Doug Bradley

Age: 31 to 40
Occupation: Educator
Number of Cruises: First Cruise
Ship: Nordic Empress
Sailing Date: December 29th, 2000
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

This was my first cruise so I have no other cruising experiences to compare it to.  I traveled with my wife, daughters (12-15) and sons (11-14) I found the Nordic Empress cruise to St. Martin and St. Thomas to be quite enjoyable.  The ship was well kept.  Our cabin, though small, was actually larger than my family anticipated.  (I would advise to not pull down the top bunks until it is time to go to sleep.  We all hit our heads at least once during the cruise.)

The dining was a pure pleasure.  Our Turkish waiter did a great job and even seemed to take a personal interest in us.  The food was fabulous.  We had a variety of choices and no one complained about the quality of the food.  Our kids even found that they could eat burgers in the dining room which made them happy. 

Breakfasts were good. We all of these in the Windjammer but one.  Service in the main dining room breakfast was a bit slow and portions were small.  The Windjammer was buffet style and we were more at home there.

My wife and I made one trip to the midnight buffet. It was quite good.  The kids weren't as impressed by it.

With kids I would have preferred that credits or coupons would have been issued for non-meal drinks.  During non-meal times there is no such thing as a few drink.  Lemonade and soda (in the dining room) were free during meal time.  I think they cost $1.85 plus gratuity at other times.  

We took one excursion:  an ecotour on St. Thomas; it involved both kayaking and snorkeling. All of us thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

On St. Martin we went to Orient Beach which was an aesthetic and cultural pleasure.

One disappointment was that we didn't discover until a week before the cruise left that one of our destinations, St. Croix, was omitted from the trip because of the New Year's holiday.  The agent said she didn't know about the change and the cruise line said that the agents had been notified.  So, essentially, the 4 day, 4 island tour was changed to a 3 island tour without any remuneration.

New Year's Day was spent "at sea."  This meant that the big attraction, the sun, was sought by nearly the entire ship on that day.  Space was at a premium with very little room to move around.  The pool on the Nordic Empress is very small.  Swimming was not an option for the kids on that day.

We saw one show and it was o.k. My wife and I liked the jogging/walking deck.  Our kids played shuffleboard, ping pong, chess, and participated in a scavenger hunt.  We were really happy with the trip overall.

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