What the heck is a Fish Extender??

What the heck is a Fish Extender??

You just booked your first Disney Cruise. You are so excited!! You are thinking of Sun, Fun and Beach Time. Then someone says, “Did you sign up for the Fish Extender?” What the heck is a Fish Extender? Do I bring gifts for EVERY cabin on the ship? Why and Where do I sign up? Should I sign up???? Ok ok I’m being a little silly.

 

Simply put a Fish Extender is a Gift Exchange. You sign up to make new friends and do something a little extra on your cruise. To sign up you join a Facebook Group for your specific cruise, search Facebook typing in Disney (Name of ship), Dates sailing. That should bring up a group for you.

 

The actual Fish Extender is a set of pockets you hang on the message fish outside your cabin door. This is where people will drop off the goodies they bring for you. You will droop your gifts in their Fish Extender pockets. The exchange got its name from the fact the pockets extend the ability of the message Fish to hold things.

 

Once you join the Facebook Group for you cruise you find out where the sign up sheet is. It is usually a Google sheet that you fill in. You will put in the names of every person in your cabin joining the exchange, their age, any food allergies and maybe favorite characters. You will be in groups of 5-10 cabin. You just bring gifts for the cabins you sign up for. There may be different types of exchanges. Kids to Kids, Adults Only, Christmas Ornaments, Recipe Exchanges and Pin Trading. You sign up for just the ones YOU want to do. There is no requirement to do this at all.

 

Sometimes there will be a Pixie Dusting signup. This is where people who maybe can’t do the exchange can put their names and people will Pixie Dust them will little gifts. This may be Make a Wish Kids. or Dream Foundation Adults.

 

Your gifts can be homemade, store bought, simple, elaborate, or personalized for the person receiving them. You can give Disney Themed goodies or not. Some people make “travel kits” with travel goodies like pocket size packets of Kleenex, Band-Aids, Wooden Clothes Pins, travel sewing kits, and laundry packets. Some give toys to the kids, Disney pins, pens, Nautical themed items, magnets, and handmade picture frames. Others will bring something that is from where they live. Things like candy, crackers and other snacks in original sealed packaging. In truth anything goes!!

Getting Ready for a Disney Cruise

Getting Ready for a Disney Cruise

            There’s a lot to consider when getting ready for any Disney trip. But there’s even more to think about for a Disney Cruise. A Disney Cruise is different than cruising on other cruise lines.

Let’s start with the general things you will need for any cruise, Disney or not the obvious things like appropriate clothing for the climate you are going to, formal clothing if there will be formal nights on the cruise, passport and personal necessities such as medication and suntan lotion will need to be readied. Passports should be ordered 6 months in advance so you don’t have to stress about it.

Once you’ve decided to go on a Disney Cruise you’ll need to decide if you’re going to join a Fish Extender group and if you’re going to decorate your cabin door. (Look at the bottom of this post for a link to my posts about Fish Extenders and Door Decor)

If you desire to join a Fish Extender group start early looking for a group and/or create one yourself. You’ll want to start early making your Fish Extender goodies so you’re not spending a lot of money to purchase things just before the cruise or finding yourself short on time to make things. If you start 8 to 10 months early (at least) you can make a few each month spreading out the cost and your time making things easier on yourself. If you wind up with extras it really doesn’t matter. You can take them along and give them out to new friends made on the cruise that are not in your Fish Extender group or save them for your next trip if they don’t have the cruise date on.

If you choose to decorate your door you are going to want to pick a theme. Will it be an eclectic collection of magnets, the likes of which you might find on a home refrigerator. Or will you take a theme such as an event(s) you’re celebrating on the cruise or maybe a pirate theme. You can have a collection of magnets that you can change out. We did this one cruise! We had a standard eclectic group of magnets but then on the days we celebrated our anniversary and my birthday we added magnets for those events. We also added several special items for the Pirates In the Caribbean deck party night.

Whatever you decide, Fish Extender/Door Decor you’re going to need a good amount of time to plan it and make or find someone to make it for you.

You can look in ESTY shops online for Fish Extenders and maybe even some goodies you may want to put in Fish Extenders. For Fish Extenders you can also go to local party stores, 99¢ Store or look in the party sections of department stores such as Walmart.

Sites such as WaltsBasement.yuku.com (PansTinkerBell is a person to ask on Walt’s Basement) and DISboards.com have members that are willing to make graphics that you can print yourself for ether Fish Extender goodies or Door Decor. All you need to do is purchase magnet sheets at the office supply store or online to run through your inkjet printer at home. Most of the people that make these graphics for you to print at home are doing it just for fun and do not charge. (Technically it is illegal for them to charge as the characters they are using are copyrighted by Disney.) They do have a right to ask you to pay for postage and materials if they printed for you.

Whether you make your graphics yourself or as somebody else to make them you will need time! If you have someone else make them you need to give them a chance to do it sometimes they are busy helping others or just dealing with day-to-day life. It does take time to manipulate graphics to create something that is fun and unique.

