Fish Extender gift ideas -- for the not-so-crafty cruiser

[MommaMouse411]

okay so I went to the dollar store and I bought BIG PENCILS for the teens, I bought nightlights for the kids, and I bought crayons, and I bought sand molds, I bought diving balls? for the toddlers, and all Disney Themed!!!!

I found some plain mugs, I might buy those in bulk from online and decorate them, one for each adult, teen. and maybe tumblers for the kids and sippy cups for the toddlers.

all for $1 a piece.

and I'm going to download coloring pages for the kids online and the crayons will go to the young kids. And I will go back to Dollar Store and see if they still have glow necklaces when I get closer to the cruise. I don't want them to not work when we get there. and they will go to the kids as well.

but I think that's pretty much it...I am copying the idea from the DISer that did the aluminum water bottles with the mugs...I think thats something that I will definately use again if it was given to me.

I was hoping to find more cool things with Disney themed but I think its about going back every 2wks to dollar store.

Oh they did have more stuff:

they had fairy skirt, and princess skirt
they had puzzles
they had stamp kits

and I'm kicking myself in the bum, because awhile back they had a bunch of Disney stuff at the $1 section of Target and I only bought like one of each for myself and my son and Now that I want them they don't have them anymore!! they had these 4 pack of pens with lanyards on them!! for $1!!!!! ugh!!

 

[cblack]

I love all of these great ideas! So far we only have 3 families in our FE exchange, but one can't start thinking of ideas too early!

 

[teresa4304]

Do we need to sign up to participate? The FE's sound like a lot of fun!

 

[tinkmom2]

Do we need to sign up to participate? The FE's sound like a lot of fun!

Yep. You go find your cruise meet on the cruise meet board and sign up to do the FE. It's a blast!

 

[BealsRwe]

I am heading out on my 11th Disney cruise, but have never done FE, until now that is. I am beyond excited! My mom just passed away at the young age of 62 from ovarian cancer, and my dad is fighting Lymphoma, which is now terminal unless a study can be found. We booked this cruise as an opportunity to escape for awhile (just booked 2 weeks before my mom passed away on 6/25/10).

The FE planning and shopping has been so helpful, and a great distraction from my "real life stuff" going on.

I have actually gotten some great items, that I cannot wait to pass out on our 8/3/10 Wonder cruise. I am putting the info in white as to not be a spoiler for my cruise mates...don't cheat and look ;-)

For the kids, I am having mini tote bags printed by a local printer. www.prontoprintshop.com. This is where we are getting our family cruise shirts from too. In those bags, I am putting Disney Princess headbands, Tinkerbell memo pads. In the boys, there will be Toy Story card game and Toy Story Memo pads. Both will have candy and some other fillers. The best thing is I shopped at Michael's after Christmas, and bought most of the items for $.25 each, buying in bulk for birthday parties and such, but now using for FE. For the adults, my plan is a shot sized bottle of rum or vodka, drink recipe cards, and probably some candy or snacks.

I'm so excited, I cannot wait. I just inherited my mom's Cricut, so I am hoping to use to make Disney tags for all by then. We shall see if I can figure it out by then.

Thanks to this thread and others, I was able to use ideas and make them my own.

 

[gdulaney]

Speaking of kicking yourself.... my Target had the Toy Story dry erase boards w/ marker. I bought one for us.... but then thought it would be a great FE gift. So I went back to Target, but now they only have the "Dora the Explorer" version. Shucks!!!


Ginny

 

[gdulaney]

BealsRwe --->

 

[BealsRwe]

okay so I went to the dollar store and I bought BIG PENCILS for the teens, I bought nightlights for the kids, and I bought crayons, and I bought sand molds, I bought diving balls? for the toddlers, and all Disney Themed!!!!

I found some plain mugs, I might buy those in bulk from online and decorate them, one for each adult, teen. and maybe tumblers for the kids and sippy cups for the toddlers.

all for $1 a piece.

and I'm going to download coloring pages for the kids online and the crayons will go to the young kids. And I will go back to Dollar Store and see if they still have glow necklaces when I get closer to the cruise. I don't want them to not work when we get there. and they will go to the kids as well.

but I think that's pretty much it...I am copying the idea from the DISer that did the aluminum water bottles with the mugs...I think thats something that I will definately use again if it was given to me.

I was hoping to find more cool things with Disney themed but I think its about going back every 2wks to dollar store.

Oh they did have more stuff:

they had fairy skirt, and princess skirt
they had puzzles
they had stamp kits

and I'm kicking myself in the bum, because awhile back they had a bunch of Disney stuff at the $1 section of Target and I only bought like one of each for myself and my son and Now that I want them they don't have them anymore!! they had these 4 pack of pens with lanyards on them!! for $1!!!!! ugh!!

