Help with FE packing question

[jnadelman]

So my wife and I disagree about how to transport our FE gifts. I'm not going to say who's opinion is which.
We have about 100 gifts to give out. Each will have about 5 items and each will be in a little gift bag. Currently the items are packaged nicely in small enough boxes/bags that they can be placed in the suitcases as in.

Now, to the question
One of us says to keep everything packaged AS IS, the items are nicely organized into the small boxes/bags they came in. But this means having to put the gift bags together once we arrive.

The other says to put together the 100 gift bags now before we leave and place these 100+ bags all over the suit cases.

what should we do?

 

[Tneah]

Put them together before you leave. You don't want to waste your time doing this on the ship.


Put them all in large zip lock bags.

 

[karentan]

i was going to suggest that too, do you want to spend a few hours putting FE gifts together? if you're on a longer cruise, this may not be too bad, but on a 3 or 4 night cruise, that'll be the last thing you want to spend your time doing!

 

[star2500]

It may be expensive but you never know...I'd look into how much it would cost to ship them directly to the port. That way you can have them all made up already and not worry about it.

If not, then I'd put them around in your luggage already made up. It will leave enough room for souvenirs for when you come home

 

[lbgraves]

Sort them out before the cruise. You don't realize how long it will take you to get that all done and you don't want to waste that vacation time. It is going to take you a while to deliver all of the FE gifts as it is. Also, don't think that you are going to have all that space for souvies. Remember that you will be receiving FE gifts as well and they could take up more room than your gift bags do.

 

[jnadelman]

So your saying that we want to take up more room on the way down?
Basically that it is obvious that it will be easier to pack things without them being in the gift bags, but since we don't want to waste time putting them together, and we want the extra room for the gifts we receive and things we buy.

 

[Anal Annie]

Put the bags together BEFORE the cruise and pack them securely so they don't spill. I guarantee they will take longer to put together than you think. You don't want to waste your precious vacation time doing this! And you will be surprised how long it will take on the ship just to deliver the 100 bags. Having participated in a much smaller FE exchange trust me!! Our FE organizer had emailed us deck plans with all of our cabin numbers marked and it STILL took awhile to go up & down each hallway & each deck. I put my gift bags together before we went and brought them in a carry-on bag...Then we had an empty bag to use for souvies for the trip home. I totally agree with Lisa - don't forget that you need space to bring the 100 gifts you receive home too!!

 

[Tneah]

It does take a while to hand out the bags. I felt although it was a fun idea and fun for the kids. Handing out the bags used up time I wanted to use doing others thing on the ship. On a 3/ 4 day cruise your time is flying by.

I've chosen to not do FE on my upcoming cruise.

 

[ibouncetoo]

I've always (three times) assembled my bags ON THE SHIP. It's was easier to pack the elements individually and to pack the gift bags flat. Sometimes I sent a box ahead to the ship, sometimes portions of the gifts were in my suitcase. One time it was a group gift, so there were three of us assembling and distributing them and for the WBPC we had a whole team distributing the gifts.

That being said, I've never done 100 all on my own...but you don't have to do all of them at the same time. If I had to unpack 100 preassembled bags, you'd better bet I'd be getting them out of my cabin right away. Is that how you want to spend the first day on the ship?

My suggestion, keep elements individual, pack in a box with the bags flat and send it to the ship. Keep the box under the vanity until you are ready to spend some time assembling and distributing them. ALSO....if you have DIS pals or more family on the cruise...get help!

.

 

[Renysmom]

So my wife and I disagree about how to transport our FE gifts. I'm not going to say who's opinion is which.
We have about 100 gifts to give out. Each will have about 5 items and each will be in a little gift bag. Currently the items are packaged nicely in small enough boxes/bags that they can be placed in the suitcases as in.

Now, to the question
One of us says to keep everything packaged AS IS, the items are nicely organized into the small boxes/bags they came in. But this means having to put the gift bags together once we arrive.

The other says to put together the 100 gift bags now before we leave and place these 100+ bags all over the suit cases.

what should we do?

Jeff - We assembled ours already and have packed them in a computer paper box , sealed it, marked it and I am then checking it in with porter with my luggage.

I forget which day you deliver on but if its early in the cruise you may want to put them together at home and bring them, with all the first day events, plus Halloween on the ship, etc. you just may not have time, if you deliver at the end of the cruise, then you probably would have some time to assemble but do you really want to do that?

Of course you can just send them all to my house and you won't have this problem now will you

 

[jnadelman]

Jeff - We assembled ours already and have packed them in a computer paper box , sealed it, marked it and I am then checking it in with porter with my luggage.

I forget which day you deliver on but if its early in the cruise you may want to put them together at home and bring them, with all the first day events, plus Halloween on the ship, etc. you just may not have time, if you deliver at the end of the cruise, then you probably would have some time to assemble but do you really want to do that?

Of course you can just send them all to my house and you won't have this problem now will you

Kelly - we are giving them out on day 1. We also have to pay for luggage so checking another box in at the airport just doesn't make sense. Probably cheaper to ship it ahead of time.
I guess we will make them ahead of time and see how big the pile of them winds up being. I'm hoping maybe we can fit them all into a carry on bag?

