Disney Cruise Line in a Jiffy: What are Fish Extenders?

Spend any time researching Disney cruises on social media and you’ll almost certainly encounter someone mentioning their “fish extender.” To the uninitiated, this term can be baffling. To parse the phrase you have to know that mounted beside every DCL stateroom door is a small metal sculpture; on the Magic, Wonder, Dream, and Fantasy, these sculptures are shaped like either a fish or a sea horse. They’re cute, but they’re not just for decoration: set away from the wall by a few millimeters, they function as tiny shelves to hold notes from ship staff. For example, you’ll find your Key to the WorldCard here on embarkation day.

A fish extender is a vertical strip of fabric with pockets (think a portable shoe rack) that you can hang from your fish (or sea horse) to extend its functionality. You can make your own extender or buy one from a site such as Etsy. Some cruisers use their fish extenders to participate in Secret Santa–style gift exchanges arranged online before their trip.

Most DCL cruises have a fan-made Facebook group specific to that sailing. Scan the feed in your sailing’s group and you’ll see notes asking if you want to participate in a fish extender exchange. The rules are slightly different for each group, but in general participants agree to leave small daily surprised in each other’s extenders. I don’t recommend this activity for first-time cruisers. If you’ve never been on a cruise before, futzing with your fish and worrying about the quality or timing of your gifts is a lot to keep track of when you should be exploring the ship or relaxing.

Some corresponding sculpture shelves on the Wish are shaped like nautilus shells, but others are shaped like items that are decidedly not sea life: Cinderella’s royal carriage, an owl, a sun, or a crown. Despite this confounding development, guests on DCL’s newest ship still seem to be referring to the shelves as fish extenders. No word yet on what the door-side decor will be on the Disney Treasure and the other upcoming ships, but “fish extender” seems to be the term that has sticking power.

Disney Cruise Line in a Jiffy is an offshoot of our “Disney in a Minute” posts. Both are bite-sized nuggets of information that can better help you understand a Disney term or planning topic, but here we’ll be focused on all things Disney Cruise Line (DCL). Have a question about a DCL term that is unfamiliar to you? Suggest it here for an upcoming segment.