A Spectacular Sight In Southampton

8 June 2013, 07:32 | Updated: 8 June 2013, 08:07

24 thousand passengers will flood into Southampton today as the city plays host to 5 luxury cruise ships.

It's one of Southampton Port's busiest days of the year as it welomes vessels including P&O Cruises’ Ventura, Cunard flagship Queen Mary Two, Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Eclipse, the Mediterranean Shipping Company’s MSC Opera and Princess Cruises’ new Royal Princess.

The ships will all be berthed together meaning the cruise terminal will turn around more that 438,000 tonns of shipping in less than 12 hours.

The city is expected to see a massive influx of people, both from the ships and others coming to view the sight. All of the port's terminals will be in use and transport services such as the airport and railways are on stand-by to handle the huge number of people passing through. Shopping centres and the waterfront are also expected to be extra busy, especially when four of the ships leave late afternoon. 

It's a busy week for Princess Cruises' 'Royal Princess', she arrived on Friday from the Italian shipyeard where she was being built. Her Captain Tony Draper said "We're getting a lot of past passengers coming onboard to view the Ship and then we've got a taster cruise on Sunday the 8th, across to the Channel Islands. The week culminates with the naming of the Ship by the Duchess of Cambridge on Thursday 13th June".