For my son's 5th Birthday we decided to celebrate at Port of Lost Wonder (POLW) in Sentosa. The actual decision to host the party at POLW was not mine though — it was my son’s!
You see, in February last year we attended his friend's party at POLW (which was super fun) and ever since then, my son had been constantly hinting that he wanted the exact same party for his next birthday.
Well, you know a party venue must be good when your kid keeps talking about it non-stop for an entire year! So of course when it was time for his birthday he just had to have a POLW party too!
Let me share with you our party details…
Needless to say, choosing a birthday venue this year for me was easy – I knew his party just had to be at POLW. POLW is currently one of the most sought-after party venues in Singapore.
In order to reserve a weekend party, you need to make a booking months in advance. Lucky for us after being on the wait-list, a morning slot opened up.
A Pirate Themed Party
Our party had 30 kids on the guest list and was held on a Sunday morning. There were 3 different party themes to choose from – “Pirates,” “Princess” and “Aloha.”
Since the main attraction at POLW is the pirate-themed water play area, naturally my son and I chose the “Pirates” theme.
In order to give the party that pirate feel, we used a combination of decorations provided by POLW and my own themed decorations to spruce up the room.
Celebration Island
One of the biggest concerns for any party host when throwing an outdoor party like this one is the weather!
Now, normally this would have caused me to lose many nights’ sleep, especially in Singapore where the weather in March is so unpredictable. However, I knew that even if it did rain, the kids would still be able to enjoy themselves on Celebration Island.
Celebration Island is the special tented area on POLW that is reserved for parties and events. It includes built-in electric ceiling fans, lighting, and pull-down plastic covers in case of heavy rain.
An added bonus is that Celebration Island is quite large in size! It is probably double the size, if not more, than most of the other popular kid’s party venues. Thus, even if it did rain, kids and parents could all fit inside without feeling cramped.
Fortunately for us, it was a beautiful sunny day — with not a cloud in sight — a perfect day to spend splashing around in water and getting wet.
Birthday Party Activities
On the day of the party, the guests arrived through the special Secret Entrance using the password “shipwrecked.”
After passing through the Entrance, they were whisked over to the pirate ship water play area to swim, jump, slide, soak and splash to their heart’s content. Meanwhile, the kids who did not want to get wet were able to hang out and play in the covered sand pit.
Party Food & Games
Once the kids had worked up an appetite, we all returned to Celebration Island for lunch, cake-cutting and games. This was all arranged beforehand, so everything was perfectly laid out and waiting for the kids after they had finished splashing around and playing with sand.
By far, POLW has the best party food compared to all the other kid’s birthday party venues that I have ever been to — it not only looks good, but tastes great as well! Many of the parents even told me how impressed they were with the food selection.
Since we availed of the “premium” party package, there was an abundance of food. We had pizza, spaghetti, chicken nuggets, burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, chocolate fondue with marshmallows, fruit skewers, cupcakes, ice-cream, and a few more kids’ favourites.
The party package also included a party host and pre-organized games. In my opinion, games are not even necessary for this type of party, since there is already so much built-in entertainment for the kids.
But, since I was given a list of games to choose from, we decided to keep it simple with a game of “freeze dance” and had the kids take turns swinging at a pirate piñata that I had made myself.
The Bubble Party
One of the benefits of getting the premium party package (aside from all of the yummy food) is that you also get 1 hour of exclusive use of the bubble pool. Thus, after spending about 20 minutes playing games, we all headed over to the pool to have some more fun.
The bubble party is a massive plastic pool filled with foamy bubbles! The kids absolutely loved it and even some parents jumped in!
Goodbyes & Goodies
Alas, all good things must come to an end. After 3 hours, the kids had finished their pirate adventure, were stuffed full of food and cake, and now were ready to take their treasure bag of goodies home.
Both the kids and parents had an awesome time and I’m sure there will be many more POLW parties in the years to come.
This was by far one of the best parties I have ever hosted. I was happy that the staff was so attentive to the needs of my party guests, which made the party stress-free for me. I highly recommend throwing a party at POLW, or at least checking it out if you haven’t already done so.
Good luck and happy party planning!
Written by Neetu M (a.k.a SuperMommy)