Fish Extender gift cost???

[Disneynut25]

How much did you approximately spend on your fish extender gifts? I'm trying to decide what to get without going over board. My husband thinks $3 - $4 per child is a good amount. Our adult gifts are per cabin, not per adult. So far I've spent about $100 (including the adults). Is that too much?

 

[Khazid]

I think it should be whatever the groups agrees upon and/or whatever you are comfortable spending.

I can tell you that the DW and I are making most of the FE gifts for our upcoming cruise. I think grand total we'll have a cost expense in the neighborhood of $35-50 out of pocket. Too hard to put a cost on the time it takes to assemble them (nothing too hard).

Just remember that anything you do will be appreciated by all the recepients

 

[ppiew]

I must be cheap, I think that is a lot. Might discourage participation if it gets carried away. I guess it is a personal decision

 

[Scooby3x1y]

I must be cheap, I think that is a lot. Might discourage participation if it gets carried away. I guess it is a personal decision

I think $100 is a lot also... Maybe I'm just cheap? I think $35 - $50 isn't horrible. i can only tell you what I did, and what I was comfortable with my last cruise.

I went to Costco and got about 5 bags of trail mix, and put it in cute cellophane bags for each cabin. Out of each bag of trail mix I was able to make about 12 bags of trailmix. If there were kids in the cabin, I gave them each a little Disney frisbee. At the dollar store they were 3 in a package for a dollar. I put that with some candy and a pencil in a cellophane bag for the kids.

That cruise we received; pens, magnents that people printed, pencils, and a picture. Some things came printed with the company logo that they worked for, one in particular was a paper fish, cut out with handprinted date of the cruise. All told, most people spent maybe $1 per cabin, very few spent a little bit more. This cruise there were about 70 cabins to deliver to. I needed to keep the cost to about $1 a cabin, and probably came pretty close.

I think you need to do what you are comfortable with. Each of us has different economic situations. I do agree with the other posters, anything you do is appreciated.

 

[aznaphrodite]

How much did you approximately spend on your fish extender gifts? I'm trying to decide what to get without going over board. My husband thinks $3 - $4 per child is a good amount. Our adult gifts are per cabin, not per adult. So far I've spent about $100 (including the adults). Is that too much?

If it makes you feel any better, I also spent a little over $100 on FE gifts too. Our cruise has 20 cabins participating. I don't expect everyone to spend that much though. Before I signed up, I heard people were spending around $30-$50 too but I was having too much fun buying gifts. I had little goodie bags and when I looked in them, they just looked too empty for my taste!

Again, it totally comes down to what people are comfortable with and what they can afford.

I went to Costco and got about 5 bags of trail mix, and put it in cute cellophane bags for each cabin. Out of each bag of trail mix I was able to make about 12 bags of trailmix.

I thought you're not allowed to bring food onboard that is not sealed in its original packaging.

 

[Scooby3x1y]

If it makes you feel any better, I also spent a little over $100 on FE gifts too. Our cruise has 20 cabins participating. I don't expect everyone to spend that much though. Before I signed up, I heard people were spending around $30-$50 too but I was having too much fun buying gifts. I had little goodie bags and when I looked in them, they just looked too empty for my taste!

Again, it totally comes down to what people are comfortable with and what they can afford.



I thought you're not allowed to bring food onboard that is not sealed in its original packaging.

Yeah, no bottled water, no wine, oh, and you are not supposed to take food off the ship....

 

[♥sassy♥tink♥]

How much did you approximately spend on your fish extender gifts? I'm trying to decide what to get without going over board. My husband thinks $3 - $4 per child is a good amount. Our adult gifts are per cabin, not per adult. So far I've spent about $100 (including the adults). Is that too much?

As long as you feel good about the items you purchased for the different families, and you think they will be appreciated (which I'm positive that they will ), then it shouldn't matter how much you spend. Have an awesome time cruising!

 

[aznaphrodite]

Yeah, no bottled water, no wine, oh, and you are not supposed to take food off the ship....

No, I meant you are not supposed to bring ziplock bags of trail mix ON the ship either.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=31090861

It sounds like you already did this but for everyone else's future reference, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do the same thing.

