Please give me some ideas

[bimmerlil]

I have a group traveling on November 18th on the Voyager repo cruise. We are having a get together party here at home for everyone going on the trip. Since I am the group leader, I would like to give some sort of gift or token for everyone. I talked to a TA who put the trip together and she is going to see if she can get some sort of promotional item from RCCL. I have a month to get this together. There are about 26 people in our group. Any ideas would really help. Thanks in advance!

[TCnJOY]

How about a nice photo album with a cruise or vacation theme design. When I got my travel docs from my TA, they gave me a photo album and said the be sure to fill it and bring it back for them to see. I thought the gesture was nice.

[CaptData]

Buy a bunch of highlighters and colourful post-it notes. You can get these at a Dollar store. Are you handing out the tickets then, if so handout pens. Buy some sunscreen (sample size). Buy some lanyards. Buy some of those little paper umbrellas for their drinks. Have fun.

[Boo's Mom]

You could go to a ski shop and pick up some of those wallets that hang around your neck....for holding your room/charge card while cruising. We purchased some @ Walmart, too....but the kind we got at the ski shop are much nicer and better.

 

Another thought....: If you find something that costs too much and you can't purchase one for everyone... you could buy one or two and then raffle them @ your gathering.

 

You could take orders (everyone else pays) and have nice t-shirts printed up for everyone to wear while on the cruise. Perhaps your TA could get some advertising on the shirts...and assist with the cost.

 

You could ask your TA to provide a $25.00 cabin credit that you will raffle @ the gathering. You might even ask the TA (great publicity) to stop by for 15 minutes...introduce herself...and be there for the raffle.

 

James Avery has a great cruise ship charm (they call it a Luxury Liner) that would be precious on a charm bracelet. You could have the name of the ship/sail dates engraved on the ship. This could be a raffle gift.

 

As you can see, I like raffles. They are a lot of fun. Pool your funds into one or two really nice things...instead of many things that only cost a few dollars.

 

If you are interested, I can find you the website for James Avery. They only have stores in a few states in the USA.

[Tyler80]

A photo album would be really nice, copy and print some pictures from webshots.com of your ship and put those in the album, leaving room for your guests to fill up the rest of the album. Print out a map of where the ship is going on your cruise. If you really want to get creative design your own "1 free drink coupon" for them to use while they are on the cruise. You could get creative and say "Miami-Vice on Me" drink coupon or something like that, and then you could buy them each a drink, if you've got them money.

 

TCnJOY: You said your TA got you a photo album?? That was nice. I never got that. I've heard some TA's send flowers and have them waiting in your stateroom for you.

[bimmerlil]

These are some great ideas. Anyone else have any input?

[suezyq50]

My mom, 5 sisters, and I went on the MOS last April. First cruise for 3 of us. I bought light denuim bags from the Hobby store and stencilled the outside. I enjoyed it so much, I did both sides. I bought clear arcylic frames, painted "Family Fun" on the buttom glued some sea shells in a single corner. I made bookmarks, one side listing the ship, date, and our names. On the other side I selected a verse, and put THEIR name in the appropriate spot. I added cruise stickers. I had them laminated for hardly anything at an office supply chain. I picked up enexpensive paperbacks. I put a drinking cup in, sunscreen chap stick, mini flash lights, and a can of air freshner for each one.:eek: I bought most everything at the dollar store. I would buy a brand name sunscreen though. I off brand had a funny taste.

[ladylikes2cruise]

did the VOS repo in may

 

had a blast

 

your going on a great ship

 

happy cruising

[Nieuwcruiser]

We always have a pre-cruise get together with everyone going. We don't do gifts but have the Jimmy Buffet music or a CD of the pool band from previous cruises playing. Have some fu-fu drinks and some Corona or Red Stripe beer.

Sometimes show the hilarious video of our first cruise. Gets everyone pumped up and ready to go.

[bimmerlil]

Great ideas guys. I wrote all of them down. I liked the idea of playing Jimmy Buffet and showing old cruise videos. I need to dust em off and drag them out. The older the videos the funnier they are.

[Sheffie]

We are travelling with friends on our next cruise and I got them a pocket folder that has about 5 double sided pockets in it. I slipped our itinerary in the cover (with pictures of each port) and then we put different things in each pocket. The backside of the cover has our insurance and RCI information. Pg. 1 has flight info. backside, San Juan info., 2nd page St. Maarten info, etc. I put the info for the excursions in the corresponding day, with sticky notes of how much is owed. I just love this folder! It is great when looking things up and keeps me so organized that people just shake their heads. (I think they think I am obsessed!:D )

 

I had to do some searching for this folder, and cannot remember where I got my first one, maybe Office Max?

 

This might be something to do for each family.

 

You will have such a great time with so many together on the cruise!

[MrsBoo]

How about have everyone bring a wrapped inexpensive cruise-related gift to exchange. If there's time you could play "steal the gift" - have everyone pick a number 1 thru 26. Number 1 picks a gift, unwraps it, then #2 has a choice of "stealing" #1's gift or choosing a new gift, etc. Whoever has a gift stolen gets to pick or steal a new gift. Then have a few nice gifts to win by playing "cruise" games, such as a timed word search, with cruise terms, of course; making as many words as possible using the name of the ship you'll be on; or a trivia game by answering questions about your ports of call.

[bobbie0253]

I have a lot of ship only pics in my Voyager album. Feel free to use anything you would like.

[kenandlaura06]

Thanks for the tips everyone! I love them!

[4merlurker]

My mom, 5 sisters, and I went on the MOS last April. First cruise for 3 of us. I bought light denuim bags from the Hobby store and stencilled the outside. I enjoyed it so much, I did both sides. I bought clear arcylic frames, painted "Family Fun" on the buttom glued some sea shells in a single corner. I made bookmarks, one side listing the ship, date, and our names. On the other side I selected a verse, and put THEIR name in the appropriate spot. I added cruise stickers. I had them laminated for hardly anything at an office supply chain. I picked up enexpensive paperbacks. I put a drinking cup in, sunscreen chap stick, mini flash lights, and a can of air freshner for each one.:eek: I bought most everything at the dollar store. I would buy a brand name sunscreen though. I off brand had a funny taste.

 

Great Ideas.................But this one really made me laugh!!!! :D

[Nliedel]

My sister in law gave her mother and mother in law a wonderful bag at the shower that had clear plastic holders on the outside for photos. Of course it was to display photos of her new baby (I think she is a little miffed that her baby has only two of the six squares and my kids are in the other four, lol) but cruise photos would be great too!

[CABCruiser]

We saw a group on our last cruise that was all wearing white T-shirts. On the back was an iron on transfer that was copied off the cruise line's web site. It showed the map of the cruise route and the day by day itinerary. There was a group name added to the top of the transfer. Very clever, and I bet it came in handy, too. This would even work on cloth bags, if you can find them.