You’re headed for a vacation of a lifetime and want to take advantage of everything offered on the Disney Cruise Line. Check out these easy DIY Disney Cruise Fish Extender Gift Ideas to make for your next Disney Cruise.
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What is the Disney Cruise Line Fish Extender Program
Fish extenders is a gift exchange while on board the Disney Cruise Line. It helps those on the cruise to get to know each other by exchanging small gifts. Participants hang some sort of container from the fish outside their stateroom. These fish extenders can be simple or extravagant. If you are wanting to DIY a fish extender, check out this No Sew Disney Fish Extender that I made for our most recent Disney Cruise.
To participate in the fish extender program, before your cruise, search your cruise dates and ship on facebook. Sign up to participate and you’ll be assigned a fish extender Group. As a group you can decide if you want to exchange gifts daily, or only once during your cruise. Our cruise was only 4 days. As a group we decided to just do one day, but split up the days we would deliver our gifts so the kids had something everyday.
It made our fish extender experience fun, but not overwhelming. It is a fun program, but you have to take into account, packing all the gifts you are going to deliver, and all the gifts you get in exchange. We wanted to have fun getting to know other cruisers, but also wanted to be able to enjoy the ship and all the ammenities on the cruise.
Fish Extender Gift Ideas
I wanted to DIY Fish Extender gifts for our group. But I wanted them to be easy to make, easy to pack and something that will actually get used. I used my Cricut Maker to make both of these fish extender gift ideas.
The first one I made was this photo mat with the ship name and date on it. Using a black frame, red felt and black iron on, this project was easy to do. And I thought it’d be a fun keepsake when the families got home.
If you have a Cricut Maker, click on this Disney Cruise FrameDisney Cruise Frame project link and you can customize the design to fit your specific cruise. Open the design in Cricut Design Space, customize the names and dates and click make it. Load felt into the Cricut Maker and use the rotary blade to cut the felt photo mat.
Next, load the mat with black iron on and cut out the name, date and Mickey head. Use an Easy Press to iron on the vinyl to the felt.
Add the mat to one of your black frames, and your Fish Extender gift is ready for gifting!
DIY Disney Cruise Fish Extender Gift
One of the things I read about before our cruise, was the lack of outlets to plug in and charge your electronics. Extension cords are not allowed on a Disney Cruise, but a multi charger adapter is acceptable.
These wall charger adapters would be a fine fish extender gift on their own, but you know me, I’ve got to add a little something.
I used my Cricut Maker again and this time I used regular adhesive vinyl to cut out the Disney Cruise logo and used transfer tape to apply it to the sides of the charger.
Along the same lines as the photo mat, I customized the wall chargers even further with the name of the ship and the year we took our cruise.
These fish extender gift ideas were a hit! I even made them for me. I wanted to remember our trip as well and found the wall charger adapter super helpful with all our electronics.
We had such an amazing time on our cruise. And my kids LOVED coming back to our room to find little gifts tucked inside our fish extender. If you are headed on a cruise with your family, I recommend becoming part of the fish extender program during your sailing.
If this is your first Disney Cruise, check out these must do activities on a Disney Cruise, along with these 20+ tips for a Disney Cruise. I hope you find them helpful and that you have an amazing time!
Happy Gift Exchanging!
Liz
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