Hi!
We just got back from 10 days at Nick Hotel! I thought I would share some things that may be helpful to those preparing for a trip.
POOLS
There are 2 pool areas. The larger pool is called the Lagoon. The large waterslides are here. They do not go into the pool. There is also putt putt, shuffleboard, and basketball. The other pool area is called the Oasis. It is smaller. It has 2 slides that go into the pool. It also has toddler area, and play area with sand. My kids, DS 11 and DD 9 loved both pools.
ROOMS
We had a 3 bedroom,2 bath, with a spongebob theme. My 82 year old DF had one king bed room and bath with a vanity area next to it. My Dh and I also had a king room with nice vanity area in the bedroom (with hair dryer!) The kids had bunkbeds. They are smaller than twin size. My DD9 (who is only 4 ft.) took the top. She was fine. But my DS 11 who is 5 ft. and 100 pounds had to put the mattress on the floor to sleep. Because of the curtain and no door the kids could hear things from the living room area. A white noise machine would have helped greatly. The king beds are HARD as a rock! Not comfy! Also, if you have a special pillow bring it with you! They give you alot of pillows but none are great.
FOOD
The food was all very good and I thought priced reasonably. There is room service for breakfast and dinner. We had to call for dinner menu. Same prices as in restaraunt. We did one character breakfast and ate at the dinner buffet a couple of times. Food was always good. Waitresses were fair(actually one was very bad!) to good. There is a seperate breakfast buffet area than the character one- We did not eat there. I think the price was $10 and kids 12 & under free. The character breakfast was $18 and kids free. I made resis before arriving. There is also Pizza Hut, A&W, And Sub and Salad place. All good. (except the chicken sandwich at A&W). Chicken strips were good. One note lunch is not served until 11am. (Only was an issue the first day we arrived since we had been up since 4am). There is also grill and drink area at Lagoon pool.
GAMES
We were not informed about being picked for the games at check in, so it took us awhile to realize the following about being on a team for the shows.
Sun- Thursday there are 2 slime shows in the studio at 6pm and 7:15. On Friday and Sat. there is also a 5pm show. The Who knows best show is 8:30 and 9:15. The slime shows have 2 teams each with 4 family members. The TEAM CAPTAIN of the winning team gets slimed! The TEAM CAPTAIN from other team can be pied or pie one adult on their team. (the teams must have one adult). To be on the teams for these shows you HAVE to be at the LAGOON pool between 3pm-4pm. Some days they signed up first come until they had all the families needed. (4-6 families per night for the slime show, and 4 couples, adult and child, for who knows best).
One time they had the kids one per family play hot potato to pick the families. (This was new years so extra shows) They needed 12 families. Of course my DD was the last to be called out- even though the music had stopped on the child prior to her. She was very upset.
We finally did get to be a team on the slime show later in the week. My DS was captain and he got slimed! They were very good at trying to also include my DD backstage while he cleaned up. They let her touch the slime. But later when she realized we had no more options to be in the show again she was upset.
Lesson: If you want in the show as team be at the Lagoon between 3-4pm and when you see the nick staff in green shirts GET OVER TO THEM!! to sign up.
POOL SIDE GAMES
At the lagoon pool there are games at 11:30 and 1:30. The kids alll gather in the pool and nick staff pick kids out of the pool to play. Depending on the games, a couple of kids get pied and up to 12 get slimed- but at the pool it is really green water dumped on them. My ds was chosen 4 times during the week to play and dd twice. Neither got pied or slimed at the pools.
At the Oasis pool there are games at 12:30 and 2:30. They may get pied but no slime at this pool.
What to do if child is not pied or slimed.. (If you have 2 kids you will understand..)
I guess I was under the impression before arriving that the kids would definatly be slimed and pied. NOT SO!!
However, the day before leaving I talked with a game manager and she arranged to have my dd pied (for free). DD was in the arcade and I told her the nick people were looking for her. She walked out and the nick staff made a big announcement that Katie had been there a week and he had not had a chance to get her messy! She was so happy!
They also offer a private sliming in the studio with game hosts(no games-Just make a big deal for the kid) for $175 per child!! I declined on this option!! This is not advertised- you have to schedule with game manager.
BUSES
It took me awhile to catch on to this. It worked ok to take the buses to the parks and sometimes on the way back to hotel. just note that the bus returning from Magic Kingdom takes 45- 50 minutes. It stops at all 4 parks.
You can use shuttle to get to one park and then use Disney transportation. I heard the bus driver at hotel tell one family to wait one hour for another shuttle to MK instead of going to epcot and then use monorail. Also, first trip to use shuttles so had to learn you stand in middle of bus parking lot at the assigned number.
Taxis
The taxis contracted to hotel are about $4-5 more than other taxis.
NICK PICTURES
I did not know about this- nothing was said at checkin. They have people taking pictures at various places- games, characters, pools etc. For $50 you can buy the CD which holds up to 250 pictures! So try to get alot of pictures so you can get your moneys worth! They did not take many pictures of my kids but they did take pictures of the sliming of ds which were great! If I had realized I would have talked to them when I saw them out taking pictures. By the way, One picture cost $25.
Miscellaneous
Rooms were quiet! Not alot of hotel noise. We were on the 3rd floor facing slides at lagoon pool and the putt putt area. I would think some of the first floor rooms could be noisy. They had offered us a room first floor by the basketball courts. I was afraid it would be noisy.
Alot of smoking, including cigars, all over the place -even at pool entrances- ugh! (sorry smokers!)
Laundry great! $1.50 for washer and $1 for dryer which dried in one cycle!!
The shampoo is fair- I would bring my own- esp. if u like conditioner.
Let me know if any questions. I will try to post pictures.
