Gifts & Amenities... Need creative ideas...

[NeverSayNever]

Hi All,

Each trip I order various treats for different days to surprise the family as well as bring a thing or two along. Well, I am running out of ideas and it is not helping that this year we are sailing from NY and the selection are slim pickings, basically no real sweet treats!

In the past I have brought personalized banners for the room, a little Mickey xmas tree for our Christmas cruise, Halloween sign and garland for our Halloween cruise, etc... You get the idea.

I will order room decorations and a bottle of champagne, but from there I am stumped this year.

Please help! What creative things have you done as surprises?

Oh, and has anyone ordered a small cake... Is it worth it?


Thanks in advance!

 

[Sytrace]

I have ordered the following and found them to be very nicely done and presented.
1. Beer mug for my husband. It is a very nice, sturdy mug that is refilled at a slight discount during the cruise. He did not bring it along the last couple of cruises, but he does like using it at home.
2. Birthday cabin decorations. I will bring these back when we sail in September for my daughters birthday.
3. Birthday Sailaway treats. They are 5 white chocolate covered oreo cookies with a thin fondant decoration. My daughter loves them and I have purchased them again for her birthday.
4. I once got a one day Rainforest pass, but now I just buy the length of cruise pass onboard on embarkation day. I used it everyday for an hour or so at a time before dinner and loved it.
5. I have ordered a cake before and I have purchased one at GS on the ship when I missed the deadline to pre order. Frankly, I found the onboard offering to be really over the top rich to the point where no one ate it. Sort of a waste of money.
The ones you pre order via fax have a better choice of cake as well as type of icing and is not generic. I found the flavor to be better as well.

 

[Amunet]

Earlier this year they had a Frozen Decoration Package, which we most regrettably missed on ordering, that included hanging swirly decor.

So I ordered some swirls and Frozen birthday hanging swirls and will be decorating ourselves

I suggest check often and if you see an extra you want, don't hesitate, order ASAP!

 

[MUN]

Hi All,

Each trip I order various treats for different days to surprise the family as well as bring a thing or two along. Well, I am running out of ideas and it is not helping that this year we are sailing from NY and the selection are slim pickings, basically no real sweet treats!

In the past I have brought personalized banners for the room, a little Mickey xmas tree for our Christmas cruise, Halloween sign and garland for our Halloween cruise, etc... You get the idea.

I will order room decorations and a bottle of champagne, but from there I am stumped this year.

Please help! What creative things have you done as surprises?

Oh, and has anyone ordered a small cake... Is it worth it?


Thanks in advance!

Have you thought about giving them money? My wife and kids like cash the best.

 

[RedSox68]

I find the onboard decoration options to be too expensive. I have brought my own banners or handmade signs for special occasions. I have also pre-made gift bags to leave on the bed for everyone and they really liked that. When my daughter was younger (9-12), I used to present her with a handmade gift certificate telling her how much money she had "on account" that she could spend in the stores. She loved that because she felt like it was her own money. I also surprised her a couple of times with Arcade game cards.

When she got older, I used to give her the certificate for use in Cove Cafe for hot chocolate and treats when she was out and about the ship and that was also a big hit.

For my husband, I always ordered a bottle of wine to be ready in the room. That's his favorite "treat".

I don't know anything about the pre-ordered cake, I just know the chocolate one they gave us for our anniversary celebration was amazing.