The kids' entertainment giant has entered the hotel business in Orlando with a huge splash and a great sense of humor.

When you have as popular a brand as Nickelodeon, an entertainment powerhouse responsible for such cultural icons as the The Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues and dozens of other lovable cartoons, everyone takes notice when you announce you’re entering the hotel business. And when you transform an already successful hotel into a Nickville with two water fun play areas, a large arcade, TV studios, and a mall with food court, and do it in the hotly competitive Orlando market, tongues start wagging. After six months of audience previews and last-minute tweaking, the glamorous premier occurred Memorial Day 2005.

The envelope, please? The independently-owned Nickelodeon Family Suites Resort is a winner.

Having known and loved it as the former Holiday Inn Family Suites Lake Buena Vista, we were excited and a bit anxious to see the resort’s transformation. By aligning themselves with Nickelodoen, the comfortable hotel with the over-sized rooms and kid-pleasing facilities was entering the entertainment business.

The staff has now tripled with bouncy recreation types, lifeguards, photographers, roving characters and kid-minders, and the decibel level has increased proportionately. But president Terry Whaples’ commitment to safety has not diminished: expertly trained lifeguards are everywhere, and the closed-circuit TV system carries the best and funniest hotel safety video we’ve ever seen. Watch it or get slimed!

Where once a variety of décor and suite styles were clustered around the East or West Courtyard and their respective pools, today, the 777 one-, two- and three-bedroom suites are mostly themed with wallpaper devoted to Nickelodeon characters. Each has a living room with a contemporary styled sofa that pulls out to a queen size bed, a comfortable rocker, large TV, free broadband Internet access, and a two-person dining table with chairs. The kitchen alcove with minifridge, sink, microwave, and coffeemaker is more than adequate if you’re making breakfast or warming up snacks.

Nick’s attractive two-bedroom Kidsuites are most numerous and feature a master bedroom with a comfy king-size bed, small desk and closet. The kids’ room behind a blackout curtain has two bunk beds, a trundle bed for kids under 48”, a mini table and chair, a boombox, and a Playstation 2 console with large TV. There’s an efficient bathroom with shelving, a full-size tub and a shower, whose expansive curved shower curtain rod creates a feeling of space and Nick-style fun. This setup sleeps five and is ideal for the family with several younger children, especially if you’ve never had to call “Nanny 911.” (It can feel very small if kids are bickering.)

For The Older Nick Fan

To arrive at “The Nick” with a teen in tow is similar to touring the Vatican if you’re not Catholic: you know who the players are but you can’t quite feel the passion.

But if you stay a day and recall the Rugrats and other characters from your kids’ past, the whole family will get swept up in the fun – there is just so much positive energy at this place.
Nickelodeon designers present at the opening weekend acknowledged that the hotel’s décor will always pay homage to classic Nick cartoons. That makes it fun for teens who enjoy finding old cable TV friends from their youth. Practically speaking, families traveling with kids above 8 to 10-years-old should request a two-bedroom room with twin beds. In these units, the master bedroom has a queen bed, and the extra space is allotted to the kids’ room, which has two ground-level twin beds. The trundle is gone, replaced by a small closet (very important to those tween and teen girls), immediately giving this type of a room a more mature air. Don’t worry, the Jimmy Neutron or Danny Phantom wallpaper with ornamentation, plus the TV with PS2, are still there, just the “babyishness” is gone.

Other variations themed to traveler type are the three-bedroom KidSuites, which are cleverly designed adjoining rooms with one living room area transformed into a full size kitchen and dining area for four. These very spacious suites, with two full master bedrooms with king size beds, a kids’ room with bunks, two bathrooms, and a living room with queen sleeper sofa, sleep nine and should be called GrandSuites. Extended families and multi-generational groups (catered to with annual Grandparents specials) will love these.

Our 13-year-old was seduced by the Nick at Nite Suites, 18 one-bedroom units whose king-bedded master room had stylish black and white linens. These were designed for visiting Nickelodeon TV performers who will be doing occasional live broadcasts from the resort (talk about awesome.) Each living room has playful 50s Moderne furniture in white or baby blue leather, a queen sofabed in leather, a large flat panel TV on the wall and a heart-shaped Jacuzzi next to the kitchen alcove.

Non-Stop, Never Leave The Hotel Fun

Enough about the rooms; you probably won’t spend a lot of time in them. The Nickelodeon Family Suites Resort excels in its public areas, zones of organized chaos that invite guest participation. Preschoolers will love the shrunken check-in desk where they can register and sample pretzels dipped into a fountain of chocolate-flavored “slime.” Just as you don’t need to know Dora the Explorer to enjoy her larger than life sculpture gracing the grounds’ man-made lagoon, you don’t need a formal invitation to plunge into the two water zones, each surrounded by four stories of guest rooms.

Formerly the East and West courtyard pools, guests can now choose between the Oasis and the Lagoon, the former being somewhat quieter with a smaller waterslide, pleasant café and more swimmable pool, the latter being a waterpark free-for-all with sprayers, hoses, slides, tubes and gleeful shrieking. While the Oasis has a shorter slide, my authorities tell me, it’s a much faster ride. While the Lagoon has a much bigger pool, it’s shallower, and the crowds drawn by its larger jungle-gym-style water structure make it impossible to really swim.

Gleeful shrieking persists throughout the property, something families with sensitive souls should consider when requesting a ground-floor room. Additionally, the very vivacious Nick staff run organized contests, sing-a-longs, dance marathons, quizzes and other games throughout the day, making much use of their microphones to communicate with their many fans. Throw in some inoffensive and catchy pop music over the PA, and you’ll get a sense of the place.

The Mall is a commercial zone common to both courtyards, with a food court offering an upscale coffeebar, an Arby’s and Pizza Hut, and a buffet restaurant with fair to very good food, where kids under 12 eat free. The NickToons Café next door is pricier because this is where the charming character breakfasts are held. At least my family enjoyed watching Angelica defiantly steal all the sugar packets from one table and throw them elsewhere, and hearing the jovial wait staff sing along with Nick theme songs as the MC introduced each costumed character. Take your own photos or ask the house photographer; one professional family portrait is included in room rates. If you don’t want to spring for the character buffet, several Nickelodeon characters stroll through the Mall throughout the day.

Elsewhere in the Mall there’s a small bar, a theatre where the very clever, live, evening shows are held and a KidSpa, where manicures, hair-braiding, face-painting and other pampering take place. Our sophisticated array of first-person shooter games and complex skills-based games like “Dance, Dance Revolution.” Remember, this is one of the hotel’s few areas, in addition to the poolside basketball court, where teens are in their element. And, younger kids will find many other gentle junior games that dispense tickets they can exchange for tiny toys.

Free shuttles to all four Walt Disney World theme parks, the two Universal Orlando parks, SeaWorld and the Florida Mall depart from the Nick Mall on a scheduled basis.

But we don’t think you even need to go to a theme park. Repeat visitors to Orlando will especially appreciate how Nick brings the theme park fun back to your hotel -- where you won’t be expected to wait in line to enjoy it.