We were supposed to sail from Southampton to Boston, New York, Port Canaveral and Miami. However, we were called on th Friday afternoon before the Monday cruise and told that due to storms in the Atlantic we would now go to Le Havre, Brugges and then Miami. Not quite the same appeal! We were offered a full refund if we cancelled but as booked the flights ourselves and non refundable hotel rooms in Miami we would have had to claim through our travel agent so we had no choice but to go. Having been to France and Belguim on numerous RC cruises, we were really not looking forward to the cruise even with the $200 OBC for the changes and 20% off what we paid for this cruise towards another. I did ask if there were really storms in the Atlantic or whether it was an excuse to have further repairs to the Ship after last weeks accident with the stabiliser making a large hole in the hull. I was told it was fully repaired. When we checked in on the Monday, I was told it was actually repaired this morning after people had disembarked.

However, at the lifeboat drill the Captain said due to a gap in the storm we would now go to Gran Canria, Coco Cay, Port Canaveral and Miami so things looked better. 3 rough days at sea, due to storms was not too bad, have had worse in Iceland! Gran Canaria was ok, then it got warmer as we cruised towards Perfect Day Coco Cay (RC's private island). That morning the sea turned choppy and I had a feeling the tenders wouldn't be able to get us ashore. Unfortunately the captain soon came on and told us the same. We promptly turned around and left what looked like a building site (lots of work going on for next year) and went to Freeport Bahamas. Lots of shops but not much else. Worth noting that RC were charging whatever they could for excursions on Coco Cay, even for floating mat which seemed a rip off. I guess they want us to pay for the island for them. At this point it became a case of guess which port we are going to next.

Then we went to Port Canaveral which was great. We had originally booked a tour of the space centre but was then told that due to immigration it would not be possible to have a guided tour and instead they would just take us there and we had to get around ourselves. At this point we were so used to changes we didn't care. So, we spent the day at the Space Centre at our leisure before heading to Miami. Read more