Fish Extenders-Be Honest

[RatherDrive]

We really thought about it for our last cruise. The FE distribution was that there was to be one gift per person in our room to each person in every stateroom. There were 15 staterooms in each group. So it would of ended up being around 240 gifts for our family to purchase/make/distribute. No thanks! I would have needed at least one extra suitcase at $35 plus the cost of the FE. I am on vacation, my time is mine. Might sound selfish but I can't see it being worth the hassle. Meets on the other hand are a great way to meet up your fellow cruisers.

 

[5xdisneyfans]

Did it once and won't do it again. I made notes on everyone and made gifts myself for each person . All we got was candy. Nothing made and they didn't even give stuff according to what my kids like . It took alot of time and space in my luggage and didn't feel it was worth it. This is just my opinion. Glad I tried it because otherwise I would wonder what I was missing.

 

[MelSpees]

I really don't think you need to make a big deal out of FE, unless you want to. I see it as just something fun to do. We appreciated the little things we got. It was just fun to see if there was anything unexpected at our door. It doesn't need to be expensive or terrifically creative. If you want to put effort into it, we'll realize the time and energy and appreciate it, but it's not necessary.

 

[Disgirl83]

I've done FEs on my last 3 cruises and have absolutely loved participating. I spent a lot of time making my first FE and then had one made on our last. I just became a consultant for thirty one gifts and they have a product called oh snap pockets. Not sure if any of you have checked these out before but there are several different patterns and you can personalize them. I think they would work great for a no-fuss FE. If any of you have a consultant you should totally check them out. If not, pm me and I would be happy to give you some more information on them!

Here is a pic to give you an idea of what I'm talking about!

 

[Connie Benedetto]

Where do I join for 2016, April? Please

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Where do I join for 2016, April? Please

You need to go to the Cruise Meets Board (link above). Then find the thread that says "Find your 2016 (ship name) cruise meet LINK here" and click on it. Then scroll down the list of dates to see if your meet has started(there will be a link underneath the date). It's a little early, but it could be there.

 

[lauritagoddess]

I really don't think you need to make a big deal out of FE, unless you want to. I see it as just something fun to do. We appreciated the little things we got. It was just fun to see if there was anything unexpected at our door. It doesn't need to be expensive or terrifically creative. If you want to put effort into it, we'll realize the time and energy and appreciate it, but it's not necessary.

This is how I feel too. We did the FE when we went on the PC Repo and it was a lot of fun finding gifts in the FE over the course of the cruise. Most of them were just little things, but it was still nice. I can't even remember what I did, I'm sure it wasn't something enormously crafty since that's not my strong suit, and we had a huge FE list and I know I wouldn't have spent a huge amount of $$ on it. I didn't realize people expected to get personalized items. It was never my expectation. I did really like the magnets other people gave to us and some of them are still on my fridge years later, but I think my DS's favorite gift was some chocolate necco wafers since he'd never seen chocolate ones before, lol. My DS was 6 at the time and he loved going with me to deliver to the FEs. We did only 1 deck per day to spread it out and it gave him time to explore each deck. He'll be 13 on our next cruise in August and I don't know if he'll still want to deliver the FE items but if not it will give me a chance to do some exploring.

 

[lucas]

I would never be interested in doing FEs. Too much other stuff to do on a cruise!

 

[AquaDame]

I've done it twice... both times we get a lot of things that are meant for little kids that we ended up regifting to other's FEs. If we had little ones I would keep doing it, but as two adults it just feels so wasteful... we ended up with multiple mugs, drink sleeves, pot holders, journals and such that we ended up keeping our favourites and leaving the rest... I still feel terrible and hope the stateroom attendant had some use for them.

On the other hand if I were doing it again I would absolutely gift bottle openers... you would not believe what we went through trying to uncork a bottle of wine we brought, lol!

 

[DnA2010]

Where as I'm hoping that we do get some of those people who really put the effort in- our FE are capped at around 10 cabins so hoping it's not just candy etc that we receive..

 

[DnA2010]

I really don't think you need to make a big deal out of FE, unless you want to. I see it as just something fun to do. We appreciated the little things we got. It was just fun to see if there was anything unexpected at our door. It doesn't need to be expensive or terrifically creative. If you want to put effort into it, we'll realize the time and energy and appreciate it, but it's not necessary.

Where as I'm hoping we do get people who make a big deal- it's our first cruise and FE...we are putting a lot of effort into ours and hope others do too. Ours is capped so hopefully that helps - hope we get mugs, pot holders, journals etc those all sound great!

 

[2Bnºoºt2B]

Learned about FE's through this board a few years ago and signed up for the exchanges on our B2B aboard the Fantasy ... it was a lot of fun to see what "stocking stuffer" surprises were in our little FEs ... it's always more fun to give than to receive ...

 

[hardis5]

We did our first last fall and were a little disappointed on a few issues with that FE:

• The amount of candy (and some no more than what could be bought for 25 cents or seemed was leftover Halloween candy) was disappointing. If you are going to be involved in such, put in a little effort in thought of what bought, personalization (for those crafty) or represent either your background or locale. One of the best items received was a small shot glass in the shape of a cowboy boot from a family from Texas. Not all candy was unappreciated as some appeared to have thought put into as it was specific to the region a family/cabin was from but generic or Halloween sized common candy was the norm.
  
• If you are a second cabin participating only because friends or other family are (or were put into the FE group by the other cabin) and truly do not want to participate, please pull yourself out of as you will not enjoy unless wanting to willingly participate.
  
