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Provide details like the cruise date and ship name, allowing others to join your group. As the Fish Extender group coordinator, you must communicate with your members, share guidelines, and keep everyone updated. Again, you can make your own Disney Cruise door magnets by buying magnetic sheets and craft your own designs. If you are more into purchasing than crafting, again Etsy is a fanastic place to find hundreds of customizable and standard magnet designs.
Disney Cruise Bucket List - POPSUGAR
Disney Cruise Bucket List.
Posted: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 07:00:00 GMT [source]
How To Sign Up for a Fish Extender Exchange
On Disney Ships, next to each stateroom door and under your cabin number is a fish shaped decorative element that serves a practical purpose as a message holder. The first two ships, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, started with seahorse on all staterooms. The Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy replaced the seahorse with a fish, and fish extender sounds better than seahorse extender, hence the name.
Individual Gifts Or Family Gifts?
Some super-organized group administrators might recommend a day and time to deliver your gifts so they are spread evenly throughout the cruise. Remember, the most crucial aspect is having a pocketed organizer that hangs on your stateroom door to hold the gifts. Whether you make one or purchase it, having a Fish Extender adds excitement and participation in the gift exchange tradition during your Disney Cruise vacation. Fish extenders are not provided by the Disney Cruise Line, and participating in a fish extender exchange is completely optional. You can’t purchase one onboard, so you’ll need to bring one with you.
Disney Cruise Fish Extenders Guide

As cruisers started connecting on platforms like Facebook groups and forums, they came up with the idea of exchanging small gifts with their fellow passengers to get to know each other. A quick look on Etsy and you can find a pirate themed fish extender, a Star Wars themed fish extender or even a Disney Cruise themed fish extender. Just do a quick search, there are a lot of options and all are customizable. I would suggest to not put your cruise date or stateroom number on the extender, so you can reuse it. Both homemade fish extender gifts and store-bought are welcome. Whether you are crafty, thrifty, over-the-top or grab it off the shelf, everyone is welcome in the Fish Extender exchange.
tips for the best sea day on Disney Cruise Line
The Disney Wish (and we assume the new Disney Treasure as well) went a bit crazy and uses owls, snails, Cinderella’s pumpkin coach, a crown and suns. While it may seem like a simple detail, it’s an iconic and functional part of the Disney Cruise experience. Since 2005 (we share more of the history of fish extenders later), passengers come together to create Fish Extender groups on each sailing to create a Disney cruise gift exchange. Besides the magnets themselves, we realized that what we like best about the fish extenders was their organic nature. In a way, it reminds us of Cruise Critic itself, with which people share their cruise experiences with others so everyone can have a great time.
So join a group, prepare to give and receive, and prepare for an extraordinary journey filled with Disney enchantment. By participating, you’ll have the opportunity to meet new people, make friends, and bond with fellow Disney enthusiasts. The surprise of finding small and thoughtful gifts in your Fish Extender pocket each day adds an extra touch of magic to your vacation.
When deciding what type of gifts to give, you can choose to give individual gifts for each person or family gifts. Remember, it’s not about the cost of the gift but rather the thought put into it that matters. It’s an additional cost to consider before signing up, to make sure it is in your budget to participate.
Then when you’re on the ship, you need to hang your fish extender on the fish or seahorse, and then find time to go deliver your gifts. Do not worry – if your Disney cruise ship does not have the metal plaque in the shape of a fish, you will still have a Fish Extender gift exchange. The origin of Fish Extenders can be traced back to online Disney Cruise communities.
TRAVEL TIPS
Ideally, your FE will have a pocket for each person in your cabin. Deeper pockets are preferred, as they keep items from falling out or curious passer-bys from reaching in. Your Fish Extender organizer (a volunteer that deserves a big hug when you meet) will assign you a group of cabins for which you should give gifts. He or she will let typically let you know the first names, ages, and genders of the participants who have given permission to share this info. Before your sailing, you’ll get a list with stateroom numbers, the guests in the room, and other information (potentially the age of passengers, favorite characters, etc). There is another way to make your Disney Cruise Line vacation even more enjoyable.
Once you get a list of participating cruise passengers, you’ll need to provide little gifts for each person on the list, so it can become costly. Otherwise, it’s fun to spread them out throughout your cruise sailing dates so your fellow participants don’t get all their gifts on the same day. While purchased gifts can be convenient, DIY gifts can be more personal and often more affordable too if you are creative. DIY fish extender gifts also mean you can make them personalised, such as including the sail date or name of the gift recipient. You can usually find established FE groups on Facebook or other Disney Cruise forums and websites. These groups are typically created by experienced cruisers who have participated in in the fish extender program previously.
Think outside the box and consider travel items, treats and useful things as part of your little gifts. FE groups are formed before the cruise, and members exchange small gifts with each other during the trip. The gifts are usually small and inexpensive, but they are heartfelt and thoughtful, making the experience even more special. You can search to find the ship and date of the cruise and usually, someone in the message boards starts a Disney Cruise Fish Exchange.
There is usually a Disney cruise magnet exchange for each cruise too. If you don’t already have something you can use as a Fish Extender hanger, you can easily make one yourself or purchase one online. For example, Disney Wonder 8th December 2023 and within this large group, there is typically a person who will sort cruisers into smaller groups.
Once everyone is placed in groups, specific information will be passed out to all group members; name, age and gender of each participating family member and stateroom number. Some groups like to give a little gift each night of the cruise, and others simply say 1 gift per cruise. Be sure to have your Fish Extender and gifts ready for that first night. Many families will add a tag or note to say ‘You’ve been pixie dusted by cabin xxxx’ so recipients know who gifted them, but this is not essential. It’s important to remember that the Fish Extender exchange is meant to be a fun and low-key activity, so there’s no need to break the bank on gifts.
Typically, if you are on Facebook, you can search for your cruise ship name and sailing dates. Often, there are unofficial groups specifically for your sailing run by your fellow passengers. Similar to the Fish Extender exchange, these exchanges involve guests exchanging ornaments or magnets with fellow cruisers.
The first ever Fish Extender happened in 2005 during a long Panama Canal trip. The cruisers wanted to get to know each other throughout this longer Cruise and came up with the idea to exchange little gifts with different people on the Cruise. However, for most of the cruise, the fish just sat there empty, so some smart people came up with fish extenders that hang from the fish (or owl, etc.). Typically, a Fish Extender has pockets that will easily hold the gifts.
2The general guidelines are outlined in this document but it is your prerogative to establish any other rules you deem important. Possible rule variations include number of gifts, delivery schedule, min/max price of gifts, number of cabins per group. To make it simple for you to create your own personalized gift tags, we custom-made more than 50 editable PDF templates and customizable Avery label templates.
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