Guest Review of the Nickelodeon Hotel by The Morgan Family

Visited: March 2007

The Morgan Family, visited March 2007

From the Morgan Family: I was really skeptical after reading the reviews on here, but it was amazing. The hotel was nice with a friendly, family atmosphere. The rooms and hotel were better than shown on the television and we enjoyed every minute of it.

My son had the SpongeBob suite with bunk beds and we had the king size bed in our suite. Though the rooms don't come with DVD players, the living room has a wall-mounted flat screen and the PS2 in the kids room can be used as a DVD player. The maid staff was meticulous EXCEPT we came back one day to find she hadn't closed our door all the way while we were gone 12 hours to Universal Studios! Nothing was taken, but we were perturbed, to say the least.

The only mistake we made was staying at the small oasis pool since it was near our pool. On the 4th day we ventured to the Lagoon pool and spent the whole day. So much for needing other amusement parks -- that is one in itself! Body slides, basketball, a poolside pool table, miniature golf, shooters in the water for the kids to spray, and even a "deep-end" for the adults. There were TONS of lifeguards and this pool never closed. The oasis on the other hand, would close if a bird or duck flew into the pool or simply because the lifeguards felt like it.

Everything was handicapped accessible (my husband is disabled) and the "Mall" has everything you can need.

The only thing I feel the others may have complained about in terms of food is that maybe they were looking for sit-down type meals. We ate the $9.95 (adult) buffet for breakfast daily (mix your choices up daily for variety - they had french toast, pancakes, eggs, sausage, biscuits, a fruit bar, cottage cheese, bagels, other pastries and muffins, gravy for biscuits, cereal, grits, and oatmeal, plus juices, coffee, milk - 2%, Non-fat, chocolate, and whole) then you are at the parks for the daytime. If not, then they have A&W for hamburgers, chicken sandwiches and chicken strips. They also have Pizza Hut where a personal pizza, 3 breadsticks, and a drink was only $6. Also, a Subway for the health conscious. The kid's pack there quickly became my child's favorite - and you can get apples, raisins, or a cookie instead of the chips.

Now, the Nicktoons Cafe was high priced. A hamburger and fries was no less than $11.95 (depending on the type of burger). Their buffet was $18.95 for each adult. Kids only eat free if under 5 and it is at the Buffet in the morning, at the Nicktoons for lunch and dinner. It wasn't worth it except for breakfast. The characters walk around the hotel for photo ops so often that you don't really need the character breakfast.

If you have a car you can drive somewhere to eat. If you fly in like us with no car depending solely on the shuttle, then just make the best of the food. It tastes good - but we enjoy fast food often. They have a store for your sundries and items you may have forgotten - but it is expensive. One sleeve of crackers for an upset tummy was $3.99. However, they have sodas, water, and other snacks to take to the room.

The shuttles ran 4 times in the morning but the only options in the evening -- depending on when the park closed -- was 4:30 or 7:15pm. If the park was open till 8pm then there was a shuttle at 9:05. If you ever want to return to the hotel before those times, you are SOL and must rely on a taxi. This was to Universal Studios, but was very similar to Disney's schedule.

Also, the whole shuttle ride you are made to feel like you HAVE to tip them. There are signs plastered and they even announce it (depending on the driver). If you don't go through a vacation timeshare like we did, then your room is already going to be automatically charged a $20 fee on top of your room fee for shuttle transportation DAILY. Why tip in addition to the $20? Since we didn't pay this, I couldn't complain, but others did.

Oh -- and make sure you get to the shuttle stops early, if they fill the bus, they will leave you standing in the middle aisle the entire way back to the hotel. If it is too full, you have to take a taxi and STILL that $20 is charged daily. Luckily we were there early, but watched others be turned away.

Checkin took about 25 mins and this was the first day of Spring Break. I stood behind 9 people, but they had 4 working the counter and it went relatively quickly. As you stand in line, they have a room with bean bag chairs for the kids to sit and watch SpongeBob on the wall-mounted flat screen. Checkout will hopefully be available to you on the TV. It says it is, but after clicking through, it always said the computer was having problems and couldn't connect. In-room movies are $9.95/each and are the ones you can rent at the local Blockbuster - nothing that hasn't come out yet.

Get reservations for the Studio Nick show. It is a live Nick show and is a lot of fun. It is free, too, but they require reservations (at guest services in the mall) to ensure that they can accommodate at each time slot. If you are a family of 4 you are in luck! You can enter your "unique team name" to be chosen as the family who gets to be one of two teams in the live show. There are different show times so there can be more than just the 2 teams daily. I believe it was 6 teams per day.

Overall, we had a blast and are already planning to return next Spring Break. By the way, they give a 25% off coupon for your next stay on the back of your hotel card sleeve. Not sure if they hike the rate up for that first, but I guess we'll find out. We plan to stay another week next year and maybe venture to Sea World 1 day. The rest of the time will be at the hotel. We had a blast!

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