• The coordinators have a thankless job of trying to balance the numbers in multiple groups where a lot of cabins/people participate on a given cruise, but please keep the groups to a reasonable number of cabins/people and error on the side of small (or ask if people have a preference to more or less people and group accordingly). We had I believe 16 cabins with almost 80 people. I'd rather have a smaller group to avoid more than 1/2 of one suitcase being filled with gifts given or avoid combining gifts to manage the cost of participating.
• If you do sign-up for, remember it is a gift exchange (however small, whether personalized or not) - you are not hanging out a Christmas tree. We had all in our sub-group put up their FE's to receive their surprise but definitely did not perceive receiving from all in our sub-group.

We will participate again and give it a second chance and hopefully will feel less pressure/regret and more enjoyment with the second time around.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We did our first last fall and were a little disappointed on a few issues with that FE:

• The amount of candy (and some no more than what could be bought for 25 cents or seemed was leftover Halloween candy) was disappointing

Was your cruise one of the Halloween on the High Seas cruises? Maybe that's why the "Halloween candy".

 

[hardis5]

Was your cruise one of the Halloween on the High Seas cruises? Maybe that's why the "Halloween candy".

Nope, was just before Thanksgiving. A Halloween cruise I'd expect some candy would naturally be left for the kids (it was a parent only cruise unlike our next with all).

 

[nordkin]

My personal opinion is that the fish extender exchange has been blown way out of proportion from what the original one was. We have participated in several of them and I just chuckle when I see people stressing over what to give. The entire point is to give what is comfortable for you. I believe it is crazy to give a gift for every person in the room. We have always done a family gift that we feel is useful. One time we gave small first aid kits the first day of a seven day cruise and several people said they actually used it on the cruise. You will always get a lot of candy. Instead of complaining about it, we just leave it with the stateroom host. We always go with a small gift we would like to receive.

The exchange is meant to be fun and not a contest over gifts. We did not participate on our last cruise because the people co-ordination it were attempting to dictate the types of things to give. To be honest, I did not miss it, especially since we no longer travel with children.

Make it all about fun and nothing else.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

My personal opinion is that the fish extender exchange has been blown way out of proportion from what the original one was. We have participated in several of them and I just chuckle when I see people stressing over what to give. The entire point is to give what is comfortable for you. I believe it is crazy to give a gift for every person in the room. We have always done a family gift that we feel is useful. One time we gave small first aid kits the first day of a seven day cruise and several people said they actually used it on the cruise. You will always get a lot of candy. Instead of complaining about it, we just leave it with the stateroom host. We always go with a small gift we would like to receive.

The exchange is meant to be fun and not a contest over gifts. We did not participate on our last cruise because the people co-ordination it were attempting to dictate the types of things to give. To be honest, I did not miss it, especially since we no longer travel with children.

Make it all about fun and nothing else.

OH MY GOSH, I thought I was the only one feeling the exact same thing. I've been doing it since our PC cruise in 2005, it's inception. It crazy to read people complaining about what they get or what they spent over what they receive. Or the controversy over candy or alcohol or trinkets and on and on. It used to be so much fun and no worries about trying to top the next guy. It never was intended to be high end gift giving. It never was to be strictly Disney gifts or strictly crafts. It was never about one person in charge of calling the shots and letting you in the group or deleting you out if they so choose. It wasn't about having rules or leaders of the group making all the decisions like an HOA board. Now I'm reading about people taking charge of the FE groups that are not even on the cruise. Way, way too much control. Once people wanted it off the DISboards and onto FB in my eyes it went spiraling downhill. I have always LOVED doing the FE but we will not be participating the next two cruises. They say change is good but I don't see it in this regard.

 

[Zarina]

Thanks for all the info

 

[Fairy Mermaid]

it was a bit of work but I thought it was fun! you can take something small, it doesn't have to be huge or intricate! it was a lot of fun just walking around delivering the gifts to the different rooms because it was a great way to look at all the different door decorations and explore decks further away from where we were staying! i'll be doing it again for our next cruise!

 

[MommyMeNDisney]

My personal opinion is that the fish extender exchange has been blown way out of proportion from what the original one was. We have participated in several of them and I just chuckle when I see people stressing over what to give. The entire point is to give what is comfortable for you. I believe it is crazy to give a gift for every person in the room. We have always done a family gift that we feel is useful. One time we gave small first aid kits the first day of a seven day cruise and several people said they actually used it on the cruise. You will always get a lot of candy. Instead of complaining about it, we just leave it with the stateroom host. We always go with a small gift we would like to receive.

The exchange is meant to be fun and not a contest over gifts. We did not participate on our last cruise because the people co-ordination it were attempting to dictate the types of things to give. To be honest, I did not miss it, especially since we no longer travel with children.

Make it all about fun and nothing else.

I'm so glad you said this! This will be my first Disney cruise and I was considering not participating in FE after reading all the "ungrateful" sounding responses. Buying/making gifts for TEN cabins, even if there are only two people in each cabin can be expensive. When I decided to join, I thought it was supposed to be little thoughtful gifts. I was disappointed to find that people frowned upon simple, thoughtful gifts. Kids LOVE stickers and candy! If you get too much candy, why not ration it out and save some for later or just spread some pixie dust and regift it? Getting gifts my DS can use/consume on the ship is even better, because I won't have to worrying about finding room in our luggage to bring it home.

I made up my mind a few posts ago that I was going to set a maximum amount to spend on this FE that includes shipping and the purchase of a FE. My gift will be thoughtful, but it definitely won't be extravagent!
I'm going to have fun with it and appreciate EVERY gift. If it's something DS can't use, we will spread some pixie dust and re-gift it.