What souvenirs do your kids collect while cruising?

[CeleBrat]

What sorts of fun things do your kids like to buy when cruising?

 

Mine always pick up a plush sea critter of some sort. And, they are big fans of picking up shells. On our last cruise, to Europe, my DS took it even a step further and brought back a few European pebbles.

 

CeleBrat

[2sweetgrits]

Mine two DDs love to get T-shirts and hand made items that you can't find at the local mall! We give them a budget and they have to stay in that range ~ or they won't be able to get something at the next port!:D

[TFlo]

My oldest DS collects pins from all the ports, and my youngest DS collects ball caps from the ports and ships.

[epixx]

My kids collect items that are relatively inexpensive and do not take up much room in the suitcase. My 14 year old has around 50 lapel pins from ports she has visited, including Barcelona, Florence, Venice, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Tallin, and Copenhagen. My 10 year old has close to 100 postcards from those, and other, ports. She arranges the postcards in a photo album to keep a record of all of her vacations.

[flsunnymommy]

My son collects little trinkets normally of little animals. He also always gets one stuffed animal and some rocks.

[crusinmama06]

They get one stuffed bear from each ship they've been on. I make sure it has the ship's name on it. :)

 

They get the ship's ornament from each cruise. And they get an ornament from each port. So when we decorate the tree for Christmas, we can look back on where we have been over the years. :D

 

And this year I started charm bracelets for them. So each port gets a new charm. :)

[Arubalisa]

Our dd collects carved stone animals in each port. Preferably turtles. :)

[mcfam5]

collect the little musical items like maracas, hand drums, whistles, etc. We could assemble our orchestra!

[mrspjotter]

Hi I was interested to see that someone said theire kids like collecting sea shells - we are on our first cruise to the caribbean in Feb, we are from the UK and my twin daughters are great shell collectors but I kinda guessed we wouldn't be able to take any off the beaches and bring back to the uk - am I wrong?:confused:

[chipmaster]

What sorts of fun things do your kids like to buy when cruising?

 

Mine always pick up a plush sea critter of some sort. And, they are big fans of picking up shells. On our last cruise, to Europe, my DS took it even a step further and brought back a few European pebbles.

 

CeleBrat

 

When they were younger we'd get some small trinket unique to the port or city they visited. They each have a shelf with too many things from too many places. They get a laugh now out of how many are made in China and these days its about the experience and memories. We came away with nothing from our recent 10 port cruise thru Europe except for memories for a lifetime :D

[CeleBrat]

They get a laugh now out of how many are made in China and these days its about the experience and memories.

 

Too true!

 

I often am reminded of that as I drive past all of the trinket shops here in Florida, or see a t-shirt with the exact same logo/graphics as the one we just bought in Grand Cayman or Jamaica.

 

CeleBrat

[mcfam5]

Too true!

 

I often am reminded of that as I drive past all of the trinket shops here in Florida, or see a t-shirt with the exact same logo/graphics as the one we just bought in Grand Cayman or Jamaica.

 

CeleBrat

 

 

CeleBrat,

I just checked out your blog, very cool. :) I didn't realize you lived in Celebration. A friend of mine just moved to Florida last month and has talked often about how cool your town is!

[kangaand2roos]

As a family, we've been collecting Disney pins for several years. This collection has expanded to include other travels. Our upcoming B2B will be my 5yo daughter's 2nd/3rd sea voyages and my 3yo son's 1st/2nd. We'll be doing the Carnival Valor Western and Eastern itineraries. Will pins be readily available on the ship and in the ports? I'd love for them to have one from each port we see as well as from the ship. I guess they'll get the past guest pins on the 2nd leg, if nothing else.

 

I also expect they'll each want some sort of trinket from each port, but we're going to keep a lid on the amount of soending and the amount of "stuff" we have to schlep home. Both kids love lizards, so I expect we'll come home with quite a bit if lizard stuff!

