Fish Extending the Disney Love

After nearly a year of crafting, and then some creative packing, we were finally on our Disney Cruise and ready to get into the whole Fish Extender thing. If you don't know what that is, check this post here for a run down! Throughout this post you'll see the gifts we were given. My goal was to hand out our gifts to other cruisers on night one after dinner. People could wake up in the morning to a little surprise at their door. Magnets could be put on doors,. Kids could use their purses, backpacks and cups. Candy could be eaten. Pixie Dust could be sprinkled. I grabbed our big beach bag and filled it up with our gifts in order of deck, ready to set out for some good exercise. I was pleasantly surprised when Shawn and Katura wanted to help me! It was probably close to 10pm, I was still in my nice dinner clothes, and we were ready to act like Santa's little helpers!

We were on deck 6, so we hit that floor first. And the very first door was right around the corner, but I just felt it wasn't the right room. We left our gift and continued on our way. To cut to the end of that - that family DID change cabins. Fortunately I was able to access the spreadsheet with our official group list and we got the gift moved to the right cabin. Phew!

After we finished deck 6 we decided to split up a little bit. Shawn and Katura went up to deck 11 (fancy pantsy cabins!) and deliver to the stateroom who gave us the gift in the photo above. I kind of wish I went along just so I could see what that area was like. Oh to be concierge... some day!?! Meanwhile I hit deck 10 and we met up on 9.

Not gonna lie, I got disoriented a couple of times and bounced into the walls a lot with the moving of the ship (which caused laughter for all of us!), but I had an absolute blast. It was fun to see decorations people had done and to just walk and explore.

It was around 11:30pm when I sent Shawn and Katura back to the room and finished off doing one more deck of deliveries. By the time I went to bed I had 2 left for deck 2 and 1 we missed on 8, so I knew I could just deliver those first thing in the morning. So much fun to just go around knowing you're going to make complete strangers happy.

When we returned from Nassau we had a fish extender full of gifts - and one of ours returned. I wrote a number wrong and the people were nice enough to return it to us with a note. Thankfully I was able to find the right cabin and get it delivered. Phew, Again!

Katura figured out pretty quickly that the thing hanging on our door was for people to leave "treasures". She's really into pirates, treasure maps and X marks the spot, so this was perfect for her!

We got a huge variety of gifts, as you can see in the photos. Travel cups with Starbucks gift cards, cruise survival kits, beach toys, magnets, and even some pixie dust from her pen pal - whom we also gave pixie dust to!  Thank you!!

People are really creative. It made me excited for the next cruise! After getting it all packed to fly to Florida I was thinking maybe next time we wouldn't do this. But in the end seeing how excited Katura was to check our extender made it all worth it. And it felt like we got to know these other families throughout the course of the planning and then visiting each other's doors. So will we do it next time? I think so!

Look at this adorable elf!! She loved seeing her name on something. I wish I could be so creative. I have ideas, I just don't have the means of executing all of them. But I have time to practice and brainstorm!

The magnets below are making their way to my desk at work. I want to see these year round!

Pixie Dust - that's leaving things for people just because you want to. They aren't on your official gift exchange list. It's just being nice. I had a lot of extra gift supplies, so I figured let's give them to other kids versus throwing them away. I also had fun making magnets, so I gave away a lot of them. Next time I'm going to make a lot more and just tag doors as I walk around - just like during a Ragnar relay! I tagged a handful of doors this time, but next time I'll come prepared for even more!

This gift was specifically for Shawn - an insulated can carrier with Pumbaa on it. Perfect!

Kody and Brody did a good job with their gift - a stocking full of toys that have all been used. Those little goggles were put on right away at Castaway Cay!

I should have taken that out of the package - but I have to point out what this one was. Adorable Mickey Mouse nail clippers. Who doesn't need that?!?! And in the packaging is a lovely scarf with anchors on it. I have got to wear this! I loved it so much!

And this family for the photo below, wow. A magnet from Disneyland Paris, foreign candy, a very cool Disney Dream ornament and that bigger square opens up - its a tote bag from Disneyland Paris! Being a girl that loves Disney theme parks - this blew me away. I even used that bag during our cruise at a tea party you'll read about later. The generosity that everyone displayed was just - leaves me speechless. HA!! I am so glad we chose to participate and I am so glad that Katura really enjoyed helping me make things for other kids and handing them out. We could have just given and not received and it would have been just as fun!