 

[jilljill]

Are you arriving in FL the day before your cruise? If so you can ship the box of gifts there and put them together and then reuse the box and check it in at the port.

 

[jnadelman]

Are you arriving in FL the day before your cruise? If so you can ship the box of gifts there and put them together and then reuse the box and check it in at the port.

Yes.

 

[tinkmom2]

I am going to try to ship my FE gifts to the hotel. That being said I am nervous that my box is going to get lost or damaged. Some things like my magnets for the door and my actual FE I will put in my day bag. It was too hard to make my gift bags on the last cruise and we only had about 15 cabins. I felt so rushed! Plus we could have been having fun somewhere else. I have a month to go yet so I have to figure out what we are doing. I am also making sure to pack some glue and in my luggage to fix the crafts we made just in case. I plan on buying some gifts at downtown Disney too but I may hand those out separate.

 

[Carol G]

I had made the cut off date a couple months before our cruise even though we don't have that many cabins. But many people work and busy with other things.

I personally am bagging each person individually ahead of time and than putting all the family in one larger bag at the present time to keep them together..

My friend and I will split the gifts in our luggage avoiding the excess weight for one person to carry. We're passing the adult gifts out one day only and the childrens gifts everyday. It's near Christmas and the children will look forward to seeing something for them in the FE.

 

[kerickson]

I'm making up my bags this weekend. 21 bags total (13 adult and 8 children) Once done I'll figure out how to transport. It's too late to ship I think, but since we are flying SWA I could always check an extra bag or box.

 

[tinkerbellmom1]

Put the bags together BEFORE the cruise and pack them securely so they don't spill. I guarantee they will take longer to put together than you think. You don't want to waste your precious vacation time doing this! And you will be surprised how long it will take on the ship just to deliver the 100 bags. Having participated in a much smaller FE exchange trust me!! Our FE organizer had emailed us deck plans with all of our cabin numbers marked and it STILL took awhile to go up & down each hallway & each deck. I put my gift bags together before we went and brought them in a carry-on bag...Then we had an empty bag to use for souvies for the trip home. I totally agree with Lisa - don't forget that you need space to bring the 100 gifts you receive home too!!

Our cruise is in 2 weeks and we have a FE group of 30. Out of that 30 there are about 45+ kiddos. I made adult gifts, boy and girl child gifts, and now I feel I'm leaving the teens out (only about 10)! My two teenage sons and I are going to be putting the teen's bags together this weekend. I'm at about 85 gifts for the exchange! I've got a box that is full and pretty heavy.

I don't want to check it due to the cost, plus, each bag has glow sticks for the pirate party and I don't want them smooshed into activation. Will I be able to have one of the kids carry it on the plane?

P.S. How do you secure your fish extender to make sure it doesn't fall off or 'walk' away?

 

[jnadelman]

I'm making up my bags this weekend. 21 bags total (13 adult and 8 children) Once done I'll figure out how to transport. It's too late to ship I think, but since we are flying SWA I could always check an extra bag or box.

13 adults and 8 children? Really?
we are 33 cabins, 56 children and 70 adults.
I never expected the totals to be so high when we decided to make some of our gifts. We only made 34, and we leave in 3 weeks. Looks like the adults might not get the hand made stuff, and will only get the store bought things.

 

[kileybeth]

We made them up ahead of time and it took us sooooo long to do.

Would not want to think that hard on vacation!

We had about 35 cabins but over 40+ adults and 70+ kids

Since we chose to do adult/cabin gifts and then individual little gift for each kiddo, I had more then one bag for each cabin.

We grouped each cabin into a gallon ziplock (smaller gift bags all done up) and ended up with 35 managable bags.

Here is the tip that helped us most. Seperate everything by Deck ahead of time. Made it sooooo easy to deliver.

We delievered all at once and it took under an hour to do so BECAUSE I organized up front.

We then had 35 empty ziplock bags to take home our own FE gifts we recieved.

And do believe everyone who tells you, you will not have FE gift room to fill with souvies, you will fill it with FE gifts to bring back home!

Worth all the effort and fun for sure! I did take not one, but two small suitcases down just for FE gifts, only bad part I think. I was gonna mail but ended up using car top carier so we had room to just bring them. I would mail for sure if flying and luggage count is an issue.

 

[needAcruise]

P.S. How do you secure your fish extender to make sure it doesn't fall off or 'walk' away?

You could wrap the cord at the top of the FE a few times around the fish. But you have to make allowances for the extra cord length when you make your FE.

I have heard of others using a twistie tie to secure the FE to the fish. But I would think you would need very nimble fingers.

Or you can do what we did. We brought a plastic zip tie and attached the cord of the FE to the fish. But make sure you have clippers or really sharp scissors to cut the zip tie at the end of the cruise. Nothing is more embarassing than to have to explain to you stateroom host/hostess why you ripped the fish off the wall.

But if someone really wants your FE, then there is little you can do to prevent them from taking it. Hope this does not happen to you.