Tell me all about Nickelodeon!!

[nadeki]

We did not get a tote bag. They told me the reason for no photo was the Jewel breakfast with "Character breakfast" and the the Spongebob Pajama Jam that was the Epic.

 

Don't know if that has changed.

[KEPE]

We're sailing on the Breakaway in a few weeks. We booked the breakfast and did have to pay for the adults too. I think it was offered a few different days and one was not a sea day but the day were are in PC. I think it's at 9:00 am. Someone posted the dailies from last weeks cruise and it looks like there are tons of Nick things on the ship sometimes a few a day. I'll make sure we plan our day around those as that will be a highlight for DD. Not sure when you are traveling but if it's after me (Thanksgiving) I'll be sure to come back and give some details on the Nick stuff.

[kchiumento]

Hi~ I'm posting some pics of the Jewel PJ Jam it was the last sea day 10/19/13.

It was about 9:00 and lasted about an hour. THere was enough to eat so you weren't STARVING for lunch. These are all my own pics and we didn't buy any of the Ship Pics, nor were they free with the reservation.

 

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[mitsugirly]

We did not get a tote bag. They told me the reason for no photo was the Jewel breakfast with "Character breakfast" and the the Spongebob Pajama Jam that was the Epic.

 

Don't know if that has changed.

 

Aww, well darn. Hmm, I'll have to check out the verbiage online and see what it says. :)

We're sailing on the Breakaway in a few weeks. We booked the breakfast and did have to pay for the adults too. I think it was offered a few different days and one was not a sea day but the day were are in PC. I think it's at 9:00 am. Someone posted the dailies from last weeks cruise and it looks like there are tons of Nick things on the ship sometimes a few a day. I'll make sure we plan our day around those as that will be a highlight for DD. Not sure when you are traveling but if it's after me (Thanksgiving) I'll be sure to come back and give some details on the Nick stuff.

 

Yea, I seen the dailies and was hoping they had some for the 2-5 year olds (since my daughter will still be 5 on this cruise), but there wasn't any. :(

 

Yes, we are traveling in December (15th), so if you could grab a 2-5 year old dailies, that would be AWESOME!

[mitsugirly]

Hi~ I'm posting some pics of the Jewel PJ Jam it was the last sea day 10/19/13.

It was about 9:00 and lasted about an hour. THere was enough to eat so you weren't STARVING for lunch. These are all my own pics and we didn't buy any of the Ship Pics, nor were they free with the reservation.

 

 

Thanks for posting (although I have been reading your Jewel review :D) the pictures. It looks like there's a lot of characters, so I guess it will be worth the money for the experience for her. I'm looking forward to it now. :)

[nadeki]

That is cute. They did not have the PJ's on the characters when we went.

[bambilin]

My Trevor was still 5 on the Breakaway (5 weeks shy of 6). He is VERY big, was reading at 2nd grade level in kindergarten, always with older kids. The kids crew manager called Miami to see if he could bump him up to the next level but it was a no go.

He went twice and told me he did not want to go anymore. He always loves kids club so I asked him why. He said, "It's all babies Mom, baby stuff. I am a "helper" it is boring" So he did not go back.

 

Ran into one of the counselors at the t-shirt decorating. He asked Trevor where he had been so Trevor told him why he stopped going. The counselor said he understood completely and he really did not belong in that group.

[tammy531]

My Trevor was still 5 on the Breakaway (5 weeks shy of 6). He is VERY big, was reading at 2nd grade level in kindergarten, always with older kids. The kids crew manager called Miami to see if he could bump him up to the next level but it was a no go.

He went twice and told me he did not want to go anymore. He always loves kids club so I asked him why. He said, "It's all babies Mom, baby stuff. I am a "helper" it is boring" So he did not go back.

 

Ran into one of the counselors at the t-shirt decorating. He asked Trevor where he had been so Trevor told him why he stopped going. The counselor said he understood completely and he really did not belong in that group.

