A cruise ship carrying hundreds of tourists arrived in Great Yarmouth on Saturday morning.
The Seabourn Quest docked at Peel Ports’ Outer Harbour in the seaside town at 7am, carrying 458 passengers ready to see the sights of Norfolk.
As visitors from a vast array of nations including the USA, Canada and Australia filtered off the ship, they were greeted by a rousing reception from Great Yarmouth Brass.
Once on dry land, they were greeted by deputy mayor of Great Yarmouth, Kerry Robinson-Payne, port director of Peel Ports, Richard Goffin, and the High Steward of Great Yarmouth, Henry Cator.
Despite having already stopped off in a number of countries across northern Europe, passengers were taken aback by the “classy” nature of their welcome to the Norfolk coast.
“This arrival has been amazing,” said Suzanne Amos, who lives in Maryland, USA, with her husband Stuart. “There’s been such attention to detail and it shows a lot of respect to the visitors.
“These things - the nice little touches - are what people remember about their trips abroad.”
Mr Amos, originally from the UK himself, added: “Great Yarmouth has really raised the bar. It’s a demonstration that clearly this town cares and wants to expand - it’s completely above and beyond and sends all the right messages.”
Richard Goffin, port director at Peel Ports, said: “A cruise ship like this docking is very important for us. It gives us another string to our bow in terms of what we can handle at the port and we welcomed the passengers as they arrived.
“Many of the guests went off on excursions and we’ve had others saying they really wanted to visit specific places. They’re investigating the area and have been welcomed by the residents and businesses of Great Yarmouth.”
Kerry Robinson-Payne, deputy mayor of Great Yarmouth, said: “It’s fantastic that the cruise chose to dock here and we were pleased to give a great big Great Yarmouth welcome to the passengers as they arrived. Lots of the passengers said they’d never had a welcome like it.
“This is the maiden call and hopefully there are many more trips like this to come.”
Passengers embarked on a wide range of activities during their visit to Norfolk, with some seeing the sights of Great Yarmouth or Norwich and others spending their day on the Broads.
The UK stint of the cruise has already seen the colossal ship stop in Newcastle, before the tour comes to an end in Dover today.
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