 

Stacey

[Crusin6]

We have 4 great dd's who have embraced the concept of frugal spending. Why you ask? They know they go out to dinner more often when they don't make us spend a fortune on sodas. They know they get more Xmas presents when they ask for less, they know they eventually have more clothes to wear when they embrace hand me downs etc. etc. etc.

 

Now, to answer your question, WE COLLECT PINS. Our family has the most beautiful collection of pins from all over the world, from every daytrip we have taken from home, every award they have won, and just about anyplace we have gone to be it for 2 weeks or 2 hours. If they sell pins, we buy them.

 

Our little group will sit and reminisce about all the places, plays, restaurants, we have gotten pins from.

 

The cost of the pins doesn't really matter as they are not usually expensive and of course we will buy more than one if we like them.

 

They are easy to carry home, easy to display, don't take up much room and it is guaranteed that the collection will always be on display. They are fun to look at and people that visit us just love to go over them with us. Very educational as well.

 

So that is what we collect, PINS. Space saving, time saving, money saving, fabulous memory making PINS.

 

In conclusion, our dd's know that the less money they waste on vacations, the more vacations they get!!!:):):):)

[lucyddr]

Growing up in a family with 3 kids who took minivan road-trips, we had to choose "small" items. Our three choices...

1. Thimbles. Kind of boring, but small and easy to display. Every time I dust them or move them, lots of fond memories come back...

2. Shot glasses. My sister's thing. Similar to above, but take up slightly more space.

3. Little knives for my brother. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this in light of the difficulty in travel with "weapons."

 

You might try asking your children what they'd like to "collect," as every child is unique in their interests. (IE My friend's kids collect turtles from everywhere...)

[Warm Breezes]

DD(11) collects water globes and DS(14) has a small model ship for each of the cruises we've been on.

[seashell36]

we wouldn't be able to take any off the beaches and bring back to the uk - am I wrong?:confused:

 

My DD collects sea shells from all of our beach trips. We collected small shells on the beaches that we visited on our recent cruises. When we got back to the ship I would rinse the shells off and wrap them in tissue. When we packed to disembark I just made sure to put the shells in places that they wouldn't get squashed (inside of DH's shoes, in glasses or cups or even inside of the wooden boxes and bowls we bought in Belize and Honduras). This kept the shells in one piece until we got home!

 

DS (6) has started collecting key chains from the different ports.

[chipmaster]

What sorts of fun things do your kids like to buy when cruising?

 

Mine always pick up a plush sea critter of some sort. And, they are big fans of picking up shells. On our last cruise, to Europe, my DS took it even a step further and brought back a few European pebbles.

 

CeleBrat

 

Oh, the one thing we did bring back, actually came back in the mail. At each port our kids got a kick buying a postcard, writing a brief note back to ourselves, and dropping it in the local mailbox. Its was neat to read them and what was on their mind once we got home, the kids got a giggle too! Can't wait to flip them over and re-read them in a year or two, or ten!

[Lowie]

my kids love getting local currency. they want one of each coin and a few small denomination bills. we've gone into local banks, asked vendors at the straw markets and gotten change from purchases. otherwise they don't have a favorite thing.

[summercruisin']

Sand! My DS's bedroom is painted as if underwater. It is all blue (even on ceiling), and I painted dolphins, sharks, fish, a sea turtle, a coral cave with an octopus in it, etc. Then we hung fish mobiles. So, we collect sand wherever we go. We put it in an empty water bottle, bring it home, label it, and display it on a shelf in his room. It's cheap and interesting to see the different textures from different islands. When we cruised out of San Juan, we didn't have time to get sand early, so we asked the taxi driver to stop at a beach on the way back to the airport. We all waited in the car while DH jumped out, ran onto the beach, scooped up sand and ran back to the taxi. At least we have a funny story to share. :D

[Carla1968]

We have a pool so we pick up a towel from each place we visit.....great reminder of the rip and a great conversation piece. Never can have enough towels around a pool!

[CeleBrat]

Towels---oooohhh, that's a good one!

 

CeleBrat

[gelo7]

T-shirts and shells.