Souvenirs.....What was I thinkin'?

[FreezingInMichigan]

My partner has an addiction to hammocks. Every cruise we've ever taken he HAS to buy a new hammock. We have a multitude of hammocks stored in the attic, closets, under beds, ect.... Its safe to say if they ever stop making brightly colored rope hammocks and the value goes through the roof our net worth will skyrocket! I used to try and reason with him that we didnt need another one but now I just turn the other way and let him deal with it.... As they obviously wont fit in a suitcase or rolling luggage its always comical to watch him try and manouver through the ship when we disembark, pulling his lugguage behind him and trying to bang into as little as possible with a five foot hammock rolled up and slung over his shoulder. He looks a bit like Gilligan....Ill admit it. :D

 

One unused Mexican rope hammock collecting dust in our basement. Guilty as charged... lol

[rutgersgirl27]

I have a collection of drink-of-the day glasses. One, and only one is displayed, a Carnival disco ball that looks quite cool against my bedroom set. The rest are gathering dust. I honestly can't even remember how I got half of them home.

[TEXASMUNK]

1. Coffee mugs....onboard...have a great collection, big coffee drinkers

2. Serapes....yes, serapes.....why? Two Great Danes, every cruise we throw away to 4 be bought on the last cruise, replace with new ones...they will not lay down to sleep at night without their serapes being spread out first....odd dogs...odd owners.

[How'sBartCruisin'?]

Port Shopping & Jewelry Show....got dragged to it last year and will NEVER go to another one again. What a load of crap!!! I wasted an hour plus of my cruise on that last year because my wife wanted to go: live and learn and never return again. :D

[celie1110]

I just bought one on my last cruise...always wanted one but not sure yet what I am going to do with it here at home...may I ask what you did with yours? where and how you display it?

 

I have a couple of conch shells that DH had brought home from cruise before we met. We have them in one of the bedrooms at our summer/beach house. It's great for decorating there but I wouldn't know where to put them in our year round house. Maybe the somewhere in the bathroom?

 

All our souvenirs are usually magnets, tshirts ( we live in tshirts) and snow globes ( which we collect). The only thing we regret buying was a puka necklace that my DH wanted. He wore it on the cruise - I never saw it again

[wingnutphl]

A friend of ours has an ongoing competition to find the tackiest souvenir item under a $5 price point (although that probably needs to be adjusted for inflation). So far the reigning champion is a Seaworld refrigerator magnet bottle opener in the shape of a dolphin with little fish and other things floating in blue liquid inside the thing. Aaack! Tacky but useful, and it sticks to the fridge!

 

Oh I would have you beat! :p I have a really ugly yellow sombrero and sarape refrig magnet with gold glitter. Everyone who comes to my house says that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. And I just smile and say thank you!!

[packedandready]

I love the cheap T-shirts. Use them for around the house and keep the camper stocked with them. Live in them camping. 2 of the things I love....camping and cruising....doing one while remembering the other. Feel very, very blessed.

[How'sBartCruisin'?]

I love the cheap T-shirts. Use them for around the house and keep the camper stocked with them. Live in them camping. 2 of the things I love....camping and cruising....doing one while remembering the other. Feel very, very blessed.

 

Hello almost twin. We have a trailer at a campground in Southern New Jersey, close to Avalon...Big Timber Lake. And obviously, we cruise.

[racnwdow]

I am so glad I skipped the tshirts and other junk souveneers and started off my shopping traditions correctly. I always get diamonds and/or saphirres on a cruise. Love the prices and I love to glitter.

[seashinesunshine]

I just bought one on my last cruise...always wanted one but not sure yet what I am going to do with it here at home...may I ask what you did with yours? where and how you display it?

 

My son bought one a few years ago. He stores it in his room, somewhere in the mess of teenage years....But when he bought it they cut out the core or something, so you can blow into it to make a horn noise. Definetly an outside activity, but he did have fun brinigng it to school and shwoing his band teacher who enjoyed playing it. Also when we took them to Labadee they got sold some homemade flutes, neither kid has been able to get a sound out of them, but thier school music teachers can make them play.

[TipsyT]

For us it was two large bottles of Don Q mojito rum from Puerto Rico. It's absolutely delicious but was in the heaviest bottles and after lugging it all the way home we found out we could order it from our local liquor store and for cheaper than we paid in PR. Argh!

 

What we buy now: beads for my travel bracelet and a Christmas ornament (if we can find a nice one).

[kingsgirl]

I'm glad so many others try to find Christmas ornaments. We have two from our RCI cruises and they provide fond memories when we dig them out with the Christmas tree.

[Familygoboston]

LOVE IT...........am suggesting this contest to our group leader for our upcoming cruise on Allure in Sept! :D

 

Fabulous idea!we have a very intensely scheduled series of M&M events on the schedule for our Allure cruise, ( with its own website!) I should suggest this too!

 

My own souvenir misfortunes:

 

A batik dress from St Kitts in a color and style that only works on hippy black women (I'm a hipless, pasty white woman). It lives in the kids dress up bin now, so all is not lost.

