Hiding ducks and other things?

[hrhdhd]

I mean, by that logic nobody should want to participate in Christmas. I’ve never considered gift giving and receiving to be “work” rather than “fun.”

Receiving is fun; giving is work. My 8 nieces and nephews are slowly but surely reaching 18 (cut-off age), and I am grateful. Gathering ideas, shopping, wrapping, tagging, shipping, waiting in vain for a thank-you note: work.

 

[MomOTwins]

Receiving is fun; giving is work. My 8 nieces and nephews are slowly but surely reaching 18 (cut-off age), and I am grateful. Gathering ideas, shopping, wrapping, tagging, shipping, waiting in vain for a thank-you note: work.

Dang, I'm starting to feel like I must have just been born with some North-pole elf genes or something. I LOVE all that planning and shopping and artsy crafty wrapping.

But I hear you on thank you notes--I just don't expect them and then am either pleasantly surprised or at the worst not disappointed. And with Fish extenders, the thank you comes when I get to go through all the fun surprises with my kids back in the stateroom.

 

[88golf88]

So, people hiding little ducks around the ship for others to find somehow bothers people?? Just like Fish Extenders...if you want to participate and it enhances your vacation, great!! But if you think it’s work and don’t want to do, then don’t. I just don’t get criticizing other people’s forms of enjoyment/entertainment as long as it doesn’t interfere with anyone. If these mischievous ducks are ruining people’s vacations, then by all means, please stop putting them out...but if they aren’t, let people have fun. I can tell you that if we got my kids started with this, they would LOVE IT as would my mother if she got to do it with them. Life is far to short to concern yourselves with others enjoyment level...don’t rain on their parade and make them feel like they are doing something wrong when it is oh so harmless. Ok, rant over.

 

[smmco]

I've been on 25 cruises and I've never heard of hiding ducks. I'm going to go on with my life as if I've never heard of it.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So, people hiding little ducks around the ship for others to find somehow bothers people?? Just like Fish Extenders...if you want to participate and it enhances your vacation, great!! But if you think it’s work and don’t want to do, then don’t.

It's not like Fish Extenders. That you participate in by making a FE holder and delivering gifts (directly to others).

Leaving random ducks around a ship for anyone to find you don't have a choice in participating. If you find them, you find them. Usually in a spot that wasn't originally intended to be a showcase for rubber ducks.

 

[monkeydawn]

Receiving is fun; giving is work. My 8 nieces and nephews are slowly but surely reaching 18 (cut-off age), and I am grateful. Gathering ideas, shopping, wrapping, tagging, shipping, waiting in vain for a thank-you note: work.

I guess I am very luck in that I only "need" to buy gifts for people that I truly find joy in doing so. I really do love finding what I think is a good surprise for someone and those that I gift almost always send some sort of thank you. I do have two nephews that I dont buy for anymore. We just pick out a really cool card and they seem to get as much enjoyment from that than any gift Ive picked out. But we do on occasion see something that we think they would like and pick it up for them, it's just not usually holiday centered.

Dang, I'm starting to feel like I must have just been born with some North-pole elf genes or something. I LOVE all that planning and shopping and artsy crafty wrapping.

But I hear you on thank you notes--I just don't expect them and then am either pleasantly surprised or at the worst not disappointed. And with Fish extenders, the thank you comes when I get to go through all the fun surprises with my kids back in the stateroom.

I must have those same genes. LOL

I was never allowed to play with toys from anyone other than mom, dad and Santa until I wrote my thank you notes. That continues to this day so I am usually pretty quick to get my notes out because I am lucky to have people that know me well and get stuff I love so I am quick to get those notes out!

 

[lds0191]

We had a blast on the WBTA looking for cruise ducks! People would post on FB pics of what they found and where. Some we kept and some we hid for someone else to find.

 

[lds0191]

We had a blast on the WBTA looking for cruise ducks! People would post on FB pics of what they found and where. Some we kept and some we hid for someone else to find.

 

[lds0191]

We had a blast on the WBTA looking for cruise ducks! People would post on FB pics of what they found and where. Some we kept and some we hid for someone else to find.

Sorry for the double post. Computer was slow.

 

[squirk]

Life is far to short to concern yourselves with others enjoyment level.

You do realize the irony of that statement, right?

 

[pjacobi]

So, people hiding little ducks around the ship for others to find somehow bothers people??

My concern is people hiding ducks in a place that could impact the safely of the ship. A duck jammed in the wrong place may mean that you can't lower the life boats or access fire equipment.

