First off, what are these Fish Extenders (or FEs) you hear about? Should you participate?
Fish Extenders are the little fish that stick out from the wall next to stateroom doors on the Disney Cruise Line.
In essence, you are extending the fish...by creating a hanging set of pockets. You then join Fish Extender groups and exchange little gifts with one another during the cruise. Groups may be found on several forums (such as DIS or Facebook, by searching for your cruise date). An organizer then oversees the creation of the groups. In general, there are groups for families and groups for just adults. Depending on how many people sign up, a cruise my have many, many Fish Extender groups going on, since most like to cap each group at about 20 or so staterooms. You get a list of names and staterooms, and then during the cruise you make your deliveries. For the most part you are expected to only do 1 gift per stateroom, and/or 1 gift per person in each stateroom.
The first thing is to have a Fish Extender to hang outside your door. This can be as simple or elaborate as you'd like. Essentially, all you need is a strip of fabric with a pocket attached for each person in your party.
Here's how I made ours...
First, I gathered some of my favorite Disney fabric.
I figured out how large it would need to be for the two of us (because of the size of the area where the Fish Extender is located, you must stay under 10" in width and 4 feet in length). I knew I wanted a small loop of fabric at the top for a small dowel for weight at the top. so took that into consideration. I also wanted an area for our last name, and a pocket for each of us.
For our pockets I used a couple of office supply pockets I found on clearance at Staples. Pockets should have a small gusset, or if made of a chunk fabric be sewn on loose enough for items to be placed inside.
Since my sewing machine is worthless, I cut it all out leaving a bit for the seam, hand sewed three sides inside out (like a long narrow pillow case), then turned it right side out and finished off the top, which was then folded over for the dowel. Pretty much everything else was glued on.
For our name, I used felt for the backing and letters. After cutting out the letters, I stitched (and glued) them onto the felt backing with rustic 'x's' from decorative cord, added a ribbon (glued) and a couple of nautical buttons (sewed).
On the pockets, I made Mickey shapes from felt, assembled them with glue and more cord, then added a bowtie for a man and hair bow for a woman, then glued the Mickey shapes onto the pockets. I then glued on a decorative ribbon.The pockets were glued onto the fabric, with cord sewn through the pocket grommets at the tops for more stability.
Finally, a small dowel was cut to size, coated with glue and slipped into the top loop opening. I finished it off with a ribbon for hanging. Voila!
Now, should you participate? It's a fun little activity and adds excitement to a cruise. It does take some planning and extra effort, so be prepared for that. Also, you will have more luggage dragging stuff you bring onboard and stuff you get off! If you decide to join in, what should you bring? Stay tuned to further blog posts for ideas for that!