Wait, or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you did the trail mix. Was the trail mix already in individually sealed bags or did you open a big bag and divide them up into the cellophane bags? Basically, if they were individually sealed, it was okay but if you opened a big bag and divided it up, then that was against DCL's food safety rules.

 

[Scooby3x1y]

No, I meant you are not supposed to bring ziplock bags of trail mix ON the ship either.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=31090861

It sounds like you already did this but for everyone else's future reference, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to do the same thing.

Wait, or maybe I'm misunderstanding what you did the trail mix. Was the trail mix already in individually sealed bags or did you open a big bag and divide them up into the cellophane bags? Basically, if they were individually sealed, it was okay but if you opened a big bag and divided it up, then that was against DCL's food safety rules.

Yes, this was many years ago, but you're missing the point.

 

[Waltworshiper]

We ordered some pirate things and customized pencils from Oriental Trading. I think the pencils were about 14.95 to customize with the name of the ship and the date for I think 50 pencils. I also made magnets for everyone with their names for their doors, just in case they didn't have any. It was nice walking down the hall seeing the magnets on everyones doors.

 

[Mastiff]

I think I will be right up there in the $100 range. I am working on fish extender gifts now for our May cruise. I think I am going a little overboard. I can't stop buying cute little giveaways!!

Do what you feel comfortable doing and just have FUN!!!

 

[webray]

WE have never had a price limit..it has always been whatever people wanted...that is the fun of it.

 

[cats mom]

We've been part of several FE exchanges and it really does vary... a lot.

The time we went in on a group gift everyone contributed $100

We've also done FE gifts on our own. While I don't necessarily set a specific $$ limit per gift, obviously I was able to do something nicer for the FE group with 12 cabins participating than for the group with 38 cabins participating.

I think you just have to do what you're comfortable with, and not worry too much about everyone else. As with anything; some folks really go all out, others not so much.

We go with the attitude that it's fun to come back and find anything in our FE, and we don't necessarily expect it to be an even exchange.

 

[Disneynut25]

Thank you so much for all the replies!!! I agree...I need to just go with what works best for my family!!!! I can't wait until our cruise!!!!!

 

[happyj]

We are participating in FE in August.Our first cruise.
I thought you just put gifts in your FE and participants helped themselves but from reading here we will put gifts in for each person.If that is the case do you put their names on gifts .It is sounding a lot more involved than I first thought.Also morer expensive .
Janet

 

[aznaphrodite]

We are participating in FE in August.Our first cruise.
I thought you just put gifts in your FE and participants helped themselves but from reading here we will put gifts in for each person.If that is the case do you put their names on gifts .It is sounding a lot more involved than I first thought.Also morer expensive .
Janet

You deliver the gifts to each participating cabin and put them into their FE's. Again, you don't need to spend $100. Do what you feel comfortable.

 

[nenner1]

I spent what you have..we had a decent amount of cabins participating (50)..

So that comes out to $2/cabin.

Spend what you feel comfortable with. On our cruise, a lot of people obviously spent a LOT of money, a lot of people spent a lot of effort and time, a lot of people just had fun! What we recieved ran the gamut and we enjoyed each and every little thing, from the hand sewn baby blanket right down to the stickers.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Also, if you have a large group of folks participating in FE on your cruise, you can team up with someone to share the expense of a gift.

On our WBPC cruise we had teams for nearly every day of the cruise. Our lanyards (one per person), wrist bands (one per person), mouse pads (one per stateroom), dry earase boards with logo (one per stateroom) were all things organized, ordered and paid for by teams, for example.

I've also snuck in a little something extra in the FEs of people I already knew or felt close to from our meets thread.

.

 

[jennimomx2]

Where can I find the FE thread for my cruise 06/04/09 I have looked and can not find a FE thread.?

 

[aznaphrodite]

Where can I find the FE thread for my cruise 06/04/09 I have looked and can not find a FE thread.?

Go to the "Cruise Meets" forum:

http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=85

Look at the first few threads and find the one that applies to you, either Wonder or Magic 2009. Then look for your thread. There isn't a specific FE thread for cruises. It's discussed in your cruise meet thread.


I also wanted to mention that homemade FE gifts are great too! There are some great ideas on making gifts here, if you don't want to spend a lot of money and are crafty!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1980639