 

I am afraid I am going to have that problem...my son will be 9 so will be with 6 year olds. He has a 13 year old brother and hangs out with his friends a lot as well as kids who are 10 and 11 from the neighborhood. He has not played with toys or done anything babyish in years. ..6 year olds are just not going to cut it.

 

sent from my Samsung galaxy s3

[kchiumento]

I am afraid I am going to have that problem...my son will be 9 so will be with 6 year olds. He has a 13 year old brother and hangs out with his friends a lot as well as kids who are 10 and 11 from the neighborhood. He has not played with toys or done anything babyish in years. ..6 year olds are just not going to cut it.

 

sent from my Samsung galaxy s3

 

Have him give it a try. There were somethings that my 10 and 12 yr old liked. So it wasn't all bad. I think its different when you are 5 going on 6 and stuck with the 2 yr olds, than a 9 yr old with the 6 yr olds. There will be plenty of other 8 & 9 yr olds in there.

[mitsugirly]

I think its different when you are 5 going on 6 and stuck with the 2 yr olds, than a 9 yr old with the 6 yr olds.

 

I think it all depends on the child too. My daughter is 5 and will be stuck with the 2 year olds (which I know there's a BIG difference between the age and stages they are in), however she loves everyone and can interact with them all and be perfectly happy. When there are little ones around, she takes on the mother hen roll and loves helping them. She's very nurturing and caring. If there's older children, she tries her best to interact with them and keep up. She's pretty versatile.

[omarchs]

I agree with many of the other posters that the pajama jam was a huge ripoff. We went with my 5 year old nephew and it was just a cash grab on the Breakaway. Horrible food that even the kids wouldn't eat. The kids wouldn't eat the donuts. The French toast p&j sandwiches and the days old looking pigs in blankets took the prize as most awful.

 

Event was very regimented, ok 2 minutes more for pix. They did let you take your own photos but there people had the prime center slot. We did ask about the free 8x10 in the photo area, but they did say only 1 for child is free. The 4 other paying adults get nothing but a side trip after to the buffet after to get a real breakfast. Every person should get a free photo!

 

I was also angry that kids gift was a 10 cent plastic cup with a stick and garland! To wave around. Really NCL. Remainder of the trip was fantastic but this $100 ripoff for the family left a bad taste. There were plenty of free meet and greets so save your money.

[mitsugirly]

Is this something they require you to book ahead and pay for? (Like book before the event while you are on the ship?)

 

Since it sounds like it may be on the last sea day, maybe I'll wait and see how many opportunities there are to meet the characters and get pictures before I decide whether or not to do this.

[nadeki]

You do need to book ahead. They say limited space however they use the restaurant so I think they have lots of room. I would wait as you will see the characters all around the ship and already have lots of photos.

 

I don't regret it just don't need to do it again. And, on the last sea day you want to get up slowly and not hurry off to an event.

[mitsugirly]

You do need to book ahead. They say limited space however they use the restaurant so I think they have lots of room. I would wait as you will see the characters all around the ship and already have lots of photos.

 

I don't regret it just don't need to do it again. And, on the last sea day you want to get up slowly and not hurry off to an event.

 

Thanks for the info and your point of view. I hope she gets enough of the characters during the week that we just might get to skip this. We'll see.

 

While we don't want to hurry off to an event on the last sea day, we still get up early because breakfast is my favorite meal and we wouldn't want to sleep in and miss it. :D

[gatorsfam]

Nickalodeon for us was a real mixed bag...

 

Sailed on the Jewel's Alaska season twice over the past year. Different cast members with each sailing, but some of the same experiences.

 

First, the good:

- Happy cast that made the events (that they actually had) fun for our kids

- Great character costumes and photo ops were run well so everyone had simple access to the characters

- Good balance of scheduled events throughout the week

- Crafts were cute and age-appropriate. So don't expect your tween to get jazzed up about coloring a bag, but your toddler, younger children will enjoy it a lot.

