Talk me into door magnets

[XoxoAmy]

So this will be our first Disney cruise - we are on the Wish 2/19.

My daughters are 11 and 15. We are also traveling with my sister in law and her son (my nephew) who is 12. So 3 cabins total and the kids are in their too-cool-for-school preteen/teen era (super fun ).

Should I order magnets from etsy? What do you guys do with the magnets after the cruise? Does anyone reuse magnets from an earlier cruise (if it doesn't have the ship and the date?)

Anyone want to talk me into doing this? lol

I will happily take any other first time DCL/Wish tips as well

 

[iivye]

I reuse magnets. I have some that just have our name and others that were for past cruises. If you're not into it then don't do it. There are lots of doors without decorations. I would say don't bring any this time and if it's something your kids are interested in having then you can make them for the next cruise.

 

[SuperJ]

I just have one set that’s beach themed and we’ve got flip flops with our first names. I travel with my niece, 8, who loves it. But the bigger reason for it is if we ever accidentally get separated on the ship for any reason or she needs to leave to go get help (I don’t leave her alone. But there’s always the chance, however slight, that something could happen to me or something), she can recognize our cabin door. They also help me too. The halls are long and all the doors look the same so when you’re in exhausted zombie mode, it’s really easy to walk right past yours if you’re not paying attention. If your kids will be roaming the ship on their own, may help them too, even if you just do a single small one for the purposes of ID’ing your door.

 

[NAB]

The Wish is a beautiful ship but just know you can’t do it all …lol

Magnets , we have some, actually got the ones they sold in the gift shop on the Wish. Re use them on all our Disney cruises. I love looking at all the different ones people have their doors. It also might help find your cabin.

 

[OpieDoodle]

We make ours, they're actually super easy to make. I toss some and keep others. This past trip for example we did a star wars theme with various ships fighting each other. Kids had a blast creating the scene. I just print with regular paper, laminate them (cheap laminator from amazon) and use a couple pieces of peel and stick magnets I get in a big roll. There's quite a few places you can find free printable magnets online as well.

For our last trip I kept all the little ships and such and put them on our fridge. I had a big AT-AT that went around the door number, it had a TON of pieces so I tossed that. The cruise before that we did haunted mansion and I kept all the magnets they're on my file cabinet at work currently

It makes it really nice and easy to find your door and puts your personal touch so I love it

 

[MsSimone]

We reuse magnets from cruise to cruise. We bought a few on etsy for our previous cruise. At the end of the cruise I stuck them in an envelope and we brought them along on our next cruise. I have a drawer of travel stuff that we don't use any other time and the magnets live in there until the next cruise

 

[CarolynFH]

We bought a single magnet from a shop on Etsy, in a Mickey icon shape but like a porthole looking out at a beach, and put our first names on it. As others mention above, it made it much easier to be sure we were at the right cabin! We’re keeping it for our next cruise.

 

[Erica1016]

We ended up making our own that have the ship, the dates and the background is a map of the cruise. They're Mickey shaped. We also included a picture in one ear of the Mickey from the trip. We have done 7 cruises, but we just did this recently. Our plan is to bring them along (with any new ones) on each cruise. We made a magnet for the current cruise and will update with a picture and re-print before the next one. I have a laminator at work that I can use, so I just used that and hot glue some magents on the back, so updating shouldn't be too hard.

What do you guys do with the magnets after the cruise?

I brought them all to my office and put them on my magnetic white board so I see them everyday. They're a good conversation starter when students come to office hours! I just have to remember to bring them home when it's time to pack in May!

 

[unrequited23]

The magnets will help you find your door. They don't have to be Disney themed, or have your name, or be anything fancy. One of ours was a cat in a cowboy hat that said "Meowdy" on it, just because the entire family cracked up when we saw it in a store. It's normal home is on our fridge.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

So this will be our first Disney cruise - we are on the Wish 2/19.

My daughters are 11 and 15. We are also traveling with my sister in law and her son (my nephew) who is 12. So 3 cabins total and the kids are in their too-cool-for-school preteen/teen era (super fun ).

Should I order magnets from etsy? What do you guys do with the magnets after the cruise? Does anyone reuse magnets from an earlier cruise (if it doesn't have the ship and the date?)

Anyone want to talk me into doing this? lol

I will happily take any other first time DCL/Wish tips as well

I've done magnets for all our cruises except the first (didn't know about them then). Some I re-use on subsequent cruises, some were dedicated ones to a specific cruise.

Obviously I'm in favor of magnets. But, you do you. No need to talk you into it, if you aren't interested. And that's OK.

