Fish Extenders-Be Honest

[The Sasquatch]

we did an FE group on our last cruise but not doing it on our April. It took alot of planning and we shipped a huge box to the ship prior. It was fun handing out things and coming back to the room at having little gifts. "Worth" is a hard word to define. our best gift was a black picture matte with the halloween logo embossed on it in gold and a gold paint pen to give to guest services to have signed. Just getting that was worth it, very cool.

We decided not to this time so we can just relax but my wife joined a group that will be doing a meet and not an FE. I think the cool thing about being in the FE is it adds to that "Disney planning" prior to your trip that we all love. It keeps you engaged for all the months leading up to it.

 

[Im_A_Princess]

It's supposed to be fun, not stressful. I enjoy thinking up and finding gifts for the FEs. I do it because I like giving gifts to people to help make their cruise more memorable and so they have something to remind them of their time onboard when they get home. Usually it is a dated magnet I create at Vistaprint or that I creat for each person that is personalized. I also try to give Disney themed items. One of my personal favorites to give is a Minnie Mouse nail file along with other Disney themed stuff. Be creative and have fun. I don't expect to get back. I have even ordered many extra magnets and put them on randome doors where people decorated their door but were not in our FE. This was especially fun to do on the Panama Canal cruise.

 

[shafferchr]

Was always told you have to try something before you knock it. So we are going to do the FE for our cruise and it is also our first. If we don't like it then we won't do it next time.

 

[ldhr2005]

What is the best way to find a FE group?

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

Hmmm now I'm second guessing if I want to do the FE. Most of the children involved are under 10, mine are all over 10. Hmmmmmmm

ME TOO!!!! I was thinking the same thing after reading the first few comments. My DS will be 1. I'm crafty, but with an infant at home, I'm not going to attempt to make my gifts! Then, there's the expense of buying a FE. Again, I don't have the time to make one. It would probably cost more time and money for me to make one anyway. I don't sew. Knitting would take too long.

But, I think I'm going to try it once. I'd hate to back out and regret it once I'm on the ship.

 

[Cruise-n-2015]

ME TOO!!!! I was thinking the same thing after reading the first few comments. My DS will be 1. I'm crafty, but with an infant at home, I'm not going to attempt to make my gifts! Then, there's the expense of buying a FE. Again, I don't have the time to make one. It would probably cost more time and money for me to make one anyway. I don't sew. Knitting would take too long.

But, I think I'm going to try it once. I'd hate to back out and regret it once I'm on the ship.

I know, I keep going back and forth on if I should do it or not. I don't cruise until December, so I do have time to decide.
Another thing you can do for your DS is inhave heard some people bring extra little gifts to leave for their own children in the FE or in the cabin.

 

[ayz75]

What is the best way to find a FE group?

I found my group on the cruise meet section (sub forum on this forum) try there first!

It's our first DCL cruise and I've decided to join a FE group. I'm into this kind of stuff, I used to do something similar on another forum with members who lived in the same city. I am not crafty so I won't be hand making anything, but I intend to try and be creative and make fun gifts my daughter is only 2 and probably won't "get" it, but I'm sure she'll have fun checking for gifts in the fisher extender!

 

[MimiU]

we did an FE group on our last cruise but not doing it on our April. It took alot of planning and we shipped a huge box to the ship prior. It was fun handing out things and coming back to the room at having little gifts. "Worth" is a hard word to define. our best gift was a black picture matte with the halloween logo embossed on it in gold and a gold paint pen to give to guest services to have signed. Just getting that was worth it, very cool.

We decided not to this time so we can just relax but my wife joined a group that will be doing a meet and not an FE. I think the cool thing about being in the FE is it adds to that "Disney planning" prior to your trip that we all love. It keeps you engaged for all the months leading up to it.

What's a "meet" ?

 

[MimiU]

I am reading a lot of people saying that it takes alot of time to distribute. I have never done this before but I was planning on doing it with my 3 boys. I am reading that you can join different groups some 10 some 25. Does it really take that long to go find 10 staterooms and deliver 10 items?

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I know, I keep going back and forth on if I should do it or not. I don't cruise until December, so I do have time to decide.
Another thing you can do for your DS is inhave heard some people bring extra little gifts to leave for their own children in the FE or in the cabin.

Yeah, I considered just putting gifts in his pocket myself, but at a year old, I don't think he will care. Lol. That's also a reason I think I'm still going to do it this time. If I don't like it, he won't remember doing it, so he won't miss doing it the next time. When he gets older and see other kids doing it and want to participate, I'll either put gifts in his pocket myself or suck it up and take one for the team. Lol

All that to say, I think I'm going to stick with it. We sail in less than 60 days.

 

[Seamama]

I am reading a lot of people saying that it takes alot of time to distribute. I have never done this before but I was planning on doing it with my 3 boys. I am reading that you can join different groups some 10 some 25. Does it really take that long to go find 10 staterooms and deliver 10 items?

My kids were 5 and 8 when we did our first FE. They came w/ me to a few staterooms, then started complaining. I left them w/ DH and finished the rest myself. I was surprised they weren't into the delivery part... they sure loved getting stuff though, and we'll be doing FE again on our next cruise.

It can be quite tiring depending on how you do it. I wanted to get it all done at once, and we had (I think) 40-50 rooms. Plus, I was trying to get it done quickly, too, b/c we'd changed staterooms (after the meet-up) so I hand-wrote notes to put w/ the gifts and was racing to deliver everything right away so people would know we had a new room#.

