Best Fish Extender gift received?

[PrincessTrisha]

Candy is fine, as long as it is good candy. Not what I call penny candy (which costs more than a penny now)- like tootsie rolls, dum dums and smarties.

I think this is the kind of candy that people complain about. It's inexpensive candy that most people don't eat but you can get a big bag of it for $2. One year we sailed over halloween and you could see that someone in our FE group went to Mickey's not so scary halloween party and gave out for their FE gift all of the candy they didn't like (bits o'honey, sixlets, small wrapped hard candy).

To me, the key to FE gifts is think to yourself, "Is this something I'd appreciate if I received it?" If the answer is yes, go ahead and give it - most of the participants are more like you than not like you (yes we all have different tastes but at the heart, we're all on a DCL cruise and participating in FE because we want that bit of pixie dust). If however, you look at your FE gift and think, "If someone else gave this exact same gift, I'd toss it or not appreciate it" then maybe you should rethink what you're giving.

We all want to give nice things that will be appreciated and on the flip side, we all want to receive nice things that we'll appreciate.

Oh, 1 edit: Smarties in Canada are completely different than US Smarties. Ours are chocolate covered with a candy coating - kind of like M&M's. You'd probably like getting them.

 

[wcw57]

My last Caribbean cruise I enjoyed receiving plastic buckets with shovels for the kids (they were personalized with their names on the buckets) as well as a paintbrush (handle was painted with Mickey and ribbon) for brushing sand off of feet at Castaway! Also some clever person gave a small magnetic christmas wreath with light up christmas lights on it, to put on our door! There were so many amazing gifts.

Right now I am working on a "Laundry" kit for my FE gifts - it will be a pop-up hamper, Tide pods, dryer sheets and Mickey decorated clothes pins. Im trying to figure out a way to decorate the pop up hampers. My upcoming cruise is a long one so I think it will get good use. I'm really enjoying putting them together!

How do you propose to get a pop-up hamper into a FE pocket? and, since I don't do laundry on a cruise, I, personally, would have to throw out all the other stuff (except the clothes pins..... maybe. And would I want to pack the pop-up? doubtful.)
Great idea just curious...unless this is a different, much smaller, pop-up than I have ever seen.........

 

[lisamarie12]

Oh, 1 edit: Smarties in Canada are completely different than US Smarties. Ours are chocolate covered with a candy coating - kind of like M&M's. You'd probably like getting them.

Those kind of smarties I would like. I would probably appreciate any kind of candy from another country, whether I enjoyed the taste or not, just because its something different. And that is thoughtful. I can get dum dums at the bank, so even though my kid LOVES them, they would not be my favorite gift. Buying a $5 bag of candy and giving a few pieces per person is not thoughtful.

 

[MelSpees]

My last Caribbean cruise I enjoyed receiving plastic buckets with shovels for the kids (they were personalized with their names on the buckets) as well as a paintbrush (handle was painted with Mickey and ribbon) for brushing sand off of feet at Castaway! Also some clever person gave a small magnetic christmas wreath with light up christmas lights on it, to put on our door! There were so many amazing gifts.

Right now I am working on a "Laundry" kit for my FE gifts - it will be a pop-up hamper, Tide pods, dryer sheets and Mickey decorated clothes pins. Im trying to figure out a way to decorate the pop up hampers. My upcoming cruise is a long one so I think it will get good use. I'm really enjoying putting them together!

How do you propose to get a pop-up hamper into a FE pocket? and, since I don't do laundry on a cruise, I, personally, would have to throw out all the other stuff (except the clothes pins..... maybe. And would I want to pack the pop-up? doubtful.)
Great idea just curious...unless this is a different, much smaller, pop-up than I have ever seen.........

I think this is a nice idea on a longer cruise. I bring my own, but wouldn't mind another--then I could sort. They fold down to practically nothing for packing.
I guess if you don't like it you could pixie-dust the next person in your cabin with it.

