Cruise Ship Party

Our party idea was to have the girls go on a cruise ship for the night.  This was for my daughter's 6th birthday.  We actually had someone build a plank that went up to our front porch (using plywood and a few 2x4s and rope that made the railing).  On the front of the door we had placed a plastic life preserver we got at a party store with a sign that said the Sea Princess.  The girls had to check in at a desk in the front hall where they received a little memory book (they were little books about 3"x3" that we spiraled bound with blank pages).  We had an Izone camera that takes the little pictures instantly and we took pictures of the girls doing various things on the "cruise" and placed them in the little photograph books.  We had the party in the basement and we had decorated with blue and green crepe paper and covered the basement windows with blue butcher paper and taped tropical fish on the paper-so it looked like they were looking out of a ship into the ocean.  We did a mystery--where we said jewels had been stolen from some of the passengers on the ship---the clues led them to goody bags filled with jewels.  Also, we had a fashion show--part of their party favor were dresses we had made by a lady on the internet--they were really nice and not that expensive.  Of course we had to know who was coming and what size they needed.  The internet site was Snippets.com.  My older daughter and her friend did makeovers on the girls as well.  We had pizza because kids don't eat anything too well at that age--but we decorated the table and we had champagne glasses with "sparkling wine"!  And of course the cake had a cruise theme.  For another game we had bought blow up innertubes and did a variation on musical chairs.  Then to settle them down at night because it was an overnight cruise we put in the Mary Kate and Ashley movie where they're on a cruise.  The name of it escapes me but I'm sure you could find it easily.  Anyway--the girls had a wonderful time--they said it was the best birthday party they had ever been to.  My older daughter and her friend helped and I had quite a few people ask them for help with their daughters' birthday parties!