´óÏó´«Ã½

The couple had originally planned to spend their honeymoon in Kenya. But because of political unrest they were advised to change their plans.

Instead, they decided to spend their first weeks as newly-weds in the idyllic Caribbean destination of Cuba - at a cost of £1,800.

Cuba is on the northern edge of the Caribbean and is hot and sunny for most of the year. But in the Autumn, the area can suffer from the Atlantic hurricane season.

Just before they jetted off, the couple were eagerly watching the forecast, to see what the weather would be like for their dream trip, as Kevin explained.

"Just before we flew out we thought we would look at the weather just to see what it was like and they said there was hurricanes going through the area. So Catherine's mother rang up and asked if it's safe to fly out."

She was told it would be fine. But as the couple left, there were storm clouds gathering over the paradise resort. It seemed the forecast couldn't have been more wrong.

Catherine said: "We were there for about four days. We had nice weather one minute, then the weather changed to rain and wind," she said.

And despite First Choice's assurances before they flew out, Hurricane Ike was about to hit Cuba. They watched the reports on the television in their hotel room.

Kevin told us they were really worried about what would happen next. "They were doing diagrams of its set path and one part of it was going to go through Cuba," he said.

"But everyone else kept telling us that it going to change course any time now," added Catherine.

By 7 September Hurricane Ike had hit land, right over where Catherine and Kevin were staying. By now it was a category three hurricane, which meant damage was inevitable.

Forced to stay in their room, the couple were left to fend for themselves. They had to survive on just a couple of biscuits and some water as the hurricane whipped through.

And to make matters worse, as the eye of the storm passed over them, their room flooded forcing them to move to the relative safety of their bathroom. With no electricity, they were forced to tough Ike out in the dark, as Kevin explained.

"We had no water, no electricity, we had bottles of water from the fridge and that was it. So we used the light from a games console to see, and just sat and waited for it to go."

The couple were stranded in their bathroom for 14 hours. When they emerged they were shocked by the damage.

"There were no trees left standing, we came out on the balcony, the beach was just destroyed, all the huts had been taken away with the wind, it was horrible," Catherine said.

The couple say they were left to fend for themselves. Unhappy with the lack of support from First Choice, they were dealt a further blow when they discovered that the company was transferring some customers to the Dominican Republic for the rest of their holiday.

With five days left of the honeymoon, First Choice finally arranged for them to be flown home.

Back in Wales, angry with the way they'd been treated, the couple wrote to complain. But the company's response wasn't the silver lining they were hoping for.

"They said there was nothing they could do about it as it was an act of God and it was out of their control," said Catherine.

And First Choice told X-Ray they don't have to give the couple anything, as it says in the brochure's terms and conditions, that they are not liable if changes are made to a holiday because of an unforeseeable event.

However, they added that they did send the couple a cheque for £142 as a gesture of goodwill for the nights of the honeymoon they missed.

But Catherine and Kevin were left angered by the company's response.

"Every time we go somewhere, we go with First Choice. And to be offered £142 on an £1,800 holiday we thought was a joke, so we weren't really happy about it at all.

"The honeymoon is the start of your life together really and it's just ruined it, so we were very upset," Catherine told us.

First Choice also told us they're sorry that Kevin and Catherine were unhappy with the help they got. But say that Hurricane Ike wasn't predicted to hit Cuba and changed direction unexpectedly.

At that time, they say their staff did everything they could. They also offered customers a free phone call home and ran a helpline to keep their customers' family and friends informed.

We also asked why some customers were transferred to other resorts?

They said holiday-makers who had only just arrived when Ike hit were offered a holiday in the Dominican Republic, but they weren't able to offer that to people who had arrived earlier.