Fish Extender Exchange

[maui2k5]

We are in a fish extender exchange group for our upcoming Disney Fantasy cruise this July for Kids Only exchange. Even though we have been on 5 Disney cruises, we have not done an exchange before so are new to it. Our girls (13/15) will be exchanging in a kids only exchange and I was curious about a few things.

1) Where did you get your fish extender and does Disney have any restrictions on their use?
2) How much money did you spend per person? We are wondering about how much to spend as there will be 3 kids to exchange with and want to spend appropriately (our kids plus 3 others).
3) When do you share your exchange gifts? Once, more than once, time of day?

Thanks!

 

[LorrieAnn5]

I used ribbon & tape to connect together two gift bags and used that as our fish extender. Some people use 3-tier "over the door" pockets, but rig it to go over the Fish. There are Etsy level FE's and DIY versions...either way works.

Depending on what you are giving out for the gift might determine when you go around to deliver it. If you're giving something that you expect to be used on the cruise, like sundae kits, or sand toys then you will likely want to give it out the first evening.
We delivered our gifts mostly on the first evening b/c we needed to get them out of our cabin to have more space to try to organize our own clothes, etc.
The upside to having some people wait until later in the cruise to deliver gifts is that you have the anticipation of coming back to your cabin and looking in the FE to see if something has randomly been delivered.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We are in a fish extender exchange group for our upcoming Disney Fantasy cruise this July for Kids Only exchange. Even though we have been on 5 Disney cruises, we have not done an exchange before so are new to it. Our girls (13/15) will be exchanging in a kids only exchange and I was curious about a few things.

1) Where did you get your fish extender and does Disney have any restrictions on their use?
2) How much money did you spend per person? We are wondering about how much to spend as there will be 3 kids to exchange with and want to spend appropriately (our kids plus 3 others).
3) When do you share your exchange gifts? Once, more than once, time of day?

Thanks!

Most of those answers should be on the FE organizer's info for joining. Typically the answers can range from "one-for-one daily gifts", to a "one gift per room", "once during the cruise", to"whatever you want to do".

I've found small craft items from Michael's or JoAnnes Fabrics work well.

 

[Flcruising]

I suggest checking with your FE group and making sure the cost and type rules are clear. I have seen too many discussions that are critical of what they received. People post how cheap others were or they made a craft or they just purchased something or the item had a business logo, or the gift was bought at a certain store rather than a higher end store and so on. So if you want to avoid being criticized on line after your cruise you better have your questions answered by your group.
I've found some FE people are very nice in person but get online afterwards and are mean and rude.
Not all but some.

 

[Cheburashka]

I've found some FE people are very nice in person but get online afterwards and are mean and rude.

I've never had this experience out of about 10 fish extender exchanges, so hopefully the OP won't either.

1) Where did you get your fish extender and does Disney have any restrictions on their use?

DCL does not restrict fish extenders. I've bought mine on Etsy. That's a good place to buy fish extender gifts, too.

 

[Girl of the South]

BUT the Fish Extender idea was not created by Disney Cruise Line and they have nothing to do with it.

 

[Fuzzycaterpillar1]

It used to be a fun gift exchange where people exchanged $5 worth of goodies, but has grown to people spending more money and making handmade gifts. It's supposed to be fun, not tiresome. Don't forget to bring extra suitcase room for all of the things you'll receive. I had a leave a lot of fish extender gifts behind the first time I participated.

 

[Cheburashka]

It used to be a fun gift exchange where people exchanged $5 worth of goodies, but has grown to people spending more money and making handmade gifts. It's supposed to be fun, not tiresome. Don't forget to bring extra suitcase room for all of the things you'll receive. I had a leave a lot of fish extender gifts behind the first time I participated.

I haven't found it necessary to bring an extra suitcase. Items you receive are typically small. Some people like to make things, nothing wrong with that. The personalized items I buy are typically in the $7 - 15 per cabin range. Due to rampant inflation you can't get much of anything for $5 anymore.

 

[mpetersen]

Do you and know that others will do the same so temper your expectations. Don’t break the bank for the sake of impressing people but know that no matter what people may . We luckily haven’t experienced this and loved all our gifts big and small from cups, to notebooks, stickers and beach bags. Personally I love magnets and ornaments.
More fun than the fish extenders to us was pixie dusting which is just random acts of kindness people drop off. We will be planning for a lot more of rhis on our next trip (this one we gave out 16 3d printed keychains and feel we could have doubled that).