 

[Travelin4]

We were wanting to do some personalized pens and wondering if anyone knows a good place to order?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I guess if you don't like it you could pixie-dust the next person in your cabin with it.

That's assuming that your room host doesn't toss it, or put it in the lost and found.

 

[MelSpees]

That's assuming that your room host doesn't toss it, or put it in the lost and found.

Well, I would hope they wouldn't. If they did, I guess I wouldn't know and I'd be happy in my ignorance.

 

[karmacats]

We were wanting to do some personalized pens and wondering if anyone knows a good place to order?

vistaprint may have them - they can be kind of expensive, but sometimes have a 40% off groupon. also, i've ordered personalized pencils (and other items, like small bottles of bubbles) from Oriental Trading Company, and they are super-cheap, so they may be worth checking for pens.

 

[Kim Hercules]

following

 

[Vegam060]

I heard a couple people talk about pins but what do people think about vinylmation. Being local to Orlando I have access to all kinds and was thinking about that. Thoughts?

 

[MelSpees]

A lot of people would probably love them. They're not my thing, but I'd appreciate it anyway.

 

[IAMASTITCHER]

Favorite FE gift we received was a simple "Happy Anniversary card" (we were celebrating our wedding anniversary).

 

[RoniBoBoni]

Candy is fine, as long as it is good candy. Not what I call penny candy (which costs more than a penny now)- like tootsie rolls, dum dums and smarties. But if its good stuff like movie candy or something that is somewhat unique to your area, then I would love it. That is not to say that if someone gives me dum dums and smarties that I am going to snub them, but it is not very imaginative.

Yessss! I agree! We have gotten the $1 movie type box candy before and really enjoyed those during showtimes. Someone once gave us maple candy cause they were from Vermont.... which I thought was very thoughtful. We have also gotten foreign candy, unique stuff like European chocolates, German Haribo gummies, that is all appreciated.

Some of the best "don't break the bank" FE's we have enjoyed getting are handmade ornaments, book markers, highlighters, hand sanitizers, fridge magnets, cabin door magnets, key chains. My dd got a sea shell ring once that was made by another little girl that my dd still has (3 years later). I cherish anything handmade. All very much appreciated.

Some of the "bigger" or more expensive FE's that we have enjoyed are hand sewn princess bags, mickey earrings, ornament sets, poo-pourri, Christmas count down candle, alcohol, Disney pins, sand pail and toys, hand sewn pirate loot bags.

What it boils down to is this: Would you want to receive the gift you are giving?

 

[lisamarie12]

Now that we have returned, some of our favorites that we received:

Pillow cases. One was personalized with my DD and favorite character. It was beautiful. Another one was white with Disney Fantasy on it. I will be using that one myself. Isabella also got one of those cute little tsum sums like Elsa that she played with the whole trip. And some shot glasses. Honestly there is nothing that I can say we got that was not appreciated. We got a lot of great things, and I cannot remember them all.

 

[Patsydust]

Disney Pins and a really nice card to put in the light sensor for room electricity!

 

[Iansmom518]

So many good ideas. I can't wait!

 

[tigerchic89]

Some of our favorites were:
necklaces with a round charm "case".. similar to oragami owl... some had tink inside, others had pave mickey (i wore this every night to dinner)
a container of Magic Shell (it was in a a sundae kit, but the magic shell was the best part!)
little bottles of alcohol
No crease Hair band elastics (like Emmy Jay's)

 

[Vic Berry]

Is there a store near the port or in Cocoa Beach where I can buy mini liquor bottles? Thanks!

 

[diznymom]

Buying a $5 bag of candy and giving a few pieces per person is not thoughtful.

Or just 1 piece per person. This happened on our first cruise.

 

[littleblackegg]

My husband and I are crazy for anything Japanese, so I was thinking of small bottles of sake and Japanese print fans, tied together with a miniature obi. Maybe that crazy Japanese gummi candy for the kids?