Well, DH and DD ( age 2) and I just returned home from the Nick and I wanted to share our experience. I was worried after reading so many bad reviews ( both here and on other sites) but I must say I was pleasantly surprised.
The hotel is loud, but I expected that since it is a 700 + room hotel centered around two large water-park areas. There is no way that place could be calm or quiet- especially not in June. When we closed our hotel door, however, I felt that most of the noise was blocked out well. We did request a room away from the pools but did not recieve it. I don't know why, but we didn't push the issue once we realized the noise wasn't bad. Our 2 year old slept without any trouble at all. No small feat for a normally light-sleeping toddler.
As for the food court, I thought that while it was a little overpriced ( but what isn't when you are on vacation) it was good. They had a wide variety of options, and we ended up eating there for many of our meals. Mostly because of the convinience of having the food court so close, not because we just loved the food, but it was a big perk to have the food court there. We don't know the Orlando area well, so navigating our rental car out to find food wasn't as appealing to us as eating a quick meal on the run. Specifically, the charecter breakfast was GREAT. Good food, and great character interaction. The regular buffet we only used during breakfast, and it was quite good for a hotel buffet.
Check-in took some time. I would recommend people wait to check in until 5, as the lines from 3 to 4:30 were insane. But the staff tried to keep kids entertained while parents checked in, so that was nice. The staff on the whole was VERY friendly, and helpful. We had some trouble with internet connection, and the computer guy was there to assist us quickly.
The cleanliness issue some found ( ants and such) was not an issue in our room at all. It was very clean, and really nice. We had a two bedroom kid suite, with a king size bed and bunks in the kids room. The room was spacious and very cute.
On the whole, I was very pleased with the Nick. The price was high, but it was well worth it ( to us) to pay a higher price for a separate bedroom for DD and the convinience of food on-site. BEcause DD is young, we didn't take part in some of the other amenties the hotel offers ( like a Cyber- Game area and arcade, Pool-side games, etc) but we enjoyed watching other kids play. They were all enjoying themselves, as were we!
Please ask questions if you have them. I'd love to be able to "give back" to this board that helped us plan our best vacation ever!!
Jenny O.
The hotel is loud, but I expected that since it is a 700 + room hotel centered around two large water-park areas. There is no way that place could be calm or quiet- especially not in June. When we closed our hotel door, however, I felt that most of the noise was blocked out well. We did request a room away from the pools but did not recieve it. I don't know why, but we didn't push the issue once we realized the noise wasn't bad. Our 2 year old slept without any trouble at all. No small feat for a normally light-sleeping toddler.
As for the food court, I thought that while it was a little overpriced ( but what isn't when you are on vacation) it was good. They had a wide variety of options, and we ended up eating there for many of our meals. Mostly because of the convinience of having the food court so close, not because we just loved the food, but it was a big perk to have the food court there. We don't know the Orlando area well, so navigating our rental car out to find food wasn't as appealing to us as eating a quick meal on the run. Specifically, the charecter breakfast was GREAT. Good food, and great character interaction. The regular buffet we only used during breakfast, and it was quite good for a hotel buffet.
Check-in took some time. I would recommend people wait to check in until 5, as the lines from 3 to 4:30 were insane. But the staff tried to keep kids entertained while parents checked in, so that was nice. The staff on the whole was VERY friendly, and helpful. We had some trouble with internet connection, and the computer guy was there to assist us quickly.
The cleanliness issue some found ( ants and such) was not an issue in our room at all. It was very clean, and really nice. We had a two bedroom kid suite, with a king size bed and bunks in the kids room. The room was spacious and very cute.
On the whole, I was very pleased with the Nick. The price was high, but it was well worth it ( to us) to pay a higher price for a separate bedroom for DD and the convinience of food on-site. BEcause DD is young, we didn't take part in some of the other amenties the hotel offers ( like a Cyber- Game area and arcade, Pool-side games, etc) but we enjoyed watching other kids play. They were all enjoying themselves, as were we!
Please ask questions if you have them. I'd love to be able to "give back" to this board that helped us plan our best vacation ever!!
Jenny O.
