Disney Cruise Line Fish Exchange

As I mentioned a few posts back, I will now explain the Fish Extender exchange I participated in on our recent Disney cruise. I signed up to participate in it on the DIS Discussion Forums. Just scroll down and find the Disney Cruise Line Forum and then go to the Disney Cruise Meets. You will then click on your ship and year you are sailing ... then click on your cruise date. If you are a long way out from your cruise then it may take awhile for the Fish Extender list to get started. In the mean time enjoy meeting your fellow cruisers and ask any questions you have.

When they start asking who is interested in being in the Fish Extender then that is the time to speak up!! When you get within about a month of the cruise they will finalize the list and possibly split it if there are a lot of people participating. That is what happened on our cruise. I was happy it was split since I was making a mini album and didn't think that I could get 35 done! :)

You can find "how to's" on the boards for how to make the Fish Extender ... that is what I did. I should have started it a lot sooner than I did cause I don't think I finished until about a week before we left! Here is mine:

All the staterooms have a metal fish outside the door. The cruise line uses this to clip any messages for you they may have. We use it to hang the fish extender! Throughout the cruise ... even possibly up to the last night ... you will have something put in your fish extender. It was so much fun to come back to the room and see what we received. However, I enjoyed delivering the gifts I made to all the staterooms in my group. It certainly helped us learn our way around the ship. :)

While I put off sewing the fish extender, I totally embraced making my mini albums. I made my own happy mess ...

 

 

Here is the final product. 

 

 

 

 

After this point the pages just repeat the three shown above. Then I decided to personalize the back cover:

I wanted to mention that the idea for my mini album came from the very talented Laura Denison. You can find it on her Ustream through her website ... The Paper Trail. I just took her idea and Disney-fied it. :)

I hope this explains the Fish Extender well enough. Like I said earlier, the DIS Discussion Forums are where you need to go if you have questions about cruising with Disney. If you already have your reservation then join your cruise group through the Disney Cruise Meets and happy cruising!

Thanks for dropping by ...

Disney Fantasy Cruise - Day 2

Here is a picture of our stateroom door. I had entered the door decorating contest and the theme was "Let's Celebrate!". I know it is hard to see, but I put my Cricut to work and made Mickey & Minnie and each of them is holding two "Mickey balloons". I used some of the incredible digital artwork from Milliepie for my Mickey balloons. Since the theme was celebrating I had each one represent something we celebrate: 1st Disney Cruise, Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, and Just Celebrating Everything! AllEars had a forum we could introduce ourselves and ask questions on so I went through all the posts and pulled those who said they were celebrating their anniversary, birthday or if it was their first Disney cruise ... like Curt and I. I listed them in their corresponding Mickey balloon. The other magnets on there were Curt's Buzz Lightyear Mickeyhead, my Tinkerbell Mickeyhead, AllEars Fantasy Cruise & MouseFan Travel (love them) and some others. Here are some close-ups of my celebration Mickeyheads ...

The hanging pockets on the left is my Fish Extender for the gift exchange. Now, I am NOT good at sewing and I waited until the very last moment to finish this project. While I love how it turned out, it will definitely be the last fish extender I will sew - that is why there are no dates on this one! As I mentioned yesterday, I will have a separate post on the Fish Extender after my trip report. :)

Today is a sea day and our opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the ship. One perfect way of doing this is delivering the gifts I made. Curt and I got pretty good at getting to those Forward and Aft elevators and stairs. We did have breakfast on this day too, but I have a scrapbooking confession to make:

Scrapbooking Confession: I was so mesmerized by this ship and every detail that I spent my time exploring and didn't take pictures!!!! Yes, you heard me right! Our sons would be shocked to learn this, but since they don't read my blog (shocking, I know) and I definitely won't mention it to them, they won't know. You see .. their complaint is that I ALWAYS have a camera out on vacations snapping away and the rule is they must not complain and indulge me this one (YES, ONLY ONE) quirk. 

Whew, now that I got that awful burden off my shoulders, let's continue! The other way we got used to the layout of the Fantasy was by playing the Midship Detective Agency ... we chose the Muppet adventure "The Case of the Stolen Show".

You receive a detective badge and a Crime Scene Map:

As you can see, this map takes you to several decks and you move forward, midship and aft. They have enchanted artwork and when you hold your badge up to the art then your clue appears. The back of the map has the "suspects" and a place to take notes:

We had a fun day completing and solving this crime. Curt was the lead detective on the case and yours truly as the Watson to his Holmes, i.e. I took the notes ... oh, and I solved the case ... eh eh eh! Now I said it took us the day because as you went to a new deck, well, it's like in the Disney move "Up" ... can you say "SQUIRREL!!". The intent was to solve the crime then enjoy looking around the ship, but the reality was we got side tracked quite a bit.

I forgot to mention that on the Disney Cruise Lines your evening meal is not in the same dining room each night. Disney has a rotational dining experience with three wonderfully themed dining rooms. Our first night was in Enchanted Garden and tonight was at Royal Court and it was formal night.

 This was right after we got to the table. We loved that our table was by a huge porthole ... gorgeous view. James & Linda had Palo reservations so they were not joining us tonight. We really enjoyed our time with Ryan and Gail in this beautiful restaurant. I actually did spend one of the days going in to each dining room to take pictures ... here is Royal Court ...

The show tonight was Aladdin.

This was a very funny and enjoyable show. Loved the songs and the genie and magic carpet were great!  We came back to our room to see ...

I had a hard time figuring out exactly what this towel animal was, but thought maybe a bunny???? Well, thanks for dropping by and tomorrow we have our Palo brunch ... LOVED, LOVED, LOVED THAT! :)