Fish Extender gifts question

[stsomewhere]

The issue I ran into last year for our FE, was that some didn't pay attention to our situation. I was travelling with a Girlfriend and my youngest son. It started out as a "Mommy and Me" trip for myself and my youngest, but then I invited my friend along. We both signed up for the FE, She made her own FE gifts and I made my own to give out. We did, as far as I'm concerned, make it clear we were TWO separage families in one stateroom, giving out two separate gifts. Some people who gave to us, gave one gift per stateroom. It should have been one gift per family. So some items, we had to decide who would take it home, and the other would be without. And some of those gifts were very nice gifts. Don't know what else we could have done in that situation?

My mom and I traveled together in the same stateroom.
We both gave out our own FE.
I asked the organizer to list my mom and I seperately.

 

[mncooldad]

Thanks everyone for sharing ideas. I am new to this so everybit helps.

 

[islandtimect]

I would love to participate in my ship's FE group, but am worried that this could cost a lot of money. How much do folks generally spend? I'm not crafty, although DD 11 is really good at duct tape crafts.

 

[Meghatron]

I would love to participate in my ship's FE group, but am worried that this could cost a lot of money. How much do folks generally spend? I'm not crafty, although DD 11 is really good at duct tape crafts.

It costs as much as you want/need it to cost. While yes, you will see a lot of amazing, almost over-the-top gifts, there's also a lot of little, inexpensive and/or handmade stuff as well. The one thing my DD still plays with from our last FE is a $.50 princess rubber ducky from Oriental Trading.

FE is supposed to be little surprises to make people smile. It should NOT be stressful and anyone making you feel that way is doing it wrong. We also don't put our name on our gifts. I believe the whole thing should be anonymous and was kind of weirded out the first time we got stuff that people had "signed". I think attaching names is what makes folks start getting into a competitive mindset, whether or not they realize it. And it's rarely malicious, but it has a definite effect on the new people, or those who aren't crafty/rich/willing to lug an entire extra suitcase full of stuff.

 

[DebbieOBX]

WOW I can't even think about so many people in a room. This is a good question. I am new to disney and doing my first FE. Traveling with another women, both over 60. I'm loving making gifts for everyone, as is my friend.BUT if a room had so many people it would be hard for me.. Perhaps there is a better way. We only took 20 rooms,and maybe rooms should be given by size. Maybe all the 2 people together.Like i said i love doing the little kids gifts, but i can sympathize with the OP. Like i said this is all new to me, and what does bother me, is someone posted that the max amount of money they spend is 77cents per person. I'm clueless on what you can get for 77 cents. I will enjoy every gift, and enjoy the cruise no matter what happens.

Ok, I am just trying to figure out how this works. We are sailing in Feb with a smaller FE group. However, one of our families has 11 people and one has 16. Does that mean I need to make/bring 27 gifts, but my daughter will only get two? Is it per person or per family or per stateroom? How do I broach this with our group without sounding selfish? I just want it to balanced.
thanks
Stephanie

 

[neg58]

WOW I can't even think about so many people in a room. This is a good question. I am new to disney and doing my first FE. Traveling with another women, both over 60. I'm loving making gifts for everyone, as is my friend.BUT if a room had so many people it would be hard for me.. Perhaps there is a better way. We only took 20 rooms,and maybe rooms should be given by size. Maybe all the 2 people together.Like i said i love doing the little kids gifts, but i can sympathize with the OP. Like i said this is all new to me, and what does bother me, is someone posted that the max amount of money they spend is 77cents per person. I'm clueless on what you can get for 77 cents. I will enjoy every gift, and enjoy the cruise no matter what happens.

Well, the 16 people AREN'T all in one room, probably in 4 or 5 rooms, and the original question was does the OP give 16 people each an item from the 3 people in her room and then will her one room (3 people) then only get ONE gift from the group of 16. It's hard to know what they will do, but I agree that at the minumum, it should be 1 gift from each room to another room. But if the 16 people list themselves as ONE unit, then that unit would be 'entitled' to one exchange. Unless you ask on your 'meets' page, you won't know how they want to handle it.

I think most people tend to give one item to another room, or one item to each person in the room. I read a trip report where it was set up that every person in EACH room gave every other PERSON a gift, so even though there were only 11 cabins, it came out to about 60 items for her small family of 3 to give. Crazy, and no longer fun (for me) at that point.

I don't like rules. I'll swap what I want to swap and I'm not going to compare item to item. Some people love to give gifts every day, and good for them. I've participated in 2 FE's, and only one person seemed to go crazy with multiple items given almost every day. I really enjoyed it, and I hope he enjoyed giving the items, because he didn't get back nearly the number he delivered.

Nancy