This was our 6th cruise on Eclipse out of Southampton and, unless they add some different itineraries, it might well be our last for a few years. This will be a big disappointment to us since Eclipse is still our favourite ship, and cruises from Southampton are essential for us as my wife uses a wheelchair.

We had done almost the same itinerary 3 years ago, but this time Helsinki was missing and we had a rather pointless overnight in Copenhagen, arriving at 11:00am and departing 12 noon the following day. Apparently cruise passengers want to have more overnights according to head office, this seems a rather similar story to P&O changing their boarding procedure because passengers want their cabins ready when they board.

Anyway we swapped a full day at Helsinki for an extra 2/3 hours in Copenhagen, or in our case 1 hour extra after breakfast; and we were miles out of town at Oceankaj pier because of the overnight, instead of being 10 minutes from the little mermaid if we had been berthed at Langelinie pier, that’s progress for you. Read more