Rooms can be all over the ship so yes, it took me awhile (can't remember how long, sorry). Next time, I won't even bring the kids- I'll just get them set up at the pool w/ DH to watch them and then take my time delivering everything. Plus, I'll hopefully not feel as rushed since we won't likely have a last-minute room change again. I'll probably even spread out the deliveries over a few days.

Hint: Print out deck maps and organize your gifts by location- that makes delivery go much smoother!

 

[PizzieDuster]

I'm looking at part of a magnet from our "Cruise to Neverland" - cruise to no where. 1/21/11. It's taped onto my computer. Makes me smile. A picture of the ship with Peter Pan and Wendy flying over it. There are lots of stuff all over my house from FE gifts, down to my book marker.

With that said, I would only do one night. I did two nights once and it was too much.

The kids loved coming back to the room and finding things in their pockets. I do have several CDs with nothing on them. I always thought it was my CD player. LOL

 

[MakiraMarlena]

It is not "selfish" to make the decision that you do not wish to participate in a fish extender or gift exchange. I don't want to pack the extra items or carry a lot more extraneous items home, and then figure out what to do with them once they get home. I prefer mementoes of the ports. Might be different on a cruise where one does not acquire items in port. I don't have kids though. Most folks do the gift exchanges because kids enjoy them (as one of the previous posters noted though, some kids will appreciate the getting far more than the delivery aspect.) and then reading here about other cruisers complaining about the "quality" of the gifts they received ("I spent a lot of time and money making handmade personalized gifts and some people just gave cheap candy or stickers or printed paper.") There's no threshhold for gifts, nor should there be.

 

[drkathyj]

We did our first on the Alaska cruise. My kids 5,11 and 16 all loved it. Obviously some gifts were better than others but everyone put in effort and I really think it was worth it. We joined last minute and used bags from the disney store-the reusable ones as our FE and no one really cared that we did not have a fancy FE. I am not crafty and got great stuff from the disney store and other places to give. We are doing it again and I am excited. I never evaluated the cost but it was worth it to us.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

To the original poster, thank you for posting this. This is very helpful.

 

[scrapycruiser]

I usually participate. I'm into crafts, and love planning what to make. I used to spend way too much money on the kids. And we're a retired couple with no kids. So my husband put his foot down. Now I give a handmade gift to the cabin and give candy or ice cream toppings for the soft serve on deck to the kids (of all ages).
It doesn't take too much time to pass them out, my husband helps. Plus I consider it good exercise !

 

[nzdisneymom]

OP, we have participated in FEs but certainly understand the amount of time and luggage space it can take to prepare them before leaving home. When we did the Alaska cruise, here's what we did - we took a bag of ziploc baggies and a set of pre-printed labels with the cabin numbers/ DIS names for delivery purposes. Then while in Vancouver the day before we sailed, we stopped in a local area store that is like a Walgreens / CVS and bought enough Vancouver postcards and pencils and also found some bags of candy made in Canada. After we boarded the ship, we assembled them and then delivered throughout the week. What was nice about that is that for most of the passengers, Vancouver was not home, not a frequently visited area, and it gave everyone a Vancouver souvenir that they probably didn't already get for themselves. We spent maybe $25 on all of it (about $1 per cabin). I always pick up "local" candy to take back to my office, so that's what made me think to do this for the FE.

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

I usually participate. I'm into crafts, and love planning what to make. I used to spend way too much money on the kids. And we're a retired couple with no kids. So my husband put his foot down. Now I give a handmade gift to the cabin and give candy or ice cream toppings for the soft serve on deck to the kids (of all ages).
It doesn't take too much time to pass them out, my husband helps. Plus I consider it good exercise !

I understand. I was looking at some things for the kids online and I quickly saw how things can get out of hand (financially). There are a lot of great gift ideas for the kids! I think I'm either going to get one gift for the cabin or gifts just for the kids. That way, I don't end up spending too much on this.

 

[bethy]

I'm a new cruiser and on the fence about this too. Mainly due to the cost. I cannot begin to imagine doing this for 40-50 cabins! I am hoping for a smaller FE group, with a max of about 12 cabins. We will see how it all works out as our cruise date approaches and then I will make our final decision.

 

[rawdata]

We did our first one last week. We had ten cabins per group. It worked very well for us. I had them all delivered in about an hour. I am an early riser so I did them in the mornings. That also, hopefully, cut down on any theft as the trend for that would be in the evenings or during the day. Mine would be there when the cabin arose for breakfast. Since I delivered twice, I was delivering items based on what was going on that day, too.

I organized for delivery by elevators. Forward bag, midship bag, aft bag. Then I would hit rooms based on their location. It went very fast.

My biggest deal was honestly luggage space. If we were driving, I mught do it again. If flying, it's an extra bag and was $35 more to check a second bag on op of my first bag. That's in addition to the time and money spent on the gifts.

Would I do it again? Absolutely!!! It was fun seeing new stuff and everyone's creative ideas.

In the future I would also tag my stuff. I didn't tag mine while everyone else did. And since we got an upgrade, I'm not sure everyone got the message of our new room so that might not have helped them. Oh well... My fault!!! (Though I loved being upgraded to room 12000!!!)