Special gifts for special cast members?

[Cindi0511]

Hi, all! When we went on the 7-day Magic cruise in 2003, we took $40 of $2 bills and some international calling cards from Sam's Club to reward the CMs who went out of their way to make our cruise special. (It was special enough just because it was our first, but you know what I mean.)

We are booked for the special 11-day cruise next September and are already looking for special things to get for those special CMs.

Any ideas out there?

Thank you!

Cindi

 

[rsjj]

not sure if this is "special" enough...but we brought m&ms and typed up a little note to stick on it, and our DSs handed out to whoever that was helping them at the clubs, and we also handed them out to whoever that went out of their way, for whatever reason...the cms seems to enjoy it...read somewhere that candies and such items are a treat for them. our DSs really enjoyed passing them out to the cms! they were just really "something small", as a token of our appreciation. i'm sure you'd get more ideas...

 

[figment52]

I left jelly bellies for the entertainment staff. They were very appreciative for the candy. They were like little kids with excitement. They are just so happy that we enjoyed our trip and would think to say thank you.

 

[barkley]

i love $2 bills-i grabbed about $50 worth before our last cruise to use for tips at the airport, hotel, on board. they are so much more convenient than ones, and you always get a smile from someone when they see the denomination .

i have noticed on other cruise boards that candy is very appreciated as a gift by the staff. since you will be cruising in september of next year, you might be able to get several bags of miniature halloween size candy bars and such before you leave-make them into goodie bags. i think it might also be fun to take any kind of "special edition m&m's that are out (like the "groovY" tie-die ones they had).

 

[Cindi0511]

Thanks for your input. I never would have thought candy would be so appreciated. I am thinking of getting some little treasure chest to fill with candy for our servers on Pirate night, assuming they will have that on the 11-day special cruise next September. Chocolate coins, of course, but what to use for the "gems"?

 

[CM_Mom]

Candy is appreciated because it's unexpected and different and not part of the regular food. When you think that they are on the ship EVERY day for somewhere between 5 and 8 months, you can appreciate that something different is really appreciated.

Also, I think the primary attraction of candy, thank you cards, gift cards, two dollar bills, etc is that you made the effort to recognize the service they perform. They go above and beyond our expectations so many times and so many people just take that for granted.

 

[barkley]

Thanks for your input. I never would have thought candy would be so appreciated. I am thinking of getting some little treasure chest to fill with candy for our servers on Pirate night, assuming they will have that on the 11-day special cruise next September. Chocolate coins, of course, but what to use for the "gems"?

if you want a large "gem" in each you could use a "ring pop" (it's a lollypop that is shaped like a gem stone on a plastic ring. another idea is to get some of those candy dots (that they sell on strips of paper) you could cut them out and sprinkle among the gold cocolate coins (which by the way are a favorite of mine-we had them sprinkled on the tables at our wedding reception-went over way better than jordan almonds ).

 

[figment52]

This is going to sound really odd but its true .... one of the cast members told me when she went home she ate an entire box of crackers right away. She couldn't get them on board.

I love the treasure chest idea. I bet now that you have given the rest of us the idea it will be showing up often. I took our serving team their own pirate hats. I had eye patches for them too but decided it wasn't the safest for them while carrying food. If hte pictures are still there you can see them on Deb Wills site under the DCL section.

 

[Cindi0511]

CRACKERS?? Do you know what kind they were? Maybe some of those HandiSnack things would work, too. CM_Mom, could you ask DD when she gets home? (After several days of sleep, of course!)

This is great. Maybe some of you going soon could ask and let us know when you get back.

Cindi