What is the point of a "fish extender" and door decorating?

[GeneralTso]

Please help me understand this.
Is it like when we used to decorate our dorm room doors in college? White boards to leave messages, etc.?

I'm guessing it's just for fun and that some rooms are friends/family with others and it's a way to leave messages. Seems like some people go all out and plan very detailed and thought out doors.

Illuminate me! I'm so curious what this is all about

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Please help me understand this.
Is it like when we used to decorate our dorm room doors in college? White boards to leave messages, etc.?

I'm guessing it's just for fun and that some rooms are friends/family with others and it's a way to leave messages. Seems like some people go all out and plan very detailed and thought out doors.

Illuminate me! I'm so curious what this is all about

Fish Extenders - on a cruise meet thread, someone will organize a FE group. Everyone who signs up for it will hang a pocketed organizer thingy outside their door, and everyone on the list will supply little gifts to drop off in the other FE pockets for their group during the cruise. Just a fun little gift exchange.

Decorating doors - it's just a way we have of showing our love for Disney. And it's fun.

 

[GoofyLovingFamily]

We like fish extender since my kids enjoy checking the pockets. They get excited to find goodies for them. We also think it is fun to add magnets.

 

[dragynally]

The simple answer is fun. Door decoration can help you find your room or make your room more special during your trip. FE is a way to connect with other cruisers and share small gifts with new friends.

 

[adisneyaunt]

We did a meet upon one cruise. Fun group of people and we all brought small gifts of something that represented our home state. Fun time.. people and exchanging.

 

[WeLoveDisneyAlways]

We only do it cause it's fun and like princessShmoo said love for Disney. I don't use it to find my room I usually associate that with simple things like by the elevator etc. We love participating in fish extender groups because we can have months of making gifts and preparing helps with the long wait. Of course DD loves coming back to the room and getting random gifts. We also love delivering and seeing how creative we can get and how creative others are. We have gotten some pretty cool gifts.

 

[Flossbolna]

Decorating your door also helps finding your cabin. Yes, you can look at the numbers. But some coloeful magnets are easier to spot.

 

[Dug720]

Most people use the "find the cabin" excuse, but I've never had any issues finding my cabin. It is NOT that hard.

I chalk it up to people who never got over decorating their dorm room doors.

Fish Extenders are another thing all together - and annoying when you have to pass ones that were NOT made with the correct dimensions in mind. There were a couple of those on the Magic Deck 2 last week - one was not so bad, but one stuck out a good 4 inches into the hall.

Don't worry OP... I don't get the obsession either.

 

[Trip planner]

I didn't get into decorating my dorm room doors, but I did get magnets for our first Disney cruise. Mostly because my I know my kids will think it is fun but also, I definitely had a hard time finding my door on previous cruises and I also have been known to try to open the wrong door in hotels before. I have probably freaked people out. It can be embarrassing.

 

[AngelDisney]

I never decorated my dorm door. I do decorate my stateroom door when sailing on a Disney cruise. It's part of the Disney fun. I love admiring others' door decorations. However, I don't put our names on the magnets or decorations (just our initials). Don't want to disclose too much personal info but I had special pictures for birthday or graduation celebrations. It's part of the exciting anticipation of a vacation when making the decorations for an upcoming cruise.

Yet I don't participate in FE. That's too much effort.

 

[Bree]

I do it on DCL because it's fun for my kids. I've never decorated a door on any of my RCCL cruises and hardly see anyone else do it either. The only stuff I've really seen on RCCL doors are whiteboards and milestone events like 50th wedding anniversary or 75th birthday and even then it's kept to a minimum. Covering your door with magnets, adding lights and wreaths, etc. is truly a DCL phenomenon.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

I decorated our door on our last cruise because the kids thought it was fun.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I want to decorate my door more now to bug people who "don't get it".

 

[LSUfan4444]

I've never decorated a door on any of my RCCL cruises and hardly see anyone else do it either.

Definitely less on RCL but the clientele is a bit different as well. Alot older. For every door NOT decorated on RCL there are ten more people fighting for a spot in the bingo hall. In all seriousness, we decorate just about all our cruise doors but try to steer our theming to the cruise we go on. Last year on the Liberty of the Seas we (mostly our daughter who loves drawing, painting, crafting, etc) made all kinds of DreamWorks artwork and stuff, laminated it and used that.

Its accessories for your room, like earrings, jewelry or a baseball cap inside. People shouldn't need any reason beyond they like the way it looks and it makes them happy. If someone else doesn't get the obsession, thats on them.

 

[dragynally]

Most people use the "find the cabin" excuse, but I've never had any issues finding my cabin. It is NOT that hard.

I chalk it up to people who never got over decorating their dorm room doors.

Fish Extenders are another thing all together - and annoying when you have to pass ones that were NOT made with the correct dimensions in mind. There were a couple of those on the Magic Deck 2 last week - one was not so bad, but one stuck out a good 4 inches into the hall.

Don't worry OP... I don't get the obsession either.

We weren't allowed to decorate our dorm at college.

 

[Dug720]

We weren't allowed to decorate our dorm at college.

Very smart. Some girls decided to "decorate" with toilet paper once, then set a hot (not lit, just hot) match on it and started a small fire.

 

[nearlyfallinstar]

Very smart. Some girls decided to "decorate" with toilet paper once, then set a hot (not lit, just hot) match on it and started a small fire.

Your comments always crack me up. Even the grumpy ones.

 

[Dug720]

Your comments always crack me up. Even the grumpy ones.

This one was true. They came in late at night (or probably early morning) and put toilet paper all up and down the hall. Then proceeded the following afternoon to sit in the hall and smoke (not allowed BTW), and someone set a just shaken out match down on some of the trailing paper and it went up in flames. The worst part was they didn't yell anything, so my roommate and I thought it was a drill until we opened the door - moving with haste - and were yanked out by our Resident Advisor who yelled to run out the back door. THEN we smelled the smoke.

 

[squirk]

More power to anyone and everyone who wants to decorate their doors. We don't do it - we find the cruise itself exciting enough without trussing up our doors - and sometimes it looks like someone barfed a pile of magnets onto the door, but whatever floats your boat.

Same with the FEs, but as @Dug720 said, please don't make your pockets/bins so huge that they stick out into the hallway. That's just ridiculous.

 

[diznymom]

FE exchange..........I enjoy making things and gifting them. The FE exchange allows me to do this. We just signed up for a cruise in June 208 and I am already starting my FE gifts. I have no idea how many people will be in our group.....just starting.