Cruise ship passengers enjoy hottest day of year

P&O cruise liner Arcadia was visiting Guernsey yesterday – its only stop on the three-day cruise.

The adults-only cruise consists of a day at sea from Southampton, a day in Guernsey and another day at sea back to Southampton.

On board was Jilly Chedzoy – soon to be Jilly Lawrence – and her closest friends for her hen-do from the Weston-Super-Mare and Bristol areas.

‘This cruise was a chance for us all to be together, but it was my friends who organised it all,’ said the bride-to-be, who is getting married next month.

‘We love it here, it is beautiful and the weather is amazing, much better than we were expecting.’

The hen party had taken a trip on the Petit Train and also visited Balthazar for a few drinks, as they had heard about the 'boogie button' in the ladies’ toilets.

Three members of the group were on their first cruise and said a three-day trip with a stop-off in Guernsey was the perfect excuse for a cruise.

Helen Quaintence and Edwina Turier from Salisbury, returning visitors, were delighted with the weather that greeted them.

‘We like to stop off in Guernsey whenever we can, we’ve been about four times before,’ said Ms Quaintence.

‘Usually we come over on the Condor but it was perfect having a three-day cruise from Southampton and the weather is absolutely glorious. Normally it’s good, but this is great.’

They had booked a coach tour around the island.

Simona Lee from Cambridgeshire was joined by two friends from Brighton.

‘We wanted to explore what is around England, and it is just as I expected, although I thought people would be speaking French,’ she said.

‘The weather is so much better than I expected, when I looked last week it was meant to be around 17C, so it’s great that we’ve arrived on what’s meant to be the hottest day of the year.’

The group met on a cruise back in 2019, but with Covid and them all living a few hours apart, this was the first time they had been reunited since.

They said the Street Festival was a welcome but unexpected addition to their visit.

The arrival of the 2,000-person capacity vessel was no doubt a welcome sight for tourism businesses.

It is one of larger vessels to visit Guernsey this summer. So far this year, 16 of the vessels expected to call into the islands have either cancelled due to weather or schedule changes. And the 1,400-capacity Ambiance, which was due to visit on Thursday, has been cancelled.

It means just eight vessels are expected to visit the Bailiwick in August, compared with more than 20 this month.