-Paul

 

[insureman]

and then there is this...
Ugly ducklings—the dark side of plastic materials in contact with potable water
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-018-0050-9

 

[DisBNewB]

My gut reaction is to roll my eyes at the idea of somebody sticking a duck somewhere that would cause a problem, but then I know people do stupid stuff like that all the time. So I won't say they couldn't or wouldn't. But I will say I don't think anybody would do it that wouldn't otherwise do it with something else.

and then there is this...
Ugly ducklings—the dark side of plastic materials in contact with potable water
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41522-018-0050-9

And this is absolutely true - and SUPER gross.

For bath toys AT HOME that are in the water on a regular basis. (seriously - if any of you are parents and have ducks or similar bath toys at home, suck some water into them and squeeze it out - you'll never want another one in your bath again.)

I don't really feel like it's relevant to the conversation at hand.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

My gut reaction is to roll my eyes at the idea of somebody sticking a duck somewhere that would cause a problem, but then I know people do stupid stuff like that all the time. So I won't say they couldn't or wouldn't. But I will say I don't think anybody would do it that wouldn't otherwise do it with something else.



And this is absolutely true - and SUPER gross.

For bath toys AT HOME that are in the water on a regular basis. (seriously - if any of you are parents and have ducks or similar bath toys at home, suck some water into them and squeeze it out - you'll never want another one in your bath again.)

I don't really feel like it's relevant to the conversation at hand.

Except you don't know where that duck has been, and who has been handling it.

 

[DisBNewB]

Except you don't know where that duck has been, and who has been handling it.

No, I don’t - but I don’t know that about most things on the ship I’m touching either. But my point being that the article about microbes Ana plastic and potable water isn’t relevant to ducks that I assume aren’t going to be hanging out in bathtubs on the ship. And either way, I can choose not to pick them up.

(And fwiw, the cruise I went on that had something like 200 hidden? I didn’t see a single one. I do know others found some. But I didn’t care to look for them, so didn’t. If I hadn’t been in the group where it was mentioned, I wouldn’t have known at all.)

 

[insureman]

No, I don’t - but I don’t know that about most things on the ship I’m touching either. But my point being that the article about microbes Ana plastic and potable water isn’t relevant to ducks that I assume aren’t going to be hanging out in bathtubs on the ship. And either way, I can choose not to pick them up.

(And fwiw, the cruise I went on that had something like 200 hidden? I didn’t see a single one. I do know others found some. But I didn’t care to look for them, so didn’t. If I hadn’t been in the group where it was mentioned, I wouldn’t have known at all.)

200??? That's crazy!

 

[DisBNewB]

200??? That's crazy!

I could be misremembering, but I think one woman got a pack of 100+, and then somebody else also hid some? Like I said, I didn't partake, so I don't remember all the details. But I do know that people reported finding them in the group, and that I met people on board whose kids were having a blast finding them.

I should say that I'm totally neutral - I don't have interest in partaking, and would want to thoroughly clean any I found, but also find it harmless fun if people are digging it.

I just didn't feel like the arguments about plastic and water and biofilm were relevant, and that the idea that somebody hiding a duck would put it somewhere that would cause problems with the ship to be kind of ridiculous and not super relevant. An adult doing that would be just as likely to do it with something else, and kids are all carrying around their small toys and such and there's no reason to think they'd do something with a found little duck that they wouldn't do with another toy they have. *shrugs*

 

[PeachKeen]

I was not excited about fish extender (FE) but my child and significant other were into it before the cruise because it got them excited to dream about the trip. Once on the ship, however, I got it. My daughter looked forward to going back to the room every night to see what new surprises were left for her/us. It was like xmas every day. Yeah, a lot of it was cheap stuff, but we also got some really, really nice gifts too. So maybe it's not something you would like, but the kids probably love it.

This year we are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise and I was disappointed to hear they don't have a FE culture. However, hiding and finding ducks is a very common thing on Royal cruises I've learned so now my daughter is all excited to go looking for these. Kids love surprises and scavenger hunts - need I say more?

 

[lds0191]

Except you don't know where that duck has been, and who has been handling it.

I think most people would order them in bulk. There are all kinds of websites that sell them, plain or themed. But, then you never know.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

Well, for starters I don’t give gifts to strangers at Christmas. And yes, Christmas is a ton of work! I’m glad it’s only once a year and I do it for the love of my children and family.

I’m not begrudging people who think FE is fun. Have at it!

FE groups form from the cruise's social media forums and we are usually talking to each other for a year and a half before our cruise. We may not have ever met in person, but they are not exactly strangers either.