A Laycock couple were among hundreds of holidaymakers left high and dry when their ship ran aground off the Cuban coast.

John and Marion Wood, of Laycock Lane, were on the last leg of a Latin American cruise aboard the Black Prince, to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, when disaster struck.

Pilots had boarded the ship, run by Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, in the early hours of Monday, March 4, to guide her into the port of Casilda, on Cuba's south coast.

Shortly afterwards, just after 1.30am, the port pilots, who are responsible for navigating ships through hazardous local waters safely, steered the vessel on to a sandbank.

Mr Wood, 55, said: "We didn't feel anything really, we just thought it was the usual noises and bangs associated with arriving in port.

"It wasn't until the next morning when we got up that we realised something was wrong.

"We came up on deck and there was ocean all around us.

"We were expecting to be in port."

Tugs struggled to refloat the 11,000-tonne cruise ship for hours before eventually the order was given for passengers to abandon ship.

After more than 30 hours on board the stranded vessel, the holidaymakers were transferred to land by small boats and completed the journey to Havana by coach.

Paul Brigginshaw, managing director of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, said: "There were three pilots on the ship. They are supposed to know the waters.

"The real problem with getting it off the sandbank was that the tugs were too small.

"There are no big tugs or sophisticated equipment in Cuba."

In a further twist of fate for the unfortunate travellers, the aircraft which was to take them home was unable to leave Havana that night.

And, to make matters worse, it had arrived with more holidaymakers, who had no ship to board, leaving the beleaguered cruise firm needing to hastily arrange accommodation for some 800 people.

Fred Olsen's handling of the situation was praised by Mr Wood.

He said: "The cruise company was superb.

"Everybody helped out, they even drafted in some dancers and singers. I will remember it as a great adventure."

By the Wednesday afternoon the ship had been refloated and some degree of normality had returned.

Mr Brigginshaw, added: "Those were three days that I do not want to experience again in a hurry."