fish extender gift giving etiquette

[wallyb]

Can someone direct me to a thread
on the "ins and outs" of the Fish Extender gifties -
How you give them?
To who do you give them?
When do you give them?
Do you do it anonymously?
Do you give them to everyone?
Do you do it for everyday?
What type of things do you give?
I don't want to be guilty of a Fish Extender faux pas!
HELP!

 

[seadooken]

Good questions, I would like to hear for myself.

 

[Anal Annie]

First, have you joined your cruise meet thread? Have they organized a FE exchange?

We had a couple of organizers on our cruise meet thread who also made all of our FE's for everyone. They asked who wanted to participate (everybody on our thread did) and then they sort of made a schedule and PM'd it to all of us so that someone was assigned to every day and not everybody did the same day. Some people went ahead and delivered trinkets every day tho anyway I think 'cuz we usually had a couple of things per day. People deliver their items whenever they can fit it into their day. No set time. Ours was set up to be anonymous but we were pretty much able to figure out who gave what anyway based on the items they gave.

We got things like a small dry erase board, a lanyard, frig. magnets, Disney pencils and post-it note pads, stickers, candles, picture frames, candy, sand dollars etc. I made little gift bags to give and included a pen from a local national event, I made frig. magnets and luggage tags and also included some pirate stickers and a magnetic photo frame.

What you need to establish first tho is if there is a group doing a FE exchange on your cruise!! Go over to the cruise meet threads and look for a thread for your ship and cruise dates!! Join the thread and find out if one has been started yet!

 

[seadooken]

Sounds like a lot of fun. Do people wrap the gifts?

 

[wallyb]

First, have you joined your cruise meet thread? Have they organized a FE exchange?!

Yep - we've got a thread - I started it long ago

Some of the DIS members on the thread are participating-
but not all. We do know the room numbers.

So far we don't have assigned days.


Thanks for the info you supplied.

Anyone else have any advise on this Fishy thing?

 

[WDWLVR]

Each group does it a bit different. Like Annie we've had a sign up and a cut off date to give people a chance to make/buy their gifts. Here is what our fish extender looked like one morning last years Member Cruise.

 

[wallyb]

Each group does it a bit different. Like Annie we've had a sign up and a cut off date to give people a chance to make/buy their gifts. Here is what our fish extender looked like one morning last years Member Cruise.

WOW - where'd you get that cool FE!?!

 

[WDWLVR]

WOW - where'd you get that cool FE!?!

Got if off of ebay back in 2005. I believe it is the same that were given as gifts on the 2005 WB repo cruise (where the whole FE thing got started). The DISer who started it I think was from Ohio and so was this woman on Ebay who was selling them.

 

[lbgraves]

We just came back from the EB repo and the FE was loaded every day...all day it seemed. We had over 136 staterooms signed up and the organizer made up a list by deck of all the rooms and how many people/kids were in each one. There was no set time or day for delivering your gifts. Some people chose them based on the theme of the day and delivered that that day. We decorated keychain maracas and stamped "EB PC REPO 2008" on them and delivered the the day of the Mexican/Tropical deck party.

The kids picked out gifts for their email pals on the cruise too so we delivered those seperately and did wrap them.

 

[Disneyelf10]

Hi,
just a question to continue on the FE etiquette - I read somewhere that you dont have to give a gift to get a gift. Do you think most people participate or sign up and then don't give a little gift back? Just curious to see what other's think. It was fun to participate in the FE exchange recently, but we had a large group and it seemed like the FE was empty more than it was filled. We didnt have assigned days. Now please don't get me wrong, I had fun and hope all enjoyed my gifts but I was looking to see what ideas/items people came up with and they really weren't there. It was a little dissappointing.... I loved a couple of them!-magnets, luggage tags, pirate stuff...
thanks for any comments.

 

[lbgraves]

IMO you should only sign up to participate in the FE exchange if you are going to actually participate and give something as well. It wouldn't be very much fun if 80% of the people on the list didn't actually participate...then what is the point. It doesn't have to be an expensive thing either. The mini maracas I bought were on sale for .12 each [x 125] and the kids painted them then I stamped them and attacked the gift tag. Some of the neatest ones were the things that people designed entirely themselves. It is more the time and thought that is put into the items that makes them special. My favorite probably was the postcard that one of the people printed out with the route pictured and stamps from the countries we visited attached. We do the FE for the kids and they love discovering the goodies every day. I would never sign up if I didn't intend to distribute something in return. Before participating in this we did Tink gifts for the kids, which were put out by our host every night with the towel animal.