Jama
We just got back from 10 days at Nick Hotel! I thought I would share some things that may be helpful to those preparing for a trip.
POOLS
There are 2 pool areas. The larger pool is called the Lagoon. The large waterslides are here. They do not go into the pool. There is also putt putt, shuffleboard, and basketball. The other pool area is called the Oasis. It is smaller. It has 2 slides that go into the pool. It also has toddler area, and play area with sand. My kids, DS 11 and DD 9 loved both pools.
ROOMS
We had a 3 bedroom,2 bath, with a spongebob theme. My 82 year old DF had one king bed room and bath with a vanity area next to it. My Dh and I also had a king room with nice vanity area in the bedroom (with hair dryer!) The kids had bunkbeds. They are smaller than twin size. My DD9 (who is only 4 ft.) took the top. She was fine. But my DS 11 who is 5 ft. and 100 pounds had to put the mattress on the floor to sleep. Because of the curtain and no door the kids could hear things from the living room area. A white noise machine would have helped greatly. The king beds are HARD as a rock! Not comfy! Also, if you have a special pillow bring it with you! They give you alot of pillows but none are great.
FOOD
The food was all very good and I thought priced reasonably. There is room service for breakfast and dinner. We had to call for dinner menu. Same prices as in restaraunt. We did one character breakfast and ate at the dinner buffet a couple of times. Food was always good. Waitresses were fair(actually one was very bad!) to good. There is a seperate breakfast buffet area than the character one- We did not eat there. I think the price was $10 and kids 12 & under free. The character breakfast was $18 and kids free. I made resis before arriving. There is also Pizza Hut, A&W, And Sub and Salad place. All good. (except the chicken sandwich at A&W). Chicken strips were good. One note lunch is not served until 11am. (Only was an issue the first day we arrived since we had been up since 4am). There is also grill and drink area at Lagoon pool.
GAMES
We were not informed about being picked for the games at check in, so it took us awhile to realize the following about being on a team for the shows.
Sun- Thursday there are 2 slime shows in the studio at 6pm and 7:15. On Friday and Sat. there is also a 5pm show. The Who knows best show is 8:30 and 9:15. The slime shows have 2 teams each with 4 family members. The TEAM CAPTAIN of the winning team gets slimed! The TEAM CAPTAIN from other team can be pied or pie one adult on their team. (the teams must have one adult). To be on the teams for these shows you HAVE to be at the LAGOON pool between 3pm-4pm. Some days they signed up first come until they had all the families needed. (4-6 families per night for the slime show, and 4 couples, adult and child, for who knows best).
One time they had the kids one per family play hot potato to pick the families. (This was new years so extra shows) They needed 12 families. Of course my DD was the last to be called out- even though the music had stopped on the child prior to her. She was very upset.
We finally did get to be a team on the slime show later in the week. My DS was captain and he got slimed! They were very good at trying to also include my DD backstage while he cleaned up. They let her touch the slime. But later when she realized we had no more options to be in the show again she was upset.
Lesson: If you want in the show as team be at the Lagoon between 3-4pm and when you see the nick staff in green shirts GET OVER TO THEM!! to sign up.
POOL SIDE GAMES
At the lagoon pool there are games at 11:30 and 1:30. The kids alll gather in the pool and nick staff pick kids out of the pool to play. Depending on the games, a couple of kids get pied and up to 12 get slimed- but at the pool it is really green water dumped on them. My ds was chosen 4 times during the week to play and dd twice. Neither got pied or slimed at the pools.
At the Oasis pool there are games at 12:30 and 2:30. They may get pied but no slime at this pool.
What to do if child is not pied or slimed.. (If you have 2 kids you will understand..)
I guess I was under the impression before arriving that the kids would definatly be slimed and pied. NOT SO!!
However, the day before leaving I talked with a game manager and she arranged to have my dd pied (for free). DD was in the arcade and I told her the nick people were looking for her. She walked out and the nick staff made a big announcement that Katie had been there a week and he had not had a chance to get her messy! She was so happy!
They also offer a private sliming in the studio with game hosts(no games-Just make a big deal for the kid) for $175 per child!! I declined on this option!! This is not advertised- you have to schedule with game manager.
BUSES
It took me awhile to catch on to this. It worked ok to take the buses to the parks and sometimes on the way back to hotel. just note that the bus returning from Magic Kingdom takes 45- 50 minutes. It stops at all 4 parks.
You can use shuttle to get to one park and then use Disney transportation. I heard the bus driver at hotel tell one family to wait one hour for another shuttle to MK instead of going to epcot and then use monorail. Also, first trip to use shuttles so had to learn you stand in middle of bus parking lot at the assigned number.
Taxis
The taxis contracted to hotel are about $4-5 more than other taxis.
NICK PICTURES
I did not know about this- nothing was said at checkin. They have people taking pictures at various places- games, characters, pools etc. For $50 you can buy the CD which holds up to 250 pictures! So try to get alot of pictures so you can get your moneys worth! They did not take many pictures of my kids but they did take pictures of the sliming of ds which were great! If I had realized I would have talked to them when I saw them out taking pictures. By the way, One picture cost $25.
Miscellaneous
Rooms were quiet! Not alot of hotel noise. We were on the 3rd floor facing slides at lagoon pool and the putt putt area. I would think some of the first floor rooms could be noisy. They had offered us a room first floor by the basketball courts. I was afraid it would be noisy.
Alot of smoking, including cigars, all over the place -even at pool entrances- ugh! (sorry smokers!)
Laundry great! $1.50 for washer and $1 for dryer which dried in one cycle!!
The shampoo is fair- I would bring my own- esp. if u like conditioner.
Let me know if any questions. I will try to post pictures.
Jama
