My 6 year old is a big fan of nickelodeon and we tried a small cruise last month(5 days) to see how she would react to the cruising experience and she loved it.I was trying to search nickelodeon cruises and seems like norwegian is the line which has the nickelodeon cruises but looks like they are not year round?? or am i mistaking something.
I know disney probably got a better product but they don't have casino's in their ship and to convince all my extended relatives to go to a cruise without casino won't be easy for me.
Any input on Nick cruises and which one to go for will be great...
Thanks

NCL has the contract with Nickelodeon so you will only find the Nick characters on NCL ships. Not year round since the sailings are usually concentrated around dates when kids are out of school.

Disney is good if you like Disney. Lots of opportunities to take pictures with the characters. And the photographers (at least all the ones I've asked nicely) will even use your own camera, unlike the other cruise lines.

Disney cabins also have the split bathroom: toilet in room, tub/shower in the other.

On the EPIC they had a group of people from Nickelodeon and had a lot of different events (you have to sign up for them, but I think they were mostly free). Things like Slimetime, and games out by the pool area.

That was a New Years cruise, and I don't think a themed one... just a regular fixture- though maybe you should call and ask them that.

Also, they have a lot of other cool things such as Blue Man Group, Cirque and lots of slides around the pool, plenty for kids (and adults to do).

Okay, if it's Nick you want then you're stuck with NCL. If Shrek and the other Dreamworks characters are okay, then you're stuck with RCCL.

I'm of the opinion that Disney offers a far superior product, from animation to storytelling to cruise ship life. Your relatives won't even miss the casino--trust me. Disney honestly does that good a job of entertaining people on their ships.

So NCL has some themed cruises and some non themed ones? but characters are present on both?

The first year Norwegian worked with Nickelodeon, they had selected ships and itineraries that features Nick characters and events on every sailing. In addition, they operated one or two departures with live talent from the TV channel, effectively a much "beefed-up" Nick cruise.

Now what seems to be happening is an enhanced program of events on every departure, but they don't seem to be running the special "super" cruises.

More info here:
http://www2.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/nickelodeon

As to the OP'er, hard to say without knowing a little more about what you're after. I worked for Norwegian for several years and know the Gem, Epic and Jewel very well. I like all of them - having sailed Norwegian Epic last, I have a soft spot for that one. It's really very good indeed for kids, especially the water park, and there are some fantastic restaurants onboard.

The itineraries are pretty-much year round, but only on the regular roundtrip itineraries, not the repositioning cruises.

Any more info, just shout.

Mark

I don't know this for certain, so would certainly check directly. My cruise wasn't a themed one but they had events, but it really wasn't a Nickelodeon cruise, not marketed as one, and as such you wouldn't be wise to market it to your kids as one either as if they are expecting it to be wall to wall its not... just some key events throughout the cruise.

If you go for the Epic, and confirm that the Nick guys are on there full time, I would just say 'we're going on a cruise' then surprise them with the Nick events, otherwise they might be disappointed.

I'm guessing that there were about 4-5 events through a 7 day cruise (such as slimetime, poolside games, etc) but that is purely a guess from memory and there might be a disgruntled Nick employee coming along to say they worked a lot harder and did a lot more...

Epic is a big ship, but very kid friendly in my mind.

NCL Epic is the ship to go see Nick characters. They are always around and there a lot of activities everyday. My son really liked Nick themed breakfast and we took a lot of pictures with our camera with SpongeBob and others.

We're on the NCL Jewel non-Nick theme cruise last year and there're plenty of children-oriented events, with 500 kids on board and it wasn't even official school break or summer sailing. The sailing after us was a full Nick cruise and crew members told us they will be getting 1,000+ children onboard for a full scale themed cruise.

In either case, there're special theme-breakfast in a dedicated MDR with photo ops ($$) and kids-only event in the Lounge, activities in the kid's center, etc. and decorations on the ship (plus the gift shops with sale items) to reflect the pitch.

Check the NCL website & you can online request a PCC to call back with specifics, as s/he will be happy to research the info & call you back to "assist" you with the booking/reservation.

We're cruising on a 5-night Norwegian Jewel repositioning cruise this September. I'm hoping there will be some Nick-themed events for my 4 year old (character breakfast), but not banking on it 100%. Think it's safe to assume there will be at least a couple events onboard?

Between Sponge Bob & Dora, our niece's 2 years old were very happy with a handful of events onboard during our Bahamas 7 days. Here's the link to the NCL website page on Nick - in case you've missed it.

http://www2.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/nickelodeon

I corrected my initial post, it was the "Jewel" that we sailed on - the Breakfast sold out quickly as only 1 was initially planned so they added a 2nd. one while we've sailing - parents were very happy & glad to pay $$ to take the little ones to join along. The Nick TV channel is on 24/7 and the items are in the Gift Shop on every sailing. It doesn't take a whole lot of efforts to put a few "presentation" together to attract a captive audience. It generated positive revenue flow ($$) for NCL investors so with a "sizable" # of children of each sailing, there's no reason for NCL to not offer it due to its popularity.

Looking at the posted sailing, it's NOT clear whether they have anything specific, so I would call or email NCL corporate directly and request a followup, or speak to one of their PCC about it.