We chose to go to Southampton the day before our departure & were blessed with hot sunny weather. We stayed at the Mercure Hotel on High St which is an old building & quirky but we enjoyed it. We shopped, as one does, in the Mall & dined at La Lupo in the evening. All a great start to the holiday, however the ship had had a gastro intestine virus (I guess they meant Norovirus) which caused boarding to be delayed until late afternoon. Check in was smooth & we were soon onboard. Having been on quite a few cruise ships with different companies we found the Eclipse a beautiful ship & one of the best. The food was excellent in the main dining room & the buffet was very varied. We also tried a couple of the select dining venues which were totally different for the food experience at Qsine & Tuscan Grill, though I must confess we had received a cabin credit on booking which took care of the extra charges.

We did our own thing to get to Bruge as we had been before, we also made our own way into Stockholm as we felt the shuttles were quite expensive & again we had been before & enjoy walking after a couple of lazy days at sea. We also made our own way to Tallinn where we did have a thunder storm which we had to wait out for about an hour though we did see some tour guides continuing through the storm. St Petersburg was amazing & one can really see why there was a revolution with the people so poor & the aristocracy so rich. However the Palaces are amazing. We visited the Hermitage & our guide was an older lady who was very funny. I don't think she was intending to be but her accented English & Russian abrupt way of speaking really amused us. On our second day we went to Peterhoff Palace & gardens. Again an amazing Palace & the fountains & gardens were very beautiful. I must say we were not blessed with very good weather on either day but we managed to keep fairly dry & warm unfortunately that wasn't the case in Warnemunde where we had decided to go on the ebike tour. The morning was beautiful sunny & warm & we walked into the beautiful town but we had only been on the ride for about 3/4 of an hour when the heavens opened. The guide assured us it was only a shower & usual for this part of Germany. Things did not improve & we had to have transport back from the halfway point as we couldn't have been wetter or colder if we tried. Hot shower & drink as soon as we were back on board. Copenhagen was a little better with mixed sunshine & showers.

All this makes it sound as if we had a miserable time but actually we made the best of things & found some very good coffee houses & cafes. The entertainment on board was excellent & we enjoyed our early & late evening drinks in the Ensemble bar. The Entertainment staff were very good with loads of quizzes & Brandon was really great though I heard that he left the ship after our cruise. I would really recommend anyone to visit the Tuscan Grill on the evening of leaving St Petersburg, the view is really amazing & as the restaurant is at the rear of the ship you get to see the outlying Islands & the breakwaters which are an engineering masterpiece. In conclusion although the weather was not to be desired it was a fantastic cruise.