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Fish Extender Gift Ideas

As I shared last week we are heading on a Disney cruise soon and will be participating in a Fish Extender gift exchange. Basically this is just a little gift exchange between people that sign up to do it. You deliver the little surprise gifts to the rooms in your group and you receive little gifts from them in turn. Everyone puts the gifts in what’s called a “fish extender”, which is basically like a little mail box. The name fish extender comes from the fact that on the first four Disney ships there was a fish clip next to each stateroom door that people would all hang something from for people to put the gifts into. I tried to come up with some fish extender gift ideas and so I’m sharing them with you all in can you need some ideas.

fish extender gift ideas

Now everyone has different ideas of what makes a good gift. I read through some of the Disney Cruise discussion boards online and I have seen a variety of opinions about Fish Extender gift ideas. Some people like practical ideas, personalized ones, food, and some people like none of those. So I am going to offer up a bunch of ideas and maybe you can find something you like from the list.

Some of the Gifts I am Gifting

I found these cute Disney Pez and grabbed ones that matched the favorite characters for the people in my Fish Extender group. In some of the Disney discussion boards people said they didn’t care for getting candy because they get too much candy but other people said they liked it. So candy is controversial but these were cute so I grabbed them.

fish extender gift ideas per

I grabbed the little pool net and fish toy for a little boy in our Fish Extender Group. As long as they are small enough these little pool toys can be fun for little kids. I have read to remember not to get anything too big or bulky like a shovel and pail might be too big but something little like this or little dive toys should be small enough.

The Mickey Mouse Breakfast molds might seem a bit odd but we have a couple in our Fish Extender group who is celebrating their 10th anniversary so I thought maybe something like that might be fun and something a little different.

I also grabbed a couple of these little coloring packs for some of the younger kids in our Fish Extender group. These come with stickers, a little coloring book, and crayons or markers. I thought they would be good for maybe keeping little ones entertained at dinner or other meals while waiting for food. I grabbed the characters that the children in my group said they liked. These little packs are super inexpensive and you can pick them up at the Dollar Store and stores like Walmart or Target.

Disney coloring pack

Ideas from the Dollar Store

Speaking of the Dollar Store, I found a few things there that might make decent Fish Extender gifts so I thought I’d share a few that I saw while shopping.

Like I mentioned before they have the little coloring packs but they also have full size Disney coloring books and other coloring packets.

Daisy coloring book
coloring packs

Cups are an item that some people said were not a good gift but I thought I’d point out these cute Grogu ones that I saw. I get that they are bulky and some people said they get too many but you can put stuff inside them when packing so that they don’t take up too much room.

Grogu cup

These magic towels are kind of silly but my sons thought they were cool when they were little. They have a ton of Disney ones available. These might be useful for like brushing sand off of your feet when you’re leaving the beach.

Disney Magic towels
Disney magic towels as fish extender gift ideas

Cruiseship staterooms have some walls that are made of metal and doors made of metal so metal clips and hooks can be a useful thing to have to hang things up.

magnetic clips as fish extender gift ideas

The Dollar Store also had a couple of different Disney princess books. I thought this might be a fun one if they have the characters that you’re looking for for your group.

Belle books

Speaking of princesses, they had fun sticker sheets that you could add to any Fish Extender gifts.

Disney princess stickers as fish extender gift ideas

Another fun idea I had was to maybe take a frame and add Disney Wish or something like that to the frame or the plastic with vinyl cut out from a Cricut. The receiver could then add in a photo from their trip later on and have a nice keepsake.

magnetic frame as fish extender gift ideas

Fish Extender Gift Ideas from Amazon

If you want to just order something off of Amazon there are a number of options available that would possibly work.

  • Disney Eye Found It Game– A card game like this could be fun for families and doesn’t take up too much room.
  • Mouse Ear Scrunchies– These super cute hair ties would be a fun idea.
  • Princess Chapsticks– The princess lip balms would be both fun and practical.
  • Magnetic Hooks– I still have these from my last cruise and plan to take them on our cruise. They are great for hanging stuff up!
  • Disney Twirl Straws– These could be another fun and practical gift for the cruise.
  • Disney Rubber Bracelets– I feel like kids would really enjoy receiving a little bracelet of their favorite character.

DIY Fish Extender Gift Ideas

I have seen numerous DIY Fish Extender Gift Ideas online and if you check Pinterest you’d see a ton of cute ones. Some of the more popular ones I’ve seen mentioned are:

  • Light cards (a card you can put in the slot to keep the lights on in your room instead of your Key to the World card)
  • luggage tags
  • keychains
  • emergency kit
  • personalized water bottle
  • lanyards
  • door magnets
  • key fobs

There’s so many more ideas that you could give I could never list them all here. Hopefully this list gave you an idea or two and I’ll probably update once I finish putting together the gifts I’m giving and also share what we got! If you have an idea to add please let me know in the comments below!

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