If you have a Michael's close by, the have a lot of GREAT Disney stuff in their kids impulse (dollar section). You can use coupons, 1 per day (sign up online), so you can get items at 40% off...so that makes cost even less than $1. I just found Toy Story 2 pack card games at my local Dollar Tree...I bought 4 and am splitting them up into individual card games (each pack has 2 games in them). I have actually bought more at Michael's than Target or Dollar Tree.

 

[gdulaney]

Our Dollar Tree has Disney-themed splatter toys (balls and frisbee shaped disc). These are the soft water toys.

Thoughts? Would kids fight over them or not like them?

There are 3 or 4 to a pack...so they could easily be split up.

Ginny

 

[BealsRwe]

Our Dollar Tree has Disney-themed splatter toys (balls and frisbee shaped disc). These are the soft water toys.

Thoughts? Would kids fight over them or not like them?

There are 3 or 4 to a pack...so they could easily be split up.

Ginny

My 6 year old loves anything to do with the water! Splash balls, dive sticks, even sand toys would be great. I think those items would be fun. As long as every child gets one, there is nothing to fight over, right? Of course, I say this as the mom of an only.

 

[gdulaney]

My 6 year old loves anything to do with the water! Splash balls, dive sticks, even sand toys would be great. I think those items would be fun. As long as every child gets one, there is nothing to fight over, right? Of course, I say this as the mom of an only.

No kids here.... so I only know the rule that every child has to get the "same exact" toy to prevent squabbles. That could have just been my mom's rule though.

Ginny

 

[teresa4304]

Yep. You go find your cruise meet on the cruise meet board and sign up to do the FE. It's a blast!

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[MommaMouse411]

so I went back to the dollar tree...and they have more disney stuff...i found some TOY STORY lip balm..but theysaid they won't bring any more back..so I'm going to go to another store to find more.

they had coloring books, books, word search, baby socks, jump ropes, princess necklaces and tea sets. small disny figurines, small balls, beach balls, floaties, goggles, bubble wands. and Glow Sticks that are in shapes of Sword and Magic Wand!!!they had ALOT of disney stuff, plus they have some cool stuff online..they had Disney themed sandwich bags!!!

They also had these little totes plain, and they had these coolers that are really thin..those would be great if you want to get them embroidered.

which now I'm torn between the coolers with embroidery or the water bottle with a cruise graphic on it

http://www.dollartree.com/kitchen-t...le/213c336c341p299763/index.pro?method=search

I will have to try michaels..as I haven't been there in a very long time...gonig to sign up for some coupons now..I used to get them, not sure why they stopped sending them to me.

 

[MommaMouse411]

fyi: Big Lots have stuff for $1...like notepads/pen combo, lip gloss/balm. and other stuff..I just didn't buy them all..

 

[Bronzalyn]

Awesome ideas everyone! Thanks for sharing them...

 

[dr&momto2boys]

We leave on the Wonder on Sunday and my FE gift to everyone was from Oriental Trading. Since we have 2 stops at CC plus Nassau, I bought a mesh beach bag and waterproof beach safe container (one that goes around your neck) for each person in our FE group. They came in lot of 12 so they were pretty reasonable!
Now, everyone has a mesh beach bag to take to the beach plus a waterproof/sandproof container to put in their money, room key, etc.


Hope everyone likes what I got!

Very nice! We just did the "water wallet" personalized with the ship name and cruise date for the adults. We did various pirate items and water toys for kids.

 

[4 Ears]

OK, so I got it you sign up. But what I am not 100% sure on is do you give to each stateroom every day?, one time, as many as you want. Or do you just do like 5 out of 20 saterooms?

 

[cruisindisney]

OK, so I got it you sign up. But what I am not 100% sure on is do you give to each stateroom every day?, one time, as many as you want. Or do you just do like 5 out of 20 saterooms?

You give to each stateroom in your FE group. Some groups are bigger than others. If your cruise has alot of participants, the group may decide to divide it into a few smaller groups. My cruise in March has 60+ staterooms signed up and plan to divide that into two groups of 30+. So each room on our list (30+) will receive a gift from us.

You can give once during the cruise or more, it's up to you. You also have the choice of doing one gift per stateroom or one per person. Clear as mud?

I will say it's ALOT of fun and my kids LOVED it! My son was so excited to go back to the stateroom all the time because there was almost always a treat in his FE pocket.

 

[cruisindisney]

weird double post, sorry

 

[sssteele]

Last cruise I picked up Disney dry erase boards for $1.00 each at Target and added magnetic strips to the back after we were aboard ship. Very easy for me to pack and carry along. Be sure to deliver these the 1st day if you can so the recipients get to use them.