 

Now, the not so good:

- Seemed that the Nickelodeon team was under the thumb of the Cruise Director Staff and didn't feel empowered to do what they should do to make the sailing memorable for families. For example one of the most anticipated Nickelodeon event is the Slime Time Live show, however on BOTH of our sailings they cancelled this event - I mean cancelled as in not even in the Dailies - just straight up "not enough kids on the ship so the CD cancelled it"... WHAT?? In talking to the Nick staff they said to raise the issue with the CD to see if they could run one later in the week.. WHAT?? Seems a little late to slap it together.. I don't care if there are only 5 kids on the ship, pull them up on the stage and slime 'em!! They said that they need a lot of kids so that they have a big audience and so on... Ok, so that happened on the first sailing and my kids were bummed... But then AGAIN the 2nd time? Seems to be something that they can definitely improve on.

- We skipped the Pajama Party for all the reasons cited above... Cost, Food, etc. There are PLENTY of other character opportunities throughout the week - no need to fork over that money as it really isn't that special of an event from what I've gathered.

- Coordination of activities from the Kids camp to Nick was disjointed and as others have remarked it took some effort to pull them from camp to get to the Nick event and then back to camp, etc. Seems that some of this could be more seamlessly blended.

 

Bottom line is that the Nick aspects are a nice bonus, but they will not be a consideration for us again in the future. If we land on a Nick ship - great, we'll make the best of it, but we won't let it sway us onto a specific ship.

[mitsugirly]

Nickalodeon for us was a real mixed bag...

 

Sailed on the Jewel's Alaska season twice over the past year. Different cast members with each sailing, but some of the same experiences.

 

First, the good:

- Happy cast that made the events (that they actually had) fun for our kids

- Great character costumes and photo ops were run well so everyone had simple access to the characters

- Good balance of scheduled events throughout the week

- Crafts were cute and age-appropriate. So don't expect your tween to get jazzed up about coloring a bag, but your toddler, younger children will enjoy it a lot.

 

Now, the not so good:

- Seemed that the Nickelodeon team was under the thumb of the Cruise Director Staff and didn't feel empowered to do what they should do to make the sailing memorable for families. For example one of the most anticipated Nickelodeon event is the Slime Time Live show, however on BOTH of our sailings they cancelled this event - I mean cancelled as in not even in the Dailies - just straight up "not enough kids on the ship so the CD cancelled it"... WHAT?? In talking to the Nick staff they said to raise the issue with the CD to see if they could run one later in the week.. WHAT?? Seems a little late to slap it together.. I don't care if there are only 5 kids on the ship, pull them up on the stage and slime 'em!! They said that they need a lot of kids so that they have a big audience and so on... Ok, so that happened on the first sailing and my kids were bummed... But then AGAIN the 2nd time? Seems to be something that they can definitely improve on.

- We skipped the Pajama Party for all the reasons cited above... Cost, Food, etc. There are PLENTY of other character opportunities throughout the week - no need to fork over that money as it really isn't that special of an event from what I've gathered.

- Coordination of activities from the Kids camp to Nick was disjointed and as others have remarked it took some effort to pull them from camp to get to the Nick event and then back to camp, etc. Seems that some of this could be more seamlessly blended.

 

Bottom line is that the Nick aspects are a nice bonus, but they will not be a consideration for us again in the future. If we land on a Nick ship - great, we'll make the best of it, but we won't let it sway us onto a specific ship.

 

Awesome perspective. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell me about this. I really appreciate it.

 

I'm not so sure that my 5 year old would like the slime time (and if it's a competition that you have to answer questions, she would be out of the game at her age), so that was one that we would probably miss to begin with. But I can see how older ones would be upset.

 

I'm just going to play this by ear I guess. It will all depend on the activities throughout the week on whether or not we go.