News on No-more-Nick from TA

Direct quote from my TA...

"Regarding the kids programs, NCL's President Andy Stuart spoke openly on the webinar today about why they were discontinuing the affiliation with Nickelodeon.

He said while the character integration was great for some sailings (usually holiday or peak seasons), however, on others where there were fewer kids, it was difficult to run the Nickelodeon activities properly and that it impacted what they could offer in the overall kids programs on those ships. It also created inconsistency in running the kids programs across the fleet since only select ships had Nickelodeon.

In lieu of offering the Nickelodeon character interactions they are instead strengthening their partnership with the King's Foundation to further enhance their kids programs. They've been working with King's Foundation the past couple years in rebuilding their programs and are now enhancing that relationship for all ships across the fleet with more emphasis on educational activities, sporting activities, arts & crafts, theater and technology.

King's Foundation is a UK based organization that has developed family programs globally, including US Military bases."

Soooo... pretty much admitting they have nothing to replace Nickelodeon with :(

That was my guess (no major program replacement) since in their original wording said that their surveys had shown an improvement in their own program over the years.

Still advertising Nick on their website last time I looked. Interesting enough the last issue of Costco Connection magazine specifically mentioned the Nick program on NCL in a section about family cruising. They should have waited a month.

Sounds like a very good decision to me.

Honestly, it makes sense to me. Having been on three of the NCL Nick cruises - I never really understood what NCL got out of the arrangement.

The Nick events were not that great as to make or break a cruise, and most of them were quite flat (eg. the Meet & Greets were mere photo ops with no interaction with the kids). The exception was the Pyjama Jam, fun but exactly the same over three cruises.

The Kids Club was considered by my kids to be vastly more fun and given the numbers participating in the Club vs. at the Nick events - my kids were not the only ones to agree.

I liked the Nick connection, but this will not affect my enjoyment or that of my kids at all. By my way of thinking NCL is diverting resources from an outside contractor to their own Kids Programming.

Direct quote from my TA...

 

 

"Regarding the kids programs, NCL's President Andy Stuart spoke openly on the webinar today about why they were discontinuing the affiliation with Nickelodeon.

He said while the character integration was great for some sailings (usually holiday or peak seasons), however, on others where there were fewer kids, it was difficult to run the Nickelodeon activities properly and that it impacted what they could offer in the overall kids programs on those ships. It also created inconsistency in running the kids programs across the fleet since only select ships had Nickelodeon.

In lieu of offering the Nickelodeon character interactions they are instead strengthening their partnership with the King's Foundation to further enhance their kids programs. They've been working with King's Foundation the past couple years in rebuilding their programs and are now enhancing that relationship for all ships across the fleet with more emphasis on educational activities, sporting activities, arts & crafts, theater and technology.

King's Foundation is a UK based organization that has developed family programs globally, including US Military bases."

 

 

Soooo... pretty much admitting they have nothing to replace Nickelodeon with :(

 

 

 

 

 

That's the oddest conclusion I've seen. I read the email from the TA and thought, that makes sense....kind of like having Jean Anne Ryan do your theatre programs.... leave it to the experts....

And you conclude this is a bad thing?

*smh*

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That's the oddest conclusion I've seen. I read the email from the TA and thought, that makes sense....kind of like having Jean Anne Ryan do your theatre programs.... leave it to the experts....

 

And you conclude this is a bad thing?

 

 

*smh*

 

 

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No. In a perfect world I would like to see them refocus (or whatever the intention is) the kids club and have the character interaction/partnership that every other line has. I saw Splash Academy and Nick activities as totally separate entities. It was almost like we got Nick at Sea as a bonus and now it's being taken away. I applaud their decision to put more effort into kids programming but I know that a lot of kids will miss that special part of their vacation.