Potato Peel Pie cruise ship fans see island for real

The ship, which is operated by Holland America Line, is just under 300m in length and has a capacity of more than 3,000 passengers.

She arrived yesterday morning, having sailed from Cork overnight.

She began her transatlantic journey in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on 7 April, and is set to reach her final destination of Rotterdam in the Netherlands by the end of the week.

Gene and Sue Lanier, from Little Switzerland in North Carolina, were two of the hundreds of American passengers who had come ashore from the ship for the day, and said that they had made the most of what was on offer in St Peter Port.

‘We had lunch at Sorrento with a couple from Jersey who we happened to meet, and Gene has bought himself a Guernsey hat,’ Mrs Lanier said.

‘It’s our first time here and it’s been a wonderful day, the weather is lovely so we’ve done a lot of walking around.’

Mr Lanier added that the couple had a particular fondness for island life, having lived in Curacao in the Caribbean for seven years.

‘Guernsey’s a real neat place, and now we’ve met this couple from Jersey we’ve got a reason to visit again one day.’

Joan and Rod O’Donnell, accompanied by their daughter, Laura, had travelled from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale to make the cruise – their first transatlantic crossing.

Miss O’Donnell said that they had spent much of their day on a bus tour going around the island, and had enjoyed seeing the German Second World War fortifications, as well as the Little Chapel.

‘We’ve watched The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society so were interested to see the entrenchments for ourselves, and the chapel is absolutely beautiful,’ she said.

The O’Donnell family were not the only ones to have heard of Guernsey through the silver screen.

Terry and Terry Waibel, from Daytona Beach in Florida, said that they had been excited to see the island as a result of watching the film.

‘It gave a really good impression of Guernsey, and actually being here now, we’ve been so impressed with how clean and beautiful everything is,’ Mr Waibel said.

Mrs Waibel added that she had been glad to see some of the island’s famous cows.

‘Where we used to live in Pennsylvania, there were some Guernseys there, so it’s nice to see where they originally come from.

‘The only slight disappointment was that our ice creams apparently aren’t made with Guernsey milk, but the weather has more than made up for that.

‘We’ve really enjoyed ourselves.'

VISIT GUERNSEY HAPPY

‘The cruise industry remains a very important part of our tourism market,' said a VisitGuernsey spokesman.

Today’s visiting ship, Nieuw Statendam, has a capacity of 3,214 and there were a large number of visitors in Town.

'We’ve also received some initial feedback suggesting excursion operators were busy, which is a positive sign.

'The Bailiwick continues to have a very strong offering for the cruise market. We still see far more passengers coming ashore in the Bailiwick than the industry average, with 82% of passengers choosing to come ashore here last year compared to the industry average of 60-70%.’