A couple of questions please.
I would like to decorate my cabin door. I was wondering how I make the magnets and if I need a special computer program to do this?
Due to my daughter's special needs we usually do priority boarding. Is something like this available on
DCL?
I use art I've found here and various places on the 'Net, and print it on the magnetic sheets. I put multiple pictures on each sheet and cut them up. I usually do a couple of test runs on regular paper, though, to make sure I've got it right.
As for the priority boarding, on the airlines, I know it's helpful if you need a bit more time or help to get your stuff stashed in the overhead bins. That's not really an issue boarding the ship. It's very relaxed, and not like a crowded cattle drive (like on a plane). As the others have said, if standing in line is an issue, I'm sure the CMs will be able to help you with that.
i think pat said its got up to approx 25 cabins so far, bearing in mind we're still over 5 months out, its going to get bigger!
...i was also wondering if it would be an option to do it like last year's WBTA candy swap, where it gets split into small groups, but people could opt into more than one group if they wanted to give/receive more gifts. what do you guys think?
We can do this anyway we want to. I like the idea of doing gifts for all the cabins, but I also know I've got budget limits, too. I like the multiple groups idea, but I think we need to wait a bit before we decide how many staterooms per group (remember, not everyone is a "family") to see what our total will be.
I'm doing the FE list for our October Dream trip, too. That one already has as many cabins as we have, and lots more people per cabin. I can see that one getting ridiculous pretty quickly.
Wow that seems like very small groups?
On the Dream Maiden Voyage in January the FE total was 84 cabins (173 adults, 48 Children) and we did every one - per person not per cabin!
That was crazy, not to mention expensive! I don't suggest we do that many but it's nice getting lots of gifts in your FE rather than just a couple, especially on a longer cruise. Anyway just my opinion.
Ten seems a bit small to me, too. We had 12 on our 4-nighter in October, and it did seem like we got lots of gifts (but remember, it was only a 4-nighter). It really was fun - like Santa or your birthday every day!
On the WBTA we had around 20 cabins per group and it worked great. Obviously there would need to be more participants to be able to split, but as Karen says there is plenty of time yet. It seemed like we got loads of gifts too.
I think 20 is a good number, too.
In our group, there were 9 families (cabins). Each family delivered their FE gifts one night during the week. The lady in charge of our FE made a roster of which night each family would deliver their FE's. So you got one gift/gifts each night from just one family.
We can do it this way, but I really don't like the idea of imposing too many "rules" on this. I'd rather let people do it when it's convenient for them, rather than assigning days. On our last trip, some people gave a little thing more than once (we left something every day, but again, only a 4-nighter), and some did it just once.
I'd also prefer to leave the one-gift-per-cabin vs. one-gift-per-person up to the individuals. Again, I don't like to tell everyone how they
have to do it. Sorry, I'm not very "rules" oriented when it comes to something that's supposed to be fun and creative.
But that's just MHO. We can always vote and see what the majority wants.
)
). I think we all know we have different budgets and weight allowances for travel. The point of the FE is to just have fun - kind of like trick-or-treats on Halloween. I know one of my favorite FE gifts on our October cruise was a little bag of sweets from a family from England. (Love that Cadbury's!) They were little things that we can't get where we live, which made them very special to me.
So you had 10 cabins in your group, did you drop off gifts each day? Or just once throughout the whole cruise? 
