Parents - How did kids cope without Nickelodeon features?

[BKNYChick]

Boarding the Getaway in 2 days -- can't wait!!!!!!

 

Have a 14 and 11 year old and part of the NCL choice this time around (as RCCL has been the norm for the family) was partly because of the Nickelodeon characters (both of them go hard for Spongebob!)

 

Since the two companies have parted ways -- I was wondering if any parents on recent NCL cruises can share how NCL has compensated for the missing Dora, Diego, Patrick, and other character sightings on the ship...

[newmexicoNita]

Boarding the Getaway in 2 days -- can't wait!!!!!!

 

Have a 14 and 11 year old and part of the NCL choice this time around (as RCCL has been the norm for the family) was partly because of the Nickelodeon characters (both of them go hard for Spongebob!)

 

Since the two companies have parted ways -- I was wondering if any parents on recent NCL cruises can share how NCL has compensated for the missing Dora, Diego, Patrick, and other character sightings on the ship...

 

all I can say is: our great granddaughter has cruised on NCL three times, all without Nickelodeon and had a wonderful time.

[LrgPizza]

I can't answer your question directly, but after sailing Getaway and Epic when they did have the Nick characters, my son (who was 11) didn't notice they were even there, or that there was any "theming" until we mentioned it AFTER the cruise. And he was a huge Spongebob fan at the time. Ha! The Nick involvement/influence was negligible at best. On our upcoming cruise, he won't notice it missing or even think about it, because at 13, he is way too old to get excited if he happens to run into a person wearing a costume (which didn't even happen on the other 2 cruises.)

[bre]

We sailed the Getaway on April 3. There are no character sightings or anything special like that for kids. They do have awesome slides and rope courses though. But lacked a place for kids to swim. They have a wading area for babies and then a tiny 3 ft pool for kids. The main pool was for adults only, which my kids thought stunk. No adults were really ever in it. Just dangling their feet. Total waste of a good pool.

[mjkacmom]

We sailed the Getaway on April 3. There are no character sightings or anything special like that for kids. They do have awesome slides and rope courses though. But lacked a place for kids to swim. They have a wading area for babies and then a tiny 3 ft pool for kids. The main pool was for adults only, which my kids thought stunk. No adults were really ever in it. Just dangling their feet. Total waste of a good pool.

 

Huh? There is a deep kids pool between the slides and the splash area.

[bre]

Ok...A tiny pool. With the partition makes it about 10 x10 4 ft deep. Not very fun for 11-16 year olds.

[packer99]

My 11 year old could have cared less about any sort of cartoon character on the ship. He loves the ropes course, arcade, mini golf, water slides etc on the Escape.

[mjkacmom]

Ok...A tiny pool. With the partition makes it about 10 x10 4 ft deep. Not very fun for 11-16 year olds.

 

Id rather have it a little more shallow for the younger kids, the older kids have the slides (which take up a lot of room). My 13 and 15 years olds are about 5', so that depth is fine for them. All of my teens liked the slides over a pool anyway. We were on the BA before the drowning, so before the divider.

[KeithJenner]

My son is quite into SpongeBob, more so a few years ago. He has cruised on NCL many times and, except for thinking that the SpongeBob characters around the kids pool on the Getaway were great, he didn't get involved with any Nickelodeon stuff at all.

 

I asked him when they announced that Nickelodeon was going whether it bothered him and he just shrugged and said he had forgotten than it was ever there.

 

His only post Nickelodeon NCL cruise so far had been 3 days on the Escape and he enjoyed the kids club just as much as normal. He never mentioned any difference.

[Mistizoom]

My son cruised on the Norwegian Dawn when he was 10 (no Nick characters on that ship) and last month when he was 13 on Norwegian Getaway without the Nick characters. The lack of characters had zero impact on his enjoyment of the cruise. He is the one who suggested a second cruise (I offered Universal Studios Florida), and after Getaway cruise he has insisted we go on Norwegian Escape next, so we are booked for March 2018.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Mistizoom