Nickelodeon cruises are cruises that are exclusively offered by the frequently misspelled Norwegian Cruise Line. A Nickelodeon cruise is not entirely focused on Nickelodeon-related themes; rather, these cruises have a Nickelodeon component that fits with what is otherwise a standard cruise vacation. Not surprisingly, Nickelodeon cruises are family-oriented, with the cartoon-inspired features of the ship – Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer walk around on board, for instance – being designed to keep children occupied and happy while at sea. Below is a brief overview of Nickelodeon cruises and how you might go about booking one.
Since Nickelodeon cruises aren’t all about the popular cartoons on this network (we are not entirely sure what this would even look like), one of Norwegian Cruise Line’s vacations is essentially rendered a “Nickelodeon cruise” with the inclusion of various activities. Some of these activities will be familiar to regular Nickelodeon viewers – such as the “messy games,” which generally involve children (and occasionally adults) getting covered in pies or slime – but many are specifically designed for the NCL voyages. On board children can sing and dance at Dora’s Dance Party, and they can make Nickelodeon-themed crafts with their parents. NCL seems to have a particular enthusiasm for breakfast parties, as out of the eight bullet points they choose to feature on their website, two of them call attention to the Breakfast with Nickelodeon. On some ships, this breakfast is a rather elaborate affair – everyone can show up to breakfast wearing their pajamas, and while the whole family enjoys breakfast together, “Team Nick and the rest of the gang” sing and dance for your viewing pleasure. For the record, the Breakfast with Nickelodeon requires a “nominal fee,” and every activity is subject to charge, according to NCL.
The Nickelodeon cruises are offered year-round on four of NCL’s eleven vessels: Norwegian Jewel, Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Gem, and Norwegian Breakaway. Together, these ships have a fairly broad range, so a Nickelodeon cruise could potentially take many forms. It could be a paradigmatic cruise vacation to a place like Alaska or the Caribbean, but it could also be a slightly more ambitious trip across the Atlantic to Europe.
As far as booking a Nickelodeon cruise is concerned, it is definitely easiest to book through the official channels. You can book through the part of NCL’s website that is dedicated to Nickelodeon cruises, or there is an entirely separate website fully dedicated to booking Nickelodeon cruises – the aptly named BookNickCruise.com – which is also easy to use. Because these cruises are rather specific, offered as they are through a limited number of ships that are a part of one cruise line, they are hard to track down on cruise deal sites, which are generally best used when you have loose travel plans. You can find cheap cruises on these sites, but you have to be willing to travel to different places at various times on virtually any cruise line, and this flexibility is clearly not possible if you are trying to book a Nickelodeon cruise.
As we have emphasized, these are regular cruises, but you probably wouldn’t want to book one for anything but a family vacation. The Nickelodeon-theme won’t overwhelm the cruise experience or anything, but it is nevertheless a notable component of it. So, Nickelodeon cruises are great for a certain kind of vacation, but certainly not for every vacation.