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Dear Cruisin' Susan,
I've been wanting to make some nifty stateroom door decorations for my cruise, but instead I've been staring at a blank page all morning. Please point me in the right direction!
— Staring at a Blank Page
Dear Staring,
I'm quite familiar with how intimidating a blank page can be. My best advice is: Don't start with a blank page! You don't need to reinvent the wheel. There is a whole "world wide web" of ideas out there at your fingertips.
See below for some categories, themes, and ideas that I have put together, as well as a list of links to the very best cabin door decorating ideas I have found on the internet. Look around and see what inspires you!
— Cruisin' Susan
Celebrations. Are you celebrating a birthday, anniversary, graduation, wedding, honeymoon, or reunion?
What time of year are you going? Your theme could be as simple as Spring, Summer, Winter, or Fall.
Are you cruising on or around a certain holiday time? Obvious examples are Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Christmas, Channukah, Kwanzaa, Easter, Passover and Independence Day.
One advantage to any of the themes listed above is that it will be very easy to find inexpensive theme-related materials at your local craft store. Some maybe less obvious, yet still fun, holiday ideas are President's Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Flag Day, Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Earth Day, May Day, and Cinco de Mayo.
Is this your first cruise? If so, “Our First Cruise,” makes a great theme. On my first cruise I made a sign that proudly declared, “Our First Cruise” and included the dates and a picture of each of our ports of call.
Which brings me to another theme idea — Ports of Call. You might make one sign detailing your cruise route and ports of call, or one sign for each port of call with other travel-themed decorations. Are you cruising to Hawaii or the Caribbean? Then you might choose general tropical, luau, beach, or desert island themes.
What are we doing today? Change your decorations each day to match your plans for the day, from bon voyage, all the way through ports, excursions, lounging by the pool, and “Til We Meet Again.”
Relaxation. Are you going on a cruise to get some much needed R&R? Make decorations that show you relaxing in a hammock, on a deck chair at the pool, or soaking up some sun at the beach.
Sports Teams and Events. Are you cruising around the time of a major sporting event, such as the Superbowl, World Series, Olympics, etc? Or are you a die hard fan of a certain team? Make your theme a sports to show your support. An advantage to this type of theme is that if you are a sports fan, you may have a lot of sports and team merchandise laying around that would make great decorations at no added cost.
Hometown or Occupation. Where are you from? What do you do? Show everyone your civic or job spirit!
Hobbies. We love our hobbies, so making decorations about them is extra fun and tells a lot about us.
On the world wide web you'll find online communities where people just like you discuss and share door decorating ideas and resources.
Ideas from CruiseCritic.com. Tons of ideas from themes to materials to designs, in a thread called Cabin Door Decor. More ideas in a thread called Fun Door Signs?.
Disney-inspired Designs from the DISboards. The very best resource for ideas and designs you can borrow is the thread titled Cruise Magnet graphics and links. This is also the place to find those Mickey ear graphics and hats to make your door number plaque look like a Mickey head. For dozens of design ideas using a Porthole, Lifebuoy, or Ship's Wheel theme, see the Port-Holes,Lifebuoys,cruise door magnets thread. What Does YOUR DCL magnetic door sign look like? With other great tips for your sign also has tons of great resources. The only drawback is that it started several years ago, so some of the graphics have since been removed from the Internet. It's is still worth looking through though.
WARNING! The links above contain so much information that it can be quite overwhelming! If you get dizzy, move away from your computer and take a walk around the block for fresh air...and then dive right back in!
Decoration theft is rare, but, sadly, it does happen. For this reason I suggest, whatever design you choose, to include a certain amount of personalized information, such as your cabin number, your last name and/or some sort of other custom information. The more personalized they are, hopefully, the less attractive they will appear to would be decoration thieves. I also suggest that once you are on board and your door is all set up, take a picture of it just in case.
Go On to Step 2 – Get Materials
Jump to Step 3 – Find Graphics
Jump to Step 4 – Put It Together
