Creative ways to celebrate a birthday onboard

[Buddy Bear]

My step-daughter Catherine will be turning 13 on the upcoming Thanksgiving Day cruise. Actually that is why we are going on this cruise because she always wanted to celebrate her birthday onboard.

Outside of the obvious cake at the dinner table and stateroom amenities that are available what "creative" ideas have you folks come up to celebrate a birthday.

I know the Head Servers can be quite accommodating, but I am reaching out for ideas and chance for others to share their experiences.

 

[txaggie94gigem]

instead of presents all at once how about leaving a small gift each day on her pillow throughout the cruise....

a "treasure hunt" would be fun...maybe you could get fellow DISers to join the celebration and have little clues at various points on the ship until she finds the special something she is hunting!

 

[figment52]

We brought a big Happy Birthday banner/card for the cabin door and left a pen so others passing by during the day would sign the "card". We had messages in several languages from the crew over the coarse of the day.

 

[barkley]

you could also do a gift basket which could be held for delivery until the big day. you could also sneak on some bday decorations and ask your servers to decorate the table for dinner that night. it might also be fun to have a tshirt made up in advance with "it's my birthday on the disney cruise"-she could have the friends she makes on board sign it with a laundry marker as a great momento.

 

[noahsmom]

Last year the day we boarded was my dh's 40th. I made a t-shirt for him to wear, the front said Today is my birthday (in a disney type font) on the back it said "ask me how old I am". This got him a lot of unwanted attention but he played along. I also made up a bunch of magnetic signs and got them on the cabin door before he got to the cabin. I also ordered the birthday decorations from DCL, they were terrific! It was much easier to let DCL do the decorating then to try and do it myself. It was hard enough to get away long enough to do the door signs.

 

[ljql_5969]

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=831466

I thought the one poster in this thread went all out and really sounded like they had a nice party for their daughter.

Have fun!

 

[challada]

We were one of the lucky few to be at the princess birthday party that Joy threw on-board. It was honestly the best planned thing I've ever seen and all done ON BOARD! I'm a neurotic planner (heck, I've had a complete carnival for one kids birthday) but Joy really took the cake on this one!

Of course, this was for a bunch of 5 year olds, so I would say a 13 might not be as interested in doing a "princess party".

My suggestion would be:
1. Definitely check once onboard if you can have Animators for an afternoon...check w/your server too about getting food for that time (Joy got both hot food like hotdogs and cold stuff like Mickey bars)

2. Bring some simple games or crafts (ie foamie door hangers girls can decorate?)

3. Communicate w/other DIS families on the chat board ahead of time to have some ready guests