The Disney Fandom is huge online! Whether you want to talk parks, cruises, Vacation Club, movies, or TV shows there are online forums, Facebook groups, and podcasts for any of these topics. There is no lack of online content for Disney Fans.
When planning your cruise, this is an incredible resource. You have countless places and people to ask questions and find tips.
With the Disney Cruising FB group, I’ve had dozens of responses to questions within minutes!
Every single sailing of a Disney ship has an online community for it. That’s crazy, right?
Once you know your sailing date, jump on DisBoards and find your group.
Almost always there is also a private Facebook Group associated with each sailing. On our upcoming cruise the FB group has 95 members–about 4% of the entire cruise.
These groups are formed for a variety of reasons including getting to know each other, scheduling group activities, answering questions, and organizing the Fish Extenders.
The group is usually created months before each sailing. During that time before you cruise you have a chance to talk and mingle online. This gives you a chance to form friendships and get to know a few people before you get on the ship. In our current cruise group we realized there was someone on the cruise we had previously met. We are schedule to go on excursions with them and even share a cab at Key West.
Even better, the children have a chance to talk with other kids their age before boarding. Brooke has made friends on each of our cruises. For our next cruise she has been talking to several other girls. They are working out times to meet each other in the Oceaneer’s Lab.
On our first cruise Brooke met Stephanie. These two really hit it off. Two years later they are still keeping in touch through letters – yes they are writing on paper – old school style! We even met up with Stephanie and her family on our last trip to Walt Disney World.
These groups also arrange group meetups. One of the popular ways to gather is scheduling a private beverage seminar with Disney Cruise line. Our group is doing a Mixology class. We will learn and mix our own cocktails.
Then there is the Fish Extenders…
What is a Fish Extender?
Outside of each stateroom is a metal fish. This fish is your stateroom mailbox. Cast Members will place important communications here. Somewhere along the line, someone hung a decoration from this fish that extended down the wall—Fish Extender!
The Fish Extender is now an on-board gift exchange where you place gifts in pockets hung from the fish. This is an options program that the online groups organize. If you care to participate, you’ll be given a list of staterooms with the names and ages of the people in each room. Your family will bring gifts for these staterooms. Sometime during your cruise, you’ll stop by each stateroom and leave gifts in the Fish Extender. Your family will also receive gifts throughout the cruise from other families in your group. Look for a longer post about Fish Extenders soon!
With these groups, you’ll have a group of friends before you even set foot on-board a Disney ship. You can use the power of these online resources to get more info about cruises, participate in great activities and gift exchanges.
