Fish Extender!?!? What Is It?!?! Why Should I Do It? How Do I Join?

Fish Extender!?!? What Is It?!?! Why Should I Do It? How Do I Join?

Yesterday I got the sweetest package in the mail from a friend. My friend went on a Disney Cruise a couple of months ago and she had an extra Fish Extender goodie pack so she sent it to me! What a wonderful treat to add to the Personal Navigators she sent along with it.

So you ask what is a Fish Extender? Let’s start with what fish we are talking about. Outside the door of every cabin on the Disney Cruise ships is a fish hanging on the wall. The fish is there to hold notes that the crew needs to leave for you. Your friends and family on the trip can also leave you notes there letting you know where to meet or what they are doing that day.

So now you know WHAT the Fish is. What is the Extender? A Fish Extender is a pocket or set of pockets that can be hung from your Fish. Simple as that! Oh by the way, it is not sponsored or run by Disney Cruise Line or the Disney Company. It is simply allowed by Disney.

So now you ask WHY would I want to hang pockets from my fish? Well, you hang the pockets so other guests in your Fish Extender group can leave goodies for you! Yes, you heard right. People want to leave you goodies! The entire idea started when some people on a fan site got talking about going on the cruise. They found out they would be on the same cruise and decided to leave notes on each other’s fish. The idea grew into groups of people sharing fun!

Various Disney Fan sites, such as DisBoards have an area on their forum where you can find other people that will be on the same cruise as you. You add your name and information, number of people in your cabin and ages of kids to the list and promise you will take goodies to give to everybody else on the list on your assigned day. Usually you are only required to leave gifts in the other peoples FE once during the trip. On your assigned day you it is fun to run around the ship dropping goodies into the groups Fish Extenders!

Nothing in the FE has to be expensive. The items don’t have to be Disney related but remember the type of people that go on Disney Cruises are usually fans of Disney. I found some of the gifts I enjoyed the most were gifts themed Disney, Pirate, Beach/Cruising or Travel needs. We got some Disney stickers, homemade magnets, eye patches, candy, minor first aide and laundry goodies along with a couple of CDs of beach/cruising themed music!

It is so much fun to come back to your cabin sometime during the day and find goodies in your FE! It is even more fun to plan ahead and make goodies to give. We are planning on going on a Disney Cruise in early 2014 with WaltsBasement.yuku.com. We are already working on what we will give in FE for that group! I’ve already hit up the local 99¢ store for some of the little goodies for the kids. The sooner you start the more you can take your time to do. The more you do the more you add to the excitement of your upcoming trip. It also helps the budget if you spread out the purchases! I believe we already have 50 people stating they wish to go with Walt’s Basement and be in the Fish Extender fun!

A year after our last cruise (and first doing FE) I still look at the goodies we got and let them take me back to that wonderful trip on the Disney Wonder. I’m looking forward to the next time!

So the next time you cruise Disney will you do a Fish Extender?