Le Bellot arrived from St Malo at about 7am and it was not long before many of its 264 passengers had disembarked to go on tours or just walk around Town.
Some held back and took a more leisurely approach, leaving the ship at about 10am, including Gerard and Mireille Thirion.
The couple live in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France and this was their first time in Guernsey. They were pleased they were able to walk ashore and not have to board a tender.
‘We’ve never been on a big ship and we never want to go on one,’ said Mrs Thirion.
The 131-metre-long Le Bellot is operated by Ponant cruises and its journey started in Lisbon, Portugal.
‘We’ve had a really nice week,’ said Mr Thirion.
Fellow passengers Sylvie Wozasek and Ingrid Grunberger from Austria were also fans of smaller cruise ships.
‘I would never go on a big ship, it’s horrible,’ said Ms Wozasek.
Ms Grunberger said she was pleased that the ship had been able to dock this time since at some ports smaller than Guernsey’s it had had to moor outside and use tenders, but even then this had not always been possible.
‘We wanted to go ashore at Roscoff but there was too much of a storm,’ she said.
Small cruise ships have infrequently docked in the harbour in the past, but the berths have often been busy with Condor’s five vessels. But the reduction in movements means that ships up to 131 metres long can berth.
This means the passengers do not need to use tenders to reach Guernsey.
The next cruise liner due to visit is the Spirit of Discovery, which can carry nearly 1,000 passengers, and will be mooring in the Russell on Tuesday. The next cruise ship to berth in St Peter Port is World Traveller on 14 May.
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