Nick hotel trip review

[srdipert]

Our Nickelodeon hotel trip review:

Well to start things out overall we had a wonderful time. This was our third visit to Disney this year so we were looking to spend more time at the hotel and just visit the parks occasionally with our season passes. I have to say that if you plan on spending all day at the parks…the nick hotel may not be worth the cost.

Check in was horrible and from the reviews I read after the fact this happens often. We got there at 5 pm check in was supposed to be 4 pm. People are lined up and gathered all around the lobby…I thought this was strange but I would soon find out why! I get up the deck to find out that there computers have been down all day and no one is getting a room. The lady said she didn’t know if it would be 2 hours or 6 hours before we got a room and I guess we were just supposed to hang out and wait with a 3 month baby and 4 year old?? So we gave them our cell phone number and asked for a manager to call us ASAP because if it was going to be too long we needed to make other arrangements for the night because the baby was sleepy. Our original plans were to get settled in the hotel and I was going to put baby to bed and relax in the room while dh and ds1 went back to magic kingdom…well that plan was totally shot! A manager never called us and after several inquires at the front desk we as well an many many others were still hanging out waiting for a room at 9pm. My dh finally had enough and went to the front desk and demanded to see a manager right then. We finally get a room at 9:30 some people were still waiting until after midnight. Now I understand things happen and computers go down but it has obliviously happened before so you would think they would have a back up plan by now?

Overall I have to admit the hotel is a lot of fun for kids!! The pool is great with water slides that don’t go into deep water so it is good for even small kids. They have lots of games by the pool, mini golf, and crafts (although you have to pay 4$ to do the craft which with the price of the hotel I think should be free!). The mall area is nice with arcade games, a balloon making guy, face painting, a store, and different foods places. The nick at night was fun although my 5 year old was disappointed to not be picked.

We ate breakfast one morning at the buffet it is 10 for adults and free for kids and it was really gross. Even for the price I would not eat there again. We didn’t try the dinner after the bad experience with the breakfast. The pizza hut and A&W were good and good deals! The character breakfast was okay and the only time we got to see any of the characters so I guess it was worth the cost.

The rooms were nice…I liked the 2 bedroom suite. We had a living room kitchen area with a microwave, frig, and sink which was nice for having snacks and food for the kids to eat at the hotel. Then we had a king bedroom and bunk bedroom for the kids and they brought us a crib for the baby. Tvs in all three rooms which I thought was nice for winding down at night. The bathrooms were nice with great shower water pressure that you don’t normally get at hotels. We had a view of the lagoon pool which is the larger pool.

Some people have complained of the noise. There is a lot of noise but I find it expected of a kids hotel and this is definitely a KIDS hotel. It is not a place to go as adults to rest. Although I could hear the music and kids from my room…I didn’t have any problem napping everyday with our baby. The walls are thin and you can hear doors slamming and toilets flushing at all times of the day. So if you are sensitive to noise this may not be the hotel for you. But with kids most of us have probably learned to sleep through anything! 

I think the hotel could use a little better management to deal with problems as they arise but overall we had a great time and a lot of fun! If your kids are like mine they will flip over the bright colors, loud music and, abundance of excitement! The good thing is after they run the up the stairs for the water slide all day they are out like a light by 8pm! 

Any questions I will be glad to answer them!

Sonya

 

[dpratt68]

Did they compensate you in any way for the delay in getting your room?

 

[pershing]

I was counting on that buffet to lower costs in general. Could you expound on what you thought was gross? Was it unsanitary, undercooked, overcooked, spilled out everywhere, not properly maintained, etc.?

How was the drive to WDW? I thought I saw the Nick Hotel across the street from the Downtown Disney Hotels when last we were there. Is that accurate?
Do you drive to each park ie: EPCOT, MK and park or do you park at the TTC?

We've never stayed off-site before, so this is a first for us.

 

[srdipert]

They did give us half credit for the first night but I think only because my dh demanded it. He wanted the whole night for free but he comprimised at half. I think others that didn't ask for it didn't get anything.

The food at the buffet just wasn't cooked very well. Like the eggs were watery and the bacon was either raw or burnt. We mostly ate cereal and pastrys which we could have done in the room. You might want to consider just bringing some food to eat in the room for breakfast that is what we did for the rest of the week.

The hotel is close to downtown disney and on rd 536 which goes to around to the exits for the parks so it didn't take long to get to all of them. We have never stayed offsite before either but it really wasn't a problem. Sometimes I thought it was better because we could go offsite to eat and then go to the parks. We parked at each of the parks. You will have to pay for parking unless you have an annual pass and then we didn't have to pay for parking which was nice. Also if you pay to park at one place it is good for all of them for the day.

 

[ahagen]

We also recently returned. Our experience was similar to srdipert. However, our check in was very smooth. Great actually. We got there about 6 p.m. and there was no line at all. Squidward (not sure if spelling that right) was there and had great interactions with my kids. They heard my husband say my DD loves Sponge Bob and upgraded us to a SpongeBob room for free. Our room overlooked the pool (Oasis) and we didn't pay extra for that either.

Our experience with the buffet was great. We ate dinner one night and all of us (me, DH, DD13, DD10, DD9) were very impressed with everything except the desserts (not too good.) DD10 and DD9 were free and the waitress (who was great) gave us a huge discount for DD13. We never did the breakfast buffet - we just ate in our room. We did that for both breakfast and lunch. There is a Walmart about 5 minutes away and I went there the first day to get breakfast/lunch food. The refrigerator was plenty big enough for a few days worth.

We had a great time. We stayed for two (and a half) days and I thought that was just right. We never left the hotel (except for Walmart stop.) There was plenty to do. My kids loved the shows. We sure to sign up early -we signed up the night before. The mall area was not very busy during the day but it is a zoo at night. There were characters there (SpongeBob, Patrick, Cosmos, and Dora were the ones were saw) in the early afternoons. We got some great pictures and, consequently, didn't do the character breakfast.

Later in the afternoon and in the evening, there are people doing face painting and balloon animals (as well as name paintings) in one end of the mall area by the studios. We did the face painting ($1-$3) but not the balloon animals which were pretty expensive (but very cute.) The arcade was very manageable during the day but at night you could barely move.

Let me know if I can answer any specific questions.