 

[gssmks]

Hi,
just a question to continue on the FE etiquette - I read somewhere that you dont have to give a gift to get a gift. Do you think most people participate or sign up and then don't give a little gift back? Just curious to see what other's think. It was fun to participate in the FE exchange recently, but we had a large group and it seemed like the FE was empty more than it was filled. We didnt have assigned days. Now please don't get me wrong, I had fun and hope all enjoyed my gifts but I was looking to see what ideas/items people came up with and they really weren't there. It was a little dissappointing.... I loved a couple of them!-magnets, luggage tags, pirate stuff...
thanks for any comments.

I can't imagine someone signing up just to get gifts and not be willing to give. How selfish that is! I have had so much fun planning my FE gift. I would share my ideas, but we haven't sailed yet (10-11-08).

 

[EyeDisneyCruise]

What are some of the FE gifts that people have received and liked the most/least?

 

[TotallyAngelic]

We had over 136 staterooms signed up and the organizer made up a list by deck of all the rooms and how many people/kids were in each one. There was no set time or day for delivering your gifts.

WOW - thats a lot of cabins - I thought we had a lot with 37 staterooms participating! We have also decided to split up our FE exchange into 3 groups of 12 / 13 to make it more manageable. Did you actually deliver to 136 staterooms or did you split them up!

 

[dolphingirl47]

I have just come back from the 5 night special cruise on the Magic and I delivered to all of the 127 cabins on the roster. I did decks 6, 7 and 8 in the afternoon of the Castaway Cay Day and then 2 and 5 on Friday. It took forever.

dolphingirl47

 

[KayR]

We had a smaller group for the FE gift exchange.

IMHO I think the key word is exchange - so if you sign up you give and you get.

We didn't have any set day to deliver, which was great. As a first time cruiser I just fitted it into my schedule. DD and I went around the decks looking for the FE's and enjoyed looking at the decorated doors that were not part of the exchange. It also encouraged us to explore other decks of the ship which perhaps we would not have done!

I took pirate items (pirate ducks, pirate tattoos/stickers and pirate candy) and just distributed them unwrapped. Of course we distributed them on pirate day! We received all sorts, pens, notepads, candy, toys for the kids, postcards and more. I did one per person, but others put together a pack per door.

It was fun getting back to the cabin and finding what had been left. An extra magical touch to the cruise!

-Kay

 

[wallyb]

I have just come back from the 5 night special cruise on the Magic and I delivered to all of the 127 cabins on the roster. I did decks 6, 7 and 8 in the afternoon of the Castaway Cay Day and then 2 and 5 on Friday. It took forever.

dolphingirl47

Well that's not good.

 

[nenner1]

Have you ever been dissapointed with a FE gift you have received???

I spent a decent amount of money on our FE gifts..they are personalized.
But because of this I can only give two per stateroom on the list.

I am afraid people will be upset that there were only two and not one for each person in the cabin. I know if I post this on our meets thread everyone will say that of course they would not be upset...but I would like to hear more opinions.

(sorry I can't say exactly what they are but my thread peeps are *everywhere*!)

 

[Stepht5]

WOW - thats a lot of cabins - I thought we had a lot with 37 staterooms participating! We have also decided to split up our FE exchange into 3 groups of 12 / 13 to make it more manageable. Did you actually deliver to 136 staterooms or did you split them up!

We were on the same cruise and we delivered to everyone on the list.

Have you ever been dissapointed with a FE gift you have received???

I spent a decent amount of money on our FE gifts..they are personalized.
But because of this I can only give two per stateroom on the list.

I am afraid people will be upset that there were only two and not one for each person in the cabin. I know if I post this on our meets thread everyone will say that of course they would not be upset...but I would like to hear more opinions.

(sorry I can't say exactly what they are but my thread peeps are *everywhere*!)

My gift was one per cabin. I think most people's are 1 per cabin.

 

[KayR]

Sometimes we had just one gift per family, other times one per person. Some were packaged others were not.

We were never disappointed in what was left. It was always fun to see and I appreciated the time that people took to put things together and deliver them.

I am sure everyone will be happy with whatever you have put together for them!

-Kay