 

Im a sucker for native art; the less formal art education the artist has had the better. But I live in virtually wall-less open concept house with no free walls for colorful art that also in no way matches my beige decorating style.:rolleyes:

 

I have finally moved onto the maxim, "take only photos", although I do always buy a Christmas ornament ( or something that could be used as such in places where Christmas is not celebrated) from each new place I visit.

[packedandready]

I am so glad I skipped the tshirts and other junk souveneers and started off my shopping traditions correctly. I always get diamonds and/or saphirres on a cruise. Love the prices and I love to glitter.

 

 

Need a "like" button :)

[andiloveu]

We are in the magnet and coffee mug group. I still have our first magnets from our first cruise on my fridge. I like those kind of souvenirs because they are small and easy to travel back home with.:)

[sheals]

I also collect Christmas ornaments from all the places I visit but that is a bit difficult to do sometimes. At some ports I end up buying a nice keychain and removing the actual chain. I have a 3ft. tall Christmas tree that I put in my front hall and decorate it with all the ornaments (and keychains) I have bought all over the world. It is a wonderful reminder of all the places my DH and I have visited and is a great topic of conversation during the holiday season.

[mkmom514]

I collect Christmas ornaments also. I'm also in the keychain club, if I can't find an ornament. I take lots of photos wherever I go and I have lots of miniature photo frames with photos from travel/special occasions/etc. that hang on my Christmas tree. I love looking at the tree and remembering.

[Onessa]

. . Artist prints are nice if it's a local artist from the area we visit.

 

I never buy anything uless it is locally made. Lots of prints and watercolors (best if you see the artist painting another while you are picking one out!). DD won a raffle of a fish sculpture from a Celebrity Solstice "Hot Glass" show -- I had to figure out how to pack it, and my poor husband had to carry it back from Rome (three plane changes). It made it back all in one peice and is on display in our dining room, but it was not at all a fun experience :)

 

I do ok shopping for myself, but I always hate it when someone feels it necessary to bring home a Thank You gift (if I've been walking their dog or getting their mail or whatever). Inevitably it is something that I would never have bought myself and is made half-way around the world from where-ever they have visited. And of course when they stop by to visit I feel duty-bound to use whatever it is they gave me (at least for a year or two)

[How'sBartCruisin'?]

I'd love to have local art painted by a local!!! :)

[printingchick]

Very funny thread!!!

 

I'm really NOT a big shopper at all. Some of my regrets include free give-away items.

 

• At the M&M, they typically give refrigerator magnets. Did you know if you toss them into your bag next to your Sea Pass card, they deactivate your Sea Pass card? OOPS!!
  
• I have to say that I really LIKE all my drink-of-the-day and after-dinner-liquor-of-the-day drinkware.
  
• I succumbed to the robe temptation during my early Carnival years. My son has since taken possession of that robe, but I have to admit, I LOVED it! (I may have to get one from RCL...)
  

 

I know I pay particular attention to the fact that I have to carry things home in a suit case which needs to meet certain weight restrictions now...which means I failed to consider that at some point in the past...however I can't recall any specific examples! (I do know there were no hammocks involved!)

[Puffinater]

Not extreme by any means but I buy a single post card from every port and put it into a photo alblum.

[Batch5]

Now in are 40's we are just Christmas ornaments and Magnets, in are 20's we were shots glasses and T-shirts.

Suggestion for the magnet collectors, I purchased the magnetized paint, and painted a section of the wall behind the bar in our basement. Now whenever family or friends go on vacation we are sure to get a magnet from there travels so they can say they contributed to the magnet wall.

[smoosh21]

I used to buy coffee mugs at every place I visited. After collecting about 90+ I stopped because I no longer had any place to put them, and most are just boxed up in storage.

[Arubamoose]

Used to buy T-shirts but now I have a hard time finding nice ones that aren't too expensive.

 

Still buy shot glasses if I haven't been there before. Must have at least 200 but we have a bar in our basement so they are easy to store and I enjoy playing eeny-meeny-minee-mo and choose one at random for me and my guests.

 

I also have two very large conch shells. Got them in Aruba. They are bleached and a pretty pink. They reside in my bathroom. I love them!

 

I also like to purchase Christmas ornaments. Like the idea of buying key chains and using them as ornaments.

 

Can't stand refrigerator magnets!

 

The only thing I ever regretted buying was a cuckoo clock from Switerland for my mother. I really wanted to purchase a larger much more expensive one for myself but we couldn't manage to afford both and didn't have the space to lug both home. Wound up getting two smaller ones for both of us. She hated it and threw it out. I should have pleased myself instead of trying to be a nice thoughtful daughter.

[ZoeyVictoria]

The only thing worse than having useless souvenirs from your own vacation is marrying somebody who brings useless souvenirs from a previous marriage with him. DH came with a huge supply of flavored rums, but never once in over six years did he actually drink rum at home.