I make all my magnets. I find/create images and then print them on photo paper. I cut the image out and put it on the self-adhesive magnet sheets and cut them out again.

 

[sadiecatie]

So this will be our first Disney cruise - we are on the Wish 2/19.

My daughters are 11 and 15. We are also traveling with my sister in law and her son (my nephew) who is 12. So 3 cabins total and the kids are in their too-cool-for-school preteen/teen era (super fun ).

Should I order magnets from etsy? What do you guys do with the magnets after the cruise? Does anyone reuse magnets from an earlier cruise (if it doesn't have the ship and the date?)

Anyone want to talk me into doing this? lol

I will happily take any other first time DCL/Wish tips as well

We have magnets we got off Etsy that we will be reusing - I got each of our names on a magnet with our favorite Disney character. I also did a custom cruise one (for Alaska) that lives on our fridge now - it makes me smile as a reminder of that trip when I see it. I don't know if I'll do it for every sailing, but I like having that little pop of personality on the door.

 

[Micca]

I'd encourage you but I don't understand the attraction

 

[Kit Jackson]

I like the idea of there being something on the door other than the number to easily identify it. I would find out if your kids are opposed to the idea of magnets in general, or just Disney magnets.

 

[mmmears]

I like being able to find our cabin easily. You don't need to buy them off Etsy - there is a free board on a social media site that has tons of free files that you can print out on your own. I reuse some of the ones I have made, and some were specific for that cruise/itinerary. I don't cover the door in magnets or do anything elaborate with lights and other things, but it's kind of fun to have a few, so I will encourage you. PM me if you want specific advice about how to make or print them out.

 

[DCSWO]

Don’t bother - something else to pack and deal with. Just go and enjoy your first Disney cruise!

 

[Husker Mike]

Don’t bother - something else to pack and deal with. Just go and enjoy your first Disney cruise!

This! There's far more important things to worry about packing...and the door is something you'll look at for about a minute and a half on your cruise in total.

 

[Flcruising]

Your kids are at that too cool phase you stated. Perhaps they would get more excited if they were assigned the task of making their magnets. They could each take a door and design their magnets or do the doors together. Might be a way to get them interested and involved.
We reuse magnets.
Your heading asks us to talk you into it. If you don't want to I'm not sure why we should talk you into it. You won't feel uncomfortable either way. There are many doors without magnets. You can enjoy the cruise with or without.

 

[otten]

So this will be our first Disney cruise - we are on the Wish 2/19.

My daughters are 11 and 15. We are also traveling with my sister in law and her son (my nephew) who is 12. So 3 cabins total and the kids are in their too-cool-for-school preteen/teen era (super fun ).

Should I order magnets from etsy? What do you guys do with the magnets after the cruise? Does anyone reuse magnets from an earlier cruise (if it doesn't have the ship and the date?)

Anyone want to talk me into doing this? lol

I will happily take any other first time DCL/Wish tips as well

From a purely practical perspective, door magnets make it easier to find your stateroom in a vast hall of identical doors.

You don't have to go crazy with it though. I've never ordered ours from a printing place. I get the images online, print them at home and laminate them then add a magnet. A laminator can be had for a pretty low cost. Mine was 30 dollars Canadian. Do they look as professional as the ones people have printed from photo printing services? No but they work just fine. Over the years we've participated in a few magnet exchanges and have obtained magnets that way too. We reuse all our magnets, including ones with previous cruise dates since those also share a bit about our cruise history. At home we put a lot of them on our interior door from the garage since it's metallic and I enjoy seeing them.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

I make mine. Because I enjoy it. I also just do a few. Because I don't like having to pack them all. I have also reused some that aren't specific to a particular cruise. You don't have to and I certainly would not spend a bunch of money doing so or ordering them. I don't think anyone can talk you into it. I can see it being fun to do with your cool kids-lol. Only if you want to. Enjoy your cruise!

 

[msmama]

In the era of everyone having phones it's not as important, but on our first few cruises, we always had a dry erase board on our door so we could leave messages for one another if we got separated. With teens that may be going their separate ways, that could be useful.

I make a magnet for all of our cruises (from Shutterfly) and use those. It's neat to see my son grow up as we cruise. I also have Disney nametag shaped magnets that I made with printer paper and stick on magnets.

They don't have to be anything amazing (or laminated or anything). My personal favorite ones to see are the ones that are obviously homemade and feature the occupants favorite characters. You could do a family magnet making night or something to add to the anticpation of the cruise.