Bonding at the Nick Hotel

Sitting in a kiddie pool in my bathing suit with goggles on, waiting for my 10-year-old daughter to dump a bucket of green slime on my head while dozens of people watched made me wonder if this would undermine my future parental authority.

We were at the Nickelodeon Family Suites in ­Orlando, Fla., a modern marvel of marketing genius, where the characters of the popular television ­network come to life and parents are definitely not driving the agenda (even while they shell out the dough). All accommodations here are two- or three-bedroom suites, decorated in eye-popping colors and feature giant murals of Nicktoons. They all have a kitchenette and the kids rooms sport bunk beds.

The slime party in “Studio Nick” is just one of the many add-on activities you can choose to enhance your vacation. Besides private sliming parties, there’s a live show each night in the studio, which resembles a television studio with lights, cameras, and a host with microphone. Families volunteer during the day to compete against each other for the prize: getting slimed.

Character breakfasts include a song and dance number with SpongeBob, Jimmy Neutron, and others from Nick shows. There are pool-side contests each day, where kids compete (to get slimed, of course) and then there is a giant waterslide complex, where each day a giant bucket pours out 400 ­gallons of slime onto screaming, squealing kids. Yes, slime is the name of game here and kids can’t get enough of it.

When you take your family to Orlando for a vacation, supposedly it’s all about the kids. There’s Disney, rides, theme restaurants, and so on, but often so much of what you encounter seems geared to adults, or at least teenagers. A lot of things have loud, scary thrill content. And often the agenda to do more, see more, ride more, can be exhausting for everyone. I know I’ve been a victim of that.

The environment at the Nick Hotel, while a crazy, madhouse of hundreds of kids, never lets you forget that’s it IS all about the kids, every minute. And while my pre-teen scoffed at some of the silliness going on, she also loved it when I joined her on the twisty waterslides and yes, allowed myself to be doused with gloppy green goo.

Kim Foley MacKinnon is the editor of TravelWorld International Magazine, as well as the DailyCandy Boston Kids editor and a freelancer for a number of publications. Contact her at kim@natja.com or visit her website at www.kfmwriter.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIM FOLEY MACKINNON