Fall Break

October 13, 2007

Seldom as a mom do I find a place that is 100 % Kid friendly.  Even Disney is not always catering to your kids.  I have been on both sides of the track.  For the first 10 1/2 years of our marriage we were child free (not by choice) so we visited places like Disney without kids and I can say that at times we forgot we were kid central.  However, the Nick Hotel is really there for kids and all of us parents know it!  If someone else’s kid is having a melt down because they are over tired or hungry you don’t see other parents looking irritated or staff members rolling there eyes.  Its more like looks of sympathy along with “on, thank God my kid is behaving”.  Everything there is all about the kids visiting.  There are even signs posted stating “For the health and safety of our children smoking is limited to designated areas”.  I think it is great wording and makes a parent feel like the company is very concerned about the kids.   And the smoking area is only one place, that is outside and closed in.

In most resorts the restaurants and bars are there for the adults.  Here the restaurants allow the kids to eat free and have food that kids like.  Hot dogs, hamburgers ect.  They all so have great drinks for the kids at the “bar”.  The kids can get a drink of the day’ here is what they offered each day:  Splatoliciouse Strawberry (Strawberry and Vanilla ice cream,,quite tasty), Slime Smoothie (blend of slime and ice cream), Going Bananas (banana flavoring and strawberry).  I am going to try making the Slime Smoothie on Halloween for the kids.  Should be fun.

Other activities that happen at the hotel are also kid friendly.  We saw Dora’s Sing Along.  Nothing like taking your Dora addicted 4 year old to a Dora adventure live at Studio Nick.  We also went to the nightly show “Nick Live Family Style Goes Wild”.  Here two families compete in physical challenges.  They use kids in the audience to help (my 5 year really wanted to be picked, but he just doesnt know how to attract attention to himself yet, maybe next year).  The grand prize is for one of the kids to get SLIMED the team that comes in second gets hit with a pie after the audience yells “Make the Pie Fly”.  All of the shows are free, you just have to make a reservation.

The biggest attraction to the hotel and what my kids enjoyed the most are the pools.  There are two and they are basically water parks.  We played at the Lagoon Pool because it has a very large shallow area.  There are water slides and all kids of neat water things.  At the top of the slide is a huge bucket that fills up and dumps water on the “sliders” about every 10 minutes or so.  Oh, and here is a neat thing about that water bucket.  Every day at 4:45 it fills with green slime and all the kids pile on to the slide to get SLIMED!  At 3 pm they have poolside games that result in “Pies Flying” and someone getting slimed with the SLIMEALTOR.  The Oasis pool also has water slides but is not a big as the Lagoon pool.  This year our kids didn’t have swimmies or safety suits with them so we stayed in the shallow areas.  Our daughter learned out to do a somersault under water.  She was quite proud of herself and did many flips and started trying to do them backwards.  Both kids have got “dog paddling down”.  I am amazed at how both can already go under water without holding there nose and our daughter even keeps her eyes open under water.  Even with that though we kept them were they could touch bottom with there heads out of the water.  Our daughter loved the water slides and even got on the “big one” that is dark most of the way down.  Our son is a little more timid about things and it took him awhile to try it but then he loved it.  The pool has about 7 life guards at any given time between the water slides and stations on the pool and just around the area.

The Hotel also provides other neat activities for kids.  They have a craft room were different art activities are offered.  These have a cost attached to them, but it is only for the supplies.  Since it is October twice a week the hotel has Trick or Treating.  If you forgot your kids costume that is ok, they have costumes from the “Nick Studio’s” you can barrow for trick or treating (we didn’t do this though because we wanted to spend the time at the pool).  The most expensive thing there is the Character Breakfast.  We did do this as our “big treat”  for the kids.  They were able to meet Sponge Bob, Patrick, Dora, Diego and Little Bill all while we ate our bacon and eggs (and the food really is good).  Because of the time of year it is the Hotel is not crowded at all.  So at things like the Character breakfast the characters spend a good bit of time with each child.  Unlike our Disney experiences were they rush you through because they have so many children to see in a limited time.  I do think though that it has a lot to do with the fact that it is October and very much the off season.

Also this visit to Orlando we went to Universal Studio’s and Island of Adventures.  Again with it being the off season we moved through each park quickly.  The longest we had to wait was about 15 min for the Shrek 4D show.  Which was a big mistake.  The show was great, however, there is one part that you should never take a timid 5 year old to.  Not giving away any secretes but it had to do with spiders.  Poor guy started screaming,  I felt horrible, especially since we couldn’t get out.   Our 4 year old loved it though.  Our little girl also loves the roller coasters.  Her breakdown came when we told her she could not get on the “Incredible Hulk Roller Coaster”  she is only 4 and barley 41 1/2 inches and you have to be 54 inches to ride.  It is a cool coaster though and I can’t wait until she is big enough to ride it,,,,I will be right there next to her

It was a great trip but we are glad to be back home.  Now I have all the unpacking to do and lots of clothes to wash.  Plus we now are getting ready for Halloween around here.  Today it is off to find the perfect pumpkin and start looking for neat ways to carve it.  Back to normal!  However, next October, we will be back in Orlando for another Fall Break at the Nick Hotel!  I think we will have many years there before the kids outgrow the SLIME!