Another thing that some people do that takes extra time when preparing for a Disney Cruise is similar to what some people do when they go to the parks. Some people will make special T-shirts or other clothing for the trip. Once again doing this takes time. Don’t wait to for the last minute start early make it easy on yourself.

I do play with graphics, I am PansTinkerBell on Walt’s Basement I’ve had people ask me for graphics for Cruise Door Decor and had to work very quickly to get it done as they only had a couple of weeks before their cruise! I was more than happy to help them, and even more happy knowing that their cabin door will not be plain when they cruise!

Fish Extender?? What the Heck is a Fish Extender?!?!

http://pixiepranks-panstinkerbell.blogspot.com/2011/05/fish-extender-what-heck-is-fish.html

Cruise Door Decor

http://pixiepranks-panstinkerbell.blogspot.com/2012/03/disney-cruise-line-door-decor.html

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?

Fish Extender?? What the heck is a Fish Extender!?!?!?

º Fish Extender?? What the heck is a Fish Extender!?!?!? º

Let’s start out with exactly what Fish we are talking about. On the Disney Cruise Line Ships there is a “Fish” hung on the wall next to every cabin door. This fish is there to hold messages that the crew and/or friends wish to leave for you.

Some creative people wished to be able to leave more than just one small note for their friends (old and new) who were with them on the ship. They also wanted to encourage people to make new friends on the cruise. Then decided they needed to “extend” the fishes ability to hold things. These creative people came up with the idea of hanging pockets from the fish!

Various Disney fan sites have Fish Extender Meet & Great Groups. We chose the DisBoards.com website to join for our cruise. All you do is sign up on the thread for the date and ship you will be on. By doing so you agree to exchange gifts with the rest of the group while on your cruise! This is a great way to make new Disney friends while on your Disney Cruise and add to the fun and excitement while getting ready! It also gives you fun memories to bring home. You keep your eye on the thread and they will post how many cabins (and the cabin numbers) are in your group and how many people are in each cabin. They will post the ages of the people in each cabin and if there are any special celebrations. This information is important to have before you leave on your cruise. This way you can plan what to take to leave for each cabin/person. They will also post your assigned day to drop your gifts in the groups Fish Extenders. You can ask for a particular day if you wish if nobody else has already asked for that day. Unless your group is really small (and they usually are not small) you will only be responsible for one or two days worth of gifts.

This is our Fish Extender and our decorated door. You don’t have to decorate your door but it adds to the fun! You can change your door decor each day if you wish and put special things up for special celebrations you are having while on the cruise. We put up a picture of Mickey and Minnie having a romantic evening on the beach in honor of our 31^st anniversary that we were celebrating. We also put up a picture of Minnie relaxing for my birthday. As you can see the Fish Extender is a simple set of pockets with a string to hang over your Fish. It is like an over the door shoe rack, with just one pocket wide and one pocket for each person or couple in the room.

Now what do you put in a Fish Extender? Anything you want!!!! You can make or purchase anything you wish! Just keep it family friendly! Here is what we gave. We gave the adults CD’s. One was of music you hear around the ship. The other is a collection of Disney music. For the kids we got pirate eye patches and ear rings (4 of each $1), pirate fake teeth (8 for $1), Bead Necklaces (8 for $1), plastic turtles (4 for .99 cents), plastic rings (8 for $1) along with a few other small items.

This is what we got in our Fish Extender. For the homemade items we got a Sipper Cup with DCL Graphic, Future Cruise Fund coin bank, Frig Magnet with date of cruise and Disney graphic, homemade book mark and candy. We also got things like laundry soap, clothes pins (some decorated to honor the cruise), Tide to go stain remover, travel size pack of Kleenex, Disney pens and pencils, Post Cards from the state the person who gave them is from and bandages. All of these were greatly appreciated!

We are already looking forward to our next cruise. We hope we get to go in about 2 years. We are starting to save Kool Aid plastic containers to turn into Future Cruise banks to give out. We are working on plans for magnets and other things as well. We know we will stick with the Pirate Themed items and are starting to stock them for the next cruise.

Here is some important information you may wish to have for making your Fish Extender. The space for hanging your Fish Extender is 9 inches wide. If you make your FE much wider than that it will stick out into the walkway. When you decorate your door do not use any tape! DCL has asked very nicely that no tape be used due to the damage it can cause. If you do use tape you may be charged for repair of the door. The door can hold magnets so everything you take to put on your door should be held on with magnets. If you print out a picture you can put it in a page protector and put pieces of magnet strip on the back. Some people put round magnets above their door number to turn it into a Icon Mickey. I even saw one that had Donald’s hat above the room number and his bill below! There were also doors with Minnie Ears and Bow around the number! The door number circle is 7 1/4 inches in diameter. Using this information you can make the correct size “ears”.

So are you going on a Disney Cruise and will you join a Fish Extender Group??