is very much appreciated. So glad to join your discussion!

Welcome gilmore!!! Glad to have you as part of the group.

Tell you all you need to know--that would take a long time. Maybe point us in the direction of what you'd like to know first. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This will be DCL cruise #6 for us. DH and I did 3 of them with just the 2 of us and had a great time. I had a ton of questions on my first cruise. The boards are a great source for info, especially the sticky in the cruise forum that has a lot of facts about DCL.

 

[gilmore]

This will tell you all how little we know about all of this... What is "FE" and what are the wristbands for that people are talking about?

 

[stampinshauna]

The wristbands are just silicone wristbands (you know those yellow Lance Armstrong ones that started years ago). Well, on some cruises, the people on the cruise meets thread like to order lime green wristbands (the color of the DISboards) so that we can identify each other on the ship. It makes it easy to strike up conversations and such because if others are wearing them you know that they are familiar with the DISboards. We usually order them and have them printed with the date of the cruise and such. I was in charge of ordering them for my last 3 cruises.

FE stands for Fish Extenders. Just outside each stateroom door on the ship is a little decorative fish that DCL uses to put mail (announcements, flyers, etc) on for your room. I don't know how it all started, but some people started making these fish extenders for a little gift exchange between people. They are just little pockets that you hang from the fish. Then, some cruise meets do a Fish Extender swap where you take inexpensive little gifts (homemade items, glow bracelets, treats, whatever) to other DISers and they take them to you, so it is a fun surprise throughout the ship. There might be 10 staterooms participating or there might be 30 (that's how many are on my November cruise) or there might be more. The cruises on the Wonder are typically smaller FE groups. So, I've made 30 little gifts to drop off to the other DISers on my November cruise. Some people do one gift per person, some do one per stateroom. People with kids especially like to do this because the kids get such a kick out of the surprises, but so many of us are kids at heart that a lot of just adults participate too (which I would encourage). Anyway, that is it in a nutshell. There is an extensive thread on the subject at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1219607

Please feel free to post more questions as they come up.

 

[gilmore]

I was just reading on the main board about door decorations. Is anyone planning on doing something to their doors? What kinds of things do people do? It sounds like doors are magnetic, so decorations can be attached with magnet of some kind???

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[ldeninge]

I was just reading on the main board about door decorations. Is anyone planning on doing something to their doors? What kinds of things do people do? It sounds like doors are magnetic, so decorations can be attached with magnet of some kind???

Thanks for your thoughts!

I think door decorations are really fun - and easy to do. Plus it really helps to easily ID your door since they all look the same!

Welcome to the cruise meet thread!

 

[jensen]

What's the due date for our final payment on this cruise? I cannot remember and want to make sure I don't miss it.

Thanks!

 

[bama-mom]

Final payment is due 11/23. I am going to make mine tonight!!! Finally sold a car that we had been trying to sell in time to pay off the cruise. Love having the extra money AND the extra space in the garage/driveway!!

 

[stampinshauna]

Hi everyone,

I just got off the Disney Magic this morning. This cruise was our first time participating in the Fish Extender exchange. It was so much fun!!! I really hope we can get some interest in this so we can all have some fun. I'm still in WDW, so once I get home I can post more info about FEs and such. What does everyone think?

 

[KelsiesMommy]

I'm up for it if we can get it going soon... I just made our final payment today! Now to actually PAY for it! LOL Loving my 6 mos free interest with my Disney Visa! Stressing over trying to get a good rental car rate, since we're flying in Feb 5 and doing Universal on Saturday before the cruise...

 

[HtomSirveaux]

Not sure about the Friday night, but we're flying down Saturday and staying at the Marriott near the airport. Was going to just take the transfer bus since there's just two of us, but then I checked rental prices. I forget which one, but I think I used one of the rental codes on MouseSavers.com for Budget and was able to get a fullsize for $43.53 after taxes/fees/etc. Beats the price of the bus, even just for two!

 

[stampinshauna]

Rental cars can be tricky because a lot of companies charge a drop fee for one way rentals. $43.53 is a great rate!

Okay, I'm willing to organize the FEs if we want to do that. What we did on my last cruise was have a list of everyone and their room number and how many/what age people are in each cabin. Then, everyone did gifts for each cabin. Some people did one gift per cabin, some did one per person. We just made it flexible so you can decide what you want/can do. One the first day of the cruise someone posted a list on their door in case there were any room number changes (which there were a lot because people upgraded at the port). So, we checked that door before delivering our gifts. We didn't make a schedule for deliveries, everyone just delivered them when they wanted to, so we did have some days that we got more than others, but it was a lot of fun and it was nice to have the flexibility.

So, who is in? PM me your room info (names, ages, your email address, room # if you know it). That way I can start a list and then email it to everyone so that we don't have to post all of that info online for privacy purposes.

FE List:
stampinshauna (4 people)
KelsiesMommy (2 people)
Disnemimi room #1 (5 people)
Disnemimi room #2 (2 people)
Disnemimi room #3 (5 people)
Mommyof3boyz (5 people)
Overtherainbow (4 people)
MinnieMeg (2 people)

 

[disnemimi]

Hi Shauna,
I just sent you a PM with the information for our three rooms. I forgot to give you my email address so I will send it to you also.

Thank you for organizing this event. It sounds like so much fun and I know my grandkids will love it.

Karen (Disnemimi)

 

[stampinshauna]

Hi Everyone! This thread has been quiet lately. We sail in 2-1/2 months--yippee!!!

We are for sure going to do a Fish Extender Exchange and would love to have everyone that wants to join us. So far we have 5 staterooms participating. This is super fun and is great for the kids and those of us who are kids at heart (isn't everyone?). Anyway, let me know if you'd like to join. I'm going to pm everyone on this thread with the details. If you have any questions, please let me know. I'd like to know who is participating as soon as possible so that we can have an idea of how many gifts to make or buy.

 

[stampinshauna]

Here is a picture of my FE in case anyone needs a visual as to what a Fish Extender is. I've seen some that are more elaborate and some that are more simple (even no-sew ones where you just get fabric and glue pockets on) and you could even use a handled gift sack if you had to. I bought my fabric at WalMart and used bias tape for the edges.

 

[disnemimi]

Shauna,
I love your fish extender...perfect fabric. I think I will get to the store today and look for some fun fabric to make mine. I did a search and found directions to sew one so hopefully I can do this!! Our cruise is 75 days away!
Karen (Disnemimi)

 

[KelsiesMommy]

Since We're newbies and we just hit our 75 day mark, I finally got to book Palo and Spa treatments!!! Whoo hoo!!!!! This is starting to feel REAL!

 

[stampinshauna]

Since we are at 75 days, don't forget to make your final payment if you haven't already!

I sent out a pm to everyone about FEs. If anyone didn't get it (or if there are any lurkers on our thread who haven't posted) please let me know. We'd love to have more people join our FE swap. On my last cruise I was out delivering FE gifts and people were asking what I was doing--some of them were jealous that they didn't know about it. Let's spread the word to anyone we know going on this cruise! It is really a fun thing to do!

Hope everyone can get the ressies they want for Palo, spa, and excursions. We haven't booked anything yet.

 

[IrishCowboy]

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